Curculio, also called The Weevil, is a Latin comedic play

Play (theatre)

A play is a form of literature written by a playwright, usually consisting of scripted dialogue between characters, intended for theatrical performance rather than just reading. There are rare dramatists, notably George Bernard Shaw, who have had little preference whether their plays were performed...

 for the early Roman theatre

Theatre of ancient Rome

The theatre of ancient Rome was a thriving and diverse art form, ranging from festival performances of street theatre, nude dancing, and acrobatics, to the staging of Plautus's broadly appealing situation comedies, to the high-style, verbally elaborate tragedies of Seneca...

 by Titus Maccius Plautus. It is the shortest of Plautus's surviving plays.

Plot

In Curculio, Phaedromus is in love with Planesium, a slave girl belonging to the pimp Cappadox. Phaedromus sends Curculio (a stock parasite character) to borrow money. Unsuccessful, Curculio happens to run into Therapontigonus, a soldier who intends to purchase Planesium. After Curculio learns of his plans, he steals the soldier's ring and returns to Phaedromus. They fake a letter and seal it using the ring. Curculio takes it to the soldier's banker Lyco, tricking him into thinking he was sent by Therapontigonus. Lyco pays Cappadox, under the conditions that the money will be returned if it is later discovered that she is freeborn. Curculio takes the girl back to Phaedromus. When the trick is later discovered, the angry Therapontigonus confronts the others. However, Planesium has discovered from the ring that she is actually Therapontigonus's sister. Since she is freeborn, Therapontigonus is returned his money, and Planesium is allowed to marry Phaedromus.

Translations

• Henry Thomas Riley, 1912:
• Paul Nixon, 1916-38:
• George E. Duckworth, 1942
• Christopher Stace, 1981
• Henry S. Taylor
  Henry S. Taylor
  Henry S. Taylor is a Pulitzer Prize winning American poet and author of over 15 books of poetry.Taylor was born on 21 June 1942 in rural Loudoun County, Virginia, where he was raised as a Quaker. He went to high school at George School in Newtown, Pennsylvania. He graduated from the University of...
  
  , 1995

External links

• Curculio full text on the Perseus Project
  Perseus Project
  The Perseus Project is a digital library project of Tufts University that assembles digital collections of humanities resources. It is hosted by the Department of Classics. It has suffered at times from computer hardware problems, and its resources are occasionally unavailable...
  
  , translated by Henry Thomsay Riley.
• Curculio full text on the Austin College
  Austin College
  Austin College is a private liberal arts college affiliated by covenant relationship with the Presbyterian Church and located in Sherman, Texas, about 60 miles North of Dallas....
  
  website. Translation by Paul Nixon.