Acknowledgments
This project was inspired by my wonderful students at Bishop’s University in Sherbrooke, Quebec (Canada), who often don’t have any background in Classics but who show such enthusiasm for what is fascinating, horrifying, or just plain weird about ancient Rome. I wrote the book to encourage them to learn Latin, and to help them appreciate Plautus even if they don’t know any Latin. I wish to thank the plucky students of my third-year Latin class of Fall 2020 who, pandemic notwithstanding, made their way through the Latin play with me and helped me to improve the vocabulary and grammar annotations. When they had trouble with the Latin, I knew I needed to add another footnote.
I am also exceedingly grateful to the kind and meticulous comments of Dr John Henderson, series adviser at Open Book Publishers. It was a privilege to have an expert of such high caliber to help me root out mistakes and clarify my writing.
The supportive and friendly atmosphere at Bishop’s University, located on the traditional and unceded territory of the Abenaki people and the Wabenaki confederacy, gave me the time and space to work on this project, and that too was invaluable. Our small library is more than compensated for by our excellent librarians and library staff, and the inter-library loan system. My colleague and friend, Dr Rebecca Harries of the BU Drama department, has taught me a great deal over the years about the theatre. While I’ve always loved Plautus, I have a much better understanding of Roman drama thanks to our many delightful conversations on the practice and history of the theatre.
Thank you also to my husband, Oisín Feeley, who has always been supportive and encouraging. Finally, my love and gratitude to my daughter, Sorcha Feeley, who diligently did her remote learning during the COVID-19 pandemic without interrupting me more than a few times in any day despite how boring she found it to be learning online by herself.