2017 William W. Cook Lecture • May 18, 2017 • 4:30 PM

It was this version that was widely read in schools in Shakespeare's day, and the completed play flourished in this form until the 19th century and the rise of scientific textual criticism focused less on the history of Amphitryon productions and more on recovering the still missing fragments of the original text. It had inspired Moliere, Dryden and Friedrich von Kleist to write Amphitryon dramas on the same themes. Today Amphitryon remains a fragmentary text, not otherwise performable with its fourth act still missing.

Amphitryon 39 alludes to Jean Giraudoux's satirical 1929 comedy based on Plautus' work, Giraudoux's title being Amphitryon 38, as if his were the 38th version of a popular ancient play. The script interweaves alternating scenes from Othello and the Roman comedy that James Tatum believes Shakespeare drew on in his creation of that tragedy. Plautus will be heard in Tatum's new translation of Ermolao Barbaro's Amphitryon, played against scenes from the tragedy of Othello, the Moor of Venice. Hence Amphitryon 39.