Source edition
Plautus. Plauti Comoediae, Volume 2. Leo, Friedrich, editor. Berlin: Weidmann, 1896.
Source data
Perseus Digital Library · CC BY-SA 4.0
Cloned and adapted by Humanitext, with ongoing edits.
Summary
"Rudens" (The Rope) is a Roman comedy that depicts the dramatic reunion of a long-lost family and the triumph of young love, set in motion by a violent shipwreck and a trunk retrieved from the sea. The play is set on the coast near Cyrene, where the temple of Venus stands next to the cottage of the elderly Daemones. Palaestra, a young woman stolen by the villainous pimp Labrax, survives the shipwreck along with her companion Ampelisca and washes ashore. While Labrax attempts to recapture them, Daemones and Trachalio, the slave of Palaestra's lover, intervene to protect the women at the sacred altar. The plot thickens when Gripus, a fisherman slave of Daemones, drags in a heavy trunk with a rope, from which the play takes its title, sparking a dispute over its ownership. Inside the trunk, they discover trinkets that identify Palaestra as Daemones' long-lost daughter. In the end, Palaestra is reunited with her father, granted her freedom to marry her lover, and the disputes are resolved as the characters share a celebratory feast and the slaves gain their freedom.