Terence in England: Literary Narcissism, Self-Reflexivity, and Metatheatrical Comedy in The Parnassus Plays

This article aims at exploring the Terentian influence on the group of academic dramas known as the Parnassus plays which was staged at the University of Cambridge from 1598 to 1601 in the context of literary narcissism. Identifying the literary narcissist paradigm as heir to the cultural politics of the fin-de-siecle and drawing on the revival of interest in metatheatricality in contemporary classical scholarship, first it will be argued that Terence’s prologues not only further a bouletic manner of authorial intention but also generate a metatheatrical form of self-commentary. As a development on that point, the Terentian influence on the university stage in seventeenth-century England will be discussed. In identifying a visibly Terentian sentiment in the Parnassus plays, it will be maintained that the trilogy allows an early modern reading in self-reflexivity that is documented in the metafictional programme of the prologue. The anticipated conclusion draws on the point that the narcissistic agenda of the Parnassus plays signal a growing liberty taken with self-commentary at a mimetic level which, due to its Terentian background, facilitates a reproduction of metatheatrical comedy. The importance of this point lies within the fact that by reproducing the literary narcissism of Latin laughter, university drama under the Tudor rule secures the sardonic wit of its Roman forebearers as annexed to the mechanics of Renaissance authorship. In turn, it re-establishes the prologue as a paratextual act of metatheatricality which informs the character of its comedic structure.