The ancient Greek playwright Menander was a master of what we call "New Comedy." Unlike the wild, political satire of his predecessors, Menander focused on the domestic lives, loves, and mishaps of ordinary Athenian families. His plays, like the fully surviving Dyskolos (The Grouch), are celebrated for their realistic characters, witty dialogue, and carefully constructed plots involving mistaken identities, long-lost children, and clever servants.
If you appreciated his blend of humor and humanity, this curated list will guide you to other playwrights—from his direct successors in Rome to the modern masters of social comedy—who share his spirit.
The most direct connection to Menander can be found in the Roman playwrights who adapted his work for a new audience. Many of Menander's lost plays survive only because these two authors used them as templates.
Terence is perhaps the most faithful to Menander's style. He refined the plots he borrowed, focusing on nuanced character psychology, moral questions, and elegant language. His comedies are less about slapstick and more about the complexities of human relationships. If you enjoyed the character depth in Menander, Terence is the perfect next step.
Key Play: Adelphoe (The Brothers), an adaptation of a Menander play that thoughtfully explores two competing philosophies of child-rearing.
Plautus also adapted Greek New Comedy, but he injected it with a hefty dose of Roman boisterousness. His plays are faster, more farcical, and filled with slapstick, puns, and show-stopping musical numbers. While less subtle than Menander, he masterfully uses the same stock characters—the braggart soldier, the wily slave, the love-struck youth—to create pure, energetic entertainment.
Key Play: Miles Gloriosus (The Braggart Soldier), a hilarious comedy centered on a vainglorious captain and the clever slave who plots against him.
To fully appreciate Menander's innovations, it's helpful to know what came before. Greek "Old Comedy" was topical, political, and fantastically absurd.
Aristophanes was the star of Old Comedy. His plays feature famous politicians as characters, choruses of frogs or clouds, and outrageously satirical plots (like a city run by birds). Reading Aristophanes highlights just how revolutionary Menander’s quiet focus on household drama was. He is not "like" Menander, but reading him provides essential context.
Key Play: Lysistrata, in which the women of Greece stage a sex strike to end a war. It's a perfect example of his bold, political, and bawdy style.
After the fall of Rome, Menander's style of comedy largely disappeared for over a thousand years. It was reborn in 17th-century France and 18th-century England as the "Comedy of Manners," a genre that, like New Comedy, uses wit to satirize the social conventions, pretensions, and follies of the upper class.
The undisputed master of French comedy, Molière created unforgettable characters whose obsessions—hypocrisy, miserliness, social climbing—drive the humor. Like Menander, he exposes human foolishness within a structured plot, using razor-sharp dialogue to critique the absurdities of his society.
Key Play: The Misanthrope, a brilliant satire about a man who despises the flattery of society but has fallen in love with a flirtatious and insincere socialite.
While Shakespeare's genius is unique, many of his comedies employ the same plot devices found in Menander and his Roman adaptors: tangled love affairs, mistaken identities, and clever wordplay. His early work, in particular, draws heavily from Plautine farce, while his later comedies blend humor with deep human insight.
Key Plays: For pure farce, see The Comedy of Errors. For a masterful blend of wit, romance, and social commentary, read Much Ado About Nothing.
Wilde perfected the Comedy of Manners, taking its defining feature—witty dialogue (epigrams)—to its artistic peak. His plays satirize the triviality and hypocrisy of Victorian high society. If you love Menander's clever turns of phrase and mockery of social pretense, Wilde's work will be a delight.
Key Play: The Importance of Being Earnest, a dazzlingly funny play where trivial matters are treated with deadly seriousness, and serious matters are treated with deliberate triviality.
While no one wrote exactly like Menander, his influence echoes through centuries of theatre. For the most direct literary descendants, begin with his Roman pupils, **Terence** and **Plautus**. From there, you can jump forward in time to the great masters of the Comedy of Manners like **Molière** and **Wilde**, who revived his focus on using wit to dissect and laugh at the intricacies of social life. By exploring these authors, you're not just finding similar writers; you're tracing the remarkable journey of comedy itself.