Plautus was born in the early half of the third century BC, in Umbria. He went to Rome at an early age. He began writing plays almost immediately. He combined singing, dance, farce, and the plot styles of Greek New Comedy to make his plots. He relied on stock characters and used the well know plot of boy meets girl . . .something goes wrong . . . outlandish deeds . . .boy gets girl. He especially like to use parasites and a crafty/clever slave to keep his audience entertained.
He is often esteemed as Rome's greatest dramatist, for he appealed to the masses in a time when they cared only for entertainment and were indifferent to political issues. His dramatic and musical melodies as well as slapstick behavior was very popular. He died at an advanced age in 184 BC. His type of comedy fell out of favor during the end of the republic and the first century of the Empire. However the archaic revival of the second century of the Empire brought him back into favor causing the preservation of his works through the Middle Ages and the Renaissance. Thus twenty of his plays are still intact today, and he has influenced many of the great comedic playwrights that have come after him. Not only are many of his stock characters used in the plays of the Commedia del'Arte but also many of Shakespeare's comedies are heavily based on Plautus.