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Travel Abroad provides the first English version of Peregrinatio (1437), Titus Livius Frulovisi's sixth play and the first Neo-Latin comedy written in England. In addition, the translation's substantial introduction furnishes the cultural setting, biographical details, and critical frame of reference needed to place author and comedy within the early years of the humanist movement. In particular, the introduction details the influence of Plautus and Terence on Travel Abroad, while the critical apparatus in the translation itself cites more than a hundred specific dialogue parallels to Roman works. In addition, aspects of story, staging, and even costume have roots in the earlier comedies. Moreover, in a striking and innovative move, Frulovisi takes several of the stock women's characters and, departing from his classical models, enlarges them into roles of substance. Both the young girl in love and her maid, a type of clever slave, loom large in the story, and the mother of the young man is central to two of the play's scenes. Furthermore, Frulovisi deliberately violates the unities in his play, and contends in its prologue that doing so demonstrates "the inventiveness of the author."
Travel Abroad holds significance for the areas of dramatic literature, Neo-Latin studies, theatre history, and the influence of the classics on humanism and the Renaissance. It will be of substantial interest to both feminists and comparatists.
