Comedy is the classical world's most resilient and durable theatrical tradition. This volume offers a concise, accessible guide to the study of Greek and Roman comedy in light of current scholarship. It surveys the complex literary, theatrical, and cultural history of the classical genre from its beginnings to the death of Terence, with an overview of the work of each author and introductions to all the surviving plays of Aristophanes, Menander, Plautus and Terence, alongside discussions of lost works and of theories of comedy ancient and modern, with concise guides to the extensive modern bibliography.