Meaning:
If you tell somebody how to behave, make sure you follow the same advice yourself!
Background:
This expression is first recorded in the works of Roman playwright Titus Maccius Plautus (c. 254–184 BC). Plautus is believed to have written at least 52 comedies, mostly adapted from works by Greek playwrights which he reworked to appeal to Roman audiences. The twenty that have survived are among the earliest surviving intact works in Latin literature.
Plautus' works have inspired many playwrights since, including Shakespeare (for example, The Comedy of Errors combines the plots of two plays by Plautus), and Stephen Sondheim's musical A Funny Thing Happened on the way to the Forum, which is inspired by Plautus' works, in particular Pseudolus, Miles Glorisus and Mostellaria.
Plautus' epitah reads
Since Plautus is dead, Comedy mourns,
Deserted is the stage; then Laughter, Jest and Wit,
And Melody's countless numbers all together wept.
A bold, mesmerizing novel about the woman known as "Typhoid Mary," the first known healthy carrier of typhoid fever in the burgeoning metropolis of early twentieth century New York.
Two Lives is a memoir written by international best-selling author, Vikram Seth. In this interesting and engaging book, Seth writes about his great...
read more
Z, the novel about the life of Zelda Sayre Fitzgerald is at points charming and; like another reviewer, I kept thinking of the movie, "Midnight...
read more
Although heavy on the scientific details, which slowed down the story for me (OK, I admit, I was one of those liberal arts majors who skipped out on...
read more
Judge rules unused Borders gift cards to be worthless(May 23 2013) Borders owes nothing to holders of roughly $210.5 million of gift cards that had not been used by the time the bookstore chain shut down, a Manhattan federal...
Full Story