Errors prompted by unreason, by vanity, by double meanings, by guile – all these types of ‘deceit’ listed by Castelvetro can be traced back to Old Comedy. But so far in this discussion of the legacy of classical comedy to the Renaissance there has been no occasion, except in passing, to mention Castelvetro's remaining sub-category, of deceptions caused by chance or fortune. In the main, this important motif was introduced by New Comedy, where it marks one of the main departures from the comic scheme of Aristophanes. But its origins go back earlier.

THE WHEEL OF FORTUNE

In its synonyms and associations, down to the present, the idea of ‘fortune’ touches a wide span of meanings: haphazard, chance, accident, coincidence, luck, wealth, the unpredictable, adversity, the force of circumstance, even fate. The primary scope of meaning of tyche, fortune, in Greek has been explained as the way things ‘hit’ or turn out, where there is no evident reason; and the connotations of the word were neutral or favourable at first. It stood for a vaguely personified minor deity or daemon, a subordinate nature-spirit.