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Kenney_and_Clausen B.M.W.(eds.) - Get a Free Blog

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LIGHT DRAMA<br />

mentioned as outsiders, but the inhabitants of Plautinopolis have never heard<br />

of Rome <strong>and</strong> Italy, only of barbari <strong>and</strong> ba.rba.Tia. Romans are mentioned<br />

explicitly only once in a passage of vigorous Plautine quality but of doubtful<br />

authenticity, a jokingly uncomplimentary allusion (Poen. 1314), as are all<br />

veiled allusions to sections of the audience. 1 There is no praise or celebration<br />

of the city as was traditional in Attic comedy. The stage-city is remarkably<br />

objective <strong>and</strong> cosmopolitan. The caricature of a Greek sketched by Curculio<br />

(28off.) is not at all chauvinistic, <strong>and</strong> characteristically the humour is that a<br />

persona dressed as a Graecus palliatus is made to deliver a parody of a praetorian<br />

edict against Graeci palliati. We have alluded (p. 94) to the remarkably sympathetic<br />

treatment of Carthage <strong>and</strong> Aetolia in Poenulus; Aetolians are again<br />

treated with sympathy in Captivi.<br />

The dramatic time is the present, <strong>and</strong> the place is an ambiguous 'here'.<br />

Plautus does not mechanically reproduce unintelligible allusions from his<br />

models, or simply keep situations which depend on alien assumptions, customs<br />

or laws. Either he explains them {Cos. 68ff., Stick. 44

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