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DRAMA
substituted for Menander's rival a vainglorious soldier Thraso and his parasite
Gnatho; this is not only an addition but also a substitution of alien material,
and is more firmly integrated than the Charinus-theme of Andria. Terence
claims as his only alteration that he has taken these characters from Menander's
Colax, 'The toady' (Eun. 3off.), but this is a gross oversimplification. His
purpose was to enliven the action, and he has exploited perceptibly more
various features of the traditional stage-language and business than in his
previous work. l
These features represent a successful concession to the public which had
rejected Hecyra, for his soldier and parasite are quite strongly drawn. However
there is no technical improvement; for example, the advice which Gnatho gives
Thraso at 439ff. would be strictly logical only if the girl were still in their
possession, and the entry at 454 of Thais (Menander's Chrysis) is poorly
motivated. 1 Terence's addition of a scene from Diphilus' Synapothneskontes,
'Companions in death', to his version of Menander's second Adelphoi, his last
play (161 B.C.), is similar in intention and execution, though less ambitious;
the scene in question represents the forcible abduction of a girl from a protesting
leno, another stock-figure evidently beloved of the public. All the same,
Terence does not represent him in a farcical Plautine manner, dedicated to
lucrum, but as the victim of a robbery for which he is duly and justly compensated.
Again the scene is not perfectly integrated; it represents as happening
'now' the consequence of what at 88ff. was represented (as in Menander) as
having happened some time since; Sannio is 'spare' in ii.3—4; the theme of the
girl's alleged freedom at ic)iff. is dramatically irrelevant and illogically handled;
we ought to be made aware earlier that Aeschinus is seizing the girl not for
himself but for his brother. Evidently such things did not worry the Roman
public. The end of the play has been rendered more farcical than in Menander,
as in the Eunuchus: the liberal Micio is represented as a comic butt and unwilling
bridegroom, as if good sense were on the side of the neurotic and authoritarian
Demea.3
Thus a certain development may be discerned in Terence's treatment of
plot. He began with ambitious notions of presenting and improving on
Menander in his own terms by making alien additions for aesthetic reasons
(Andria), and changing the emphasis of the palliata in the direction of psychological
realism {Hecyra). He never gave up these ideals, but was obliged to
make compromises with the groundlings. The Heauton was to be a play without
aesthetic faults, and was, like the failed Hecyra, a quiet play (stataria) without
parasites, soldiers, and lenones; but its plot was much more various and complex,
1 E.g. Eun. 27of., cf. Plaut. Pseud. 457, Epid. I26f.
2 It would be better if she entered wondering 'Where can Chreraes be?', cf. 2O4f. The 'asides' in
the siege-scene are awkward by Menandrian standards (1053-60).
3 Rieth (1964), Martin (1976) 26—9.
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