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

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DRAMA<br />

had been strophic songs in the originals for the chorus have been rewritten as<br />

recitative in the long trochaic metres.<br />

This radical change of form naturally affected presentation <strong>and</strong> character.<br />

Ennius makes Medea enter with an operatic libretto in which the subtleties <strong>and</strong><br />

density of the corresponding trimeter-speech in Euripides are lost (TRF<br />

219-21 = ROL 266-8 ~ Eur. Med. 214ft.). Instead the Roman dramatist<br />

makes Medea express sentiments <strong>and</strong> use language which evoke Roman ideas<br />

about honour <strong>and</strong> service in the res publica, with the result that we seem to be<br />

listening to a Roman magistrate rather than a Medea. 1 Earlier in the same play<br />

Ennius used senarii for the trimeters of the nurse's opening speech {TRF<br />

205-13 = ROL 253-61 ~ Eur. Med. iff.), comparison of which is instructive,<br />

2 <strong>and</strong> for the ensuing dialogue (also in trimeters in the original) between the<br />

paidagogos <strong>and</strong> the nurse:<br />

TTOtAatdv oiKcov KTfjtia SEOTTOCVTIS<br />

T! Trp6s TnjXaiai TI'IVS' Syavo'<br />

aOrf|...; (Euripides, Medea 49—51)<br />

Ancient chattel of my mistress' house, why st<strong>and</strong>est thou alone before the doors,<br />

keeping this solitude. . ./<br />

antiqu(a) erilis fida custos corporis,<br />

_£. — —<br />

quid sjc t(e) extr(a) aedes exanimat(a) eljmin?s?<br />

(Ennius, Medea exul, TRF 2i4f. = ROL 262^)<br />

Ancient faithful guardian of the mistress' person, why dost thou breathless unthreshold<br />

thyself from out the palace. . . ?<br />

As in Euripides, Ennius has a heavy, five-word line, varied in vowels, for the<br />

formal address. Erile corpus is calqued from such expressions as ur|Tp

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