Asides in New Comedy and the Palliata - Leeds International ...
Asides in New Comedy and the Palliata - Leeds International ...
Asides in New Comedy and the Palliata - Leeds International ...
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ECKARD LEFÈVRE, ASIDES IN NEW COMEDY AND THE PALLIATA<br />
orig<strong>in</strong> when he says <strong>in</strong> answer to <strong>the</strong> question of <strong>the</strong> Sph<strong>in</strong>x <strong>in</strong> <strong>the</strong> Klassische<br />
Walpurgisnacht:<br />
7117 Mit vielen Namen glaubt man mich zu nennen –<br />
S<strong>in</strong>d Briten hier? Sie reisen sonst so viel,<br />
Schlachtfeldern nachzuspüren, Wasserfällen,<br />
7120 Gestürzten Mauern, klassisch dumpfen Stellen;<br />
Das wäre hier für sie e<strong>in</strong> würdig Ziel.<br />
Sie zeugten auch: Im alten Bühnenspiel<br />
Sah man mich dort als old Iniquity.<br />
(There’s a belief that I have many names.<br />
Are any British here? They’re usually great travellers,<br />
look<strong>in</strong>g for battlefields <strong>and</strong> waterfalls,<br />
dilapidated walls <strong>and</strong> dreary ancient sites;<br />
this is an ideal place for <strong>the</strong>m to visit.<br />
My name’s attested <strong>in</strong> <strong>the</strong>ir ancient drama,<br />
where I appeared as Old Iniquity.)<br />
Almost 60 years ago, I often had <strong>the</strong> chance to watch Punch <strong>and</strong> Judy shows; to<br />
<strong>the</strong> children’s delight, Punch cont<strong>in</strong>uously speaks <strong>in</strong> asides <strong>in</strong> <strong>the</strong>se shows <strong>and</strong> <strong>in</strong><br />
this way becomes an accomplice of his young audience.<br />
One of <strong>the</strong> techniques of improvisatory drama easiest to learn is <strong>the</strong><br />
improvisation of monologues. 33 In do<strong>in</strong>g so, a player acts on his own; complicated<br />
agreements with one or several o<strong>the</strong>r actors are not necessary. In <strong>the</strong> same way a<br />
‘commentator’ only has to follow his own ideas. This technique is an element of<br />
<strong>the</strong> Commedia dell’arte <strong>and</strong> German folk comedy of <strong>the</strong> seventeenth <strong>and</strong><br />
eighteenth centuries. In this k<strong>in</strong>d of drama <strong>the</strong> fool has ‘die Angewohnheit, zum<br />
Parkett gew<strong>and</strong>t, über Reden und Taten der Mitspieler zu räsonieren, deren und<br />
eigene H<strong>and</strong>lungen ausführlich zu kommentieren und zu glossieren’. 34 Nestroy’s<br />
comedy, too, which is based on <strong>the</strong> ‘oral’ traditions of Vienna’s <strong>the</strong>atre, favours<br />
<strong>the</strong> ‘Unterbrechung der Zuschauerillusion durch e<strong>in</strong> im Spiel angelegtes<br />
Kunstmittel’, that is caused ‘durch das (vorgeschriebene oder improvisierte) Spiel<br />
der Schauspieler’. 35<br />
3. Conclusion<br />
It has become clear that <strong>the</strong> ways <strong>in</strong> which asides are used <strong>in</strong> <strong>New</strong> <strong>Comedy</strong><br />
<strong>and</strong> <strong>in</strong> <strong>the</strong> <strong>Palliata</strong> are worlds apart. It is not at all surpris<strong>in</strong>g that <strong>the</strong> Roman poets<br />
do use some techniques occur<strong>in</strong>g <strong>in</strong> <strong>New</strong> <strong>Comedy</strong>. But <strong>the</strong> Greek models do not<br />
offer any <strong>in</strong>stances that employ asides <strong>in</strong> a similarly excessive <strong>and</strong> comic manner<br />
as <strong>the</strong> Plaut<strong>in</strong>e plays do. In this case as <strong>in</strong> all o<strong>the</strong>rs it is a mistake to do without<br />
33 Cf. Lefèvre 1991, 195-6.<br />
34 Asper 1980, 124. See also 125: ‘Das Publikum wird von Hanswurst und se<strong>in</strong>en Gesellen<br />
gleichwohl immer zum Mitwisser erkoren, wenn ihm Gefahr droht, wenn etwas besonders gut<br />
gelungen ist oder wenn ihm im Stück selber das lose Mundwerk verboten wird’.<br />
35 Hillach 1967, 66. See also 85: ‘In der Beobachterhaltung äußert sich die Figur entweder<br />
nüchtern feststellend, vergleichend, kommentierend oder mit kritischer Wendung analysierend,<br />
ironisch, zugespitzt.’ Here, a similar ‘oral’ tradition as, for <strong>in</strong>stance, <strong>in</strong> <strong>the</strong> case of Sosia is<br />
discernible.<br />
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