Asides in New Comedy and the Palliata - Leeds International ...

ECKARD LEFÈVRE, ASIDES IN NEW COMEDY AND THE PALLIATA
sed plurium manibus verbera esset accepturus. Lepide etiam addit ad discrimen,
sine meo sumptu.
The comment sounds so bombastic that it is difficult to grasp its arrogance
completely. Epidicus ironically says that it is great to earn ‘a feast of blows’ 9
without doing anything oneself. 10 The droll metaphor points to a popular manner
of speaking.
Another original use of asides in Plautus is the following: he often has one
character admire the deceptive play of another and thereby underlines his brilliant
behaviour. When in Persa the Virgo leads Dordalus, the pimp, to believe that she
is someone other than she really is, Toxilus, the intriguing slave, comments (type
Ib): 11
622 ah, di istam perdant! ita catast et callida.
ut sapiens habet cor, quam dicit quod opust!
634 tactust leno; qui rogaret, ubi nata esset diceret,
lepide lusit.
639 ita me di bene ament, sapienter! 12
In these cases ‘the comments of a spectator on stage help to characterize the
deception as a play within a play’. 13 Thereby the play becomes metatheatrical. The
actions are to be understood in a double way and thereby gain their characteristic
appeal; ‘this metatheatrical effect is characteristic of Plautus.’ 14 Here asides are
made use of with virtuosity.
Plautus also employs asides in contexts other than his much favoured ones
involving slaves. In Aulularia they are used nearly exclusively in order to
characterize Euclio, the miser. 15 In several scenes he relates the remarks of his
dialogue partners to his own situation or world-view; thus its strangeness becomes
obvious to the audience. Of course, in these cases, too, there is an unparalleled
comic effect. Plautus deliberately puts the figure of Euclio, who has traits of a
fool, on a socially ‘low’ level. Thus the asides ‘fit’ in with his character.
In II 2 there is a number of asides, which endow the dialogue between Euclio
and his neighbour Megadorus with comic elements, but which also splendidly
characterize the manic tendencies of their speaker (type Ib). As a reaction to
Megadorus’ friendly greeting, Euclio states in an aside:
184 non temerarium est ubi dives blande appellat pauperem.
185 iam illic homo aurum scit me habere, eo me salutat blandius.
9
Duckworth 1940, 180.
10
Cf. Amph. 371 (Sosia earns a flogging from Mercurius ingratiis).
11
Cf. Lefèvre 2001b, 79.
12
‘Toxilus now becomes commentator and interpreter for the audience as she tells her riddling
tale’ (Slater 1985, 49).
13 Lowe 1989, 395-6.
14 Lowe 1989, 396.
15 Cf. Lefèvre 2001a, 115-7.
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