THE DRAMATIC VALUES IN PLAUTUS

More documents

Recommendations

Info

ance of the Velabrum,70 or Capitolium,71 or circus,72 or senatus, or dictator,73 or centuriata comitia,74 or plebiscitum,75 and a host of others in the Greek investiture, becomes after a while a matter of course to us. We see however no need to quarrel with forum; it was P1autus' natural translation for dyopci. But it all adds inevitably and relentlessly to our argument-P1autus was heedless of the petty demands of technique and realism. His attention was too much occupied in deyising means of amusement. The occasional topical allusions belong in the same category as above ; for example, the allusion to the Punic war (Cis. 202),76 the lex Platoria (Ps. 303, Rud. 1381-2), Naevius' imprisonment (Mil. 211-2), Atta1us of Pergamum (Per. 339, Poen. 664) , Antiochus the Great (Poen. 693-4) . Again we have a modern parallel : the topics of the day are a favorite resort of the lower types of presentd production. "-.J.: .. ,/Tokes on the dramatic machinery. But the most extreme stage of intimate jocularity is reached when the last sorry pretense of drama is discarded and the dramatic machinery itself becomes the subject of jest. So in the Cas. 1006 the cast is warned : Hanc ex 10nga 10ngiorem ne faciamus fabu1am. In Per. 159-60 Saturio wants to know where to get his daughter'S projected disguise : "SAT. 7t68ev ornamenta ? TOX. Abs chorago sumito. Dare debet : praebenda aedi1es 10caverunt." (Cf. Trin. 858.) Even the Ps., heralded as dramatically one of the best of the plays, yields the following : Horum caussa haec agitur spectatorum fabu1a (720) ; hanc fabu1am dum transigam (562) and following speech ; verba quae in comoediis solent 1enoni dici (1081-2) ; quam in a1iis comoediis fit (1240) ; quin vocas spectatores simu1 ? (1332). In St. 715 ff., the action of the play is interrupted while the boisterous slaves give the musician a drink. From the Poen. comes a gem that will bear quoting at length (550 ff.) : 70Cap. 489, Cur. 483. 72 Mil. 991. 74PS. 1232. 7lCur. 269, et al. 73PS. 416, et al. 75PS. 748. For a fairly complete collection, v. LeGrand, Daos, p. 44 ft Cf. Middleton and Mills, Student,' Companion to Latin Authors, p. 20 ff. 76Cf. West in A. J. P. VIII. 15. Cf. note I, Part II, supra. 64
Omnia istaec scimus iam nos, si hi spectatores sciant. Horunc hic nunc causa haec agitur spectatorum fabula : Hos te satius est docere ut, quando agas, quid agas sciant. Nos tu ne curassis : scimus rem omnem, quippe omnes simul. Didicimus tecum una, ut respondere possimus tibi.77 This is the final degeneration into the realm of pure foolery. It is a patent declaration : "This is only a play ; laugh and we are content." Once more we venture to point a parallel on the modern stage, in the vaudeville comedian who interlards his dancing with comments such as : "I hate to do this, but it's the only way I can ea·ving." 6. Use of stock plots and characters. e must touch finally, but very lightly, on the commonplaces of stock plots and characters. The whole array of puppets is familiar to us all : the cunning slave, the fond or licentious papa, the spendthrift son and their inevitable confreres appear in play after play with relentless regularity. The close correspondence of many plots is also too familiar to need discussion.78 The glimmering of originality in the plot of the Cap. called for special advertisement.79 In the light of the foregoing evidence, the pertinence of these facts for us, we reiterate, is that Plautus merely adopted the New Comedy form as his comic medium, and, while leaving his originals in the main untouched, took what liberties he desired with them, with the single-minded purpose of making his public laugh. 80 77Cf. Amph. 861 ff., As. 174 f., Cap. 778, Cur. 464, Mer. 160, Poen. 1224. 7sCf. Daos, Part I, Chap. III: Les personnages, and p. 303 ff. ; Momnisen, Hist. pp. 1 4 1 ff. 79Prol., 53 ff. sOFor a discussion of the relation of Plautus to his originals, v. Schuster, Quomodo Plautus Attica exemplaria transtulerit; LeGrand, Daos, passim ; Ostermayer, de hist. Jab. in com. Pl.; Ritschl, Par. 271, etc. The efforts to distinguish Plautus from his models have so far been fragmentary and abortive and will not advance appreciably until a complete play that he adapted has been found. At any rate, the discussion has no real bearing on our subject, since we can consider only the plays as actually transmitte
Page 1 and 2:
UNIVERSITY OF PENNSYLVANIA THE DRAM
Page 3:
FOREWORD THIS dissertation was writ
Page 6 and 7:
lishment of the undoubted respectab
Page 8 and 9:
(A Literary History of Rome, p. 197
Page 10 and 11:
ideals, in the belief that "der ach
Page 12 and 13:
Menschen, der ihn lenkt, frohlich r
Page 14 and 15: condemns35, the scene in which Peri
Page 16 and 17: J. W. Donaldson, in his lectures on
Page 18 and 19: We say only "in large measure," bec
Page 20 and 21: present day at public fireworks and
Page 22 and 23: or swing a piece of trumpery into p
Page 24 and 25: Auctor ad Herennium we find (III. 1
Page 26 and 27: Griechen und Romer," Chap. XI, p. 2
Page 28 and 29: Rufus quidam, ventriosus, crassis s
Page 30 and 31: the apportionment of the various cl
Page 32 and 33: frank and vivid burlesque not even
Page 34 and 35: PART II AN ANALYSIS OF THE DRA MA T
Page 36 and 37: Whether this passage had an ulterio
Page 38 and 39: To tickle the ears of the groundlin
Page 40 and 41: "PH. (In languishing accents, with
Page 42 and 43: MEG. There's nobody." lo Another ol
Page 44 and 45: apid-fire tongue-lashing. Another p
Page 46 and 47: stage, would carry him several time
Page 48 and 49: have seen roars of laughter created
Page 50 and 51: SAG. That's the chap, I'm sure. TOX
Page 52 and 53: duenna Scapha. Philolaches stands o
Page 54 and 55: The slave class is the topic of man
Page 56 and 57: "JUP. I am the renowned Amphitruo,
Page 58 and 59: Moliere again imitated almost slavi
Page 60 and 61: irrepressible Pseudolus in reading
Page 62 and 63: of the handsome widow) , and simila
Page 66 and 67: IN CONCLUSION In contrast to these
Page 68 and 69: absurdities and deficiencies. This
show all

THE DRAMATIC VALUES IN PLAUTUS

You also want an ePaper? Increase the reach of your titles

Delete template?

Save as template?