"Comedy Tonight!"
The Roman World of Plautus
Plautus: first writer of musical comedy
• “A Funny Thing Happened on the Way to
the Forum” opened in 1962 with Zero
Mostel
• Many were surprised to learn it was a
mixture of scenes from Plautine comedy
• Authors of musical were updating Plautus’
techniques, just as he had done with his
“sources”
• Plautus fountainhead of modern comedy
Life of Plautus
• Titus Maccius Plautus
• Born at Sarsina in
Umbria, ca. 254 B.C.
– Recently conquered
area
– Native speech probably
Umbrian, NOT Latin!
– Perhaps educated in
Rome?
Life of Plautus cont’d
• Earned living in theatrical work –
“in the working of the scenes and sets.”
• Invested his savings in an overseas trading
venture, but lost everything.
– Probably traveled himself on this venture.
– Acquired knowledge of Greek language and
culture?
Life of Plautus cont’d
• Arrived back in Rome broke.
• Went to work in a flour-mill.
• While working here, he composed his first
three plays, produced after 215 B.C.
• Success allowed him to devote the rest of
his life to dramatic composition.
• Roman Citizen?
Life of Plautus cont’d
• Over 130 plays were attributed to him, but Varro
claims only 21 genuine: we now have 20 plus
fragmentary play.
• Wildly popular in his day.
• Died in 184 B.C.
– Epitaph:
Postquam est mortem aptus Plautus, comoedia luget,
scaena est deserta, dein risus, ludus, iocusque
Et numeri innumeri simul omnes conlacrimarunt.
Roman World in 2nd Century
Second Century Rome
• New, extra-Italian provinces to administer and tax.
– Proconsuls, propraetors, etc.
– “Tax-farming” $$$
• In West, Spain provided metals and manpower
(slaves) $$$.
• In East, well-established and wealthy Hellenistic
city-states and kingdoms brought increased
contact with cultural achievements of Hellenism:
philosophy, science, and literature, including
dramatic comedy.
Roman Theaters
• Early wooden
structures - temporary.
• Most often freestanding.
• Very elaborate scene
buildings.
• Later, built of stone,
sheathed with marble
Theater of Pompey
first stone theatre in Rome, 55 B.C.
“Theater District” of Ancient
Rome
Odeon of Herodes Atticus,
Athens
Greek Influence in Plautus’
Plays
• Greek “New Comedy” (Menander c. 342-293
B.C.) cf. “Old Comedy”
– Purposefully non-political/escapist
– Limited number of stock characters and plot-elements
shuffled to produce new plays
• Characters: the old man (father, grumpy/randy/drunken), the
young man (son, angry, amorous, spendthrift), the young lady
(prostitute/long-lost noblewoman), the slave (wily, greedy,
self-interested)
• Plot elements: love triangle, frustrated love, get the money,
trick the father/uncle/authority figure, slave saves master, etc.
Plautus’ use of Greek New
Comedy
• Formerly thought that
Plautus slavishly copied
Greek plays.
• True that in some cases
(e.g. The Rope, Casina,
Mercator, etc.) we know
his plays to have been
based on Greek
archetypes.
• But papyri suggest
Plautus used considerable
ingenuity to shape Greek
plays for Roman audience.
Plautus and “New Comedy,”
cont’d
• Fragment of Greek archetype for Bacchides shows
that Plautus felt free to cut and/or meld scenes for
his Roman purposes and setting.
• Added new (often rude) jokes, puns, often very
specific to Roman culture, much physical comedy
• Role of stock character, “The Parasite,” is greatly
expanded - fits Roman client system
• Character and Plot development less important
than immediate comic effect.
Plautus and “New Comedy,”
cont’d
• Much more use of “metatheatrical” elements bringing in the crowd.
• Dramatic illusion not maintained
– (before a long-winded speech) “ O.K., but hurry, the
crowd’s getting thirsty….”
• In general, much more focus on clever verbal
effects like alliteration, word-play, unexpected
personifications, and riddling phraseology.
– “…twist the neck of wrongdoing…”
Plautus’ musical comedy
• Roman comedy composed in verse
• Plautus uses many different meters
• Songs may have made up as much as 40%
of each play, some of dialogue also chanted
or recited to flute
• Song and dance routines perhaps Italian
influence
The “Magic” of Plautus
• Why was he so popular?
• Secret lies in the context of ancient drama,
i.e. religious festival days - official holidays
spent drinking, feasting, watching athletic
contests, and drama.
• Holidays as “inversion” of the normal
Roman world.
Roman Festivals and Comic
Inversion
• Licentia and Libertas ruled on festival days, as
opposed to the severitas and disciplina of daily
routine.
• Likewise, comedy allows a temporary reversal of
social norms: what is not done and said in real life
is done and said on the comic stage.
• “The joy of release (laughter) is in direct
proportion to the severity of the restraint.”
Plautus’ Comic Inversion
• So, in Plautus’ comedies, performed on festival days:
–
–
–
–
The action takes place in the Greek East (pergraecamini!)
Sons hate/trick/swindle their fathers and mothers
Young aristocrats care nothing for money, only love
Slaves have little real loyalty to or fear of masters, whom they
often make ridiculous.
– The gods are humanized and humans approach godhead
– In sum, the characters are made to act as un-Roman as possible
while making jokes that would only make sense in a Roman world.
Finis
Mostellaria
• Date: ???
• Model:???
• Main Characters (note types)
–
–
–
–
Philolaches: love-smitten son of
Theopropides: foolish, grumpy old man
Tranio: wily slave
Callidamates: drunken friend of Philolaches
Plot Summary
• Grumio and Tranio, slaves of absent
Theopropides, argue about Tranio’s corruption of
Philolaches and the household.
• Philolaches enters and reveals that he has spent his
father’s wealth buying the freedom of his sweetie.
• Philolaches goes to meet his love, and on the way
home they meet the very drunk Callidamates with
his girlfriend.
• They go to Phil’s place to party.
Plot Summary cont’d
• Tranio comes in and announces that dad has
come back from out of town.
• Phil et al. freak out, but Tranio tells them to
keep cool and shuts them inside
• Tranio meets Theopropides outside the
house and tells him that it’s haunted.
• The old man is persuaded and departs.
Plot Summary cont’d
• Banker comes to collect $ Phil borrowed to buy
his lover’s freedom.
• Dad comes back, having found out that the house
is not haunted. He hears the banker, and asks why
Phil owes money.
• Tranio lies and says that he has bought the
neighbor’s (very nice) house.
• Tranio and Dad go see the “new purchase.”
Plot Summary cont’d
• Tranio smooth-talks his way inside the
neighbor’s house with Dad, who is happy
with his son’s “investment.”
• Theopropides sends Tranio to fetch Phil.
• Theopropides runs into a servant of
Callidamates, who spills the beans.
• The old man confronts slaves and son, but
forgives all.