Plautus’ CurculioBrief Introduction and Background to Roman Comedy

GREEK & ROMAN COMEDY

When we speak of Roman comedy we are usually talking about the work of two comedic playwrights who wrote at the beginning and middle of the second century B.C., Plautus and Terence.

Plautus’ plays are without exception New Comedy palliatae, i.e. Comedies with Greek characters and in Greek dress. As per comedic conventions, the characters are typical stock characters, and the jokes are derived by a combination of verbal wit and comedic situations.

Dramatic performances seem to have played little part in the lives of the Romans until the mid third century B.C. The Romans had invited Etruscan dancers and flute players to come to the city for a special religious rite in 364 B.C., but actual dramatic performances seem to have been rare until 240 B.C. In that year Livius Andronicus, a Greek captured when the Romans took Tarentum (a city with a good theater and much drama), produced one tragedy and one comedy at the Roman Games (Ludi Romani). His plays were translations from famous Greek playwrights, but they seem to have had affinities with a native south Italian kind of farcical comedy. Thus, Roman comedy grew out of two distinct traditions: the Greek comedy of manners and the south Italian slapstick farce.

Greek comedy had gone through several stages before it reached the Romans. The earliest stage seems to have been a type of farce and buffoonery performed by wandering bands of actors. Old Comedy is the style of play performed by Aristophanes in his early years and prime (430-400 B.C.). Old comedy is characterized by outlandish costumes, broad humor, and preposterous themes. Although the plays often involved the gods, heroes, or imaginative creatures, they commented pointedly on contemporary social issues and personalities. The play used a chorus of twenty-four (often dressed in animal costumes, usually with the characteristic enormous phallus) and required three or four main actors. All actors were men. Masks were used.

Middle comedy is dated between 400-323 B.C. and is characterized by the diminished role of the chorus, less direct social and political comment, an interest in everyday life, and an attempt to develop characters more fully. Very little of this comedy survives. What remains are Aristophanes’ later comedies, where the contrast to the earlier plays is remarkable.

New Comedy is the form that most influenced the Romans. It flourished between 323-260 B.C., just at the time the Romans were beginning to become interested in the art form. In New Comedy the chorus was all but eliminated from the dramatic action, though there were occasional choral interludes. The comedy became a comedy of manners, with less emphasis on 'slapstick' and farcical humor and more of an interest in the interactions between observable social types. The plays were nearly always set in Athens and there were (so far as we can tell) few direct references to contemporary social and political events and persons. New comedy tended toward generalities of social interactions and explored the comedic nature of those interactions. Thus, it is given to stock types of characters–people who can be expected to act a certain way in any given situation. A combination of standard and non-standard responses creates the subtle humor.

The Italian farce, known to us mostly from the so-called phlyax vases, seems to have been more like our 'slapstick' comedy and probably poked fun at everyone and everything. There was no chorus to speak of and all the actors wore masks. The masks were of stock types, an old man, a young man, a courtesan, an old lady, a pimp, a boastful soldier, a clever slave, a parasite, etc., resembling the types of New Comedy. The costumes tended to be simple Greek dress with the addition of extra padding in the belly or buttocks and the exaggerated phallus.

Thus Roman comedy has two very different ancestors in Greek New Comedy and Italian farce. The blend shows up better in Plautus (250-184 B.C.) than in Terence (193-159 B.C.), who tends to follow Greek New Comedy more closely. Try to keep the different kinds of comedy in mind as you read the three comedies by Plautus, paying special attention to (1) characterizations of social and ethnic types, (2) allusions to contemporary events, (3) farcical elements.

HISTORICAL ALLUSIONS

Since Roman comedy adopted the convention of using Greek dress and Greek staging, the actors could always be thought of as Greek and not Roman. Yet often we see indications that the characters are meant to represent Romans or at least Roman ways of seeing the world. A good example of this is Curculio's running scene in Act II, Scene 3. In this scene he talks about the Greeks as if he were not one of them. Another instance where the illusion is broken comes at the beginning of Act IV, where the stage manager comes on and points out specific features of the Roman forum, thus belying the fact that the comedy plays in Rome though it is set in Epidaurus.

The stage manager's scene shows some of the opportunities available to the poet to comment on contemporary society. The kinds of people he characterizes who frequent the various locations he mentions were probably recognizable to the audience as their fellow citizens. In some plays there seem to be references to specific events, such as a war or a change in social policy. These references tend to be vague, so it is difficult to say with certainty that they refer to one thing or the other, but they do seem to indicate that Plautus was interested in making comments about elements in contemporary Rome.

See if you can find passages which may refer to contemporary events or indicate a Roman (rather than a Greek) way of viewing things.

CURCULIO

The Curculio is the shortest of the plays by Plautus, but it is a good introduction to Roman comedy for it has many of the typical features and it is fast-paced so it holds a reader's attention.

We don't know what Greek play, if any, Plautus had in mind when writing the Curculio. Nor do we know when it was performed.

The word curculio in Latin means 'weevil' (see Act. IV, Scene 4).

STOCK CHARACTERS

The section above on Roman & Greek Comedy mentioned stock characters but did not go into detail about what they were. Since the Curculio uses several stock character types, it will be useful to outline them. Identify each of these from the list of dramatis personae:

The young lover: head over heals in love for a courtesan whom he wishes to buy but, for one reason or another, cannot. He has usually spent all is money and, thus, does not have enough when her pimp decides to sell her.

The young courtesan: in love with the young lover. Not as street-smart as the older courtesan type; usually naive; still a virgin.

The parasite: a professional 'hanger-on'. He usually has a patron who will support him and require him to do things, like run errands, from time to time, 'to earn his keep'. The parasite is only interested in food and how to procure as much as possible while doing as little work as possible. The parasite is a free man, not a slave.

The clever slave: usually a main actor in a comedy, though the part is taken by the parasite in ours. The slave usually outwits everyone in the play to get what he or his master wants. He usually has several people going on different stories at the same time.

Boastful Soldier: a braggart warrior who uses bombastic language to describe his exploits, which are always made to seem more important than they are. He is sometimes known as the Miles Gloriosus after the name of a play which features such a warrior. The warrior is generally a good person despite his boasts and threats.

The pimp: interested only in making money. Unscrupulous and generally mean, though a real wimp when it comes to physical violence.

The banker: also interested in making more money. Sometimes untrustworthy, but he usually gives in to threats of injury.

Drunken old woman: usually in charge of the young courtesan, she only wants to drink wine and get drunk. She is easy to bribe.

Please read the following on Roman stagecraft:

Roman Stagecraft, from Didaskalia

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Plautus (ca. 254-ca. 184 B.C.) was a Roman writer. His theatrical genius, vitality, farcical humor, and control of the Latin language rank him as Rome's greatest comic playwright.

During the 3d century B.C., Roman writers began to imitate the forms and contents of Greek literature. Unlike the early poets, Plautus confined himself to one area: translation and adaptation of Greek New Comedy (ca. 336-ca. 250 B.C.).

Knowledge of the life of Plautus, whose full name was Titus Maccius Plautus, is scant. Random remarks by later Roman writers and others furnish the questionable details. From Cicero the date of Plautus's birth can be placed about 254 B.C. and his death about 184 B.C. Festus, scholar of the 2d century A.D., gives Plautus's birthplace as the small town of Sarsina in Umbria, Italy. From Aulus Gellius, a grammarian from the 2d century, comes the traditional and fascinating, if brief, account of Plautus's life in Rome.

Plautus earned money by working in the theater but promptly lost it in trade. He returned to Rome penniless and for a time supported himself by working as a laborer in a flour mill. During this period he wrote three plays (not extant). Scholars who accept this romantic career suggest that it may have been reported in Plautine prologues now lost.

That Plautus earned money by theatrical work is generally accepted and may mean that he was a stagehand, carpenter, playwright, or actor. His mastery of stagecraft and comic effect suggests long experience as an actor prior to writing plays. Most intriguing is precisely how Plautus, an Umbrian from rural Sarsina, managed to acquire both a knowledge of Greek and the superb control of Latin displayed in his dramas.

His Works

The total of Plautus's plays is probably close to 50. Twenty plays are extant more or less in their entirety: Amphitruo (Amphitryon), Asinaria (The Comedy of Asses), Aulularia (The Pot of Gold), Bacchides (The Two Bacchides), Captivi (The Captives), Casina (Casina), Cistellaria (The Casket), Curculio (Curculio), Epidicus (Epidicus), Menaechmi (The Twin Menaechmi), Mercator (The Merchant), Miles Gloriosus (The Braggart Warrior), Mostellaria (The Haunted House), Persa (The Girl from Persia), Poenulus (The Carthaginian), Pseudolus (Pseudolus), Rudens (The Rope), Stichus (Stichus), Trinummus (The Three Penny Day), and Truculentus (Truculentus). Fewerthan 100 lines survive from the Vidularia (The Traveling Bag).

All the plays are based on Greek originals, especially those by the 3d-and 2d-century B.C. comic playwrights Menander, Diphilus, and Philemon. Dates for the production of only two plays are known: Stichus (200 B.C.) and the Pseudolus (191 B.C.). Approximate dates for some plays are derived from reference to contemporary persons and events, amount of sung verses, and various criteria of style and technique. Modern chronological studies suggest the following relative datings—early period: Asinaria, Mercator, Miles Gloriosus (ca. 205 B.C.), Cistellaria (before 201 B.C.); middle period: Stichus (200 B.C.), Aulularia, Curculio; late period: Pseudolus (191 B.C.), Bacchides, Casina (185/184 B.C.).

Plautus's Style

The middle of the 1st century B.C. witnessed a revival of interest in Plautus and the restaging of many of his plays with consequent altering of original prologues. Some plays have no prologue; others have deferred prologues; and still others have authentic prologues or prologues based on those composed by Plautus. Often the prologue furnishes the audience with details necessary to understanding the opening of a complicated plot, or it may even explain in advance the outcome of the play with a consequent loss of suspense and surprise but a gain of irony. As a rule, the Plautine play presents one plot with one problem and one set of characters; these simple plots of Plautus allow comic digression and repetition. Humorous passages loosely connected with the plot and violation of dramatic illusion are clear evidence of Plautus's concern for entertaining his audience with a good laugh even at the expense of careful workmanship and finish.

Themes display considerable variety. There are plays of subdued comedy (Captivi), sentimental comedy (Cistellaria), romance (Rudens), mythological travesty (Amphitruo), and coarse farce (Asinaria). Mistaken identity and deception, either individually or jointly, give rise to the misunderstandings and complications on which the plays turn. Plautus appears to rely on earlier native Italian farces for the devices of trickery and impersonation.

Plautus's Characterization

Roman comedy for the most part paid careful attention to delineation of character but within a framework of types in which subtlety, complexity, and individuality were severely restricted. The Plautine cast of characters often includes the traditional figures: the young man (adulescens) hopelessly in love but lacking the courage and resourcefulness to achieve his desires; the aged parent (senex) who must be deceived and won over; the slave (servus) whose cunning and bustling create humor and intrigue; the young girl (virgo) of acknowledged free birth or to be rescued from shame; the courtesan (meretrix) who may be mercenary or noble; the hungry but shrewd parasite (parasitus); the despised slave dealer (leno); and the soldier (miles) whose boasting is equaled only by his stupidity.

But Plautus's originality and desire to entertain his audience have particularized many stock characters by exaggerated and imaginative portrayal. Characters especially suited to farce (Euclio and Pyrgopolynices) are among Plautus's most memorable creations of imagination and fantasy.

Command of Language and His Influence

Plautus captures the language of ordinary life, and to it he contributes novelty, vitality, and spontaneity. At a time when the Latin language was still quite fluid in inflection, syntax, and vocabulary, Plautine selection, combination, and invention set a high standard. Dialogue is rapid, racy, and filled with assonance, alliteration, and picturesque expressions. The vocabulary exploits and augments the available supply of terms of affection and abuse. Often tautology catches the carelessness or garrulity of ordinary speech. Plautus has no rival in ability to coin comic terms and names, for instance, Bumbomachides Clutomestoridysarchides, 'Battlebomski Mighty-adviser-of-wretched-strategy.'

The plays of Plautus enjoyed immediate success during his lifetime and were restaged and read by Romans after his death. The Middle Ages found his language difficult and his morality objectionable. During and after the Renaissance in Italy and other European countries, Plautine comedies were staged, translated, and imitated in vernacular compositions. Lodovico Ariosto (1474-1533), called the true founder of the modern European stage, reproduced in an Italian setting, in his La cassaria and I suppositi, the form and spirit of Plautine models.

William Shakespeare's Comedy of Errors (1592) reflects the Menaechmi and the Amphitruo; and Ben Jonson's The Case is Altered (1597) blends the Aulularia and the Captivi. The esteem Plautus enjoyed among 16th-century dramatists is clear when Shakespeare has Polonius in Hamlet say, 'Seneca cannot be too heavy nor Plautus too light.'

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Further Reading

Paul Nixon, Plautus (5 vols., 1916-1938), provides both text and translation of Plautus's works; translations are also given in G. E. Duckworth, The Complete Roman Drama (2 vols., 1942). For excellent treatment of almost every aspect of Plautus see Duckworth's The Nature of Roman Comedy (1952). Critical studies are Gilbert Norwood, Plautus and Terence (1932), and Erich Segal, Roman Laughter: The Comedy of Plautus (1968). The Greek sources of Plautus's work are considered in Philippe E. Legrand, The New Greek Comedy (1917). Margaret Bieber, The History of the Greek and Roman Theatre (1939; 2d ed. 1961), includes discussion and illustrations of archeological remains. See also W. Beare, The Roman Stage (1950; 3d ed. 1965). □