Plautus Summary
The ancient Roman dramatist Titus Maccius Plautus (254-184 B.C.) wrote over 100 comedies in Latin, adapting them from Greek originals. His source for Rudens (“The Rope”) was a comedy of uncertain title by Diphilos (4th century B.C.).
Plautus seems to use this techniques to demoralize the characters and reflect the ideas of the time, rather than to antagonise the audiences social or political beliefs. Similar ideas were clearly known in society or the plays would have been cancelled by the state government. Plautus' comedy is mostly situational, with a lot of complications in the action, which may arise from mistaken identity, deliberate concealing of information or the villainy of a wily character. It relies equally on surprises and the predictability of familiar characters and situations. Plautus wishes she’d met Laika, the first animal to orbit the earth. She was a stray whom Dr. Yazdovsky put into Sputnik II in 1957. She was happy in space for a few hours, but then the capsule overheated and she died. Most of the dogs, like Laika, are one-way passengers. Plautus talks to the dogs who return whenever she gets the chance. Miles Gloriosus The Braggart Soldier Plot Summary 1. A soldier carries off a prostitute from Athens to Ephesus. While a slave wants to report this to his lovesick master, who is abroad on an embassy, he himself is captured at sea and given to that same soldier as a present.
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joy her. Lysidamus also has a proxy: his slave Olympio, whois a somewhat crude overseer on the family’s country estate.
As Cleostrata, the wife of Lysidamus, has her suspicions,she supports her son and Chalinus. Since she raisedCasina, whom a slave brought home when he saw her beingabandoned as a baby, she has a certain right to give herin marriage to whomever she wants. But Lysidamus ashead of the household can overrule her. Naturally, he doesnot want his wife to be suspicious of his true motives, sohe first tries to persuade her to give Casina to Olympio bydiscrediting Chalinus. When Cleostrata remains intransigent,Lysidamus promises Chalinus his freedom shouldhe give up; Cleostrata does the same with Olympio. However,both slaves resist the temptation to give in. In theend Lysidamus, who does not dare to overrule his wife directly,decides to resort to casting lots as to who is goingto marry Casina. This scene (ll. 353–423), during whichLysidamus makes several Freudian slips by saying that hewants to marry the girl, must go back to Diphilus, whonamed his play for it; but it is clear that Plautus has introducedchanges. For instance, in New Comedy there are atmost three speaking actors onstage, but in this scene thereare four: Lysidamus, the two slaves, and Cleostrata. Sincethe three men are necessary in the scene, it is likely thatCleostrata is the person that Plautus added. At the end ofthe scene, Olympio and Lysidamus win and Cleostrata hasto prepare the wedding.
Things take a turn for the better when Chalinus overhearsa conversation between Lysidamus and Olympio.Lysidamus plans to tell his wife that he will accompany thecouple to their country estate. In reality they intend to go
4next door; Lysidamus has persuaded his neighbor Alcesimusto send over his wife Myrrhina, a close friend ofCleostrata, so that she can help with the wedding preparations.Alcesimus wants to send everyone off so thatLysidamus can sleep with Casina in his house before theyall go to the countryside. Chalinus immediately tells hismistress everything, and she can now counteract her husband’splans.
Cleostrata begins to stir up trouble for her husband bytelling him that Alcesimus refused to send his wife over,while telling Alcesimus, who is actually keen to help Lysidamus,that his wife is not needed. The ensuing argumentbetween Lysidamus and Alcesimus does not last long,though, and Myrrhina goes next door. Next Pardalisca, aslave girl working for Cleostrata, comes out, seemingly inpanic. She tells Lysidamus that Casina has a sword and intendsto kill her future husband. Again Lysidamus, fearingfor his life, makes Freudian slips. Then the wedding preparationsare drawn out for so long that Lysidamus decidesto leave with the couple without having a wedding dinner.The women bring out a very special bride—Chalinuswearing a concealing veil.
It has sometimes been argued that the wedding involvinga male bride is a Plautine insertion. It is true that anumber of ritual elements have a distinctly Roman character,and these must be Plautine. For instance, the bride isadmonished to cross the threshold carefully in order toavoid stumbling, a bad omen (ll. 815–17); and more generally,Greek brides were not given advice for their marriedlife on the big day, while Chalinus/Casina gets much advice,albeit unrealistically anti-male. On the other hand,there are Greek elements in the ceremony that must go
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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).
Download game pc iso. 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. Tekken 3 game free download softonic. 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.
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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.
Plautus Casina Summary
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.'
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). □