Plautus is, with Terence, the most important playwright of Latin literature, whose influence has reached even the most recent theatre (Machiavelli, Shakespeare, Ben Johnson, Molière, Giraudoux, among others). Plautus is inspired by Greek models, but reveals autonomy, making a brilliant and original synthesis with elements taken from Roman daily life and traditional Italian farce. He is the first writer of the archaic age whose complete works have survived.
Plautus: the name
The tria nomina Titus Maccius Plautus (forename, noble name, surname) reported in the codices do not seem to be authentic but falsified by ancient grammarians. In some comedies (Asinaria, Mercator) we find both Plautus and Maccus and Maccus Titus. It has therefore been supposed that the poet used different names (or pseudonyms) depending on the case, often changing them during the years of his literary production: the name Maccus (mask of the foolish glutton) derives from his previous activity as an actor in the Atellana, an ancient theatrical form, while Plautus could be a nickname meaning “long-eared” or “flat-footed”. The hypothesis that he was an actor based on the analysis of the names leaves one perplexed, however, and is certainly not confirmed with regard to his comedies given that we have information on the actors who staged them (for example, the first actor of the Stichus was Pallione).
The Life of Plautus
Plautus is the first Latin playwright whose entire works have reached us, but his biographical information is scarce and not always reliable. In fact, there is very little data that we can consider with a certain certainty:
– He was born in Sarsina, a city in Umbria, certainly before 250 BC since Cicero in Cato Maior, speaking about the industriousness of old people, says that Plautus composed the Pseudolos – performed in 191 BC – the year in which he had to have passed 60 years of age to be considered old and therefore included in the list made by Cicero.
– Again thanks to the testimony of Cicero but this time in Brutus we know that he died in 184 BC
– The years in which he staged his works are those relating to the Second Punic War (218-201 BC).
The Varronian Comedies
According to the less credible testimonies of Aulus Gellius and Saint Jerome (whose source is Varro ), it would seem that Plautus, still young, arrived in Rome and, in the service of a theatrical company, learned Greek and the craft of playwright. Then he devoted himself to the grain trade but following a bankruptcy he lost all his fortune and after spending some years in prison for accumulated debts he was reduced to turning the millstone at a mill. It seems that this experience inspired him to write three comedies: Saturio (the full belly), Addictus (the slave for debts) and another whose title we do not know, which were the beginning of a fruitful theatrical activity.
Of the 130 comedies that bore his name after his death, Varro made a tripartite division that later became canonical: 21 authentic ones that have reached us intact except for the last one reduced to a few fragments (Vidularia); 19 dubious ones of which we only read the titles (but which the scholar believed to be authentic); 90 spurious ones, completely lost. Let’s examine the authentic ones:
- Anphitru (Amphitryon) : Sosia flees from the expedition against the Teleboans and comes across Mercury who has taken his form. Initially he is shocked by the sight of a man so similar to him and by the loss of his own identity, but then, seeing that the stranger continues to claim to be Sosia and threatens him not to say the contrary, he considers himself free from that moment. After a long night lasting six months at the behest of Zeus, who, having taken the form of Amphitryon wanted to be with his wife, Alcmena, Zeus, says goodbye to his wife, telling her that he has secretly left the battlefield to be with her and that he must return as soon as possible.
Meanwhile, Sosia calls Amphitryon back to his homeland to help him solve the mystery of the night. Alcmena is surprised to see him because she thinks he has just left, and when she tells him what had happened the night before, Amphitryon accuses her of having betrayed him, and they go off to look for Naucrates, who testifies that he had not yet returned home the day before.
Zeus, in the guise of Amphitryon, decides to apologize to Alcmena, and sends Sosia to look for the pilot Blepharon to invite him to dinner.
In the meantime Amphitryon returns home, and is not allowed to enter by Mercury who pretends not to recognize him. Alcmena rushes to her, and Amphitryon vents his anger on her, making her return home indignant. Amphitryon thus wanders throughout the city looking for Naucrates, and comes across Blepharon and Sosia, against whom he rails for the insults that Mercury had addressed to him.
The two Amphitryons find themselves face to face, accuse each other of adultery and come to blows. Blepharon, called to decree who is the true Amphitryon, is wrong.
Alcmene then gives birth, while thunder and lightning surround the house. Two snakes rain down from the sky, but one of the two children strangles them. Meanwhile, the voice of Zeus is heard reverberating from the sky, revealing that he is the father of the child who strangled the snakes.
Amphitryon and the servant Bromia would like to consult the soothsayer Tiresias, but Zeus himself says that it is not necessary, and that Alcmene is not to be blamed for adultery. - Asinaria (comedy of donkeys) : A young man in love with a courtesan manages, with the complicity of his servants and his father, to ransom her with the money obtained from the sale of a herd of donkeys. But the father is quick to show interest in the young woman, of whom he would like to take advantage. But his plan is discovered and the old man suffers a good punishment from his wife.
- Aulularia (comedy of the pot) : The old miser Euclio has found a pot with a treasure buried in his house. Having buried it again, he watches over it morbidly: he suspects that anyone could steal it from him, including the old servant Stafila, but in reality everyone believes him to be very poor, and no one would suspect his wealth.
The old neighbor Megadoro, urged by his sister Eunomia, decides to marry in order to have an heir: he asks for the hand of Fedria, Euclio’s daughter, and to the great pleasure of her father, he is willing to take her without a dowry.
Strobilo, Megadoro’s servant, on the master’s orders brings the groceries, the cooks and the flute players hired at the Forum, to Euclio. The latter, in the meantime, having returned from the market, where he had bought only incense and wreaths of flowers for the family Lare, because everything else seemed too expensive to him, finds a great commotion in his house, and hearing the cooks talking about a large pot, he is terrified. So he chases the cooks away and allows them to return only after having dug up the pot and taken it with them to then bury it again.
Strobilus, a servant of Lyconides, goes to Euclio’s house on his master’s orders, to observe the situation and keep him informed of events. He thus sees Euclio burying the pot and enters the temple to steal it but is surprised by the old man who chases him away. The servant, however, continues to observe him and discovers where he is preparing to hide it: a wood beyond the walls.
At Megadorus’ house, Phaedria gives birth to the son of Lyconides, grandson of Megadorus, who had raped her while he was drunk. Liconides decides to confess it to Euclio, but in the meantime the old man has discovered the theft of the pot and distorts the words of the young man thinking that he confesses the theft. Strobilo, however, confesses everything to the master who makes him return it. Liconides thus obtains the hand of Fedria. - Bacchides (Bacchidi) : comedy inspired by Menander. The protagonists are two sisters, courtesans, who provoke discord between two friends, Pistoclero and Mnesilochus, whose lovers they are, and their fathers. The soul of the intrigues is the servant Chrysalo. In the final scene, the fathers, sons and Bacchides are reconciled and party at the latter’s house.
- Captives (prisoners) : The rich Aegione has two sons: Philopolemus, taken prisoner in war, and Tyndareus, kidnapped as a child by a slave and sold to Philocrates’ father. To get Philopolemus back, Aegione buys Philocrates as a prisoner of war, along with the slave Tyndareus, who remains hostage by Aegione while Philocrates frees Philopolemus and brings him back to his father. At this point the slave who had kidnapped Tyndareus is found and can finally be reunited with his father and brother. A comedy without a love story, something rare in Plautus, with a moralizing setting where the common thread is paternal love.
- Casina (Casina) : the comedy takes its name from the protagonist, the girl of chance, who never appears on stage, contested between father and son but assigned to the father according to the draw. The old man tries to marry her to his factor who should then put her at his disposal, but his wife, having discovered their plan, organizes a mass replacing the girl with the slave Calino, so the old man is fooled and the girl is free to marry the young man. From this comedy Machiavelli will draw inspiration for his Clizia.
- Cistellaria (the comedy of the basket) : a young girl raised by a courtesan risks living the same life as her but is recognized as free thanks to the trinkets left when she was exposed as a newborn and kept in a basket. She can then marry the young man in love with her whom her father wanted to marry another.
- Curculio (the gurgle): the comedy takes its title from the name of the parasite who, through an intrigue, procures for the young Fedromo the money to ransom the girl he loves from the pimp who possesses her and from the soldier Terapontigonos to whom she is promised and who turns out to be her brother.
- Epidicus (Epidicus): a comedy of considerable intrigue whose unfolding is conducted by the slave Epidicus to the detriment of his master Periphanes in order to obtain the money necessary for the master’s son who intends to buy two courtesans with whom he is in love. At the end, when Epidicus is about to be unmasked, it is discovered that one of the two girls is the daughter of Periphanes. Then Epidicus is given his freedom as a gift.
- Menaechmi (Manecmi): The scene takes place in Epidamno where one of two twins is looking for his brother from whom he was separated as a child. The two, in addition to being incredibly similar, have the same name, Menaechmus. He does not find him immediately but is mistaken for him by the parasite, the cook, his lover Erotius and his extremely jealous wife. The series of misunderstandings continues and ends only when the two meet and, once the matter is cleared up, decide to return to Syracuse where they were born. Shakespeare was inspired by this comedy (the Comedy of Errors).
- Mercator (the merchant) : father and son rivals in love for a courtesan bought by the young man during a journey. The father asks for help from a friend who pretends to want the girl for himself but the friend’s wife, discovering the deception, ridicules the old man causing the girl to return with the young man.
- Miles Gloriosus (the boastful soldier): Pyrgopolynices has kidnapped the courtesan Philocomasius in Athens and taken her to Ephesus. Here the servant of Pleusicles, the woman’s lover, sees her and immediately informs his master. Once he arrives in Ephesus, he lodges at the house of the old and cunning Periplecomenus, right next to Pyrgopolynices’. The old man and the servant put a plan into action: they make a hole in the dividing wall and with the idea of a twin sister allow the two lovers to see each other. Pyrgopolynices, at the idea of having an affair with Periplecomenus’ (non-existent) wife, lets Philocomasius go free and is also beaten up by the fake jealous husband.
- Mostellaria (the comedy of spirits) : The servant Tranio prevents his master, who has just returned from Athens, from entering the house where his son Filolachete and his friend Callidamas are entertaining their lovers, alleging the presence of a ghost in the house. Then a loan shark appears and asks for the money lent to Filolachete, but the servant convinces his master that the money was spent on the purchase of a new house. Two of Callidamas’ servants unwittingly reveal the deception, but the comedy ends happily with the forgiveness of the son and servant.
- Persa (the Persian) : a young man steals his beloved from a pimp thanks to a friend who, disguised as a Persian, sells to the pimp the daughter of a parasite who, in complicity with the two, pretends to be a slave.
- Poenulus (the little Carthaginian) : a young Carthaginian kidnapped as a child and sold to an old man falls in love with a young woman exploited along with her sister by the pimp Lycus. While he is organizing a plan with his servant, Hanno arrives to look for his daughters who had been kidnapped. He first recognizes the young man as his nephew and the two courtesans as his daughters. Lycus is punished and the young man can marry his beloved cousin. Important from a linguistic point of view due to the presence of passages in Punic.
- Pseudolus (the liar): Calidorus is in love with the courtesan Phoenicia, and to buy her from his pimp Ballio who has put her up for sale he needs silver minas. However, the pimp, after having promised her to Calidorus, sells her to a Macedonian soldier, Polymacheroplagides, who gives him 15 minas as a down payment. The slave Pseudolus wants to help his young master find the necessary money, and does not hide his intention even from his father, Simon, with whom he bets that he will be able to obtain it from him: if he succeeds, he will win 20 silver minas and will be freed. Simon warns Ballio, saying that the cunning Pseudolus is plotting against him. One day, Pseudolo, in front of Ballio’s house, meets Arpace, the Macedonian soldier’s attendant, who brings the pimp the 5 minae, and passes himself off as Syrus, a servant of the pimp, but fails to get the money. Arpace, however, tells him where he is staying, and asks him to let him know when his master returns.
Pseudolo then obtains the help of Carinus, a friend of Calidorus, who entrusts him with his servant Monkey to play the part of Arpace, and lends him 5 silver minae. Pseudolo leads Monkey to Ballio, who entrusts him with Phoenicia.
After that, Ballio tells Simon that he is very relieved because Phoenicia has finally been sold, and promises his incredulous friend 20 minae if Pseudolo manages to deliver the girl to his son. At that moment Arpace arrives, and Ballio and Simon think that he is a man sent by Pseudolo. In the end the deception is revealed, and Simone gives the 20 minas to Pseudolus. - Rudens (the rope): a young woman who has fallen into the trap of a pimp is saved by a slave from the shipwreck of the ship that was carrying her to Sicily. First she finds refuge in the temple of Venus and then in the house of the old Demon. Meanwhile the young Plesidippo, in love with her, claims possession of her, having already paid part of the ransom. Thanks to a small chest found at sea and the trinkets it contains, it turns out that the young woman is the daughter of Demon, kidnapped by pirates, and therefore her wedding with Plesidippo can proceed.
- Stichus (name of the servant) : Panegiri and Panfila, two young sisters recently married, despite their father’s insistence do not intend to divorce their husbands, far from home to try their luck in trade. The wait, more than three years long, is rewarded because the husbands return enriched and even reconcile with their father-in-law. The comedy ends with a festive banquet organized by the servant Stichus.
- Trinumnus (the three coins) : Lesbonicus, during the absence of his father Charmides to pay his debts, sells the house which is bought by Callicles, a friend of his father, who is concerned with guarding the treasure hidden there. He uses this treasure for the dowry of one of Charmides’ daughters, making people believe that the money came from the father through a servant. A fake messenger is lent to the fiction in exchange for three coins. Charmides’ return clarifies the story, allowing the marriage of both sons.
- Truculentu (the lout) : the courtesan Fronesio lives three stories with three different lovers. She makes one of them believe that she has had a child with him but the deception is discovered and one of the other two lovers will marry the real mother of the child he had previously seduced.
The Characters of the Comedies
Plautine characters are not single individuals but fixed masks , already known to their audience.
The main “types” are:
- The “adulescens” : a young man in love who is unable to deal with his own problems, whose language often reaches high and pathetic tones with which the author tries to ridicule the character. He is opposed by his father, the “senex”, because sometimes they desire the same woman or because of the son’s economic dependence on his father.
- The “senex” : a severe and mocked old father who now denies financial help to his son, now tries to conquer the woman chosen by the latter, becoming his adversary.
- The “meretrix” : as a female character, she plays such a marginal role that she does not appear on the scene at all in some comedies. This character, unknown in Rome, was instead common in the Greek world. She represents the courtesan, free or slave and, in the latter case, eager to be redeemed by her lover to become a wife.
- The “matrona” : mother of the adulescens and wife of the senex. Her figure is in contrast to that of the hetaera. Her character is distinguished by authoritarianism and despotism, capable of unleashing furious anger of which her husband is the victim.
- The “parassitus” : he is probably one of the funniest characters. He lives by insatiably exploiting the economic assets of others and bringing ruin to his benefactors who, however, at least find themselves reciprocated by his praise, perhaps exaggerated. His jokes are clearly a source of comedy.
- The “miles gloriosus” : a boastful soldier at the service of whoever pays him best. His definition could be “imaginary conqueror”, in fact he boasts successes in war and love that never happened and are promptly unmasked during the comedy. His figure was also unknown in Rome, perhaps because here military service was the duty of every citizen, and it is therefore probable that the Romans felt, by contrast, proud of their military value, unlike the Hellenistic one.
- The “leno” : another figure unknown to the Romans is the slave trader and the exploiter, or the pimp. His character is the most negative, moreover he usually constitutes an obstacle to the realization of the desires of the “adulescens”. He is however destined to defeat, as greed and hatefulness usually are in Plautine theatre. What is most striking, however, about his figure is the ability to be superior to any type of moral judgment that is attributed to him.
- The “servus” : the servant is the driving force of the story. His character is cheeky and cunning and he is endowed with great intelligence and vitality, thanks to which he always manages to face any situation. It is thanks to his presence that the story finds a beginning and an end. He is probably the most characterized character: he is aware of the excellent strategy of his moves so much so that he makes it explicitly clear to the audience (metatheatrical technique) and it is with these that he responds to the threats of the master. The physical portrait that the author gives us is based on the personal characteristics of Plautus himself: red hair, large head, very dark skin, lively eyes, ruddy face and rather stocky physique. This physical deformity seems almost a challenge to destiny within a universe in which every social order is subverted to let the servants and sons triumph in spite of the masters and fathers.
Minor Characters in Plautus
Alongside the main characters of Plautine comedy, there are other characters who play roles of lesser importance , such as for example:
– The “lena” : she is the “ruffian”, and, as the name suggests, a sort of female double of the “leno”. She is mostly represented by an old woman, caring only for her own interests and almost never sincere in her personal relationships.
– The “ancilla” : she is, in fact, the handmaid, the servant girl who follows the “meretrix” or the “matrona”. The handmaid is often involved in her mistresses’ affairs, perhaps even being an accomplice.
– The “cocus” : his presence is, of course, obligatory in the presence of banquets, for which he is always hired. Sometimes his role takes on greater importance if he takes part in his master’s affairs.
– The “puer” : he is a very young boy employed as a “slave”. In Plautus’ comedies there are many of them but often their presence does not bring substantial benefits or impediments to the economy of the comedy.
– The “fenerator” : he plays a negative role, that of the usurer, always ready to enter the scene at the most inopportune moments and exclusively for his own interests, always material, such as money: the usurer lends it to whoever requests it, as his profession requires, often to ransom a courtesan.
Plautus and the relationship with Greek models
Plautus’ comedies are palliate, therefore set in Greece and performed in Greek costume. The plots are those characteristic of the new Attic comedy, which was characterized by the passage from social themes to the problems of the individual. Plautus draws on these models, also using the technique of contaminatio; this fusion of parts of similar texts into one is however very free, because it serves to enliven the action and obtain the applause of the audience. He was certainly inspired by Menander (342-291 BC), Diphilus (360-280 BC), Philemon (360 ca-263 BC), but also by minor authors. Plautus does not show literary preferences: direct knowledge of what the public likes makes him choose the models from time to time. In some prologues, we read the words barbare (translate from Greek into Latin) and the indication of the source; but how faithful Plautus is to the models is an unsolvable problem due to the impossibility of comparing the Latin texts with the Greek ones, which are practically completely lost.
Plautus and the autonomy of sources
However, the great autonomy of the poet from the sources and, in general, from Greek comedy is now universally recognized . The coherence of style of the various Plautine works does not fit well with models of different texts and authors. Inserted into the Greek environment are continuous allusions to the Roman world, to its customs and its life, to the audience in the theater; and then metaphors, a lively and popular language, completely personal, decidedly more clownish tones than those found in Greek theater, so full of subtle humor. The same can be said for the incongruity and exaggeration of certain plots; even the Greek names of the protagonists are invented by Plautus and are rarely repeated in the various comedies.
Plautus’ linguistic creation
The joke is so important for Plautus that he uses it even where it is not present in the Greek model, or he considerably strengthens it where it is already present. The farcical ending of the Casina, that is, the “male wedding”, certainly falls into one of these two possibilities, but it can also happen that Plautus even doubles the joke (Miles gloriosus: a joke on the soldier’s trusted servant, Sceledro, in addition to the one on the soldier himself) and that he even goes so far as to conceive of several jokes played simultaneously on different characters (Pseudolus) and always different jokes to the detriment of the same character (Mostellaria).
For a quarter of a century now, the publication of the best preserved sections of a papyrus found at Oxyrhynchus has allowed us to draw a direct line between a comedy by Plautus, the Bacchides («The [two] Bacchides»), and the Attic model, the Dìs exapaton («The double deception») by Menander. Plautus certainly did not limit himself to changing the title of the original: he changed the meter of some scenes (from iambic trimeters to the longer and more musically animated trochaic septenaries), he constantly transformed the Menandrean medium tone into verbal exuberances, now conceptual now pathetic, he inserted a monologue, he cut and sewed, even a little abruptly, to simplify some passages of Menander that were a little too subtle and psychologically complex, he strengthened the figure of the crafty servant, making him the protagonist.
In line with these innovations, the treatment reserved for the names of the characters also appears. Syrus, the crafty servant of Menander, in Plautus becomes Chrysalo, in whose root we can recognize the reference to the Greek term meaning “gold”, a material that the servant undertakes to produce twice (opus est chryso Chrysalo “Chrysalo needs gold”, v. 240), succeeding twice. A different fate instead awaits Lydo (Lydòs), the pedagogue, who remains Lydus: but in Latin this name lent itself to puns (particularly apt, since it concerns a man of school) with ludus, meaning “game”, but also, precisely, “school” (both meanings in the joke non omnis aetas, Lyde, ludo convenit, v. 129).
In fact, even before the modifications made to the patterns of the models, it is in the metrical-musical invention and in the more specifically linguistic one (for example, as here, in the area of proper names) that it is possible to grasp the measure of Plautus’ art.
The new Athenian comedy did not, as a rule, include sung parts (except, outside the story, in the intervals between one act and another): in the body of the comedy there appeared only, and alternated, iambic trimeters, merely recited, and longer verses, recited and with musical accompaniment (of flutes). In Plautus, we find parts recited in iambic senari, called deverbia (in the codices indicated with the acronym DV) and parts recited with the possibility of musical accompaniment in trochaic septenaries, called cantica (acronym C); we find parts set to music and sung, real “arias”, called mutatis modis contica (acronym MMC), in which long verses alternate with a great variety of shorter verses.
It is thought that Latin theatre was indebted in this to Sicilian and Italiot comic theatre (freer than the Attic one) and that these metres had had their own Latin history prior to the introduction of Attic theatre. It is probable, however, that the direct influence of Greek theatrical practice of the Hellenistic age also had some effect, which we know was aimed at setting to music non-lyrical parts of Euripidean tragedy and Menandrean comedy: but it is certain that the responsibility for much of the astonishing complexity, boldness and mastery, in particular of the mutatis modis contica, is to be attributed to the Latin dramatic poets, above all to Plautus himself.
But what is perhaps even more remarkable is that the metrical-musical commitment is not reduced, in Plautus, to a matter of pure embellishment, but corresponds to a more internal musicality, to a mental rhythm and to literary and dramatic reinvention that translates into music, if one may say so, even in comedies in which there is very little or no music in the strict sense (in particular of “arias”, of MMC). Plautus in fact loves to proceed by means of guiding metaphors (or guiding motifs): he places at the beginning a series of themes (money and gain, sex and food, sight and smell, law and punishments, war and hunting, the art of sailing and building, making theatre) which he then develops and varies, with a truly “musical” attitude, throughout the entire course of the action, up to the end.
And it is precisely in this complex web of images and motifs that the most notable and amusing verbal inventions of Plautine characters are located, in particular of the poet-characters par excellence, the crafty servants. Starting with their very names. If the Chrysalo of Bocchides owes his name to the magical ability he possesses to procure large quantities of money in hard “gold”, the Pseudolus of the comedy of the same name is called that because he is like a poet: just as a poet invents things that do not exist in reality and are therefore untrue things, “lies” (in Greek lie is pseudos), so Pseudolus “invents” the money that is not there and which the young master needs to redeem the courtesan of his heart.
These are, in essence, “stage names”, which connect perfectly with the guiding motifs, respectively, of Bacchides and Pseudolus, and constitute the leitmotif. In Persa, whose main theme is that of “gain”, the anonymous daughter of a parasite who, under the very false guise of an Arab slave, is about to be sold to the unwary pimp, when he asks her: “What is your name?”, answers: “My name is Guadagnina (Lucris)!”, provoking the obvious comment: “If I buy you, I hope you will be a little gainer for me too!” (Persa 624-627).
Again in Persa, the exoticism on which the prank is based also favors another invention. Once the sale is completed, before dismissing the self-styled “Persian” (in reality the servant Sagaristione), the pimp, always him, asks him – just to know – what his name is. “Listen,” Sagaristione replies, “and you’ll know: Regalavuoteparòlide Vendivergìnide Contabàllide Trapanargèntide Dicoquelchetimerìtide Menzògnide Ruffiànide Quelchetihoprèside Nevermoreteloripìglide. There you are! “. “By Hercules, this name of yours, it takes an hour to write it all down!”. “Well, this is the Persian custom: we have long and tangled names”» (vv. 701-708). As can be seen, the Greek ending of the patronymic (that of Achilles, son of Peleus…) serves to “generate” a series of false proper names with a Latin meaning which, taken together, constitute a perfectly clear discourse, equivalent in fact to a summary of the plot (of the hoax).
In Plautus’ nominal inventions, other Greek endings also show considerable creativity. For example, the adjectival ending -inus, -ina (with a short -i-). Although clearly overshadowed by the ending -inus, -ina (with a long -i-), it was not unknown to Latin: already at the time of Plautus it had entered the morphological system, acting directly as a conduit for numerous Greek adjectives of matter such as crocinus («of crocus»). Plautus used it for inventions such as the fustitudinae and ferrcrepinae insulae (the «Bastonied and Screeching Islands») of Asinaria 33, but above all for the invention of Casina, the invisible protagonist of the comedy of the same name, the attractive foundling fought over by father and son: Casina in fact means «the girl who smells of cinnamon (casia)», and is a particularly suitable name for a character who fascinates and falls in love with herself (casia was a very expensive and sought-after perfume), and who, although never appearing on stage, hovers over it, like an invisible and penetrating perfume (which casia in fact was), thanks to its continuously repeated, indeed ardently invoked, scent from the beginning to the end of the action. Casina is, in fact, the main theme of the comedy, which also follows its final vicissitudes: in accordance with a “male wedding” (the servant Calino dresses up as Casina and takes her place even in the mystery of the alcove), in the end we hear no longer Casina, but Casinus.
Plautus’s ability to insert the Roman (and Italic) element into an officially Greek context and his happiness in choosing anthropologically nodal topics such as the fight for women and/or money, would have been nothing, would never have reached – as they did – the hearts of the people, without the support of this continuous linguistic invention. Plautus’s style had the extraordinary ability to capture in public and private life, solemn or everyday, all the voices, all the jargons and styles, making them the pretext for a real “feast of words”, in which the city showed itself capable, even outside the Saturnalia, of laughing wholeheartedly – cathartically – at itself.
A farcical comedy
Plautus’s palliates do not contain satire of customs or winks at contemporary Roman life, and even less so the pensive and melancholic attitude of the Athenian Menander, which characterizes much of Terence’s theater. His is a world of popular farce, pressing and aggressive, full-bodied and grotesque, of unscrupulous cynicism and absolute amorality, in which only the cunning and the swindlers make their way: what matters is reaching the pre-established goal. The author does not care in the least to give ethical evaluations or existential messages. Some of the most successful characters are morally reprehensible: think of the hilarious and cynical wickedness of the pimp Ballio in Pseudolus or the boundless boasting of the soldier in Miles gloriosus, which has had such an echo in the comic production of every age. There are no cultural or philosophical presuppositions or psychological problems: the writer only wants to entertain the audience, which is not easy in a theater that is composed of a stage placed in a square, with the audience standing and therefore more easily subject to distraction. The playful invitation, which the author often addresses to the spectators, to follow the performance in silence, maintaining order and attention, helps to understand what the atmosphere of theatrical performances must have been like in ancient times. The actors, the slave in particular, often talk to the audience, ask them to help them in their task, tell what is happening behind the scenes: it is the so-called metatheater, the theater within the theater.
The role of luck
Luck is an important element especially for the figure of the servant. In fact, it helps him when he puts his cunning into practice: otherwise, he would not have been able to realize his plans every time he wanted to. Luck contributes, therefore, to the success of the servant. This peculiarity is also found in the comedy Aulularia, in an exclamation of the servant Strobilo, when he hears where the miser Euclio has hidden the treasure: “The gods really love me” (act IV, scene six).
The fortune of Plautine theatre
Middle Ages and Renaissance
The “twenty comedies” that dated back to Varro’s collection continued to be copied throughout the Middle Ages, but the direct reading of Plautus remained an exceptional fact throughout this period. Dante and his contemporaries were unaware of Plautus’ texts, while Terence was very successful. However, starting from around Petrarch’s generation, some of Plautus’ comedies began to have a good circulation. But among Italian humanists, the other comedies also returned into circulation. Philological work on Plautus’ text began and the passion for this author was reborn. On the one hand, there was concern with re-establishing an increasingly reliable and correct text, and on the other, these works were revived in their original scenic destination: both through performances in Latin, and increasingly with translated performances and through adaptations. Humanistic comedy lives precisely on adaptations and free transformations of Plautine models: a theatre in Latin develops and then a theatre in Italian, which is freely inspired by Plautus and the Roman palliata without limiting itself to translation. The comic theatre of Ariosto and also a profound work like Machiavelli’s Mandragola, fall within this trend, and owe much to the assimilation of the platinum model.
Modern Age
Between the sixteenth and eighteenth centuries, between Ariosto and Goldoni, Plautus’ fortune is always intertwined with the development of European comic theatre, names so different from each other: Shakespeare, Moliere, Beaumarchais, are all linked by a trace of a Platino tradition. A key figure in Plautus’ theatre, the servant, designs the evolution of comedy and comic opera until the nineteenth century. Plautus is certainly still today the most represented of all Latin scenic poets.
Plautus and the school
Unlike Terence, Plautus remained outside the teaching tradition for a long time. The reasons are many: Plautus’ language, style and metrics were too difficult even in the schools of antiquity, and required special tools for comprehension; furthermore, the teaching of Latin grammar and style needed more disciplined authors, more attentive to rules of linguistic regularity; Cicero and Terence were preferred to Plautus. Furthermore, the themes and plots of the comedies were ill-suited to a teaching aimed at providing examples of morality and seriousness: in this too, Terence’s fortune was completely the opposite.
Plautus and the theorists of literature
Plautus was destined to encounter many difficulties even among literary theorists, especially when, in the European seventeenth and eighteenth centuries, the wave of Classicism proposed very different models of comedy and theatrical form. Later, even the “non-originality” of Plautus was an accusation that served to discredit the image of comedies. At the end of the eighteenth century, an impulse to recover Plautus came from a German author, critic and playwright, Lessino, who recovered in his aesthetic writings the value of Platino comedy. Since then, despite the romantic devaluations, the appreciation of Plautus has always been growing.
