The Dramatic Values in Plautus Part 3

4. Roman admixture and topical allusions.

5. Jokes on the dramatic machinery.

6. Use of stock plots and characters.

Let us ill.u.s.trate these points by typical pa.s.sages and endeavor to insert such stage-directions as would indicate how the most telling effects could be produced and hence aid the reader in visualizing the actual performance.

I. Machinery Characteristic of the Lower Types of Modern Drama

A. _Devices self-evident from the text._

1. Bombast and mock-heroics.

It is a little difficult to sublimate this entirely from burlesque, but its true nature is instanced by the opening lines of the _Miles_, where the vainglorious Pyrgopolinices, with many a sweep and strut, addresses his attendants, who are probably staggering under the weight of an enormous shield:

"Have a care that the effulgence of my shield be brighter than e'er the sun's rays in a cloudless sky: when the time for action comes and the battle's on, I intend it shall dazzle the eyesight o' m' foes. (_Patting his sword_). Verily I would condole with this m' sword, lest he lament and be cast down in spirit, forasmuch as now full long hath he hung idle by m'

side, thirsting, poor lad, to meet his fellow 'mongst the foe," and so on.

In line with this, a simulation of the military is a favorite device. So we find Pseudolus addressing the audience in ringing bl.u.s.tering tones and with grandiose gesture (_Ps._ 584 ff.):

"It now becomes my aim today to lay siege to this town and capture it."

(Ballio the procurer is the town). "I shall hurl all my legions against it. If I take it, ... good luck to you, my citizens, for part of the booty shall be yours."

This finds a close counterpart in the _Mil._ 219 ff., a pa.s.sage which West[110] thinks was deliberately inserted to rouse the populace into demanding that Scipio be at once despatched to Africa.

Periplecomenus is urging Palaestrio to find a stratagem. Actually he probably addresses the pit:

"Don't you see that the enemy are upon you and investing your rear? Call a council of war, reach out for stores and reinforcements in this crisis: haste, haste, no time to waste! Make a detour through some pa.s.s, forestall your foes, beleaguer them, protect our troops! Cut off the enemy's base of supplies!" etc.

Whether this pa.s.sage had an ulterior purpose or not, the motif is frequent.[111] So we find Chrysalus in _Bac._ 925 ff. holding the stage for an entire scene with an elaborate comparison of himself to Ulysses, the brains of the Greek host, overcoming his master Nicobulus who represents Priam.

In general the mocking a.s.sumption of an heroic att.i.tude recurs with sufficient frequency to stamp it as a staple of comic effect. Many pa.s.sages would become tiresome and meaningless instead of amusing unless so interpreted. The soliloquy of Mnesilochus in _Bac._ 500 ff. could be made interesting only by turgid ranting. Similarly in _Bac._ 530 ff. and 612 ff.[112]

2. Horse-play and slap-sticks.

By this we mean what can in nowise be so clearly defined as by "rough-house." For instance, the turbulent Euclio in _Aul._ delivers bastings impartially to various _dramatis personae_ and as a climax drives the cooks and music-girl pell-mell out of the house, doubtless accompanied by deafening howling and clatter (415 ff.). Similarly in the _Cas._ (875 ff.) Chalinus routs Olympio and the lecherous Lysidamus. We may well imagine that such scenes were preceded as well as accompanied by a fearful racket within (a familiar device of our low comedy and extravaganza), the effect probably heightened by tempestuous _melodrama_ on the _tibiae_, as both the scenes cited are in _cantic.u.m_.

In the _Men._ we are treated to a free fight, in which the valiant Messenio routs the _lorarii_ by vigorous punches, while Menaechmus plants his fist in one antagonist's eye (_Men._ 1011 ff.):

(Menaechmus of Epid.a.m.nus is seized by _lorarii_; as he struggles, Messenio, slave of Menaechmus Sosicles, rushes into the fray to his rescue). "MES. I say! Gouge out that fellow's eye, the one that's got you by the shoulder, master. Now as for these rotters, I'll plant a crop of fists on their faces. (_Lays about._) By Heaven, you'll be everlastingly sorry for the day you tried to carry my master off. Let go!

MEN. (_Joining in with a will._) I've got this fellow by the eye!

MES. Bore it out! A hole's good enough for his face! You villians, you thieves, you robbers! (_General melee. Lorarii weaken._)

LOR. We're done for! Oh Lord, please!

MES. Let go then!

MEN. What right had you to lay hands on me? Give them a good beating up!

(_Lorarii break and scatter wildly under the ferocious onslaught._)

MES. Come, clear out! To the devil with you all! That for _you_!

(_Strikes._) You're the last; here's _your_ reward! (_Strikes again._)"

The lines themselves are sufficiently graphic and need but little annotation. Other pugilistic activities crop up at not infrequent intervals in the text,[113] and in _Ps._ 135 ff. Ballio generously plies the whip. In the lacuna of the _Amph._ after line 1034, Mercury probably bestows a drenching on Amphitruo.[114] In _As._ III. 3, especially 697 ff., Liba.n.u.s makes his master Argyrippus "play horsey" with him, doubtless with indelicate buffonery. With invariable energy, even so simple a matter as knocking on doors is made the excuse for raising a violent disturbance, as in _Amph._ 1019 f. and 1025: Paene effregisti, fatue, foribus cardines.[115] And this idea is actually parodied in _As._ 384 ff. No, Plautus did not allow his public to languish for want of noise.

3. Burlesque, farce and extravagance of situation and dialogue.

Under this head we include such conscious strivings for comic as are frankly and plainly exaggerated and hyper-natural.

a. True burlesque.

This is in effect pure parody, cartooning. Patent burlesque of tragedy appears in _Trin._ 820 ff. (_Charmides returns from abroad._)

"CHAR. To Neptune, ruler of the deep, and puissant brother unto Jove and Nereus, do I in joy and gladness cry my praises and gratefully proclaim my grat.i.tude; and to the briny waves, who held me in their power, yea, even my chattels and my very life, and from their realms restored me to the city of my birth," etc., etc.

To tickle the ears of the groundlings, this must have been delivered in grandiloquent mimicry with all the paraphernalia of the tragic style.

Horace notes a kindred manifestation of this tendency (to which he himself is pleasingly addicted), in _Ep._ II. 3.93 f.:

Interdum tamen et vocem comoedia tollit Iratusque Chremes tumido delitigat ore.

Tragic burlesque is again beautifully exemplified in _Ps._ 702 ff. The versatile Pseudolus after a significant aside: "I'll address the fellow in high-sounding words," says to his master Calidorus:

"Hail! Hail! Thee, thee, O mighty ruler, thee do I beseech who art lord over Pseudolus. Thee do I seek that thou mayst obtain thrice three times triple delights in three various ways, joys earned by three tricks and three tricksters, cunningly won by treachery, fraud and villainy, which in this little sealed missive have I but erstwhile brought to thee....

CHAR. The rascal's spouting like a tragedian."

When Sosia, in the first scene of _Amph._ (203 ff.), turgidly describes the battle between the Thebans and Teleboans, he is parodying the Messenger of tragedy. Another echo from tragedy is heard at the end of the play, when Jupiter appears in the role of deus ex machina.[116]

Burlesque of character and calling puts in an occasional appearance. The recreant Sosia in _Amph._ 958 ff. mimics the dutiful slave. _As._ 259 ff.

contains an ironical treatment of augury, while in 751 ff. the poet has his satirical fling at the legal profession.

b. True farce.

This is of course the comedy of situation and finds its mainstay in mistaken ident.i.ty. The _Men._ and _Amph._ with their doubles are farce-comedies proper, but the element of farce forms the motive power of nearly all the plots; for example, the shuffling-up of Acropolistis, Telestis and the _fidicina_ in _Ep._, the quarrel between Mnesilochus and Pistoclerus in _Bac._ resulting from the former's belief that his friend had stolen his sweetheart, the exchange of names between Tyndarus and Philocrates in _Cap._, the entrapping of Demaenetus with the _meretrix_ at the denouement of _As._, etc., etc. It is understood, we presume, that the modern farce occupies no exalted position in the comic scale, is distinguished by the grotesquerie of its characters, incidents and dialogue, and is indulgently permitted to stray far from the paths of realism. Even in Shakespearian farce, note the exaggerated antics of the two Dromios in "The Comedy of Errors." It is significant then that farce is a staple of our plays.

The farcical element is strikingly exemplified in _Amph._ 365-462, where Mercury persuades Sosia that he is not himself. Impersonation and a.s.sumption of a role is another noteworthy and frequent medium of plot motivation. In _As._ 407 ff. Leonida tries to palm himself off as the _atriensis_. Note the violent efforts of the two slaves to wheedle the cunning a.s.s-dealer (449 ff.). In _Cas._ 815 ff. Chalinus enters disguised as the blushing bride. In _Men._ 828 ff. Menaechmus Sosicles pretends madness in a clever scene of uproarious humor. In the _Mil._ (411 ff.) Philocomasium needs only to change clothing to appear in the role of her own hypothetical twin sister, and in 874 ff. and 1216 ff. the _meretrix_ plays _matrona_. Sagaristio and the daughter of the _leno_ impersonate Persians (_Per._ 549 ff.), Collabiscus becomes a Spartan (_Poen._ 578 ff.), Simia as Harpax gets Ballio's money (_Ps._ 905 ff.), the sycophant is garbed as messenger (_Trin._ 843 ff.), Phronesium elaborately pretends to be a mother (_Truc._ 499 ff.). A swindle is almost invariably the object in view. But we have said enough on this score: no one who knows the plays at all can fail to recognize the predominance of farce. Compare on the modern stage the sudden appearance of "the long-lost cousin from Chicago."

c. Extravagances obviously unnatural and merely for the sake of fun.

This group of course often contains marked features of burlesque and farce, and hence shows a close kinship with the foregoing.

The extravagance of the love-sick swain is a fruitful source of this species of caricature. The ridiculous Calidorus, always wearing his heart on his sleeve, rolls his eyes, brushes away a tear and says (_Ps._ 38 ff.): "But for a short s.p.a.ce have I been e'en as a lily of the field.

Suddenly sprang I up, as suddenly I withered." The irreverent Pseudolus replies: "Oh, shut up while I read the letter over." Calidorus finds his counterpart in Phaedromus of the _Cur._, who, accompanied by his slave, approaches milady's abode (_Cur._ 10 ff.):