Roman Laughter Week 3: Comedy and the making of Rome - PowerPoint Presentation

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Roman Laughter

Week 3: Comedy and the making of Rome

‘Laughter must answer to certain requirements of life in common. It must have a

social

signification.’ (p12)

The ‘birth of Latin literature’

In 240BCE, Livius Andronicus stages one of his plays as part of the

Ludi Romani in honour of Jupiter Optimus Maximus.All the Roman poets known to us from this period (mid 3rd century to mid 2

nd

century BCE) wrote for the stage

Key authors:

Naevius

(born in Capua, floruit c.235BC)

Ennius

(born Calabria, 239-169, brought to Rome by Cato the

Censor in 204)

Pacuvius

(

Ennius

’ nephew, b.220BC at

Brundisium

)

Accius

(born at Pesaro in 170BC)

Plautus

and TerenceBoth wrote

palliatae in the style of New Comedy (following playwrights like Menander - 321-292BCE – who was a pupil of Theophrastus, successor to Aristotle)Plautus: from

Sarsina

in Umbria, born c.250BCE, died 184BC. Probably a free citizen, using pseudonym (

M.Accius

Plautus, or

Maccius

Plautus) alluding to name of typical character from

Atellan

farce. C.130 comedies attached to his name. 21 survive.

Terence

(

Terentius

Afer

): born 184 BCE (same date as P’s death!!); died 159? Said to have been a slave of a certain

Terentius

Lucanus

. Patrons Scipio

Aemilianus

and

Laelius

(

acc

to Suetonius). Punic origins?

Afer

means African. 6 of his comedies survive (

Andria,

Hecyra

,

Adelphoe

,

Heautontimoroumenos

,

Eunuchus

,

Phormio

)

Terentius

‘the African’?

Info from 4th century commentator Donatus

Right: alleged portrait of Terence from the Codex

Vaticanus

Latinus

3868, possibly copied from a 3

rd

century original

Glossary of key terms in Roman theatre

Fabula: can refer to any type of text for the theatre.

Palliata: comedy with a Greek setting, apparently always an adaptation of original of Attic New Comedy. Characters wore Greek pallium, contrasting with distinctive Roman toga.Togata: in general sense, any theatrical work with a Roman setting. Most often a comedy. And distinct from more popular comic genres like the

Atellan

and the mime

Tabernaria

:

a comic work with a Roman setting. Term not sharply distinguished from togate but seems to designate more lowly plays – taberna = hut, shack, inn, hostel, shop

Trabeata

:

neologism applied to ‘middle-class’ plays, formed on the model of

togata

and deriving from

trabea

, word for typical dress of the equestrian class at Rome.

Crepidata

(?)

Cothurnata

:

little-used terms that identify tragedies with a Greek setting. Contrast

praetexts

(tragedies with a Roman setting).

Cothurnus

= high tragic boot;

crepida

= Greek-style sandal (but not clear it refers to footwear of tragic actor).

Praetexta or

praetextata

:

a tragedy with a Roman setting. Toga praetexta was toga worn by Roman magistrates and marked by a band of purple.

Drama and festivals

Ludi

Romani (Sept)

Ludi

Megalenses

(April)

Ludi

Apollinares

(July)

Ludi

Plebeii

(November)

All were religious festivals, but more like public holidays in spirit.

Terence,

Hecyra (‘The mother-in’law

’), Prologue‘I again bring before you the

Hecyra

, which I have never been allowed to act before you in silence; such misfortunes have so overwhelmed it. These misfortunes your intelligence will allay, if it is a seconder of our exertions. The first time, when I began to act this Play, the

vauntings

of boxers, the expectation of a rope-dancer, added to which, the throng of followers, the noise, the clamour of the women, caused me to retire from your presence before the time. In this new Play, I attempted to follow the old custom of mine,

of making a fresh trial; I brought it on again. In the first Act I pleased; when in the mean time a rumour spread that gladiators were about to be exhibited; the populace flock together, make a tumult, clamour aloud, and fight for their places: meantime, I was unable to maintain my place. Now there is no confusion: there is attention and silence--an opportunity of acting my Play has been granted me; to yourselves is given the power of gracing the scenic festival.’

Important subgenres and earlier influences

The Atellan

Fescennine versesMimeCicero de

oratore

2.251:

‘We must also note this, that all is not witty (

faceta

) that is laughable

(

ridiculum

). For can there be anything more

ridiculum

than a buffoon (

sannio

)? Yet he is laughed at for his mouth, his face, his mimicry of mannerisms, his voice, his body. I can call him funny (

salsum

), but not in the sense I could call an orator humorous, just humorous for a

mime actor.’

The cultural politics of Roman comedy

‘All such events make spectacle out of the transformation of the Roman state, the expansion of its horizons, and the consequences which this entails. Modern scholarship may contest claims of a determined plan of overseas conquest; but the festive absorption of alien cult and culture is the obverse of Rome’s perception of itself as a Mediterranean and not simply an Italian power.’

Matthew Leigh, Comedy and the Rise of Rome

‘The

Ludi work in an international context to stage Roman culture in alluring ways as part of an imperial strategy of the projection of “soft power”: the Games are not just the fruits of imperial conquest, but a tool of imperial conquest.’

Denis Feeney, Beyond Greek: The Beginnings of Latin Literature

vertere

= to turn, translate, transformTerence, Eunuch,

prologue 23-41‘He exclaimed that a thief, and no Poet, had produced the piece, but still had not deceived him; that, in fact, it was the Colax, an old Play of Plautus; and that from it were taken the characters of the Parasite and the Captain. If this is a fault, the fault is the ignorance of the Poet; not that he intended to be guilty of theft. That so it is, you will now be enabled to judge. The

Colax

is a Play of Meander's; in it there is

Colax

, a Parasite, and a braggart Captain: he does not deny that he has transferred these characters into his Eunuch from the Greek; but assuredly he does deny this, that he was aware that those pieces had been already translated into Latin. But if it is not permitted us to use the same characters as others, how can it any more be allowed to represent hurrying servants, to describe virtuous matrons, artful courtesans, the gluttonous parasite, the braggart captain, the infant palmed off, the old man cajoled by the servant, about love, hatred, suspicion?

In the end, nothing is said now that has not been said before (

nullumst

iam

dictum quod non sit dictum

prius

)

.’

The ‘

Latin translation project’‘The Roman expropriation of certain aspects of Greek dramatic and literary culture is not a case study in “culture flowing downhill, from high to low, to fill a vacuum, introducing culture where no culture had been” (Wallace-

Hadrill 2008). We are not watching a superior Greek culture naturally rushing to fill a void in a more “primitive” culture, nor a “primitive” culture naturally seeing its deficiencies and scurrying to remedy them. Apart from the unhistorical value-laded judgment that there just are higher and lower cultures, with the Greeks always occupying the “higher” position and with predictable results coming from their meeting with those in a “lower” position, a major difficulty with such approaches is that they tend to characterise the parties as “active” Greek agents versus “passive” native recipients. It is important to restore agency to the various participants in the transformations that overtook central Italy in the period we shall be considering.’

Feeney,

Beyond Greek,

pp11-12

The slave trickster

Comedy and the slave

‘

Almost everywhere in Greece, it was thought a high honour to be proclaimed victor at Olympia. Even to appear on stage and exhibit oneself to the people was never regarded by those nations as something to be ashamed of. Among us, however, all those acts are regarded either as disgraceful or as base and inconsistent with respectability.’ Nepos. Pr.5

Roman theatre and

mos maiorum‘Acting was incompatible with

honestas, ‘honour’ and dignitas, ‘social standing’, the qualities which were supposed to mark out those of senatorial or equestrian status above all. Moralists characterised the theatre as a storehouse of obscenity, a place where lust, laughter and political subversion were incited in almost equal measure.’Catharine Edwards,

The Politics of Immorality in Ancient Rome,

99

Increasing ‘respectability’ of theatre in Rome? In 194BC, Senators were given special seats at the

ludi

, yet the key source (Livy) doesn’t refer specifically to the theatre.

‘Like an itchy eye, my master can’t keep his hand off me’ (Plautus

Persa

,

v.11)