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The War of the Generations: When Adulescentes and Senes 1 Act Unexpectedly

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The War of the Generations: When Adulescentes and Senes 1 Act Unexpectedly THE WAR OF THE GENERATIONS: WHEN ADULESCENTES AND SENES 1 ACT UNEXPECTEDLY FRANTZESKA KATSARI This paper follows the progress of the pattern of the generational conflict in Plautus and Terence and outlines each author’s different approaches. The research will focus on Plautus’ Bacchides and Asinaria and Terence’s Adelphoe and Hecyra. In Plautus’ Bacchides adulescentes and senes become rivals, though unintentionally. The Bacchides sisters act as catalysts in order to reverse the pattern of the generational conflict. In the Asinaria, Plautus plays with the pattern of the senex amator, which turns upside down palliata’s stereotypical pattern of generational conflict. In the Adelphoe, Terence juxtaposes the results of two rival methods of education: the strict and the lenient methods. Finally, in the Hecyra, the paterfamilias has no control over what is going on and is kept in the dark. Both poets use the same pattern but in an unexpected way, which undoubtedly affects the comic result. Meanwhile they try to define the ideal father – son relationship with respect to communication and education. I. Introduction Adulescentes and senes are stereotypical characters of the fabula palliata and as a result their interaction has some expected features. According to Duckworth2 “The adulescens of Roman Comedy is presented in a sympathetic light; he is not caricatured and ridiculed as are so many other characters, especially in the comedies of Plautus. Occasionally the adulescens is married (e.g. Pamphilus in the Hecyra), but usually he is a young man whose love for a courtesan motivates the action (e.g. Ctesipho in the Adelphoe)”. This courtesan may be a slave girl, or a girl of a good family whom he has raped at an earlier time, prior to the opening of the 1 I would like to express my sincere thanks to Professor Sophia Papaioannou who read earlier drafts of this paper and offered useful advice that helped me improve and strengthen my arguments. 2 DUCKWORTH (1952: 237). Frantzeska Katsari play (e.g. Pamphilus in the Andria – it should be noted that in this comedy the girl is a pseudo-meretrix and actually an Athenian citizen). “Τhe adulescens of Roman Comedy has been accused of being weak and uninteresting, of being a stock character”3, without personality, totally subservient to his father’s will, against which he does not dare act, turning instead to his wily slaves for assistance. On the other hand, the senex is usually bad-tempered (iratus), severe (e.g. Demea in the Adelphoe) or lacks sympathy and understanding. Furthermore, he may even fall in love with a young girl, and in doing so he is taking the role of the adulescens (e.g. Demaenetus in the Asinaria). The difference in character inevitably leads to conflict between the adulescens and the senex, but in the context of the palliata this conflict is never direct. Plautus and Terence creatively adapt the traditional pattern of generation conflict. According to this pattern, the sons try to hide ther love affairs from their fathers, while conversely, their fathers pressure their sons to marry an Athenian citizen. Konstan4 notes that “Roman fathers typically disapproved their sons’ liaisons with courtesans, because they could prove both costly and embarrassing”. Thus, “in a typical Roman Comedy, passion (amor) comes into conflict with social and familial obligation (pietas) when the young man falls in love with an apparently ineligible (i.e. non-citizen) young woman”.5 Both dramatists experiment not only with the pattern itself but also with the stereotypical characteristics of the characters involved in the generational-conflict theme of the fabula palliata. The scholarly treatment of the conflict of generations theme is extensive, and many scholars have focused on the stereotypical characters of the adulescens and the senex, the relationship between them, and fatherhood in general. The father – son relationship is a pattern which appears in many comedies of Plautus and Terence. The aim of this paper is to follow the progress of the generational conflict pattern in Plautus and Terence and outline their different approaches. My discussion will prove that Plautus and Terence revised this theme, one which they had received from Greek New Comedy, and through original refinements they effected a better and more thorough understanding of Roman Comedy. I shall focus on Plautus’ Bacchides and Asinaria and Terence’s Adelphoe and Hecyra, as in these comedies the two dramatists’ attempt to diverge from tradition is clear enough. 3 DUCKWORTH (1952: 239). 4 KONSTAN (1978: 215). 5 SLATER (1988: 250). 80 The war of the generations II. Plautus’ Bacchides While the father–son relationship is the core theme of Plautus’ Bacchides, the dramatist also experiments with the character of the so-called senex amator. According to Ryder,6 “the amatory behaviour only becomes an issue in the final 95 lines of the play (Act V. ii), when Nicobulus and Philoxenus go to the two Bacchis sisters to complain about the influence that the sisters are exerting over their sons and ask their money back”. Until then, the two senes do not play a decisive role in the plot. We, the audience, only see the senex Nicobulus being deceived by the servus callidus Chrysalus. The senes Nicobulus and Pistoclerus do not resemble to the stereotypical senes of the palliata as they are not senes irati. Instead the servus Lydus, who is the tutor of Pistoclerus, is playing this role. This is easy to understand, if we take Lydus’ criticism of Pistoclerus and the compliments addressed to Mnesilochus into consideration: immo neque habebis neque sinam; I prorsum domum, Pl. Bacch. 146. (transl. “Never! You shall not have one; I will not allow it. Go home this instant”) neque mei neque te tui intus puditumst factis quae facis, quibus tuom patrem meque una, amicos, adfinis tuos tua infamia fecisti gerulifigulos flagiti, Pl. Bacch. 379–382. (transl. “Neither in my sight, nor your own, did you feel any shame at your actions, actions, you infamouscreature, that make your father, and me too, and your friends and relatives accessories to your disgrace”). In the second scene of Act Five, the Bacchis sisters are willing to give the senes back half of their money provided that they join them in. They attempt to seduce them and as a result to make them their sons’ rivals. Philoxenus is the first to succumb (ego amo, Pl. Bacch. 1163, transl. “I’m in love with her”)7 and then tries to break Nicobulus’ resistance. The play closes with Nicobulus abandoning himself totally to the will of the sisters, thus becoming their obedient slave:8 caput prurit, perii, vix negito, Pl. Bacch. 1195. (transl. “My head does itch! Dear, dear, dear! It is hard to keep saying no”) 6 RYDER (1984: 183). 7 See also Pl. Bacch. 1166–1168: meo filio non sumus iratus,/ neque te tuost aequom esse iratum: si amant,/ sapienter faciunt.(transl. “I’m not angry at my son, and you oughtn’t to be angry at yours; if they’re in love, they’re acting wisely”). 8 RYDER (1984: 183). 81 Frantzeska Katsari ducite nos quo lubet tamquam quidem additos, Pl. Bacch. 1205. (transl. “Take us where toy please, just as if we were your veritable bond servants”) Meanwhile, the adulescentes Mnesilochus and Pistoclerus are kept in the dark about the transformation of their fathers. This is a subversion of the palliata’s conventions, since knowledge is the prerogative of the adulescentes, while the senes are usually ignorant. Thus, adulescentes and senes become rivals,9 albeit unintentionally. The Bacchis sisters play a decisive role in this plot twist, acting as catalysts in order to reverse the pattern of the generational conflict. Stereotypical roles are inverted as the senes amatores become victims of the malae meretrices and they act as if they were the adulescentes amantes. III. Plautus’ Asinaria In the Asinaria, Plautus experiments once again with the pattern of the senex amator, which turns upside down palliata’s stereotypical pattern of the generation conflict. The play begins with the father, Demaenetus, talking to his slave and outlining his educational philosophy. 10 He gives the audience the impression that he has created a strong bond with his son, but as soon as he becomes his son’s rival, he falls short of our expectations and inverts the expected father – son relationship pattern. Although the senex Demaenetus wants to help his son get his beloved courtesan, he finally falls himself in love with the courtesan and expects a night with her as reward for helping his son. 11 This is a sudden plot twist, one which 9 According to KONSTAN (1978: 216) “Plautus’ most successful story type is based on the competition between two rival lovers for a single girl. This type, familiar from the Miles Gloriosus and the Pseudolus, is built essentially on the struggle between two contending factions or parties. On one side are the supporters of the young lover, on the other the satellites, parasites, cooks and other hangers-on of the rival. The rival himself is generally a stranger, a foreign soldier, for example. He is full of bombast but not powerless: either he already owns the girl or he is in a position to purchase her, in which case the procurer is his natural ally”. 10 Demaenetus does not resemble to the comic stereotype of the father who is usually a senex iratus. His way of thinking surprises the slave Libanus – as well as the audience – who asks “quid istuc novi est?”, Pl. As. 50, transl. “What’s this surprise?”. According to KONSTAN (1978: 215) “Libanus would seem to be bearing a message from Plautus to notice a novel departure from the familiar pattern”.
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