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Introduction Cambridge University Press 0521459974 - Amphitrvo Plautus Excerpt More information INTRODUCTION 1. PLAUTUS' LIFE AND TIMES The biographical tradition is notoriously suspect regarding Plautus.1 Much of what we hear ultimately descends from the Roman scholar Varro, who, working over a century after Plautus' death, probably lacked reliable sources.2 The very dates given for Plautus' birth (254 bc) and death (184 bc, the year of Cato's censorship), though broadly accurate, are probably based on deduction rather than se- cure testimony. The few particulars given for his life read much more like ®ction than fact. His alleged unsuccessful venture in trade abroad and subsequent employment in a mill in Rome recall stock situations of New Comedy. And Gellius' report (NA 3.3.15) that Plautus wrote two plays while imprisoned for slander suspiciously recalls a similar event in the biography of Naevius. The designation of Sarsina in Umbria as Plautus' native land may be only an infer- ence drawn from an obscure jest at Mos. 770. Most suspicious of all is the playwright's implausible name (Titus Maccius Plautus): it appears to be a comic formation modelled on the tria nomina used by prominent Roman families (and freedmen) in this period, with the transparent meaning `Phallus son of Clown the Mime-actor'.3 Each element suggests a form of (unscripted) native Italian comedy, and so we reasonably may suppose that Plautus began his theatrical career here.4 This also would accord with the plausible report that Plautus had made money in operis arti®cum scaenicorum (Gel. NA 3.3.14); `in the employment (or service) of stage-artisans' is a vague descrip- tion which could signify that he was a stage-worker, actor,5 writer of 1 CHCL ii 808±9. 2 For his scholarly methods see Lehmann (1995). 3 Gratwick (1973) 83. 4 I.e.inAtellanfarceand/orMime:seepp.8±11below.Howhecameto learn Greek and ultimately became active in Roman theatrical productions based on Greek scripts is unknown. 5 If the genitive denotes possession. Leo (1912) 63±86 suggested that Plau- tus' career as an actor in Atellan farce is what originally brought him to Rome. If he continued to act in his own plays in Roman theatre ± as Livy 1 © Cambridge University Press www.cambridge.org Cambridge University Press 0521459974 - Amphitrvo Plautus Excerpt More information 2 INTRODUCTION scripts, or even a producer. Versatility is at the highest premium in a small improvisatory company, and perhaps Plautus began his theat- rical career `from the ground up' in such a troupe; direct experience in all aspects of theatre agrees with the current view of Plautus as a playwright `who takes a performer's-eye view of comedy'.6 Thus it is not unlikely that after achieving some notoriety in Rome he assumed this name (if it was not bestowed upon him by posterity) in recogni- tion of his earlier days in Italian popular theatre. This also suggests that he was by birth a slave or person of low status who attained a social identity only as the result of his theatrical success; his attain- ment of a name curiously mirrors the claims to identity staked by Plautine slaves, who, despite being social ciphers and legal non- entitities from a Roman point of view, scurrilously vaunt their ancestry.7 Didascalic notices provide two dates: the performances of Ps.in 191 and St. in 200. These indicate that the high point of Plautus' career coincided with that of Cato the Elder (239±149 bc) in Roman political life. The demand for theatrical performances in Rome seems to have increased dramatically during the Second Punic War, and Plautus' career as a comic playwright may have begun in these closing years of the third century bc. Thus, the entire oe u v r e probably (7.2.8) asserts playwrights universally did in the time of Livius Andronicus ± one supposes that he played the role of Jupiter in Am.Thishypothesiswould explain why Amphitryon at the play's end asks the audience to applaud for Jupiter in particular and also gives additional point to Mercury's designation of Jupiter as an architectus in the prologue (45); the scheming slave in Plautine comedy is conventionally described in such terms (e.g. Mil. 901), and Plautus may have been well known for playing this role in previous plays (for the view that Plautus performed in Ps. see Slater (1985) 118±46 and Hallett (1993)). The analogy between the playwright and the architectus doli is made explicitly in the plays, e.g. Ps. 401±5. Evidence for playbills is lacking, but advance no- tice that Plautus was to perform in Am. could have circulated by word of mouth, and so the audience would catch Mercury's meaning. 6 Handley (1975) 129. 7 See 28, 365nn. Conversely, it seems less likely that Plautus used this pseudonym to disguise his high birth because of aristocratic prejudice against the comic theatre; given his enduring fame, the scholarly tradition would have attempted to ferret him out, as it did, e.g., Catullus' Lesbia. The broader issues of identity so prevalent in Plautine theatre merit further investigation; for some re¯ections on identity in Epid. see Gruber (1986) 42±65. © Cambridge University Press www.cambridge.org Cambridge University Press 0521459974 - Amphitrvo Plautus Excerpt More information 1. PLAUTUS' LIFE AND TIMES 3 spans a period of approximately thirty years (c.215±185bc). The latter half of Plautus' career postdates the defeat of Hannibal at Zama (202 bc) and the end of the Second Punic War, and coincides with Roman intervention in the a¨airs of the eastern Mediterra- nean. The ®rst production of Am. most probably falls within this dynamic period of military expansion marked by increased foreign in¯uences, institutional stress, and social tensions in Rome and Italy. No de®nitive historical markers can be found in the text. Identi- ®cations of covert allusions to ®gures such as M. Fulvius Nobilior or to speci®c battles prove to be illusory.8 Sosia's characterization of Alcmena as a raging Bacchante (703) has been taken as a topical ref- erence pointing to a date close to the state's sudden suppression of this imported orgiastic cult through the senatus consultum de Bacchana- libus of 186 bc. A related reference at Cas. 979±80 has helped to secure a consensus on that play's lateness.9 Moreover, Cas. and Am. are strikingly similar sex farces and share an abundance of thematic correspondences;10 in both plays `Jupiter'11 schemes to enjoy an extramarital a¨air, though in Cas.thesenex is foiled by his clever `Juno'. And both plays feature an elaborate play-within-the-play that in each case is performed with the utmost theatrical self- consciousness. Approaches to Plautine chronology based on dra- matic technique, style or metre have yielded drastically di¨erent dates for Am. (as for other plays), though several have placed it somewhere around 190 bc,12 where it would fall among a group of plays that usually includes Rud. The chronological proximity of Rud. could account for Plautus' decision to present his mythical travesty, in that a character in this play apparently refers to a recent perfor- mance of Euripides' Alkmene on the Roman stage.13 If at the time of 8 Sensible statement of methodology in identifying historical allusions in Plautus in Harvey (1981) and (1986). Cf. Gruen (1990) 124±6. 9 MacCary and Willcock (1976) 11. 10 Leadbeater (1986). 11 The senex Lysidamus in Cas. is frequently so designated, e.g. 331±2. The repeated references themselves perhaps suggest that the deÂbut of Am.was recent. 12 E.g. Sedgwick (1949); for the di½culty of establishing an accurate chro- nology in general see Duckworth (1952) 54±6. 13 Jocelyn (1967) 6±7. See further p. 54 below. © Cambridge University Press www.cambridge.org Cambridge University Press 0521459974 - Amphitrvo Plautus Excerpt More information 4 INTRODUCTION the ®rst production of Am. an adaptation of Euripides' tragedy had been staged within recent memory, this performance would provide a point of reference for a Roman audience to appreciate a travesty of the Jupiter±Alcmena±Amphitryon myth. If this is correct, Mercury's mention (91±2) of Jupiter's appearance on the Roman stage in the prior year, presumably as deus ex machina, would refer to an adaptation of Euripides' play. Thus, we can with some con®- dence settle on an approximate date of 190±185 bc for Am. 2. ROMAN COMEDY (a) Greek background Already within the lifetime of Aristophanes, the bawdy, interactive, and fantastical style of comedy of ®fth-century Athens later to be designated `Old Comedy' began to take a new direction. In the last plays of Aristophanes, the role of the chorus that had ®gured so prominently earlier in his career is noticeably curtailed, and signals a general trend toward suppression of music and dance as organic features of comedy.14 His Ec.andPl., both dated to a period within ten years of his death in 386 bc, by convention mark the transition to the so-called `Middle Comedy', a term that conveniently describes the forms of comedy that evolved over the ®rst three-quarters of the fourth century.15 Change of course was gradual rather than instan- taneous, and very di¨erent syles of comedy must have co-existed for much of this century. The use of masks, for instance, persisted into New Comedy, though the particular types evolved as comic plots changed. In general, it is clear that the political and intellectual life of Athens ceased to occupy centre stage in this period as comedy became more international and more universal themes found accep- tance.
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