CLAS 301B
January 23, 2025
Plautus, Pseudolus

Remains of Cybele's ancient temple on the Palatine Hill

Pseudolus ("The Liar")

A Funny Thing Happened on the Way to the Forum (1966): https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sMrjeejmCpI

• Festival of the Magna Mater ("Great Mother" = Cybele); cult brought to Rome during 2nd Punic War
  
  
  Marble statue of Cybele (Ostia, 3rd-4th century CE)
  
  
• Pseudolus debuts at dedication of Cybele's new temple, Palatine Hill (April 10, 191 BCE), sacred precinct (ca. 1,500 spectators); Plautus' show-piece comedy about Plautine comedy
  
  L: Sperlonga Odysseus (1st century CE); R: comic slave mask mosaic (villa at Centocelle, 2nd century CE)
  
  
• Pseudolus an "epic" comic hero (siege warfare to rescue Phoenicium): "he's got it all over Ulysses and the Trojan Horse!" (1244; cf. 1063-4) – Simo's grudging admiration: "Now I think I'll wait right here for my slave Pseudolus, but not / With whips and chains like in other comedies" (1239-40)
  
  
• Plautus' "fresh & spiced up" transformation of lost Greek comedy: Cook's metacomic rant in Scene 11, "I don't season my meals the way the other cooks do . . .", 810ff., "clownonia"/maccidem, 832) – Plautine verbal sound effects on display (puns & figurative play, grotesque imagery, parody of tragedy, etc.)
  
  
• metacomic & finale (1246ff.) – music & dance, subversion of marriage & farce over realism: Pseudolus' drunken address to his feet, song & dance performance as he describes offstage victory banquet (vs. recognition plot & traditional wedding of Greek New Comedy?); emblematic of Plautine comedy? dancing Pseudolus' soiling of his cloak (pallium, 1280) & fabula palliata
  
  
• slavery as conceptual (metacomic) metaphor: Pseudolus the creatively resisting slave-poet-playwright/text (to Simo, "You may write all over me with elm-rods . . . as if I were a book", 544-5), slave in body only (?) – "I've got a strong back" (1325); play a celebration of Plautine comedy's "secondariness" as challenging & messy translation of Greek New Comedy source?
  
  

• Scene 1 (no prologue): typical New Comedy plot, i.e. adulescens (a Roman "minor", 303) in love, obstacles to "getting the girl" (Phoenicium's letter, 20 minae); predictable outcome (but how?); recognition & marriage plot possible?
  
  
• master (Calidorus) vs. slave: reactions to Phoenicium's letter/tablet?
  
  Pseudolus 74-84 (after Pseudolus reads Phoenicium's letter)
  Calidorus
  It’s a woeful letter, isn’t it Pseudolus?
  Pseudolus
                     Absolutely wretched!
  Calidorus
  Why aren’t you crying?
  Pseudolus
              I’ve got eyes of pumice. I couldn’t convince them        
  To spill out so much as one single tiny tear.
  Calidorus
  Why’s that?
  Pseudolus
        Oh, I descend from a long line of dry-eyes.
  Calidorus
  Won’t you help me at all?
  Pseudolus
               What can I do for you?
  Calidorus
  Waah! [Latin exclamation of pain/misery eheu, "alas/woe is me"]
  Pseudolus
      Waah? Oh, I’ve got plenty of those to spare.
  Calidorus
  This is so depressing! I can’t get a loan anywhere.
  Pseudolus
  Waah!
  Calidorus
     And I don’t have a penny in the house.
  Pseudolus
                         Waah!
  Calidorus
  And he’s going to take away my girl.
  Pseudolus
                     Waah!
  Calidorus
  That’s supposed to help?
  Pseudolus
               I do what I can. 
  And I happen to have a vault full of "waahs."
  
  
• Pseudolus' shifting plans & playfulness for rescuing Phoenicium
  
  Plan #1 = cheat Calidorus' father of money (120ff.), clever slave's bold proclamation to populace ("DON'T TRUST ME!," 128)
  
  
• Ballio (Roman comedy's #1 villain) scenes > Plan #2 = "lay siege to this town and capture it" (384), confidently requests helper
  
  
• Pseudolus' addresses to audience (false promises, playing with expectations)
  
  Pseudolus 394-405 ( after Calidorus exits)
  He’s gone and you’re all on your own, Pseudolus.
  You laid it on thick for your young master and now
  It’s time to bring home the bacon, wherever that is.
  Let’s see: you haven’t got the least bit of a plan, just as
  Much money, and no idea what to do at all either.
  Where to start weaving your web of deceit,
  Or how to bring that design to completion?
  But just like a poet takes up his tablet and though [poeta = "poet/playwright"]
  He looks for what doesn’t exist at all, he still finds it, and
  Makes complete fiction seem like the truth.
  That’s it! I’ll become a poet and find
  The twenty minae which are nowhere.   
  
  end of monologue & Plan #3: rewriting the play (?) and tricking Simo ("I'll dig out twenty minae from this ancient tomb", 412)
  
  
• Scene 5 (master & Callipho): Simo wise to Pseudolus ("That's the death of our plot!", 423);
  
  Plan #4: trick Ballio and win bet (20 minae) from Simo
  
  Plan #5 (monologue after Simo and neighbor Callipho exit): still no detailed plan, improvisation as actor?
  
  Pseudolus 561-573a
  I have a sneaking suspicion that you all suspect
  I’ve only promised to do these daring deeds
  In order to entertain you during this play,
  And there’s little chance I’ll do what I promised.
  I’ll keep my word. To the best of my knowledge,
  I don’t know exactly how I’ll do it, but I do know
  That I will. Now, it’s the duty of every actor to be original
  Enough to bring something original on stage:
  If he can’t, let him step aside for someone who can.
  I’d like to slip inside for a while,
  To privately muster my army of tricks.
  I’ll be right back after just a short delay.
  Meanwhile, the piper is here to play for you.
  
  Plan #6: clever slave's two-pronged siege & triumph announced!
  
  Pseudolus 579-91 (bombastic triumphal-song after piper plays)
       How in my head I’ve marshaled my troops!
  Two lines of tricks, three lines of lies, so wherever I meet the enemy                                   
     Victory is mine, and my prey is ensnared in my web:
     My confidence rests on the valor of my ancestors,
     As well as on my own diligence and diabolical deceit.
     As for this common foe of yours and mine:
     Just watch, while I deftly de-ball Ballio!                                                            
     I’ll storm and sack this town today!
  Here is where I’ll lead my legions. Once he’s defeated (an easy feat for my fellow citizens),
  It’s straight on with my army to this ancient citadel! (points to Simo’s house) From there
  I’ll cram my troops with booty, load them down with loot, leaving only fear to our foes.
  Such is the line from which I descend: I am destined for deeds  
  Of distinction that bring me fame and lasting renown!
         
  
• Harpax's entrance & (final) Plan #7: "all my previous plans just flew out the window!" (602); improvises as "Surus" & soldier's letter" ("that improvised lie of mine . . . was worth its weight / In solid gold", 688-90)
  
  
• Scene 9: Calidorus returns with helper #1 (Charinus) – details of play-within-the-play to impersonate Harpax?
  
  
  Greek comic slave mask (2nd century BCE)
  
  
• Scenes 12-15: Pseudolus & (slave) helper # 2 Simia ("Monkeyman"); Simia's improvisational ability with Ballio ("Polymachaeroplagides", 988)?
  
  
  
• head-spinning metacomedy: nested china-box effect (mise en abîme, "place(d) into abyss")
  
  Pseudolus 1017-1022 (outricking the trickster?)
  Never, ever have I seen a worse human being,
  A more deviously wicked fellow than this Simia!
  He so awfully damn good he scares me!
  What if, just when things are going well,                                                   
  He turns his wily weapons against me
  As soon as he gets the chance?
  
  
• Scene 18: Ballio & Simo realize Phoenicium taken by Pseudolus; Ballio defeated & expelled from play ("I might as well rename my birthday my 'deathday'", 1237)
  
  
• Pseudolus' drunken song & dance of triumph (Scenes 19-20): settling the score with Simo (master ~ slave)
  
  
• master's vs. slave's pain? their post-play future?
  
  
  Pseudolus 1318-1325 (Simo loads Pseudolus with cash)
  Simo                                  
     I never envisioned this—
     Humbling myself like this to you!
  Oh, Oh, Oh! [Simo cries heu, heu; cf. eheu, "waah", 79ff.]
  Pseudolus
       Now stop that!
  Simo
            It hurts.
  Pseudolus
               One of us has to be hurting.   
  Simo
  You’re really going to take this from your master, Pseudolus?
  Pseudolus
                             With absolute pleasure.
  Simo
  You won’t give me back just a part of the money?
  Pseudolus
  No. Call me greedy if you want, but you’ll never be a penny richer for that.
  How much pity would you have given my back if I had failed today?
  Simo
  I swear I’ll have my revenge.
  Pseudolus
              Swear all you want. I’ve got a strong back.  
  
  
• Pseudolus' and Simo's final settlement?
  
  Pseudolus: play, like character, breaking free of restraints/authority/tradition of Greek New Comedy by injecting musicality, freshness, boisterousness, improvisation, messiness, playfulness, disorder, etc. ? Pseudolus' soiling his cloak (pallium, 1280) as symbolic act (fabula palliata)