Classics 351
January 20, 2022
Casina (cont.)
- Cleostrata's victory over Lysidamus ("misrule and metatheater")
Casina 855-861 (Myrrhina, with Pardalisca & Cleostrata, waiting for Lysidamus and Olympio to come out of the house)
Myrrhina
Such fine and fitting entertainment inside!
We’re out here on the street now to watch the wedding festival.
My goodness, I’ve never laughed so much in my life
And doubt I’ll ever laugh like that again!
Pardalisca
I so want to know what the new He-bride is doing with his new husband!
Myrrhina
No playwright has ever devised a better
Plot than this clever production of ours!
- Finale (Scene 23): Lysidamus's cloak and walking stick returned, all enter (his) house; family order restored?; a "proto-feminist" play?
Casina 1000-1003 (Lysidamus's pledge)
But, my dear, do forgive your husband. And ask her to, Myrrhina.
If ever in the future I lust after Casina, or just start to lust after her,
Or if from now on I do anything of this sort, you have the right
To hang me up and give me a good whipping, my dear.
Casina 1005-1006 (Cleostrata's metatheatrical decision)
But the only reason I'm going to forgive him
Is that this play is long and I don't want to make it any longer.
- stability of final harmony?
Casina 1015-1018 (epilogue)
Now the right thing for you to do is to give us the thundering applause
We so richly deserve. Those who do will win the whore of their dreams
(and the wife will be none the wiser). Those who don't applaud as loudly as possible,
Will take a he-goat bathed in sewer-water to bed instead!
Marble statue of Cybele, Ostia, 3rd-4th century CE
Pseudolus ("The Liar": a comedy about making a Plautine comedy)
A Funny Thing Happened on the Way to the Forum (1966): https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sMrjeejmCpI
- Festival of the Magna Mater, i.e. "Great Mother" (= Cybele); her cult brought to Rome during 2nd Punic War
- Pseudolus debuts at dedication of Magna Mater's new temple on the Palatine Hill (April 10, 191 BCE); sacred precinct accommodated ca. 1,500 spectators; Plautus's show-piece comedy about Plautine comedy
Remains
of Cybele's ancient temple on the Palatine Hill
- Scene 1 (no full Prologue, as Casina) introduces typical New Comedy plot: adulescens (a Roman "minor", 303) in love, obstacles to "getting the girl" (Phoenicium's letter, 20 minae), recognition scene & marriage not possible; Plan #1 = cheat Calidorus's father (120ff.), clever slave's proclamation to the entire populace ("DON'T TRUST ME!," 128)
- master vs. slave: reactions to the tablet/letter?
Pseudolus 74-84 (the Latin exclamation eheu, "alas")
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!
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.
- Ballio: Plautus's super-pimp/slave-dealer; birthday & roll-call of slaves as Pseudolus & Calidorus eavesdrop
Pseudolus 181-184 (opening song)
I want a whole army of gift-givers here in front of the house, double-time!
Why do you think I supply you with clothes, jewelry and all that you need?
And what have you done today except make trouble and guzzle wine?
You drown your bellies in that, while I have to stay stone cold sober.
- Scene 3 (Pseudolus & Calidorus engage Ballio): Ballio's attitude? suggestion to rip off Calidorus's father (287ff.); flagitatio ("public shaming"), e.g. "father-and-mother-beater" :: "Correction: father-and-mother-killer. / Better than having to feed them. Now, was that wrong?" (367-8)
Greek comic slave mask, 2nd century BCE
- Scene 5 (Simo, Callipho, Pseudolus): the old men's attitudes toward Pseudolus? Pseudolus's dilemma (serving two masters)? Pseudolus's boast & the bet with Simo?
Pseudolus 538-545
Simo
But something just occurred to me.
What if these two are conspiring together, Callipho,
And have patched together some scheme
To cheat me out of some cash?
Pseudolus
Who in the world
Would attempt such a scheme? Listen to me, Simo:
If we ever have conspired, schemed, or consulted,
You may write all over me with elm-rods
And inscribe me with letters, just as if I were a book!
*GROUPS (Pseudolus's direct addresses to audience)*