CLAS 355
Plautus's Casina
January 31, 2023



Plautus (ca. 254-184 BCE); Roman "slave comedy"

• little biographical information: Titus Maccius Plautus = “Phallus, son of Clown, the Flatfoot/Mime Actor” > pseudonym or freedman's (comic) name?
  
  
• Latin plays based on Greek models ("New Comedy"); set in Greece ("Athens") but thoroughly Romanized (customs, persons, places, institutions, etc.); Roman comedy focused on household/family (patriarch/paterfamilias, mother, children, slaves)
  
  
• free persons & slaves attend state-sponsored religious festivals (aediles), plays on temporary stages
  
  
• actors are slaves/freedmen; to what extent are slaves' perspectives represented?
  
  Plautus's Casina (ca. 186 BCE)
  

• cast of characters: Lysidamus = Roman paterfamilias & senex amator ("old man in love"); Cleostrata, Myrrhina; slaves Olympio (vilicus) & Chalinus, Pardalisca [+ Alcesimus (neighbor), Citrio (professional cook)]
  
  
  
  
• not in play: Casina ("Cinnamon Girl"), Euthynicus > Plautus's shift from Greek romance with recognition (of free born slave) plot to battle of spouses
  
  Veiled bride with Venus & Hymen, Roman fresco, 1st century BCE
  
  
• social-historical context: lex Oppia of 215 BCE limited women's expenditures during 2nd Punic War; law repealed after women's protests in 195 BCE, despite consul Cato's resistance; woman's property rights/marriage still at issue in 186 BCE > Scene 3: Cleostrata & Myrrhina on marriage, ownership of property (= Casina), divorce; two types of Roman marriage, cum manu ("with transfer of power") vs. sine manu ("without transfer of power") > marriage & slavery?
  
  
  Greek Comic Slave Mask
  
  
• Prologue: Casina's origins, the slave proxy scheme?
  
  Casina 45-6
  His mistress agreed and gave it all her care,                                      
  Just as if it were her very own daughter.
  
  Casina 67-88 (prologue speaker asks audience to suspend their disbelief)
  Now I’m sure some of you are saying to yourselves,
  'What the . . .? How can it be? A slave wedding?
  Since when do slaves propose or get married?
  . . . Now back to that abandoned girl,
  The one the slaves are so eager to marry:                                             
  Turns out she’s a freeborn virgin:
  Yes, the daughter of an Athenian! So they’ll be no
  Fooling around with her in this comedy. [no stuprum, "illicit sex"]
  But trust me, as soon as the play’s over,
  I’m sure whoever counts out the cash to her                                         
  Can have his honeymoon—no ceremony necessary!
  That’s the gist of it. Take care, good luck and continue
  To win victories through your valor, as always!
  
  **GROUPS**
  
  
  

• Cleostrata's scheme: inverting the power dynamic in marriage; the play-within-the-play?
  
  Casina 815-24 (Pardalisca's mock-wedding song/advice to Chalinus the "bride")                                          
  Gently lift your feet above the threshold, my new bride;                  
  Safely start this journey,
  And tread upon your husband always!
  May all power preside in you to crush and defeat him,               
  Your voice, your command perched high to beat him!                                     
  His job is to fill your closets, yours to empty his pockets!
  Strive to deceive him, both night and day!
  
  
• Cleostrata's metatheatrical victory over Lysidamus; Myrrhina, with Pardalisca & Cleostrata, waiting for Lysidamus and Olympio to enter, "No playwright has ever devised a better / Plot than this clever production of ours!" (860-1)
  
  
• "slavish" Lysidamus forced to admit guilt (997) and pledge no future "lust after Casina" at risk of whipping (1000-3)
  
  Casina 947-59 (Lysidamus, post-honeymoon violence)
  It’s best to face my wife,
  To go inside the house
  And offer her my hide for punishment!
  Anyone of you care to fill in for me there?
  There’s no hope for my shoulders inside of that house.
  Apart from playing the bad slave and hitting the road,
  I’m fresh out of ideas.
  Think that’s all nonsense?
  Truth of it is, I’ll be beaten:
  I may deserve it but that doesn’t mean I like it!
  I think I’ll just take off this way—
  
  Casina, 1005-6 (Cleostrata's decision to forgive Lysidamus)
  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.
  
  
• lasting change in marriage or return to status quo? (Lysidamus gets his walking stick & cloak back)
  
  Epilogue (Casina discovered to be free, marriage with Euthynicus)
  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.