CLAS 355
Plautus, Pseudolus
February 7, 2023

Mosaic depicting comic slave's mask, 2nd century CE


1619 Project docu-series: https://www.nytimes.com/2023/01/26/magazine/1619-project-hulu.html

*Examination #1: Thursday, February 9*

Captivi (cont.)

• Tyndarus plays the benevolent master (ethics of reciprocity/"Golden Rule"); "noble" by birth or is "nobility" a construct?
  
  Captivi 304-316
  Tyndarus
                     Fortune lifts and lowers us as she pleases:
  I once was a free man—and she’s brought me down from the top to the bottom;      
  I’d grown accustomed to giving orders and now I must take them.
  I can only hope to find a master just like I was,
  One from whom I can expect fair and gentle treatment.
  If you don’t mind, Hegio, I’d like to offer you one piece of advice.
  Hegio
  Go ahead.
  Tyndarus
        I once was just as free as your son.
  His freedom and mine were both taken away by an enemy attack.
  He is now a slave in my country, just as I am in your house.
  Surely a god is watching and listening to what we do, and will see
  That his treatment there matches your treatment of me here.
  Treat me well and he’ll treat your son well—and vice-versa.
  My father misses me just as much as you miss your son.
  
  
• character/outsized role of Stalagmus: tense confrontation with Hegio (Scenes 15-16):
  
  history: a deracinated slave from Sicily (887)
  
  Stalagmus's opening response to Hegio ("my charming little piece of property", 954: “I used to be handsome and charming, but I've never been a 'good man'”, 956)
  
  Hegio: “Hard to believe he was so respectful [morigerus, “obliging”, “compliant”, i.e., as a subordinate to a superior] as a boy” (967)
  
  cf. Tyndarus's original name Paegnium (“Plaything”, 984); Philocrates: “I can assure you he had a proper and respectable upbringing” (992); cf. Ergasilus's pederasty joke to Hegio (Hegio: “I'm easy.” Ergasilus: “Old habit from when you were a boy, huh?”, 867)
  
  Stalagmus's harsh economic perspective: “Hegio: Is he [Paegnium/Tyndarus] still alive?” Stalagmus: “I got my money. The rest I don't care about” (989)
  
  final transfer of chains (Tyndarus > Stalagmaus) & the play's last word: “Just the thing for someone who has nothing of his own” (1022)
  
  

Pseudolus

• Scene 1 introduces typical Roman Comedy plot: young man in love, obstacles to "getting the girl" (money/pimp/soldier: Phoenicium’s letter, 15 of 20 minae), clever slave Pseudolus
  
  
  
  Gustave Boulanger, The Slave Market, 1882
  
  
• Pseudolus’s attitude vs. his young master’s? "I descend from a long line of dry-eyes" (77); "I happen to have a vault full of 'waahs'" (not money, 84)
  
  
• clever slave’s proclamation to populace ("DON’T TRUST ME!," 128)
  
  
  Terracotta Greek comic slave's mask, 2nd century BCE
  
  
• Pseudolus the poet/playwright seizes control of play; multiple addresses to audience
  
  Pseudolus 394-405 (Pseudolus addresses spectators 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
  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.   
  
  
• improvised scheme: Surus & letter from Harpax; costumes, props & 5 minae from Calidorus's friend Charinus; Simia aka "Monkeyman" to play Harpax
  
  
  Odysseus, Speralonga (villa of Tiberius), 1st century CE
  
  
• Pseudolus the successful comic hero/trickster: "he’s got it all over Ulysses and the Trojan Horse!" (1244; cf. 1063-4)
  
  
• Ballio's style of mastery?
  
  Pseudolus 225-229
  Now as for you, Phoenicium: Your specialty is always being
  On the verge of counting out cash for your freedom.
  You talk the talk, but can never seal the deal.
  You are the sweetie-pie of the upper-crust; unless pies and other provisions
  Pour in today, you and your sore, sorry, crimson cheeks are out on the street tomorrow!
  
  
• Scene 5 (Simo, Callipho): Pseudolus as Socrates (465), his insolence & intelligence ("You, my slave, are angry with me, your master?", 472); problem of serving two masters ("I didn't want to be the one to establish the terrible precedent / Of having a slave accuse his master before his master", 492-3)
  
  
• bet with Simo?
  
  Pseudolus 542-545
  . . . Listen to me, Simo:
  If we ever have conspired, schemed, or consulted,
  You can write all over me with elm-rods
  And inscribe me with letters, just as if I were a book!
  
  
• Scene 10: the anonymous slave boy's monologue (reminder of Ballio's birthday party after Pseduolus/Charinus/Calidorus scene)
  
  Pseudolus 767-787
  It’s bad enough that the gods make a boy slave it
  For a pimp. But to make him ugly to boot
  Is, in my humble opinion, to double
  His trouble and triple his pain!
  Take my case: my life is a mountain of misery,
  All types of trouble, both little and large,
  And I can’t find a single fellow to love me, and
  To bring me just an ounce of care and concern.
  Now today’s the pimp’s birthday.
  He threatened us all, highest and lowest:
  “Either lavish me with exquisite gifts today,
  Or suffer lavish and exquisite torture tomorrow!”
  What’s someone in my situation supposed to do?
  How’s a have-not to get what the haves have?
  If I don’t come up with a gift for the pimp today,
  I’ll be force-fed urinal cakes tomorrow! [lit., "I'll have to drink fuller's fruit"]
  Oh god, how terribly my master terrifies me!
  And then there’s always that thing I’m just too small for:
  Although the cash can sure stretch out the wallet
  They say it’s all grunts and groans—
  Perhaps I’ll learn how to just grin and bear it.
  
  
• Harpax's "good slave" monologue (Scene 18), "How wicked and worthless is the slave who ignores his master's / Orders or can't remember to do his duty without being reminded . . ." (1103ff.)
  
  
  Greek comic slave on altar, 4th century BCE
  
  
• Scene 20: Pseudolus’s apparent triumph over his master Simo (loading the bag of cash)? “I’ve got a strong back”, 1325
  
  Commentary format for exam:
  

  (1) identify the author;
  (2) identify the title of the work from which the passage is taken;
  (3) identify the speaker(s) of the passage (i.e. character(s) if relevant, or the author);
  (4) briefly describe the context in which the passage occurs;
  (5) write a carefully organized paragraph commenting on the broader significance of the passage in light of our course themes (horror, terror, violence, and trauma) and the work’s particular treatment of any of these themes.
  

  Pseudolus 1320-1325
  Simo
  Oh, Oh, Oh!
  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.