Chapter

Summary

Introduction

The book is concerned with the stage at which new comedy attained its natural form.New comedy is interpreted as a genre on the basis of the conventions that characterize it.The narrow range of plots define the genre.In comedy, the conclusion is a resolution in which the tension is eliminated.The rules and values of the ancient city-state characterize new comedy, and in the time of intense social stress, new comedy was a stage of natural harmony.The formula of new comedy has been reduced to a mathematical function: w [(x-y)/z] = x + y, where w is the mode of overcoming obstacles, x-y is the separated couple, x + y is the united couple, and z is obstacles.This book looks at the obstacles.

Aulularia: City-State and Individual

Euclio discovers a pot of gold in his hearth.The Lar—the household deity, says that he has shown this to him so that he can arrange for his daughter’s marriage.His daughter, Phaedria, has been raped.The Lar also says that he will persuade her rapist, Lyconides, to marry her by inspiring his uncle, Megadorus, to propose to her.Euclio does not want to leave his gold.But he is afraid that if he does not go out to the forum to receive his handout, his neighbors will be suspicious.Megadorus wins Euclio’s consent for Phadria’s hand in marriage.While they are preparing for the wedding, Lyconides sends his slave to survey the situation because he is in love with Phaedria.He arrives in time to catch Euclio going to the temple of Fides to conceal his gold there because he is suspicious of everyone in his house and hears him commanding Fides to preserve his gold.The slave goes into the temple to find the gold, but Euclio chases him away.Euclio is angry at Fides and decides to hide his gold in a grove of Silvanus, the woodland god.Lyconides’ slave watches him hide the gold there and steals it.By taking his gold from the temple, Euclio withdraws from society.Even though his gold was kept safe, he does not trust Fides, which represented to the Romans the concept of good faith.It is outside the city that is gold is stolen.The theft of Euclio’s gold presents the opportunity for him to be reintegrated into society.The rape of Phaedria represents the same kind of attack on Euclio.The principles upon which Roman citizenship was established were ius connubii et commercii, the right of marriage and of commerce.They are both based on the sanctity of contract and therefore upon the principle of good faith.Outside the community and the communal principle of good faith, theft and rape prevail.Lyconides confesses his crime to Euclio and says he wishes to marry the girl.Lyconides then learns from his slave what has happened to the gold and orders him to return it.Euclio this time used the gold as Phaedria’s dowry.In the dowry ius connubii et commercii are symbolized.The dowry is a good use of wealth and the violation of Phaedria is made right.Megadorus also is detached from the community.He is a rich bachelor who does not want the expenses or responsibility of a wife and family.But he does have a special passion for Phaedria.His actions are motivated by irrational passion rather than duty.She has been raped and therefore is ineligible for marriage except to her rapist.Megadorus is also willing to give up a dowry, as Euclio says there will be none.His proposal cannot be a resolution to the tensions, as comedy demands.

Asinaria: The Family

Argyippus, a young lover, is infatuated with a harlot, Philaenium.The blocking character is Diabolus, a rival who plans to hire her exclusively for a year.Argyippus has to produce 20 minae before him to stop this.His father, Demaenetus, has found out about the affair and how a slave, Libanus, has played a role in it.But he is not angry and because he says he wants his son to love him, he wants to help.But his wife, Artemona,controls the money.He tells Libanus and another slave, Leonida, to find a way to get the money from Artemona.However, Demaenetus has imposed a stipulation that he gets one night with Philaenium.Diabolus tells Artemona, and at the end of the play, she drives him away from Philaenium, leaving her with Argyippus.Plautus switches from one standard paradigm to another.The first is a triangle involving a father, son, and a girl who is ineligible for marriage.The father will disapprove of the girl.Plautus then dismisses this paradigm and switches to a rivalry for the girl between father and son.Demaenetus is not the head of his household, he confesses that he sold his authority for Artemona’s dowry.So she has been playing that role.Two conflicts must be resolved.Agryppius must get his girl, and Demaenetus must be put in his place.The sudden shift in the play accomplishes both.Materialism is a pervasive theme in the play.Money is the basis of authority and there are no moral restraints. 

Captivi: City-State and Nation

Prior to the play, there was a war between two Greek communities, Elis and Aetolia.The prisoners of the war were taken captive and made slaves.One Aetolian, Philopolemus, son of Hegio, was a slave of a doctor in Elis named Menarchus.Hegio started purchasing slaves to acquire an Elean captive to exchange for his son.He succeeded in buying a distinguished citizen of Elis, Philocrates and his personal slave, Tyndarus.Menarchus is a client of Philocrates’ family, so the trade is easy.Philocrates and Tyndarus have exchanged identities so that when Menarchus sends the slave to negotiate, he is really sending the master.Hegio learns of this through another slave accidentally.In a rage, Hegio sends Tyndarus to the quarries, where his life will be bitter and short.Philocrates returns bringing with him Stalagmus, the slave who had abducted Hegio’s infant son.Hegio finds out what the audience has known from the prologue, Tyndarus is his second son.He was stolen and sold into slavery at 4 years of age.There is a similarity to the basic story-type of new comedy, the conflict between a stern father and a deviant son.A common figure in these plays is the household slave, who risks the displeasure of the senior master in order to advance the interests of the junior.The 2-stage revelation of the identity of Tyndarus is the fundamental feature of the structure of the Captivi.The audience knows what the characters do not: that Tyndarus is the son of Hegio—this knowledge decisively inclines their sympathies toward Tyndarus.There is a clash between 2 opposing ethical systems: the communal ethics of the city-state and a universal humanism.The return of Philocrates resolves the major complication of the play. The ethical problem, however, is not solved, it is evaded.The good man proves to be a member of the community,thereby abolishing the tension in the concept of good faith.The fate of Tyndarus is displaced on Stalagmus.He had cost Hegio a son, just as he thought Tyndarus had.The law of nations is opposed to the law of nature, custom cannot be reconciled with morality.Plautus has betrayed a hint of an inexpungible flaw within the ethos of an ancient city-state.

Rudens: City-State Utopia

Two slaves are fighting over a chest washed up on the beach at the beginning of the play. Gripus argues that what is captured in the sea is the property of fishermen, for the sea is common to every man and Trachalio that chests may not be compared to fishes.Does the sea wash away ownership titles?Herman Melville’s Moby Dick is quoted to explicate the problem.The slaves submit the case to Daemones for arbitration.Daemones says that the chest belongs to Labrax.Palaestra identifies the little case inside the chest, and she is reunited with her father, Daemones.Daemones, who respects the right of ownership, is rewarded by his daughter being restored to him.The daughter and the chest are both redeemed.The question raised by the action is one of boundaries.The theme is that the moral basis of the city-state is not limited by its physical perimeter, but extends into nature.The utopia of the ancient city-state is exhibited in the closing of the play when Daemones invites both Gripus and Labrax to dinner.Good faith reigns among the class of free citizens, each holding just title to possessions, content and fearing no encroachments.

Cistellaria: Noncitizen Order

A young man, Alcesimarchus, and a young woman, Selenium are in love.Alcesimarchus is a citizen, and Selenium is a courtesan.They live together and Alcesimarchus has promised to marry Selenium, but his father has arranged a marriage for him.Selenium’s mother, Melaenis,accusesAlcesimarchus of bad faith and is opposed to the marriage.In the recognition scene, the characters find out that Selenium is really a citizen.Her father was a merchant from Lemnos who raped a free woman, and Selenium was given to Melaenis to raise. Melaenis’s opposition to Alcesimarchus is a different point of view.She demands faith and respect from Alcesimarchus, and though she has no power to compel him, she can refuse any further association with him, which she does.The discovery of Selenium’s real parents solves this conflict in that Melaenis is no longer responsible for her.The recognition scene is also a resolution of the anomaly between Selenium’s character and her social status.She thinks and acts like a citizen, and this is because she actually is one.Selenium’s father, Demipho, and Alcesimarchus behave in contrasting ways.One reduced the status of a citizen by treating her as an object of violent passion, and the other elevated a courtesan by the promise of a permanent union.In the Cistellaria is a thematic concern for the courtesan class.Rome did not have a large population of resident aliens like this as Athens did, but they can be compared to the Latin allies of the Romans who had a similar halfway status.

Phormio: Citizen Disorder

Antipho is in love with a woman, Phanium, and has married her while his father, Demipho is away.Demipho is opposed because he wants Antipho to marry his niece.In the recognition scene, it is discovered that Phanium actually is his niece.After the recogniton scene, Demipho and his brother, Chremes, struggle to get back the girl for Antipho allowing them to be duped by a parasite, Phormio.There is a shift in story paradigms from Phanium’s status being secure in the first part to being dubious in the second.The father’s true motive is revealed in the second part.Phanium is the daughter of Chremes from a bigamous marriage, and he wants to conceal her from his legitimate wife.The recognition scene does not resolve anything, and Phanium is worse off after it.This distinguishes Phormio from other plays.Phormio discloses the whole affair to Cheremes’ wife forcing all of the characters to confront all of the offenses of the situation.The fathers who were supposed to uphold the values of the ancient-city state did not fulfill their roles and were shown to be transgressors.At the end of the play, they are at the mercy of the disenfranchised, the woman, the slave, and the son.Phormio is not a respectable citizen, but his character embodies the challenge to narrow exclusivism of the city-state ideology.He is the hero who manipulates each step and ultimately prevails over Demipho and Chremes.

Hecyra: Ironic Comedy

This play exploits the conventions of new comedy so as to challenge the ideological premises of the genre.Pamphilus is in love with a courtesan, Bacchis, but his father urges him to take wife of his own stature.So Pamphilus marries Philumena.Pamphilus refused to touch his wife and continued to see Bacchis for a few months before she became cold, and Pamphilus began to love Philumena.The conflict is between amor and pietas.The theme is that love is selfish.Pamphilus leaves on business and Philumena has a quarrel with his mother and moves back to her mother’s home.Shortly after Pamphilus returns, Philumena has a child.In the Greek model of the play, the audience would have known that Philumena had been raped before her marriage, but in Terence’s version it is concealed.Philumena and her mother tell Pamphilus about the child and he promises to keep it a secret.Pamphilus feels that he cannot take back his defiled wife, but he must justify this without revealing her secret.Ironically, Pamphilius keeps the pretense of the quarrel with his mother, though he is no longer ignorant of the reason Philumena left her house, as a reason to free himself from the marriage by pleading his filial duty.Pamphilius has invoked the traditional tension between passion and responsibility but twisted it to serve his own interest.Pietas and amor are both distorted. Pamphilius’s and Philumena’s fathers summon Bacchis, trying to determine why the birth of the child was concealed.She denies any connection with Pamphilius, and upon leaving them, in a long monologue discloses that Pamphilius had given her a ring, determined to be the one stolen from Philumena the night she was raped.The rapist is Pamphilius, and the play ends.Terence’s contribution to the play is the emphasis on the opposition of love and filial duty.Hecyra challenges the meanings of the formal conventions of the genre.It represents the ironic moment in new comedy.

Truculentus: Satiric Comedy

Diniarchus returns from Athens intending to resume his affair with the courtesan Phronesium, whom he has squandered his estates for.She has turned him out for a Babylonian soldier who can now give her more.He knows that she has pretended to give birth to a child and will claim that he is the soldier’s son.This seems like a familiar state of affairs but will develop a completely different idea.Diniarchus is not poor, and the soldier is not really a rival but another victim of Phronesium’s insatiable avarice.Phronesium’s maid, Astaphium, has been sent out to fetch another admirer but must first deal with a slave, Truculentus, who violently disapproves of his young master’s conduct.Phronesium tells Diniarchus that her pregnancy was really a hoax to get what she wanted from the soldier, and when she does she will give herself to him unstintingly.This opens up an opportunity for an alliance between the two.But this idea is dispelled when she asks him for another gift, reducing him to a paying customer.Phronesium is openly contemptuous of the gifts the soldier, Stratophanes, brings and in front of his face praises Diniarchus’s gifts.The third rival, Strabax, is introduced excluding the idea of passion versus power, and all of Phronesium’s admirers are only customers.Truculentus undergoes an abrupt and unmotivated transformation.Possible blocking characters have been removed.The only motives are lust and greed, and the only obstacle to desire is wealth.An old man, Callicles, and his maidservant, Syra, and the hairdresser who assisted Phronesium in finding the baby enter.The baby is the son of Callicles’s daughter and Diniarchus, whom she was betrothed to.Diniarchus confesses and agrees to marry her.Diniarchus demands the son back from Phronesium, but she seductively persuades him to let her keep him for a few more days.The soldier learns of Strabax and they contend with bribes for her affection.At the end she invites them both in and extends the invitation to the audience.The marriage of Diniarchus and Callicles’s daughter is irrelevant to the main tension.The tension between love and obligation survives, he marries her out of guilt, and still intends to see Phronesium.The comic paradigm fails to achieve its proper resolution, and this endows the play with its satirical spirit.Satire is independent of moral attitude of the writer and feeds on the tension between what is ideal and what is real, and its objective is to represent reality as a situation causing aversion.The Truculentus satirizes the courtesan’s control over her lovers.The world of the play exists in opposition to the structured values of the community.