Erich Segal

Oxford Readings in Menander, Plautus, and Terence.

Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2001.

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Published Reviews (in English):

 
Section Article - Author Pages Summary
------ Introduction

Erich Segal

 ix-xxvii In his introduction, Segal attempts to broadly examine classical New Comedy, including its transition from Old Comedy, the new subject matter of this genre, and its major playwrights, including Menander, Philemon, Plautus, and Terence.  He depicts New Comedy, which draws its humor from domestic conflict, as being less obscene and fantastical in comparison to Old Comedy.  Furthermore, he mentions that New Comedy employs many variations of the "love at first sight" story, using different variations of several stock characters.
I.  Greek Antecedents "Euripidean Comedy" 

Bernard Knox

 3-24 Knox claims that Euripides can be viewed as a comedic poet, in addition to his fame as a tragedian, after examination of his Ion.  Euripides' first tendencies of comic flair are evidenced in his Electra, which has certain elements of domestic realism and social comedy in the opening scenes.  Knox then states that the Ion is a comedy of errors since it molds the hero's tragic flaw into a mere misunderstanding.  Thus, he believes that it serves as the predecessor to Menander's style of comedy.
II. Menander "The Conventions of the Comic Stage and their Exploitation By Menander" 

E.W. Handley

 27-41 Handley asserts that Menander makes use of several comic conventions and recurrent motifs in his plays to guide and amuse the audience.  Some examples of these stock characters are the comic cook and the drunken housewife, among many others.  Furthermore, elaborate masks and poetic outbursts frequently accompany the appearances of these stock comedic characters in the play.  Thus, Menander uses these common comic conventions to create a comic norm.
"Marriage and Prostitution in Classical New Comedy" 

D. Wiles

 42-52 Wiles gives a broad overview of Roman views towards marriage and prostitution as reflected in Roman theater.  The common theme of New Comedy is the hope of a young man that he will be able to overcome a "familial, financial, or social" obstacle and be allowed to truly obtain his lover.  In New Comedy, this sweeping romance usually takes place between young men and their companions or hetaireia (courtesans), as opposed to citizen women.  Wiles concludes by stating that the eventual comedic ending results from some recognition that would allow the previously hindered romance to flourish openly in public. 
"Love and Marriage in Greek  New Comedy" 

P.G. McC. Brown

 53-64 Brown argues that the obstacles to love in New Comedy are more varied and complex than one would first assume.  This is supported by writings of Plutarch, in which he comments on the variety of personalities of the prostitutes in Menander's works, ranging from bold and audacious to sweet and loving.  Furthermore, the nature of these women's births, ranging from citizen to slave, varies with disposition as well.  Brown, consequently, uses this example of variety as support for his claims of variance in New Comedy.
"Tragic Space and Comic Timing in Menander's Dyskolos" 

N.J. Lowe

 65-79 Lowe writes that Menander uses themes associated with tragedy in the structuring of the setting in his Dyskolos.  Menander places the frugal self-imposed exile, Cnemon, in the rustic, harsh countryside, in contrast to the enthusiastic suitor, Sostratus, whom Plautus situates in Athens.  Ironically enough, the hermit, Cnemon, has a beautiful, demure daughter who enthralls Sostratus and other men in spite of Cnemon's distaste for common society.  It is in Cnemon's annoyance that the audience derives comedic pleasure, and this humor is heightened by the symbolic elements of the setting.
III. Plautus "Plautus and the Public Stage" 

Erich Gruen

 83-94 Gruen claims that Plautus, while he never makes blatant allusions to the current events of his time, does, in fact, allow these events to influence the subject matter of his plays.  For example, Plautus pokes fun at the over-abundance of military victory processions and unenforceable laws by his very unflattering portrayal of boastful soldiers, cunning bankers, and shallow legislators.  Thus, he lends a benign comic treatment to these characters in order to make a sly allusion to their absurd effects on society.
"Traditions of Theatrical Improvisation in Plautus: Some Considerations" 

Gregor Vogt-Spira

 95-106 Vogt-Spira asserts that several elements of old Roman, improvisatory, oral theater are inserted into Plautus' works.  He states that Plautus, as a producer of reworked Greek classics, often had to compete with this other popular form of Roman entertainment.  As a result, Plautus incorporated some of the elements of this theater, such as his trademark verbal skirmishes and overly dramatic character stage entrances and exits, to allow for some improvisation on the part of the actors.
"Plautus' Mastery of Comic Language" 

W.S. Anderson

 107-114 Anderson credits Plautus as a master of language due to the extraordinary creativity he displays with words.  Plautus incorporates several neologisms in addition to other rhetorical devices (such as polysyndeton, asyndeton, alliteration, assonance, etc.) to add a deeply emotional and descriptive element to his works.  Consequently, his bold use of language lends a wildly humorous, fantastic, and emotional aspect to his plays.
"The Menaechmi: Roman Comedy of Errors" 

Erich Segal

 115-126 Segal expands upon Plautus' only true comedy of errors, the Menaechmi.  Plautus typically enjoyed witty farces, but in this play, there is no cunning slave or slimy parasite, but merely a case of mistaken identity among two twins.  Thus, Plautus strays from his usually course by writing a comedy about "naive misunderstanding" in which all of his characters are "ignorant puppets" subject to his plot.
"Critically Funny, or Tranio on the Couch: The Servus callidus and Jokes About Torture" 

Holt Parker

 127-137 Parker comments on the high prevalence of slave torture in Plautus' works and its purpose in his plays.  He states that, in this comic treatment of slave torture, both the playwright and the audience are voicing their latent fears of slave rebellion, which was very common during Plautus' time.  This threat of upheaval was due to the fact that there were many slaves in Roman territory due to the success of Roman military expeditions and few citizen men, since many were still serving in the army.  Thus, the comic treatment of the abuse of slaves who did not cleverly aid their masters helps the Roman audience mock their own fears of slave rebellion.
"Aulularia: City-State and the Individual" 

D. Konstan

 138-148 Konstan states that the Aulularia is a character piece describing the comedic transformation of the miser, Euclio, into a responsible member of the city-state.  Euclio is a noncontributing member of society at the beginning of the play, coveting all of his worldly possessions and refusing to give his daughter away in marriage.  However, he finds himself "punished" for his own selfishness and his lack of contribution to society when his gold is stolen and his daughter is raped.  Yet, the comic ending of the play is still achieved when all is restored to him and his daughter is married to her attacker, which successfully reintegrates Euclio into society.
"The Art of Deceit: Pseudolus and the Nature of Reading" 

A.R. Sharrock

 149-160 Sharrock asserts that Plautus uses the character of Pseudolus as his own voice in the play, Pseudolus.  He is the essential Plautine trickster, who comically deceives all of the other characters in the play, in addition to the audience, and humorously feigns to create most of the plot as he goes along.  As a result, Plautus creates a "weak" plot, which provides an opportunity for improvisation and a showcase for the dialogue of Pseudolus.
"The Theater of Plautus: Playing to the Audience" 

Timothy J. Moore

 161-175 According to Moore, Plautus creates sympathy for his characters among the audience by allowing them to deliver comic asides and prologues.  It is in this very manner that, in the play Casina, he creates a uniquely sympathetic uxor dotata, which is contrary to the typical role of the nagging wife as an antagonist in New Comedy.  Thus, through eavesdropping and humorous asides, Plautus gives the wife the upper hand with the audience's sympathies.
"The Theatrical Significance of Duplication in Plautus' Amphitruo" 

Florence Dupont

 176-188 Dupont classifies the Amphitruo as a tragicomedy since it is based upon a well known tragic myth.  In this play, the gods, Jupiter and Mercury, are made into mortals using their divine power and disguise.  The gods then trick the mortals into doing their will through a series of parallel events.  Plautus, consequently, manages to poke fun at the comedic genre through the various monologues and manipulations of the various deities, who have the audience on their side.
"Amphitruo, Bacchae,       and Metatheatre" 

Niall W. Slater

 189-202 Slater compares and contrasts Plautus' Amphitruo with the interpretation of the same myth in Euripides' Bacchae.  He depicts Plautus' version as a form of metatheater, which is "theatrically self-conscious theater, aware of its nature and exploiting its own conventions." In this version, Jupiter and Mercury garner the sympathies of the audience through their comedic monologues and asides, in which they offer snide remarks about their assumed roles as cunning slaves, parasites, and silly old men.  Thus, the play mocks the tragic theme of its predecessor: namely, that men are subject to the whims of the gods.
IV. Terence "The Originality of Terence and His Greek Models" 

Walther Ludwig

 205-215 Ludwig gives a broad overview of the nature of Terence's adaptation of his Greek models: namely, the plays of Menander and Apollodorus.  He comments on the fact that Terence modifies the plays to reflect his higher standards of morality and decorum.  Terence also often combines two or more of these prototype plays together using the practice of contaminatio to improve upon their respective plots or to add intrigue to them.  Lastly, Terence also attempts to improve upon the language of the plays in order to provide livelier images and plots.
"The Dramatic Balance of Terence's Andria" 

Sander M. Goldberg

 216-223 Goldberg comments that the Andria is unique among Terence's plays and New Comedy as a whole in that the senex, Simo, is the protagonist instead of the servus callidus or the adulescens.  Throughout the play, Simo has both the upper hand in the plot and controls the audiences sympathies, being powerful, respectable, and reasonable.  Thus, Plautus retains the typical cast of characters in this comedy, yet alters the dramatic focus of the play by putting an intelligent senex at the center of its plot.
"Terence's Hecyra: A Delicate Balance of Suspense and Dramatic Irony" 

Dwora Gilula

 224-229 Gilula examines Terence's Hecyra, identifying the central conflict of the play as the tension mounting over a failing marriage.  Terence creates a certain amount of dramatic irony by slightly altering the comedic conventions the audience anticipates in a comedy.  For example, in this play the servus callidus is not the grand manipulator, the senex tricks the adulescens, and the hero is discovered to be the villain as the rapist of his confused bride.  Thus, Terence delivers suspense and irony in this play as he slowly gives the audience crucial pieces of plot information throughout the play.
"Problems of Adaptation in the Eunuchus of Terence" 

J.A. Barsby

 230-249 Barsby attempts to shed light on the inconsistencies in Terence's Eunuchus by attributing them to Terence's inability to successfully integrate all components of the plot he took from the Kolax into the Eunuchus.  For example, Barsby claims that Terence omitted the expository prologue from the Kolax, took the characters of Gnatho and Thraso directly from this source, and created the characters of Pythias and Dorias to fill in holes in the plot.  Thus, he claims that Terence sacrifices "consistency for dramatic effect."
"The Intrigue of Terence's Self-Tormentor" 

J.C.B. Lowe

 250-256 Lowe comments on the complexity of the manipulations set in motion by the cunning slave, Syrus, in Terence's Self-Tormentor.  Judging from the complexity of Syrus' schemes in the plot, Lowe assumes that Terence keeps much of Menander's original plot.  Lowe also points out that Terence leaves many of the details of Syrus' manipulations out of the dialogue initially to heighten the audience's curiosity and suspense. 
"Phormio parasitus: A Study in Dramatic Methods of Characterization" 

W. Geoffrey Arnott

 257-272 Arnott asserts that the action of Terence's Phormio is dominated by the charismatic parasite, Phormio.  He claims that Phormio creates all of the action, schemes, and humor in the play as he outwits his opponents with his superior arguing abilities.  Arnott also comments on the use of Geta in the play as a bland foil to Phormio, making the latter's eloquence and wit appear even more glamorous to the audience.  Thus, in this play, Terence creates one of his cleverest and most charismatic characters.
------ Acknowledgements 273-275 The acknowledgements section lists the original sources of the articles republished in this book and their full bibliographic information.
Glossary 276-280 All italicized words used in the articles (mostly Greek and Latin terms) are briefly glossed in this section.
Evaluation of Reviews:

I felt that the review written by Peter Kruschwitz in the Bryn Mawr Classical Review was very accurate in its assessment of the book.  It points out the overly simplistic generalizations of the introduction written by Segal and also questions the breadth of his survey of available articles on New Comedy.  He also criticizes the lack of international sources, since most of the articles are from the English-speaking world.  Furthermore, he questions the editor's choice to not include the footnotes from the original articles in this publication, in addition to the high prevalence of typographical errors in this edition.  However, he does compliment the editor on scholarship of the articles he did choose to incorporate into the book.