VIDULARIA

Author: Plautus
Date: unknown
Model: a Greek play called Schedia
Adaptations: none known

Texts and Commentaries

 English Translations available
CAST OF CHARACTERS

Aspasius - a slave
Nicodemus - a young man
Gorgines - a fisherman
Dinia - an old man
Cacistus - a fisherman
Soteris - a young girl


Lines
(Lindsay)
 Source
Characters
Action
1-16 Ambrosian Palimpsest (A) Prologue These fragmentary lines mention the plot (but virtually no details survive) and the title of the Greek original of the play.
17 A Aspasius "A man held in slavery at one point..."
frr. 1-4 1.Prician 1.300
2.Priscian 1.235
3.Priscian 1.152
4.Porphyry on Horace C.1.38.7		 Nicodemus
Gorgines		 1. Nicodemus
"The Bacchants of the same one made a Pentheus of our ship."
2. "Lack, grief, misery, poverty, cold, hunger."
3. Gorgines
"This is a poor estate."
4. "This is a myrtle grove of Venus."
18-55 A Dinia
Nicodemus		 Nicodemus asks for a job in the country from Dinia.  Dinia is sceptical because Nicodemus is a city boy.  Nicodemus mentions he is staying with Gorgines.
frr. 5-6 c.150 line gap in A
Priscian 1.224
(cf. 1.226, 2.7, Nonius 508)		 Gorgines
Aspasius		 5. Gorgines
"Both of you, pay attention, please.  Leave the trunk here.  I'll keep it just like you have it on deposit.  I won't return it to either of you until this case is settled."
6. Aspasius
"I have no problem with the deposit."
56-68 A Gorgines
Cacistus		 Gorgines says he will keep the vidularia while Cacinus looks for an advocate to plead his case for possession of it.  Cacistus laments that he lost the vidularia.
69-91 A Dinia
Nicodemus
Cacistus		 Dinia speaks of his lost son.  Nicodemus compares himself to Dinia's lost son.  [The irony of the lines suggests Nicodemus is in fact Dinia's lost son.]  Dinia tells Nicodemus not to worry about paying money back that he owes to Dinia.  Cacistus recognizes Nicodemus from the shipwreck.
frr. 7-10 7. Nonius 123
8. Priscian 1.123
cf. Porphyry on Horace C.1.38.7
9. Nonius 468
10. Priscian 1.528		 Cacistus 7. Cacistus
"When I was out fishing there, my spear hit the trunk."
8. "Some slave jumps out of the myrtle."
9. "Why waste more words?  We fought it out hard."
10. "Now we've put the trunk on deposit."
frr. 11-14 11. Priscian 1.165
12. Fulgentius Serm. Ant. 53
13. Fugentius Serm. Ant. 15
14. Nonius 258		 Nicodemus
Aspasius
Cacistus		 11. "There's a seashell on the other side." 
Nicodemus
"But I'll tell you what it is."
12. Aspasius
"Have him sewn up in a sack 
and dumped into the sea, if you want good fish food."
13. Cacistus
"I think you should tie him to a fishing boat 
so he can keep fishing, even if there's a storm."
14. "The seal matches up right.  I've compared his ring."
fr. 15 Nonius 138 "I'd rather have my family die than be beggars: good men mourn for one [who has lost his family] while evil men mock the latter [whose family begs]."
fr.16 Nonius 104 "Now the slave will coax money from the father."
fr. 17 Priscian 1.317 Nicodemus Nicodemus
"No, this is our homeland this man is my father.  But he's Soteris' father..."
fr. 18 Philargyrius ad Verg Ecl. 2.63 "Because I've heard that a woman once even gave birth to a lion."
fr. 19 Nonius 220 "Whenever he saw so much as a flea, he'd steal it."