Four Comedies [antikvár]

PREFACE TO THE OXFORD EDITION One magical summer evening in 1962,1 saw an Italian translation of Plautus' Casina convulse a huge audience at the Stadio di Domiziano in Rome. Until that time, like so many academics, 1 had regarded Plautus as merely a name in literary history: a good man long ago, the best comic author in ancient Rome. That night 1 learned otherwise. Good old Plautus is still flourishing wherever great professional clowns do his comedy justice. My first attempt at Plautine translation was The Braggart Soldier, which, to my amazement and delight, actually made people laugh when it was played at the Harvard Loeb Drama Center in 1963. Encouraged by requests from teachers and directors, 1 subsequently rendered two other comedies that 1 regarded to be among the playwright's best: The Brothers Menaechmus and The Haunted House. When the first trio of plays was ready for publication, my then Yale colleagues Thomas Cole and Kenneth Cavander read and corrected the manuscript, while Hugh Lloyd-Jones of Oxford reassured me on what he termed 'justifiable conjectures'. The occasion of the Oxford reprint enabled me to make further revisions and to add the fourth play. The Pot of Gold. 1 am grateful to T. J. Luce of Princeton, Walter Moskalew of Ball State University, and Carroll Moulton for their many suggestions. I have also benefited from seeing these plays produced, most recently by Richard Beacham at the University of Warwick. These productions reassured me that Plautus is still alive and well and—I dare to hope—also living in the pages of this book. E. S. Wolfson College, Oxford 1995 INTRODUCTION Seneca cannot be too heavy, nor Plautus too Ught. When Polonius trumpeted to Hamlet the arrival of 'the best players in the w^orld', he paid them the ultimate compliment. For the heritage of modern tragedy goes back to Seneca (not Sophocles), and the fountainhead of modern comedy to Plautus (not Aristophanes). Each playwright was, in his way, a kind of enduring Roman bridge over which the classics crossed the Renaissance to our own day. But let us return to the originals—in their original setting. Imagine it is the Harvest Festival in Rome, c.ioo bc. The rustic Roman citizenry mills about, bored by the ceremonies through which it has been obliged to sit (or stand), 'drunk and disorderly' Cpotus et exlex').' On a crude stage thrown together for the occasion, an actor appears. He shouts desperately for silence, hoping to turn the unruly mob into something resembling an audience. Then he speaks magic words: 'I bring you Plautus!'^ Suddenly, sweet silence. From the thousandth row, you can hear a pun drop. The very name of Plautus means belly laughs, charm, wit, song—in a word, entertainment. Plautus knew what the public wanted and how they liked it. He gave them not only enough, but too much, which is the quintessence of all that evokes laughter. The Comic Background In 254 bc, the generally accepted date for Plautus' birth, Rome was still a relatively insignificant nation. But she was in the midst of the first of her three wars with Carthage, the powerful ' Cf. Horace, Ars Poetica 2.2.3 ff- 'Only the attraction of novelty could keep the attention of the audience after the rites had been performed and they were inebriated and lawless.' ^ The Brothers Menaechmus 3.