Riassunto
Riassunto di Anfitrione, Asinaria, Aulularia, Bacchidi, I prigionieri
A chi è rivolto
For readers who love comedy, theatre, and the roots of farce, and anyone curious about Roman life, cunning slaves, mistaken identities, and friendships tested by loyalty.
Che cos’è questo libro
Here are five plays by Titus Maccius Plautus, who wrote for the Roman stage in the decades before his death in 184 BC. He adapted Greek comedies into Latin, adding songs, jokes, and a loud, quick energy of his own. The five in this set are Amphitryo, Asinaria, Aulularia, Bacchides, and Captivi. They were written to be performed at public festivals, for a crowd that wanted to laugh.
The plays give you a gallery of stock figures that later theatre never stopped borrowing: the cunning slave, the stingy old man, the lovesick son, the greedy parasite, and the clever courtesan. They also give you surprises. One play brings a god down to earth in disguise. Another is a rare comedy with almost no love story and a moving friendship at its center. Let us begin with the one where Jupiter himself plays a trick on a Theban household.
In questo riassunto
- 1A god and his messenger steal two identitiesFree
- 2Love can make a father bend the rules
- 3A miser guards his gold and loses his peace
- 4Two sisters and a slave outwit the old men
- 5A swapped identity tests loyalty and friendship
- 6Plautus builds laughter from types, songs, and tricks
Punto chiave 1 di 6
A god and his messenger steal two identities
Amphitryo is set in Thebes. The general Amphitryo is away at war, and his wife Alcmena waits at home. The god Jupiter has fallen for her, so he takes on her husband's appearance and visits her. To keep watch at the door, his son Mercury takes on the look of Amphitryo's slave Sosia.
The play opens with a speech from Mercury, who talks to the audience directly. He tells them the plot in advance and jokes about it. He also says that the play is a tragicomedy, since it mixes gods and kings with a slave's clowning. Plautus seems to coin that idea here, and it is a fair label for the play.
Then the real Sosia arrives, sent ahead to announce his master's victory. He meets Mercury in his own shape and is beaten and bewildered. Mercury knows every detail of Sosia's life and even claims to be Sosia. The scene is a famous piece of comic logic, because poor Sosia starts to doubt whether he exists at all.
When the real Amphitryo comes home, he expects a warm welcome. Instead his wife says he has already been there, and she speaks of the night they spent together. Amphitryo hears only that she has been unfaithful, and she hears only that her husband is acting strangely. Both are honest, and both are wrong in the eyes of the other. The comedy runs on this gap between what each person knows and what the audience knows.
That’s 1 of 6 key points.
The rest of the summary, written and spoken, and the whole book: free to start.
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Questions about Anfitrione, Asinaria, Aulularia, Bacchidi, I prigionieri
What are the five plays of Plautus in this collection about?
Amphitryo is about a god who takes a husband's shape. Asinaria is about a father and son and a courtesan. Aulularia is about a miser and his gold. Bacchides is about two sisters and a clever slave. Captivi is about prisoners and a swapped identity.
Are the plays of Plautus based on Greek comedies?
Yes. Plautus adapted Greek comedies, often from the New Comedy tradition, into Latin. He kept the Greek settings but added Roman jokes, songs, and wordplay. Bacchides, for example, is based on a play by Menander.
Why is Amphitryo called a tragicomedy?
In the prologue, Mercury calls it a tragicomedy because it mixes gods and kings, who belong in tragedy, with a slave and low jokes, which belong in comedy. Plautus appears to be the first to use the term.
Is Captivi different from Plautus's other plays?
Yes. The closing speech says it has no love affair with a courtesan and no indecent scenes. It centers on loyalty between a master and a slave, which gives it a more serious tone than most of his comedies.
Which Plautus play influenced Molière's The Miser?
Aulularia, the pot comedy, which features the miser Euclio and his hidden gold. Molière used its main idea of a man ruled by fear of theft. The surviving Latin text is incomplete near the end.