PLAUTUS: THE GREEK COMEDY
Titus Maccius Plautus (c. 254 – 184 BC), commonly known as Plautus, was a Roman playwright of the Old Latin period. His comedies are the earliest Latin literary works to have survived in their entirety. He wrote Palliata comoedia, the genre devised by the innovator of Latin literature, Livius Andronicus. The word Plautine refers to both Plautus's own works and works similar to or influenced by his.
BIOGRAPHY
Not much is known about Titus Maccius Plautus' early life. It is believed that he was born in Sarsina, a small town in Emilia Romagna in northern Italy, in around 254 BC.[1] According to Morris Marples, Plautus worked as a stage-carpenter or scene-shifter in his early years.[2] It is from this work, perhaps, that his love of the theater originated. His acting talent was eventually discovered; and he adopted the names "Maccius" (a clownish stock-character in popular farces) and "Plautus" (a term meaning either "flat-footed" or "flat-eared", like the ears of a hound).[3] Tradition holds that he made enough money to go into the nautical business, but that the venture collapsed. He is then said to have worked as a manual laborer and to have studied Greek drama—particularly the New Comedy of Menander—in his leisure. His studies allowed him to produce his plays, which were released between c. 205 and 184 BC. Plautus attained such a popularity that his name alone became a hallmark of theatrical success.
Plautus's comedies are mostly adapted from Greek models for a Roman audience, and are often based directly on the works of the Greek playwrights. He reworked the Greek texts to give them a flavour that would appeal to the local Roman audiences. They are the earliest surviving intact works in Latin literature.
POT OF GOLD
”THE POT OF GOLD” IS A PLAY WHERE THE MAIN MOTIVES ARE GREED, CHEAPNESS AND GOLD. THE THEME IS EUCLIO’S CHEAPNESS AND GREED FOR GOLD. THE PLAY IS EASY TO READ AND THE AUTHOR MAKES FUN OF PEOPLE’S CHARACTERISTICS. THERE ARE FOUR ACTS. EUCLIO IS A POOR MAN WHO FINDS THE POT OF GOLD AND GETS MATERIALISTIC RICHNESS WITH IT BUT BECOMES POOR IN EVERY OTHER ASPECTS OF HIS LIFE. HE ONLY THOUGHT ABOUT HIS GOLD. PHAEDRIA IS HIS DAUGHTER AND SHE LOVES LYCONIDES. MEGADORUS IS HIS UNCLE AND HE WANTS TO MARRY PHAEDRIA BECAUSE HE WANTS TO SETTLE DOWN BUT IN THE END HE GIVES UP ON THAT IDEA. LYCONIDES OUT OF LOVE FOR PHAEDRIA GIVES UP HIS INHERITANCE JUST TO BE WITH PHAEDRIA WHO IS PREGNANT WITH HIS CHILD. IN THE INTRODUCTION EUCLIO FOUND THE GOLD AND HID IT, IN THE TWIST MEGADORUS WANTS TO MARRY PHAEDRIA, THEN THE POT OF GOLD DISAPPEARS AND IN THE END EUCLIO GETS HIS POT OF GOLD AND LYCONIDES GETS PHAEDRIA.
SUMMARY
Euclio finds a pot of gold and he is a cheap old man who hides his gold from everyone. In the meantime Lyconides and Phaedria fell in love. Megadorus wants to settle down and he goes to Euclio and asks for his daughter’s hand. Euclio said yes just because Megadorus didn’t ask for dowry.
Euclio went to bury the pot into the woods but Lyconides servant Strobilus saw him and stole the pot. Lyconides asked Megadorus to let him have Phaedria. After that the Houshold Ghost of Euclio’s house tells the story of an old cheap man who also found gold and Phaedria prayed to him every day and in the end he gave the pot of gold to Euclio so he could have dowry for Phaedria.
Euclio yelled at his servant because he thought she was spying on him. Megadorus and Euclio met on the street and Megadorus was rushing the wedding so Euclio got scared about his gold. He said yes to the wedding just because Megadorus didn’t ask for dowry. Everyone arrived to Euclio’s house to prepare the wedding.
When Euclio heard all of that rumor coming out his house he was convinced that somebody was about to steal his gold. Euclion hit one of the men in his house because he thought he was trying to rob him. He was convinced that Megadorus prepared all of this just so he could get his hands on the pot of gold. Megadorus lead a monologue from which we find out he is a really honest man.
Megador thinks out loud and Euclio eardrops on him. Euclion is still scared for hisgold so he goes to hide it in the temple. Strobilus knows that Lyconides loves Phaedria and that he wants to marryher. Strobilus follows Euclio while Lyconides begs his mother to talk his uncle Megadorus out of the wedding.
The pregnant Phaedria goes into labor right when Euclio realized his pot it missing and he goes crazy.
In the end Storbilus appears and tells Lyconides that he found the pot of gold. Lyconides demands that the gold returns to Euclio and the story end there because the rest of it was lost. Is is assumed that Lyconides returns the pot of gold and in return gets Phaedria.
Characters Analysis
Euclio – cheap old man who lived with his servant and his daughter. With the help of his household God he finds the pot of gold and becomes obsessed with keeping it safe. He became selfish and suspicious of everyone. He was scared of marrying his daughter because he didn’t want to give dowry to anyone. He accepted Megadorus proposal because he didn’t ask for dowry. His gold was more important that anything else.
Phaedria – Euclio’s daughter and she is in love with Lyconides. They have a child together and it is believed that they get married at the end
Lyconides – in love with Phaedria. He does not care that she is poor and that her father will give her away without dowry. He tried everything just to be with her and their child.
Household God – he managed the whole situation and played around with the characters because he wanted to teach them the real values of life
BACKGROUND
These works are adaptations of 4th century BCE Greek New Comedy (and perhaps also Middle Comedy) plays with some Latin Comedy additions such as mime and bawdy jokes. The earlier Greek plays already had stock characters and Plautus freely expanded the roles of such staple characters as the cunning slave, the cook, and the parasite, giving them memorable character names into the bargain – for example, Chrysalus (Goldfinger) from Bacchides.
The plots of Plautus’ plays are also stretched to implausibility so as to heighten their comedy. Confusions of identity and misunderstandings between characters are frequently employed for comedic purposes. Many plays are set in a world which is reversed from the norm, as in the Roman Saturnalia festival where, for a brief time, slaves became masters and vice-versa. Hence, in Plautus’ plays, very often, the cunning slave character comes to the aid of a young lover and both get the better of the old master. In addition, the plays often have an ambiguous morality where lovers are unsuitably matched and such characters as prostitutes are not negatively portrayed.
Plautus employs a full range of language from colloquial phrases to technical terms and he frequently uses wordplay, alliteration and puns to deliver a series of devastating linguistical acrobatics. The plays have a great variety of both metre and music too, especially in the cantica segments – operatic arias and duets. Plautus also frequently reminds the audience that they are watching a play (metatheatre) to squeeze even more comedy from his scenes, using such tricks as signalling to the audience exactly how the play is progressing and reminding them that the story is set far away in Greece.
