New Classification of Roman Comedy Characters: A Study on Contrasts and Correspondences | Study notes Theatre

GRAECO-LATINA BRUNENSIA 19, 2014, 2

ŠÁRKA HURBÁNKOVÁ

(MASARYK UNIVERSITY, BRNO)

REPERTOIRE OF CHARACTERS IN ROMAN COMEDY:

NEW CLASSIFICATION APPROACHES

What is Roman comedy? Which ancient theatre forms can be included under this term? How

to classify the characters of palliatae, togatae, atellanae and mimi, having mostly complete

texts of Plautus’s and Terence’s palliatae available on the one hand, and palliatae, togatae,

atellanae and mimi preserved only fragmentally on the other? This study presents a method

of classifying a repertoire of characters in Roman comedy which I used in my disserta-

tion. Complete texts were analyzed in terms of contrasts and correspondences, allowing

me to determine the correspondences and similarities not only among dramatic characters

or types separately in Plautus’s and separately in Terence’s comedies, but also point out

certain correspondences and similarities in the entire historical corpus of texts mapping

aspecificperiod orgenre.Therefore,Idetermined structuralfunctionsof individualtypes

and their roles in the corpus of texts, which, at the same time, provided me with a summary

of typical traits of various types of characters, manifested in antagonism or cooperation

with other types of characters. I compared this set of “words-signs” with words describing

the characters from fragments, using clear arrangement into contingency tables. Due to this

comparisonandotherpartialfindingsenabledbythismethodandtoolsused,itwaspossible

to describe, at least partially, not only a repertoire of characters of individual comic forms,

but also compare them with each other and determine how the “dramatis personae” of Ro-

man comedy changed diachronically.

Key words: Roman comedy, atellana, palliata, togata, mimus, repertoire of characters, con-

trasts and correspondences, Ancient theatre, structural functions, comic situation, type and

typification, stock characters, personae oscae, qui pro quo, disguise, dramatis personae

What is Roman comedy? Which ancient theatre forms can be included

under this term? If we want to define the concept of “Roman comedy” ob-

jectively, we especially come across these two pitfalls: the inconsistency

of terms which were already in ancient times used to define various theatre

forms, and the accessibility of the material under study that is nowadays

available.

New Classification of Roman Comedy Characters: A Study on Contrasts and Correspondences, Study notes of Theatre

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GRAECO-LATINA BRUNENSIA 19, 2014, 2

(MASARYK UNIVERSITY, BRNO)ŠÁRKA HURBÁNKOVÁ

REPERTOIRE OF CHARACTERS IN ROMAN COMEDY: NEW CLASSIFICATION APPROACHES

under this term? If we want to define the concept of “Roman comedy” ob jectively, we especially come across these two pitfalls: the inconsistency^ What is Roman comedy? Which ancient theatre forms can be included-

of terms which were already in ancient times used to define various theatre forms, and the accessibility of the material under study that is nowadays available.

4 In the 20th century, classical philologists analyzed in detail preservedŠÁRKA HURBÁNKOVÁ

Plautus’s and Terence’s texts, which have become representatives of Ro man comedy. In fact, these texts represent only one of the comic theatre forms with Latin texts which were performed on the territory of ancient-

Rome. adapted form (characters and settings remain Greek), while atellana Fabula palliata, and mimi were born right in the Italic environment (as for Latin inspired by the new Attic comedy, was a fabula togata rather,

mimus fortunately, Lack of material, Italic character and, in the case of, we need to consider the possible influence of Greek togatae , atellanae and mimi have survived only in fragments. mimi and perhaps also mimus ). Un-

atellanae ary one condemned these three comic forms to be examined mostly sepa rately as less important., the prevalence of the improvisational component over the liter--

scientific research, but none of these studies have applied a ysis of structural functions and relationships to the dramatic characters of^ Plautus’s and Terence’s^ palliatae^ have been the subject of a concrete anal^ number of-

these texts. mostly discussed only in relevant editions and a published in the 20th century.^1 Fragments of palliatae 2 Nonetheless, there is no study available, try, togatae , atellanae few separate studies were and mimi have been-

ing to compare the characters of all four Roman comic forms based on their character traits observable even in the fragmented material, although there have been some efforts recently to classify Roman dramatic genres within

a tation and offer a broader context – as a The main aim of this study is to present a new method to classify the characters of Roman comedy. whole influenced by various factors. method that I used in my disser^3 - 4

6 1. The analysis of contrasts and correspondences allows me to determineŠÁRKA HURBÁNKOVÁ

correspondences and similarities not only among dramatic characters separately in Plautus’s and separately in Terence’s comedies; it can also suggest certain correspondences and similarities in the entire his-

2. torical corpus of texts mapping aThe definition of structural functions in drama is determined by a curring role in the text corpus.^ certain period or genre.^10 re-

atively young: they started to be developed in the middle of the last centu ry.^ Methods of theatre semiotics analyzing characters and situations are rel 11 J. A. G reiMaS (1966) borrowed binary oppositional categories from--

structural semantics applied in linguistics and used them in literature. He was inspired by a theorist E. Souriau and introduced the term “actant” and “actantial role” Russian thinker V. J. propp (1968) and a French theatre

into literature. In drama, actant actually is the action of an acting charac ter, that is, a attribute a certain role to characters within the whole work or corpus of function according to propp (1968: 25). These functions then-

texts. rizing the structure of drama to actants and the characterization of charac ters only by actantial roles, and suggested understanding all expressions of^12 P. haMon (1977: 124–125) saw limitations of the analysis summa--

a reflected as a value of a character in situations as a character. According to him, the complex nature of a number of distinctive features, defining the importance and blank sign or a moving morpheme, which is character is

then influenced by several factors associated under this sign. acters is subject to typification: dramatic characters are defined by certain It should be noted that the repertoire of Plautus’s and Terence’s char^13 -

types that are superior to concrete characters. 10 lukeš (1978: 184–185) argues that valuable findings can be obtained by conducting^14

REPERTOIRE OF CHARACTERS IN ROMAN COMEDY: NEW CLASSIFICATION …^7

I texts under study. This enabled me to obtain a analyzed types of characters, not concrete characters, in the corpus of^ This means that in terms of relationships and the definition of functions, sum of characteristic signs

of individual types, manifested in antagonism or cooperation with signs of other types. Subsequently, I and their roles in the corpus of texts. was able to determine the functions of types 15 This could be represented schemat-

ically, as follows: RELATIONSHIP SIGN MANIFESTATION SITUATION

TYPE1 (who) SERVUS^ SIGN OF TYPE 1 Servus^ Sign manifestation of type 1 – Plotting intrigue Function accor-

TYPE2 (with^ ding to the actor^ PLOTTING

whom) ADULESCENS^ SIGN OF TYPE 2 erus^ Sign manifestation of type 2 – Asking for help

chides a contrast relationship “slave – master”. In this situation, the^ Here is an example of a in which the Servus^ concrete situation from Plautus’s comedytype and the Adulescens type are presented in Servus^ Bac type -

appears as a ulescens function-manifestation of the actor: type). The whole situation can be called “Plotting” based on the slave who plots intrigue at the request of his master (the Ad-

RELATIONSHIP: SIGNS: (concrete characters: Chrysalus – Mnesilochus) servus – erus Servus – Adulescens (slave – master)

MANIFESTATION: SITUATION: Plaut. Bacch. 728–753: Quick-witted Chrysalus plots a Plotting Plotting intrigue – asking for help second plan to

con Mnesilochus’s father out of his money and dictates to the surprised Mnesilochus a CH. Cape stilum propere et tabellas tu as tibi. MN. Quid postea? letter to his father, warning the old man to be vigilant:

CH. Quod iubeboscribitoistic.namproptereauolo Scribere, ut pater cognoscat literas, quandolegat. Scribe. MN. Quid scribam? CH. Salutem tuo patri uerbis tuis.

PI.Quid sipotiusmorbum mortem scribat?ideritrectius. 15 The examined corpus of texts includes 21 Plautus’s and 6 Terence’s comedies. Alto-

REPERTOIRE OF CHARACTERS IN ROMAN COMEDY: NEW CLASSIFICATION …^9

types, the most frequent actors of structural functions of the type, which mostly appear in a in contrast to the social relation “ relation to the servus – erus Adulescens ” (slave – master). Examining type (Young man) Servus (Slave)

Plautus’s and Terence’s comedies separately, we can see that both authors employ these types with similar frequency in various situations, but they differ in the type which takes the leading role: while in Plautus, the leading

actor is the man). In addition, further characteristics of both types (summaries of signs and manifestations of types in situations) very between the two authors: e.g. Servus type (Slave), in Terence it is the Adulescens type (Young

“Terence’s sons” via a father only in Terence’s palliatae; plotting prostitute can be found only in mediator; a^18 lustful father^ try to deceive their father directly, “Plautus’s sons” only 19 appears only in Plautus’s palliatae, fooled

Plautus, while insisting prostitute only in Terence; angry wife appeared only in Plautus, while blamed wife, often wrongly, in Terence; only “Plau tus’s parasites” deceive, but also help, “Terence’s parasites” mainly threat--

en, etc. Generally, based on the distinguishing features of gender, social status, generational and kinship affiliation, which resulted from contrasts and correspondences among dramatic characters of the examined corpus of

texts, we could divide characters into masters, servants and relatives, with a category of men and women superior to them. The question how to apply the obtained findings to the fragments remains. 20

The acquired signs are actually substantives denoting a zation of types in the surviving texts. In the previous analysis, I “words-signs” for each type, which can be compared with words describ specific characteri got a set of--

ing characters in the fragments. describe, at least partially, not only a comic forms, but also compare them with each other and determine how the^21 Hypothetically, it would be possible to repertoire of characters of individual

“dramatis personae” 18 The sign filius (son) is one of the main signs of the of Roman comedy changed diachronically. Adulescens (Young man) type.^22

10 When selecting fractions and titles of the surviving fragments of RomanŠÁRKA HURBÁNKOVÁ

comic forms, I istic features, i.e. personality traits, whether congenital or acquired, wider family relations, names and occupations. focused on words describing characters and their character 23 -

tus’s and Terence’s comedies with the “words-signs” from fragmented texts of authors of all comic variants, which have been preserved the best: Gnae^ Therefore, I^ compared the signs of types defined by the analysis of Plau--

us Naevius, Caecilius Statius, Sextus Turpilius, Titinius, Lucius Afranius, Titus Quinctius Atta, Lucius Pomponius Bononiensis, Novius, Decimus Laberius and Publilius Syrus.

ly of three authors of Turpilius), we can confirm that the repertoire of characters of^ By comparing these findings with the surviving fragmented texts main palliatae from various periods (Naevius, Caecilius, palliatae did-

not differ significantly and that the older authors were inspired by Greek models at least when naming their texts according to their protagonists, while the younger authors could also influence each other. My analysis

demonstrates the presence of at least one “word-sign” defining the main type of all authors, the occurrence of similar “words-signs” characterizing the relationships and character traits and names of the titles of palliatae of

younger authors similar to those of Plautus’s and Terence’s female characters speak more on the stage; they were also more often pro It seems that the authors of togatae (Titinius, Afranius, Atta) let their palliatae. -

tagonists of their pieces than in other comic forms: in fragments and titles of forms with feminine endings. When comparing “words-signs” with find togatae I noticed a larger number of substantives, adjectives and verb-

12 By comparing the frequency of signs (defined from Plautus’s and TerŠÁRKA HURBÁNKOVÁ -

ence’s texts) across the examined fragmentary material, I lowing concrete findings: • Characters characterized as the Servus type (Slave) probably appeared arrived at the fol-

in all comic forms, since I ( most of them in Pomponius’s servus , conservus and rusticus found the most frequent signs of this type atellanae ) at least in one author of each form,.

cilius’s curred more frequently in ellanae palliatae and mimi and Afranius’swas much lower and only one of the synonyms was palliatae togatae and togatae. The sign, its occurrence in erus/dominus oc at - -

sign probably played an important role, mainly among the dramatic char acters of pater atellanae is the most frequent one out of all “words-signs”). This type (various indication of the sign “old”: senex , vetu - -

lus were not significant (rare occurrence of the sign period; the absence of most of the signs defining this type, especially and senica ), while in mimus , characters with this characterization senex in the oldest

in all comic forms, most of them in the youngest author of Turpilius. palliatae ,

REPERTOIRE OF CHARACTERS IN ROMAN COMEDY: NEW CLASSIFICATION …^13

found sporadically in Titinius’s and Afranius’s palliata togatae , signs of theand in one Laberius’s Parasitus type (Parasite) a mimus , signs of the togatae few times in Leno and Caecilius’s type (Man palliatae ,

running the brothel) sporadically in Turpilius’s gata in one Pomponius’s and Pomponius’s atellana atellana , signs of the, signs of the Cocus Miles palliata type (Cook) once in type (Soldier) only, Titinius’s to-

Naevius’s Lena signs of the type (Woman running the brothel) in one Trabea’s palliata Piscator , Titinius’s type (Fisherman) once in Pomponius’s togata , Laberius’s mimus , signs of the palliata atellana , and

ulescens probably appeared frequently in all forms of Roman comedy, since, in addition to general substantives, the words denoting their characteris (sign amicus ), Meretrix (sign meretrix ) and Virgo (sign virgo )-

In conclusion, we can determine how the repertoire of characters in Ro^ tic features occurred in fragments and titles of all comic forms most^ frequently.^30 -

man comedy could change diachronically. First, its distinctive feature proba bly was typification, which attributed typical features to characters: character types had similar characteristics in palliatae and togatae , although female-

roles also occupied a Later, the comic force of typifying appeared also in atellanae, but the types already had concrete typical names in these texts: stock characters significant position among the characters of togatae“perso-.

nae oscae” features of people from the poorest classes, reflecting the Italic environment from which they emerged. The comic effect in could associate under each name comic character and physical atellanae may have been

achieved by widely in Plautus’s play an important role: types defined using Plautus’s and Terence’s texts in qui pro quo palliatae and disguise, which were dramatic resources used. It seems that typification eventually ceases to

mimi Characters in apparently are not important, as we can see very few similarities there. mimi could be the closest to the common people of atellanae :