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• Plautus’ plays are without exception New Comedy palliatae, i.e. Comedies with Greek characters and in Greek dress. As per comedic conventions, the characters are typical stock characters, and the jokes are derived by a combination of verbal wit and comedic situations.
• Titus Maccius Plautus (c. 254-184 B.C.) wrote over 100 comedies, of which 20 survive. All are Latin adaptations of earlier Greek comedies. His source for the Mostellaria, whose title literally means “Ghostly,” was probably a Greek play called the Phasma (“The Ghost”) written by Philemon (c.

1. Plutus Summary
2. Plautus Captivi Summary
3. Plautus Mostellaria Summary
4. Plautus Pseudolus Summary
5. Plautus Persa Summary
6. Plautus Amphitryon Summary

Plautus: Plautus, great Roman comic dramatist, whose works, loosely adapted from Greek plays, established a truly Roman drama in the Latin language. Little is known for certain about the life and personality of Plautus, who ranks with Terence as one of the two great Roman comic dramatists.

Plautus, great Roman comic dramatist, whose works, loosely adapted from Greek plays, established a truly Roman drama in the Latin language. Little is known for certain about the life and personality of Plautus, who ranks with Terence as one of the two great Roman comic dramatists.

Aulularia is a Latin play by the early Roman playwright Titus Maccius Plautus. The title literally means The Little Pot, but some translators provide The Pot of Gold, and the plot revolves around a literal pot of goldwhich the miserlyprotagonist, Euclio, guards zealously. The play’s ending does not survive, though there are indications of how the plot is resolved in later summaries and a few fragments of dialogue.

Plot summary[edit]

Lar Familiaris, the household deity of Euclio, an old man with a marriageable daughter named Phaedria, begins the play with a prologue about how he allowed Euclio to discover a pot of gold buried in his house. Euclio is then shown almost maniacally guarding his gold from real and imagined threats. Unknown to Euclio, Phaedria is pregnant by a young man named Lyconides. Phaedria is never seen on stage, though at a key point in the play the audience hears her painful cries in labor.

Euclio is persuaded to marry his daughter to his rich neighbor, an elderly bachelor named Megadorus, who happens to be the uncle of Lyconides. This leads to much by-play involving preparations for the nuptials. Eventually Lyconides and his slave appear, and Lyconides confesses to Euclio his ravishing of Phaedria. Lyconides’ slave manages to steal the now notorious pot of gold. Lyconides confronts his slave about the theft.

At this point the manuscript breaks off. From surviving summaries of the play, we know that Euclio eventually recovers his pot of gold and gives it to Lyconides and Phaedria, who marry in a happy ending. In the Penguin Classics edition of the play, translator E.F. Watling devised an ending as it might have been originally, based on the summaries and a few surviving scraps of dialogue.^[1] Other writers over the centuries have also written endings for the play, with somewhat varying results (one version was produced by Antonio Urceo in the late 15th century, another by Martinus Dorpius in the early 16th century).

Key themes[edit]

The figure of the miser has been a stock character of comedy for centuries. Plautus does not spare his protagonist various embarrassments caused by the vice, but he is relatively gentle in his satire. Euclio is eventually shown as basically a good-hearted man who has been only temporarily affected by greed for gold.

Jephthah

The play also ridicules the ancient bachelor Megadorus for his dream of marrying the nubile and far younger Phaedria. The silly business of preparing for the marriage provides much opportunity for satire on the laughable lust of an old man for a young woman, in a clever parallel to Euclio’s lust for his gold. Again, Megadorus is eventually shown as sensible and kind-hearted enough to abandon his foolish dream.

Plautus’ frequent theme of clever servants outwitting their supposed superiors finds its place in this play too. Not only does Lyconides’ slave manage to filch Euclio’s beloved gold, but also Euclio’s housemaid Staphyla is shown as intelligent and kind in her attitude toward the unfortunately pregnant Phaedria.

Adaptations[edit]

Another play, Querolus seu Aulularia, was at one time ascribed to Plautus but is now believed to be a late 4th-century Latin imitation. It provides a kind of sequel in which Euclio dies abroad and informs a parasite of the hiding place of his treasurer, which the latter is to share with Euclio's son Querolus.

During the Renaissance there were a number of adaptations of the Aulularia. One of the earliest was Giovanni Battista Gelli's La Sporta (The Basket), which was published in Florence in 1543. A Croatian version by Marin Držić was titled Skup (The Miser, 1555) and set in Dubrovnik. In 1597 Ben Jonson adapted elements of the plot for his early comedy The Case is Altered. At about the same time it was also used by the Danish Hieronymus Justesen Ranch (1539–1607) as the basis for his play Karrig Nidding (The Stingy Miser).

The very successful Dutch play, Warenar, based on Aulularia, was written by Pieter Corneliszoon Hooft and Samuel Coster in 1617. In 1629, the German poet laureate Joannes Burmeister published a Neo-Latin adaptation, also called Aulularia, that reworked Plautus' comedy to a play featuring Achan and Rahab from the biblical Book of Joshua.^[2]Molière's French adaptation, L'Avare of 1668, was even more successful and thereafter served as the basis for dramatic imitations, rather than Plautus' work.^[3]

Translations[edit]

• Edward Holdsworth Sugden, 1893: Aulularia full text
• Henry Thomas Riley, 1912: Aulularia full text
• Paul Nixon, 1916–38: Aulularia full text
• Sir Robert Allison, 1942
• Lionel Casson, 1963
• The Pot of Gold and Other Plays by Plautus, translated and introduced by E.F. Watling, Penguin Classics 1965 ISBN0-14-044149-2
• Palmer Bovie, 1995
• Erich Segal, 1996
• Wolfang de Melo, 2011 ^[4]

References[edit]

Plutus Summary

1. ^Plautus: The Pot of Gold and other plays, London 1965, Google Books
2. ^Fontaine, Michael. 2015. Joannes Burmeister: Aulularia and Other Inversions of Plautus. Leuven: Leuven University Press.
3. ^There is a discussion of Plautus' play and of the various imitations in: John Colin Dunlop, History of Roman literature Volume 1 , London 1823, pp.160 ff
4. ^Plautus; Translated by Wolfgang de Melo (2011). Plautus, Vol. I: Amphitryon; The Comedy of Asses; The Pot of Gold; The Two Bacchises; The Captives. Loeb Classical Library. ISBN0674996534.

External links[edit]

Plautus Summary

• Latin Wikisource has original text related to this article: Aulularia

Plautus Captivi Summary

A Sicilian merchant has two sons, twins named Sosicles and Menaechmus. One day when his sons are seven years old, he takes Menaechmus with him on a business trip to Epidamnus. There Menaechmus is separated from his father and is lost in the city. He is found and adopted by another rich merchant and grows up in Epidamnus. The twins’ father is disconsolate over losing one of his sons and dies not long after the return to Syracuse. The remaining twin’s name is changed to Menaechmus to honor the missing brother.

Menaechmus I (the brothers will henceforth be referred to by Plautus as Menaechmus I, the brother lost in Epidamnus, and Menaechmus II, the Syracuse brother whose name was changed) lives a comfortable life. Though he despises his nagging wife, he enjoys visiting his prostitute Erotium, who lives next door. At the beginning of the play he is bragging to Erotium about the dress he stole from his wife to give to her. She is going to prepare a dinner for him and for Brush/Peniculus, a smarmy parasite who relies on Menaechmus I for good meals.

Plautus Mostellaria Summary

Menaechmus II and his slave Messenio arrive in Epidamnus. They have been traveling for six years, hoping to find Menaechmus II’s brother. Messenio is skeptical, thinking the brother must be dead, but Menaechmus II stubbornly insists he will not accept this until there is proof. Messenio warns him of this town, which is filled with harlots and swindlers.

Plautus Pseudolus Summary

The bulk of the play consists of numerous incidents of mistaken identity. Menaechmus II apparently does not think of the possibility that his twin might actually live here when he is constantly mistaken for someone he is not by the Wife, the Father, the Doctor, Erotium, and Brush. Menaechmus I, for his part, reaps the chaos stemming from conversations he does not remember happening when they were actually conducted by his brother.

Plautus Persa Summary

Plautus Amphitryon Summary

When both brothers and Messenio are together in one place finally, Messenio points out the similarities and asks questions of Menaechmus I to ascertain his true identity. The brothers embrace and decide to live in Syracuse together. Messenio earns his freedom, first and illegitimately from Menaechmus I, whose life he saved when Father tried to commit him to Doctor’s care for his “madness,” and then second and legitimately from Menaechmus II, who is pleased with Messenio’s confirmation of Menaechmus I’s identity.