Table Of ContentCAMBRIDGE GREEK AND LATIN CLASSICS
GENERAL EDITORS
E.J.
KENNEY
Fellow of PeterhouseC, ambridge
AND
MRS P. E. EASTERLING
Fellow of Newnham College,C ambridge
PLAUTUS
CA§INA
EDITED BY
W. T. MAcCAR Y
AssistantP roftssoro f Classiu in
tlu Univnsity of Texas
AND
M. M. WILLCOCK
Profu sor of Classiu in
tlu Uniwrsityo f Lancasur
CAMBRIDGE UNIVERSITY PRESS
CAMBRIDGE
LONDON• NEW YORK• MELBOURNE
Published by the Syndics of the Cambridge University Press
The Pitt Building, Trumpington Street, Cambridge CB 2 1 RP
Bentley House, Euston Road, London 1 2
200 NW DB
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© Cambridge University Press 1976
ISBN: o 521 21041 o hard covers
ISBN: o 521 29022 8 paperback
First published 1976
Printed in Great Britain
at the
University Printing House, Cambridge
(Euan Phillips, University Printer)
CONTENTS
Preface page vii
Introduction I
I GreekN ew Comedy (
(a) Its relationt o previousd rama 3
(h ) Its relationt o reality
5
(c ) Its relationt o universalp atterns of comedy
7
2 Roman comedy 9
3 Plautus 13
(a) Comparedt o Menander 13
(h ) Comparedt o Diphilus 16
(c) Comparedt o reality 17
4 Casina 21
(a) Production
21
(b ) Language 23
(c) Imagery 27
(d) Structurea nd themes
34
T. MA CCI PLA VTI CASINA 41
Commentary
95
Appendices
1 The scansiono f Plautint verse 211
2 The text 233
Bibliography 236
Indexes
Latin words
1
General
2
[ V]
PREFACE
Our association started in the relationship of tutor (M.M.W.) and
pupil (W.T.M.) at Sidney Su~sex College, Cambridge, in the years
1963-5, and continued when we were colleagues at the University of
Minnesota in 1971. It was there that the work for this book began,
in a jointly given graduate seminar. Responsibility for the finished
product is divided, in that the Introduction is the work of W.T.M.,
the text and metre (including the Appendices) that of M.M.W., who
also composed the first draft of the Commentary. All parts, however,
have been continuously discussed between us, and there is little or
nothing here now with which either would disagree.
We wish to thank particularly Professor Kenney and Mrs Easterling,
the Cambridge editors, for most conscientious and careful reading of
the typescript and countless helpful suggestions; also Mr J.C. B. Foster
of the University of Liverpool, who read and commented on most of
the Commentary at an early stage, and Mr R.H. Martin of Leeds,
who did the same for the Introduction and Appendix 2. Professor
Chauncey E. Finch of the University of St Louis kindly helped with
information about manuscript readings; Professor F. H. Sandbach of
Cambridge communicated a characteristically clear-sighted argument
about the speaker of line 392, and Miss Susan Hines, then of the
University of Minnesota, convinced us about the speaker of the
second half of 814. We are indebted also, for speedy provision
of microfilms or photocopies of manuscripts, to the Vatican and
Ambrosian Libraries, the University Library at Leiden, and the
British Museum.
April 1975 W.T.M.
M.M.W.
For the full titles of works cited by author's name only, see
NOTE.
the Bibliography, pp. 236--8.
l vii l
INTRODUCTION
1. GREEK NEW COMEDY
The plays of Plautus arc not completely original crcatiorns, but
adaptations into Latin, for the Roman stage, of Greek comedies first
produced in Athens. Attic comedy is conventionally divided into
three periods: Old Comedy, Middle Comedy and New Comedy. Old
Comedy was the work of various poets active during the fifth century
B.c.; only nine plays of Aristophanes have survived from this period,
though the work of Eupolis, Cratinus and others is known to us
through fragments. The beginning of Middle Comedy is set either at
the end of the fifth century or in 388 at the death of Aristophanes,
whose last two extant plays, &cleJia,z.uJaea nd PluluJ, differ in im
portant respects from his earlier plays and are considered to mark the
transition to this second period. In addition, we have fragments of
plays by Alexis, Anaxandrides, Antiphanes and others. The first
production of Menander, in 321, is taken as the beginning of New
Comedy, which extends to the middle of the third century, when our
evidence for activity on the comic stage in Athens comes to an end.
From this period we have one complete play, and five others more or
less complete, of Menander, and fragments of plays by Diphilus,
Philemon and others. All of Plautus' plays are thought to have been
adapted from New Comedy originals. 1
Greek New Comedy is a dramatic form which is in some respects
quite foreign 'to modern audiences and in others essentially the same
as much of the comedy which is even now being produced. We can
reconstruct the plots of about fifty of these plays. Generally there are
two young lovers who are separated by some kind of barrier: the girl
is thought to be a slave or a foreigner and therefore unmarriageable;
the boy is not acceptable to her father; there are rival lovers or
previously arranged marriages. The action of the play is concen-
1 },'or earlier dating of thr originals of thr Amphit,uo and the Menarchmi,
sec Webster 67 -97.
[ I ]
2 INTRODUCTION
trated on removing these barriers so that the lovers can be married.
This is accomplished by recognition and reconciliation between
estranged members of the family or changes in attitude which un
expected new circumstances bring about. These 'barrier comedies'
tend to end in some form of marriage: usually the young lovers gain
their parents' approval for an actual marriage; if the plot turns on a
misunderstanding between husband and wife, there is reconciliation;
if the girl is in fact unmarriageable under Attic law, her arrangement
with the boy is nevertheless stabilized by· a guarantee of financial
support from his father. We see in this achievement of the young
lovers a promise of new life and fertility, and a restatement of the
values of social life: people can and should get along with each other,
and, when they understand each other's good intentions, they do.
wsx a:ptev av
Menander put this succinctly: tcrr• av6pc.>nas, av6p(l,)1TQS
ij (fr. 484), 'man is a thing of grace and goodness, so long as he
follows his nature'. The barriers are perversions of human nature;
youth triumphs over age, love over money, charity and goodness over
selfishness and aggressiveness.
There are complications to this main action, and characters
subordinate to the young lovers and their parents. We find various
professional types - soldiers, courtesans, cooks, parasites, pimps,
doctors, money-lenders - in addition to household slaves and family
friends. The social conventions which make the plots work seem
strange to us: babies are abandoned and raised by strangers or stolen
by pirates and sold into slavery; free women of the upper classes are
secluded from male company and a variety of professional women
fill their place; members of wealthy families have no occupations, but
live off their lands, which are worked by slaves. We seldom find
serious social criticism in the plays, nor indeed does our appreciation
of them depend essentially on knowledge of the times in which they
were written. Nevertheless we should know that there is some relation
between their conventions and reality. So, too, we should see New
Comedy as a development - the final development - in the long
history of Greek drama; it did not spring suddenly from the context
of fourth-century society, but grew out of the combined traditions of
earlier comedy, tragedy and satyr play.
