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WHAT HAVE THE ROMANS
EVER DONE FOR US?
Greek New Comedy and Roman Theatre
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“Comedy is Tragedy plus time”
Woody Allen
“The world is a tragedy for those who feel and a
comedy for those that think “
Horace Walpole
“Comedy is simply a funny way of being serious.”
Peter Ustinov
“Dying is easy, comedy is hard.”
Edmund Gwenn
Jack Shall Have Jill
Naught shall go ill
The Man Shall have his mare
again
and all shall be well
A Midsummer Night’s Dream
What does Comedy Mean?
•
Komos - A ritual drunken procession on the 1st day of
the Dionysia
•
Kommodia - Laughter provoking (literally any play with
a happy ending)
The Three ages of Comedy
•
Old Comedy (480-440 B.C.) - Mainly the 11 plays of
Aristophanes
•
Middle Comedy - No plays from this period exist
•
New Comedy ( ends 260 B.C.) - only fragments exist
(mainly Menander)
Aristophanes
•
Born 447 B.C.
•
40 plays - only 11 survive
•
The Peloponnesian War
•
462-431 Pericles in charge of the assembly - creates
subject states for Athens
•
Sparta declares war in 431
Aristophanes
•
Cleon succeeds Pericles
•
War ‘concludes’ in 421, then restarts in the same year
•
410 - Athens abandons democracy for eight months
•
405 - Naval disaster forces Athens to surrender - loses
all overseas possessions
•
The glory days are over
Aristophanes wrote comedies during this
period.
why?
Aristophanes
•
Gives the chorus a distinctive character (Wasps, Frogs,
Clouds)
•
Makes an advantage out of the convention that once on,
the chorus never leave the stage
•
Chorus often stands in opposition to the main characters
Brief Roman History
509 B.C
Etruscan (from Etruria) ruler was
expelled, and Rome became a
republic (just as Athens became a
democracy).
Roman theatre and festivals highly
influenced by Etruscan practices
Brief Roman History
by 345 B.C
• There were over 175 festivals a year
240 B.C
• The beginnings of Roman theatre
recorded
• The first record of drama at the
ludi Romani (Roman Festival or
Roman Games).
Roman Festivals
• Held in honor of the gods, but much
less religious than the Greeks
• Performances at festivals probably
paid for by the state.
• Were often lengthy and included a
series of plays or events, and probably
had prizes awarded tp those who put
extra money in.
Roman Festivals
• Acting troupes (perhaps several a day)
put on theatre events.
• Festivals were sometimes repeated,
since whenever any irregularity in the
rituals occurred, the entire festival,
including the plays, had to be
repeated. (known as instauratio)
Roman Festivals
ludi Romani
• oldest of the official festivals
• held in September and honored
Jupiter
• regular performance of comedy
and tragedy began in 364 B.C.
Roman Theatre
• Borrowed Greek ideas and “improved”
upon them
• Topics less philosophical
• Entertainment tended to be grandiose,
sentimental, diversionary
Roman Theatre
• Included more than drama :
•
acrobatics
•
gladiators
•
jugglers
•
athletics
•
chariot races
•
naumachia (sea battles)
• boxing
• venationes (animal fights)
Roman Theatre
3 Major Influences
• Greek Drama
• Etruscan influences, which emphasized
circus-like elements
• Fabula Atellana – which introduced
FARCE (Atella was near Naples).
Roman Theatre
Farce
•
Short improvised farces, with stock characters,
similar costumes and masks
•
based on domestic life or mythology
•
•
burlesque, parody
Most popular during the 1st century B.C., then
frequency declined
Roman Theatre
Farce
• Probably was the foundation for
commedia dell ‘Arte
• Productions included “stock”
characters:
Stock Characters
•
Adulescens: the young, rich, love-struck and none too brave hero; he tends to bemoan
his fate and requires backup
•
Senex: the old man. He has several incarnations: a father, a miser, too strict, too soft,
foolishly in love with a younger woman, etc. He usually comes up short in the end.
•
Leno: the unabashedly amoral, money- hungry proprietor of the brothel.
•
Miles Gloriosus: a braggart, self-absorbed soldier; considers himself handsome &
brave; in reality he is stupid, cowardly, & gullible.
Stock Characters
•
Parasitus: a greedy beggar
•
Servi: the clever servant/slave; talkative; loyal; engages
in tricks and comedy; usually the largest part in the
play; drives the plot; often the one who finds the truth
out at the end of the play; tendency to use alliteration &
rhythmic speech
•
Ancilla: a maid or nurse of no particular age; usually a
minor character used to move the plot by presenting
information or helping to develop another character;
sometimes a messenger.
Stock Characters
•
Matrona: the mother; loves her children, but is shrewd
& temperamental towards her husband.
•
Meretrix: (prostitute): either a mercenary or devoted.
The first type is older or more experienced and has
seen a lot. The second type is truly in love with the
Adulescens.
•
Virgo: the young maiden; beautiful and virtuous with
little personality; treated as a prize.
Roman Theatre
Pantomime
• solo dance, with music (lutes,
pipes, cymbals) and a chorus.
• Used masks
• The story-telling was usually
mythology or historical stories,
usually serious but sometimes
comic.
Roman Theatre
Mime
• overtook after 2nd century A.D.
• The Church did not like Mime
• Most common attributes of mime:
• Spoken
• Usually short
• Sometimes elaborate casts and
spectacle
Late Roman Theatre
• Serious or comic (satiric)
• No masks
• Had women
• Violence and sex depicted literally
(Heliogabalus, ruled 218-222 A.D.,
ordered realistic sex)
• Mocked Christianity
Roman Comedy
Characteristics of Roman
Comedy
• Chorus was abandoned
• No act or scene divisions
• Concerned everyday, domestic
affairs
• Action placed in the street
Roman Comedy
Material from only 2 playwrights
survived
• Platus (c. 254-184 B.C.)
• Terence (195 or 185-159 B.C.)
Roman Comedy
Platus (c. 254-184 B.C.)
• Very popular.
• Plays include: Pot of Gold, The
Menaechmi, Braggart Warrior
• All based on Greek New
Comedies, probably, none of
which has survived
Roman Comedy
Platus (c. 254-184 B.C.)
• Added Roman allusions, Latin
dialog, witty jokes
• varied poetic meters
• Developed Slapstick & Songs
Plautus
•
First Professional Dramatist
•
Began as an actor in Atellan Farces
•
A very ‘self aware’ playwright
The Brothers Menachmus
•
The success of this play depends on:
•
The Construction of the plot
•
The use of dramatic irony - we know more than the
characters
•
The audience’s ability to predict the inevitable disasters
Roman Tragedy
Characteristics of Roman
Tragedy
• 5 acts/episodes divided by choral
odes
• included elaborate speeches
• interested in morality
• unlike Greeks, they depicted
violence on stage
Roman Tragedy
Characteristics of Roman
Tragedy
• characters dominated by a single
passion which drives them to doom (ex:
obsessiveness or revenge)
• developed technical devices such as:
soliloquies, asides, confidants
• interest in supernatural and human
connections
Roman Tragedy
Seneca (5 or 4 B.C. – 65 A.D.)
• only playwright of tragedy whose plays
survived
• Nine extant tragedies, five adapted from
Euripides (Gr.)
• Though considered to be inferior,
Seneca had a strong effect on later
dramatists.
Roman Tragedy
Seneca (5 or 4 B.C. – 65 A.D.)
• WroteThe Trojan Women, Media,
Oedipus, Agamemnon, etc., which were
all based on Greek originals
• His plays were probably closet
dramas—never presented, or even
expected to be.
Seneca
•
Tutored young Nero, who later became emperor
•
A respected statesman and philosopher, as well as
dramatist
•
Falsely accused of trying to assassinate Nero;
sentenced to imperial “suicide”