CLAS 1140 Lecture Notes - Lecture 8: Philogelos, Plautus, Dougga
Document Summary
Comoedia palliata ( comedy in greek clothes : latin adaptations of greek plays, dramatic setting: greek world (ex. Features: domestic comedies (family sitcoms, focus on relationships (father/sons, masters/slaves, etc. , cast: all male, costumes: realistic, masks, stock characters: clever slave, parasite, young man, pimp, old man/father, nagging wife, braggart soldier, prostitute. Stock character = character development not needed, the masks tells the audience right away what character they are: stages: wooden, first permanent stone theater in rome (55 bc, theatres: blueprint, orange, merida (spain), bosra (syria), dougga (tunisia) Actors had to talk really loud: acting was not as prestigious for romans. Dramatic techniques: prevalence of eavesdropping, breaking of dramatic illusion , time compression, mistaken identity ( comedy of errors ) Major playwrights: plautus (205-185 bc): 21 plays extant (brothers manaechmus, swagg. Soldier: terence (190-158 bc): african slave freedman: 6 plays (170-160 bc, philogelos (4th c ad): roman joke-book (265 organized thematically)
