Philo Monologue from The Dramatic Values in Plautus

From The Dramatic Values in Plautus by Wilton W. (Wilton Wallace) Blancké

male · comedic · 1:18 min

((Aside.)) Now for that speech, Scapha, I'll give you some present before the day is out--and so on for a whole long scene. The quips are amusing in an evident burlesque spirit. Such a scene was easily done on the broad Roman stage, whether it was a heritage from the use of the orchestra in Greek comedy, as LeGrand thinks, (135) or not. In similar vein, clever by-play on the part of the cunning Palaestrio would make a capital scene out of (Mil. 1037 ff.) (136) A perfectly unnatural but utterly amusing scene of the same type is Amph. 153-262, where Mercury apostrophizes his fists, and the quaking Sosia (cross-stage) is frightened to a jelly at the prospect of his early demise. In Cap. 966, Ilegio, staid gentleman that he is, introduces an exceeding "rough" remark in the middle of a serious scene. The aside of Pseudolus in (Ps. 636 f.) could be rendered as a good-natured burlesque as follows: "HARPAX. What's your name?

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