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The Originality of Plautus' Casina

1989; Johns Hopkins University Press; Volume: 110; Issue: 1 Linguagem: Inglês

10.2307/294954

1086-3168

Shawn O’Bryhim,

Theater, Performance, and Music History

Throughout the history of Plautine scholarship, there has been a great deal of disagreement over how much of substance Plautus altered in his Greek originals.Although many scholars were originally of the opinion that "everything artistically satisfying is Greek in origin, everything defective and weak is Roman botching,"' today it is recognized that Plautus often made significant contributions to his sources.It is my intention to further this view by demonstrating that, in the Casina, Plautus carefully selected portions of two comedies, made major changes in them, blended in his own material, and molded the results into a coherent, tightly constructed plot.The end result bears little resemblance to the prologue's description of the Casina's Greek original, Diphilus' Kirlpobjievoi.Plautus transformed it into a completely different play-a play that shows signs even of genius.It has been suggested that the Casina is essentially a translation of its Greek original and that Plautus, if he made any changes at all, did nothing to alter the original's plot.2A careful examination of the play reveals a number of clues which show that Plautus not only made substantial cuts in his Greek original, but also many significant additions to it.3Lines 31-34 of the prologue give us the title and author of the original: KAipobjiuevol vocatur haec comoedia graece, latine Sortientes.Diphilus hanc graece scripsit, postid rursum denuo latine Plautus cum latranti nomine.Scholars have assumed that the adverb denuo is merely a pleonasm4 and that Plautus5 is saying that he wrote it again, l H. W. Prescott, "The Interpretation of Roman Comedy," CP 14 (1916) 145, writing in opposition to this view. 2