Delayed meetings in Menander, Plautus and Terence

Abstract

Comparison of recently discovered fragments of Menander's 'Dis Exapaton' and Plautus' adaptation 'Bacchides' shows that Plautus has made a number of changes to the original. Among them is the extension of the time it takes for one character, Pistoclerus, to meet another, Mnesilochus. Delays in meeting of this kind are the subject of this thesis and are analysed with a view to comparing how they are handled by Menander, Plautus and Terence. Passages involving delayed meetings are classified according to reasons for delay, thus: i) Those arising because one character (or characters) fails to see another; ii) Those arising because both characters (or groups of characters) fail to see each other; iii) Those arising in spite of both characters (or groups of characters) seeing each other. With regard to verisimilitude situation i) is not unlikely, ii) is less likely and iii) quite artificial. Broadly speaking, the majority of passages from each dramatist is covered by the first situation, though there is a somewhat higher proportion of artificial delays in Plautus. Within each group passages are divided up according to length on the assumption that the longer delay lasts the more verisimilitude is strained. In this respect there is quite a significant difference between Menander and Terence on the one hand and Plautus on the other. Plautus' delays are on the whole longer and some even exceed one hundred lines - a figure only remotely approached in the others. What is more, an analysis of the effects of delay passages shows that the content of Plautus' long delays (forty lines and over) is normally inorganic to the play as a - whole and devoted to humour for its own sake, whereas even the longest delays in Menander have a relevant dramatic effect as do Terence's, with a few exceptions. In the final chapter phrases used to bring about meeting are briefly analysed. Plautus is seen to use meeting as an opportunity to make jokes often by employing and exploiting formulas of meeting. Sometimes he uses a contrived, symmetrical style of speech. Menander is quite realistic in his handling of meetings, using brief phrases and sometimes dispensing with greetings altogether. Terence employs certain formulas but hardly ever exploits them for humourous effect. In this respect, as in most others, he is closer to the more realistic Menander.