Encounters with Latin Texts: Week 9: Roman Laughter: Comedy and Satire:

What makes something funny?

• Subversive 

• Comedy is that which should not be said out loud- Freud

Write out a section in Plato’s Philebus where humour is discussed:

Socrates: Next, then, consider the nature of the ridiculous.

Protarchus: Please proceed.

Soc.: The ridiculous is in its main aspect a kind of vice which

gives its name to a condition; and it is that part of vice in

general which involves the opposite of the condition

mentioned in the inscription at Delphi.

Pro.: You mean “Know thyself,” Socrates?

Soc.: Yes; and the opposite of that, in the language of the

inscription, would evidently be not to know oneself at all.

What are the characters saying humour is, in this section?

Humour is a vice that comes from not fully understanding yourself

Write the second section of the discussion between Socrates and Protarchus:

How are these characters discussing humour?

This is drawing on the initial thought of humour being a lack of perceiving yourself but it goes on to be a crawl thing, unaware that the thing a person is laughing about is them e.g. laughing at someone uglier than you but the person laughing is also not physically attractive

How does Plato view humour?

Humour is a vice -> laughing at someones self deception (about their wealth, looks, wisdom etc) is taking joy in  a vice: ignorance -> malice is morally objectionable

What did Aristophanes believe about humour?

Aristophanes believes that humour is a lack of self control and humour can cause pain, when the humour is based in ridicule. He goes on to say that there is a distinction between wit and ridicule 

Where could you find an example of these humour theories in practice?

Mart. 12.61

Write out Mart. 12.61

You are afraid, Ligurra, of my writing verses

against you, a brief, lively poem, and you long

to seem worthy of such an apprehension.

But idle is your fear and idle your desire.

Libyan lions roar at bulls,

they do not trouble butterflies.

I advise you, if you are anxious to be read of,

to look for some boozy poet of the dark archway

who writes verses with rough charcoal or crumbling

chalk which folk read while they shit.

This brow of yours is not for marking with my brand.

What is Martial essentially saying in this poem?

Martial is essentially stating that he is took good to write about he person the poem is directed at, he states that he should find another lesser poet to write about him

What is this attack in poetry analogised to?

This attack in poetry in analogised to a physical assault about lions, sense of humour in that being insulted over poetry you dont actually lose anything

What does the swearing in the poem create?

Slight release of tension when he swears, this could obtain humour and cause nervous laughter

Who does Martial liken himself to in this poem?

Martial is likening himself to the poets who write drunk in toilets as he writes about this person despite repeatedly stating that he wouldn’t

How does Martial view himself in this poem?

• Martial doesn't offten seem to value his poetry highly, but here he describes himself as a libya lion, humour from context we have about the Martial 

What kind of humor is used in this poem?

This is relatively hard work to find this jokes, it is not slapstick humour, we have to read into it a bit this joke is not overt

What did Freud believe about humour?

• Outlines how humour plays into social and psychological dynamics 

• Builds on earlier e.g. Platonic ideas of humour as humour being essentially abusive 

• Humour is about the release of energies which were meant for the repression of certain emotional states

How dd Freud believe jokes worked?

Jokes are revelatory: Party A does something (the victim), Party B reveals that Party A has done something embarrassing (the joke). Part C laughs (the laughter)- party c are the most important as they are creating aa bond with party B. In literature party B is the author and Party C is the reader- strategy of linking yourself to your audience

What is a quote from Freud about humour?

“A joke will allow us to exploit something ridiculous in our enemy which we could not, on account of obstacles in the way, bring forward openly or consciously; once again, then, the joke will evade restrictions and open sources of pleasure that have become inaccessible.”

What has Aristotle said about Comedy (the genre) in relation to comedy (the phenomenon)?

“Comedy, as we have said, is a representation of inferior people, not indeed in the full sense of the word bad, but the laughable is a species of the base or ugly. It consists in some blunder or ugliness that does not cause pain or disaster, an obvious example being the comic mask which is ugly and distorted but not painful.”

What playwrights largely make up the genre of Roman comedy?

Terence and Plautus

When do Plautus and Terence date from?

•Both very early Latin literature

•Plautus: c. 254 – 184 BCE

•Terence: c. 195 – 159 BCE

What does Roman Comedy largely draw from?

The genre derives heavily from Greek New Comedy (such as was written by Menander), rather than from Greek Old Comedy (such as was written by Aristophanes.

What does roman comedy have in common with greek new comedy?

This means that the genre has lots of fairly similar plots, which tend to revolve around confusions of identity and small, everyday affairs, as well as lots of stock characters (especially the so-called servus callidus ‘clever enslaved person’, who outwits his enslaver).

What is an example of a standard plot in a roman comedy?

Plautus’ Poenulus (‘Little Carthaginian’)

What are differences between ‘Little Carthaginian’ and other roman comedies?

For example, a majority of the characters are

African (from Carthage), and some actual Punic (the language of the Carthaginian Empire) is

spoken on-stage by these characters

How are the Carthaginian characters presented in this play?

It is a bit too simplistic to say that the Carthaginian characters are presented positively, but they exist within the standard frameworks of Roman Comedy.

What is the plot of the play ‘Little Cathiginian’?

• Agorastocles loves Adelphasium, an enslaved woman who belongs to Lycus

• Adelphasium and her sister Anterastilis were stolen from Carthage as children and

forced into sex work

• Agorastocles embarks on a complicated plot to get Lycus into legal trouble so as to

allow him to marry Adelphasium

• Hanno, a Carthaginian man, arrives, looking for his daughters, Adelphasium and

Anterastilis

• He seeks out his daughters by sleeping with sex workers in brothels

• He eventually finds his daughters

• Anterastilis has been courting / dating / entertaining Antamoenides, who becomes very

angry at the prospect of losing her

• Hanno allows Agorastocles to marry Adelphasium

Where is the humour in this comedy?

• The characters don’t seem to be the most intelligent, doing absurd things its all relatively comical to watch 

• Having and talking about risque subjects e.g. incest, discussion of different cultural backgrounds, idea of sexual women having personalities which may have made a roman audience uncomfortable (a lot of tense things are brought up) 

• Comedy of errors, style confusion of identity- they all have similar names which makes it confusing and therefore comical 

• Dramatic irony: we know things that the characters don’t 

• Situational humour: sex workers, racism (laughing at Hanno’s primitive Carthiginaisms). Incest. Violence against enslaved people, Milphio a slave is beaten in ‘comical’ ways

What happens in the prologue of the play?

In the prologue to the play, we get a description of Hanno, the titular ‘little Carthaginian’ searching for his daughters (we are told the plot of the play at the beginning)

Wite out the prologue of ‘Little Carthiginian’

But ever since their Carthaginian father lost them, he’s been looking for them everywhere by sea and by land. Whenever he enters a city, he immediately finds out where all the prostitutes live. He pays money, hires her for a night, and then asks where she’s from and what country she comes from, whether she was captured in war or kidnapped, what family she comes from, and who her parents were. In this way he looks for his daughters cleverly and smartly.

What is the joke at the end of that passage?

The last words ‘cleverly and smartly’ are jokes because this is not clever or smart at all. It doesn't make sense to sleep with her and then ask if she is his daughter- joke, this is meant to be ridiculous

Write out the scene where Aderastilis and Adelphasium are outside discussing their own appearances while Agorastocles and his enslaved worker, Milphio, look on

Adelphasium:

A man who wants to create a lot of trouble for

himself should get himself a ship and a woman, these

two: no two things are more troublesome if you

happen to start fitting them out, [nor are those two

things ever sufficiently fitted out,] nor do they ever

have a sufficient sufficiency of fitting out. And in

saying this, I speak from my own experience: from

dawn to this time of day, [ever since the crack of

dawn we’ve never ceased,] both of us have diligently

never ceased to wash or scrub or dry or dress,

smooth, polish, paint ourselves, and do up our hair;

and with us we had two slave girls each that we were

given—they took care of washing and bathing us;

and from bringing us water two men got exhausted.

Away with the amount of trouble that’s in a single

woman! But two, I know that well enough, can keep

any one enormous people you please busy; night and

day at all times they always make themselves up,

wash, dry, and polish themselves. In short, there is no

such thing as female moderation. We never know

how to put an end to washing and rubbing. Yes, a

woman that’s washed is, to my mind, unwashed as it

were, unless she’s highly polished.

Anterastilis:

I really am surprised, my sister, that you say that like

this, even though you’re so clever and smart and

witty. After all, even though we eagerly keep

ourselves tidy, we barely and with difficulty find

lovers.

Adelphasium:

Yes. But think of this one thing nonetheless:

moderation is the best thing to have in all situations,

my sister. An excess of everything creates from it an

excess of trouble for man.

Anterastilis:

My sister, please consider that we’re talked about in

the same way as salted fish is said to be too salty,

without any attraction and without sweetness; unless

they’re soaked with a lot of water throughout and for

a long time, they stink, they’re too salty, so that you

don’t want to touch them. We are like that, women

are of that stock, quite unappetizing and unattractive

without neatness and expense.

Milphio:

Agorastocles, she’s a cook, I think: she knows how

to soak salted fish.

Agorastocles:

Why are you being a nuisance?

Adelphasium:

My sister, please stop: it’s enough that others say that

to us, without us talking against ourselves as well.

Anterastilis:

I’m quiet.

Adelphasium:

Then thank you. But answer me this now: is

everything here that ought to be here in order to gain

the gods’ favor?

Anterastilis:

I’ve got everything ready.

Agorastocles:

(to himself) O beautiful day, festive and full of

charm, worthy indeed of Venus, in whose honor the

Aphrodisia is celebrated today.

Milphio:

Do I get any thanks for calling you out here?

Shouldn’t I be presented with a jar of old wine now?

Say that you’ll give me one. You aren’t giving me any answer? (to the audience) His tongue has fallen

out, I think. (to Agorastocles) Why the blazes are you

standing here dumbfounded?

Agorastocles:

Let me be in love, stop interrupting me and be quiet.

Milphio:

I’m quiet.

Agorastocles:

If you’d been quiet, your “I’m quiet” wouldn’t have

been born.

Anterastilis:

Let’s go, my dear sister.

Adelphasium:

Hey, please, why are you rushing there now?

Anterastilis:

You ask? Because our master is waiting for us at the

temple of Venus.

Adelphasium:

Let him wait. Wait. Now there’s a crowd at the altar.

You don’t want to mingle there with those prostitutes

advertising themselves outside, do you? The

girlfriends of millers, the queens of the groat mills,

wretched, smeared with the juice of camel’s

hay, mean, dirty? The ones who smell of the brothel

and standing outside, of chair and seat, whom

moreover no free man has ever touched or taken

home, the two-obol prostitutes of filthy slaves?

Where is humour largely derived from in this passage?

Breaking of the fourth wall, humour derived from this (Party A, Party B, and Party C). Breaking of the fourth wall is not uncommon in Roman comedy 

Where is humour derived from at the end of the passage?

Self-revalatory thing, mocking prostitutes at the end even though she is a prostitute (Platos idea of being unaware and mocking herself when attempting to mock someone else), her sister is more aware, she states that they are spoken about as if they are salt fish

How is gender relevant in this passage (as a humorous aspect)?

Double subversion of gender, one of the men critiques the position of women, the women are dressing themselves up- this is comical as it is characters putting on their costumes and these costumes cross gender boundaries

How is meta-theatre used in this passage?

Meta theatre where the characters are almost putting on a mini play and laughing at it

Write out the reunion scene between Hanno and his daughters:

Ag.: He wants to do you many good turns.

Ad.: (to Hanno) As a good man you’ll do a good turn to good

people.

Han.: I’ll bring you joy—

Ad.: (interrupting) But we’ll bring you pleasure.

Han.: —and freedom.

Ad.: For that price you’ll easily make us yours.

Ag.: (quietly) My uncle, as truly as the gods will love

me, if I were Jupiter, I’d marry that girl at once

and throw Juno out. How chastely, thoughtfully, and

pleasantly she’s spoken, how modestly she’s made her

speech!

Han.: (quietly) She’s certainly mine. But how cleverly I

approached them!

Ag.: (quietly) Charmingly and pleasantly indeed.

How do Hanno and Adisphotales speak to each other in this section?

Adisphotales and Hanno keep speaking to each other like they’re client and provider not like father and daughter, speaking to each other like Hanno is trying to buy them for sex work even though they all know that theyre related to each other

Where is the humour in this section?

Movement from us laughing at Hanno because of his silly plan to find them, subverted as he does find them (his daughters) then a weird continuation of the joke connected to prostitutes- this is uncomfortable.

What meta jokes are being made in this moment?

Meta theatrical joke that the actors are playing roles within their roles

Write out the scene where the embrace continues while Anterastilis former client / boyfriend, Antamoenides, looks on:

Ante.: (to Hanno) Please hold me tight, my darling; I’m

terribly afraid that the kite—that bad beast—might by

chance snatch me, your chicken, away from you.

Ade.: How I can’t embrace you enough, my dear father!

Anta.: (to the audience) I’m wasting my time. I’ll

practically be able to buy myself a lunch with this.

(shows what he has taken from the pimp’s house) But

what’s this? What is it? What’s this? What do I see?

How? What doubling is this? What twinning is this?

Who is this chap with long tunics like a tavern boy?

Do I see clearly enough with my eyes? Isn’t that my

girlfriend Anterastilis? Yes, it’s certainly her. For a

while now I’ve felt that I’m considered worthless.

Isn’t the girl ashamed of embracing a baggage

carrier in the middle of the street? Now I’ll hand that

chap over to the hangman to be tortured totally. This

kind with their tunics hanging down is definitely

addicted to women. But I’m resolved to approach my

African lover-girl. (to Anterastilis) Hey you, I’m

talking to you, woman, don’t you have any shame? (to

Hanno) And what business do you have with that

woman? Tell me.

Where is the humour found in this section?

Embrace they have is very suggestive, overly emotive language as theyre hugging. This is all happening for another joke as Aderastilis boyfriend is looking on at this

Write out the section where Antamoenides acts as the onlooker: 1295-306:

Anta.: (to the audience) I’m wasting my time. I’ll practically be able to buy myself a lunch with this. (shows what he has taken from the pimp’s house) But what’s this? What is it? What’s this? What do I see? How? What doubling is this? What twinning is this? Who is this chap with long tunics like a tavern boy? Do I see clearly enough with my eyes? Isn’t that my girlfriend Anterastilis? Yes, it’s certainly her. For a while now I’ve felt that I’m considered worthless. Isn’t the girl ashamed of embracing a baggage carrier in the middle of the street? Now I’ll hand that chap over to the hangman to be tortured totally. This kind with their tunics hanging down is definitely addicted to women. But I’m resolved to approach my African lover-girl. (to Anterastilis) Hey you, I’m talking to you, woman, don’t you have any shame? (to Hanno) And what business do you have with that woman? Tell me.

Where is the humour in this section?

• Humour is in his language of doubting what he is looking at isnt incest he thinks he is losing out to another client 

• One of the few moments is that hanno is an idiot because he is a foreigner, wearing a long tunic marks him out as being different

What jokes are used in this section, and who is supposed to laugh?

• The incest jokes are situational and almost slapstick 

• Obvious set up and pay off: everyone is meant to laugh 

• Are certain jokes specific to certain spectators of the audience 

• Does this chage the nature of the humour?

What is the purpose of a prologue in roman comedy?

Roman Comedies have prologues which outline the plot of the upcoming play.

Who is the Poenulus prologue delivered by?

by the imperator histricus which means, but ‘chief actor’ and plays with the social role imperator, or ‘general’ (there’s also a pun on ‘general from Histria’).

What does the Poenelus prologue teach us about who was in the audience?

The Poenulus prologue lists people of several social ranks beyond upper-class men (e.g. enslaved people, women etc.), which has has been taken as evidence that these people were present in the audience of Roman Comedy (i.e. for the speech against them to have any effect, they were presumably there to hear it).

Write out the prologue:

No male prostitute is to sit in the space in front of the stage;

neither lector nor rods are to utter a single word; no usher is to

walk in front of someone’s face or show someone his seat

while an actor is onstage. Those who have slept at leisure at

home for too long ought now to stand with goodwill or else

refrain from sleeping. Let no slaves occupy seats so that the

free may have a place, or let them pay money for their

freedom. If they can’t do this, let them go home and avoid a

double thrashing, so that they won’t get checkered with rods

here and with whips at home if they haven’t done their chores

when their masters return home. Let the nurses attend to tiny

babies at home and not bring them to watch the play, so that

the nurses themselves won’t be thirsty and the children won’t

die from hunger or disturb us by wailing here like little goats

because of their hunger. Let the married women watch quietly

and laugh quietly, let them refrain from tinkling with their

ringing voices, and let them take their chattering conversations

home, so that they won’t be a nuisance to their husbands here

as well as at home

Where is humour found int he prologue?

The character of milphio is often beaten on stage, so the threats to the audience that they may be beaten is humorous?

Explain Hannos Punic speech (this happens at the end of the play)

He opens the scene by speaking Punic (930-49). At the start of Act 5, Hanno speaks in Punic, the language of Carthage. In his Loeb translation, Wolfgang de Melo (2012) leaves the Punic untranslated “as they were incomprehensible to most of the Roman audience, and put in italics to mark them as foreign” – de Melo (2012) 119. He provides some explanation of the Punic passages in his Appendix.

Write out Hanno’s speech (the parts of it we can understand)

I pray to the gods and goddesses who inhabit this city

that as for the thing I came here for, I’ve come righteously,

and that you let me find my daughters here and my brother’s son;

gods, your protection!

[Daughters who were stolen from me, and my brother’s son.] But

here I had Antidamas as my guest-friend before;

they say he did what he had to do.

People claim that his son Agorastocles lives here;

to him I’m bringing this shard of hospitality with me

This was pointed out as the area where he lives.

I’ll ask these people who are coming out.

What did Richlin say about the comprehensibility of the Punic?

“The “Aetolian” characters onstage (speaking Latin) are not supposed to understand what is being said—that’s the joke; but the Carthaginian Hanno understands what they say, and reacts to it. De Melo believes that people in the audience would not have understood the Punic, either, “apart perhaps from some sailors and merchants, who may have had a basic command of the language” (2012: 173). The actors must have understood it, though, in order to make (up) the jokes, and there was in fact another constituency in Italy that had a fluent command of the language—native, or second-generation. If de Melo is right about how the jokes work, the actors must have expected some audience members to get it. Ethnic identity in Italy in this period cannot be understood as monolithic […]; this is a fortiori more true for slaves and freed slaves and the poor. The rape of slaves made hybrid babies, who (if they stayed with their mothers) grew up bilingual, and slaves, freed slaves, and displaced people could no longer choose a spouse from home”

What is the function of humour in Roman Comedy?

• Doesn't single out humour just for one different section of people. All types of people have humour they can appreciate, gets different sections of the audience to laugh at each other 

• Forces them to confront parts of society they dont want to see (confront their society, reflection and self-evaluation)

Who were the four main practitioners of roman satire?

1. Lucilius (180 – 103 BCE)

2. Horace (65 – 8 BCE)

3. Persius (34 – 62 CE)

4. Juvenal (mid-1st c. – early 2nd c. CE)

List the several aspects that the word satire would be derived from:

From Σάτυρος (Saturos, ‘Satyr’), the stock figure of Greek comedic Satyr-plays with inflated penises and voracious sexual appetites?

Hence, Roman Satire is often very sexually explicit

From satur (‘full’), playing on notions of being stuffed and full?

Hence food is a regular feature of Roman satire

Also the lanx satura (‘full plate’) which basically ends up meaning ‘medley’

Hence, Roman Satire is a mish-mash of different things

From the Roman god Saturn, especially associated with the Saturnalia festival, where enslaved people and their masters swapped roles for a day

Hence, Roman Satire often punches up

What do we know about Perseus (a satirist)?

Aulus Persius Flaccus

Lived 34-62 CE

He was trained as a stoic, there is a lot of stoicism in his satire

6 verse satires with a famous prologue

Often focuses satiric lens on contemporary authors whose style he disliked

Much scholarship focuses on his interaction ith stoicism (see handout)

Less on his humour…

Write out Perseus Satire 1.13-23:

We shut ourselves away and write some grand stuff, one in verse,

another in prose, stuff which only a generous lung of breath can gasp

out. And of course that’s what you will finally read to the public from

your seat on the platform, neatly combed and in your fresh toga, all

dressed in white and wearing your birthday ring of sardonyx, after you

have rinsed your supple throat with a liquid warble, in a state of

enervation with your orgasmic eye. Then, as the poetry enters their

backsides and as their inmost parts are tickled by verse vibrations, you

can see huge Tituses quivering, both their respectable manner and their

calm voice gone. What, you old reprobate, do you compose morsels for

other people’s ears, morsels which would make even you, with your

joints and skin decayed, say, “Enough!”?

Where does the humour come from here?

• Colliding of things that shouldnt go together, poetry is suggested to be like sex (not what most people associate with poetry) 

• The romans in this story are a bit gross, sounds like body horror, theyre saying they are huge and big and that this is gross- not a good thing

Write out the section where we see Persius haranguing contemporary Roman literary culture later in satire 1:

You’re a thief,” someone says to Pedius. What does Pedius say? He balances

the accusations in smooth-shaven antitheses and is praised for composing

clever expressions: “That’s lovely.” “That—lovely? Are you wiggling your

arse, Romulus? Am I going to be impressed, I’d like to know, and am I going

to part with a penny if a shipwreck victim sings a song? Are you singing with

a picture of yourself in a shattered ship on your shoulder? The person who

wants to bend me with his sorry tale will utter a genuine lament, not one

concocted overnight.

What does Plaza say about this section?

“At 87 the lowering attack is presented in maximally concise form: ‘an, Romule, ceves?’ (‘Are you waving your ass, Romulus?’).

The target of the satire is called ‘Romulus’, no longer only his descendant as at v. 31, but the highest of the high himself, the great

ancestor of all Romans. His behaviour, in contrast, is the lowest of the low: he is said to be waving his butt as a male prostitute.”