Week 8

Preparation for Mon. April 3

1. Your assignment for today is to read a scene from a couple of the remaining ancient plays that we will be studying (see below). This will allow you to see if you would like to perform from one of these plays at the Festival of Dionysus on May 6. I have deliberately chosen scenes from plays that especially lend themselves to performances (both these plays have been performed at the Festival in past years). If either of the assigned scenes catches your fancy, then I encourage to read some of the rest of the play to see whether you’d like to perform a scene from it. And feel free to browse some of the other ancient plays we will study (Menander’s The Girl From Samos, Plautus’ The Braggart Soldier, and Terence’s Brothers) to see whether they might be the play for you to perform.

(a) Menander’s Old Cantankerous: read pp. 34-6 (approximately lines 430-520) of the Penguin translation by Miller. Here’s the scoop: Knemon is the old grouch, a Scrooge type who hates humanity and tries to stay away from everybody. Mother (the mother of Sostratos, the young lover) is a superstitious woman who spends her life going around sacrificing to all the gods. She is visiting the shrine of Pan (which is next to the house of the old grouch) with her retinue of a servant called Getas and a cook called Sikon. They have no idea what kind of man Knemon is or what’s about to hit them.

(b) Plautus’ Brothers Menaechmus: read pp. 91-94 (approximately lines 351-423) of the Oxford World Classics translation by Segal. Here’s the scoop: there are two identical twins separated in early childhood (that’s trouble right there!). What’s more, both are called Menaechmus. The one Menaechmus (Menaechmus I) is a local in Epidamnus, the setting of the play. The other Menaechmus (referred to as Menaechmus II), comes to Epidamnus in search of his long-lost brother. This scene stages the encounter between the traveling Menaechmus and Erotium, a call-girl whom the local Menaechmus visits every once in a while. Menaechmus II is accompanied by his servant Messenio.

In class today, I will ask you to fill out a sheet expressing your performance preferences. You will indicate your top three preferences of play - you will also have the option of suggesting others you would like to work with. Here is the full list of plays open to you:

Aeschylus Agamemnon

Libation Bearers

Eumenides

Sophocles Electra

Philoctetes

Euripides Electra

Trojan Women

Bacchae

Aristophanes Birds

Frogs

Menander Old Cantankerous

The Girl from Samos

Plautus The Braggart Soldier

The Brothers Menaechmus

Terence Brothers

Preparation for Wed. April 5

1. Read the Introductory Note to Old Cantankerous on p. 21.

2. Read Menander’s Old Cantankerous (the whole play, i.e. Miller pp. 22-50).

3. As you read through the play, consider the following questions (some of them require some note-taking). You might want to think about Friday’s questions during your first read-through of the play. You may also want to make a very brief scene-by-scene précis of what is going on, as the plots of Menander’s plays can become confusing! You will be expected to know the names of the characters, so start practicing writing them and saying them aloud.

a) New Comedy makes use of stock types familiar to the audience from other plays (one such type, not in this play, is the prostitute with the heart of gold). Identify the stock types that this play brings onto the stage. For each of the characters, what might his or her masks look like?

b) It is rather unexpected that the old grouch agrees to let Sostratos marry his daughter. How might you explain this change of heart?

Preparation for Fri. April 7

1. Read and take notes on pp. 3-10 and pp. 15-7 of the Introduction to New Comedy and Menander given by Norma Miller at the beginning of our Penguin set text. I have put together a set of questions (click here) designed to give you a sense of what information you are expected to glean from this reading. They are arranged in the order in which they are addressed in the reading.

2. Read the extracts from Theophrastus’ Characters handed out in Wednesday’s class. Which characters in Menander match which types? (Think about this question also as you read The Girl from Samos next week.)

*3. Character and coincidence: ethos (character) is very important to New Comedy. Individual characters respond to situations in ways appropriate to their character. Although the plays of New Comedy are full of coincidences (coincidences of time and place are a mainstay of situation comedy in general), these coincidences are not as random as might be supposed at first glance. Look at one scene or event of Old Cantankerous in detail. How does the ethos of a character contribute to this particular link in the chain of coincidences? Feel free to refer to other potions of the play to support your assessment of the character.

In class today, you will have time to meet as a performance group and do some serious thinking about your performance, which is happening 4 weeks from tomorrow!