Pseudolus
Sketches of ancient Roman costumes:
Plautus' devices of audience interaction are:
| DEVICE | EXAMPLE | ANALYSIS |
| ASIDE |
1) BALLIO: "I'll speak to him" (269). 2) PSEUDOLUS: "O Zeus, how few obliging men there are. Hey! That's the kind of father a son should have" (442-43). 3) PSEUD: "Charming fellow!" (435) |
Plautus gives his characters asides so that they can share their true thoughts and feelings with the audience. In this manner, empathy between audience and character is quickly established, and comedy is easily produced. |
| MONOLOGUE |
1) BALLIO: "Today's my birthday, as you know. Bring on the lads who you fun . . . make sure they march up by platoon, each bearing a beautiful birthday boon" (178-80). 2) PSEUD: "Great Jupiter! How sweet to find that everything is working out!" (572-74) 3) HARPAX: "I find corrupt those slaves who flout or disregard their master's rules" (1103-04).
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This monologue given by Ballio actually extends from lines 130-230. The audience is forced to listen to his speech, giving them an somewhat conversational role. Similarly, Pseudolus and Harpax give monologues in their own turn, establishing the audience again as listener in the character's conversation with the audience. |
| EAVESDROPPING |
1) PSEUD: "You bother me when you drown out this fellow's words" (207-08). 2) BALLIO: "Hey, boy, Look lively!" (854) |
Pseudolus here yells at Calidorus to be quiet while they eavesdrop on Ballio's huge speech to his slaves. Pseudolus and Calidorus listen to this speech just as the audience does, producing empathy between the stage and the seats. In the second example, Ballio has caught his slave boy eavesdropping on his long speech to the rest of his household. As the audience watches the slave boy watching Ballio, a link is created between the characters and audience. |
| IMPROVISATION |
1) PSEUD: "[The poet] makes invented fiction look like truth. All right, I'll be a poet! Twenty coins, which don't exist on the face of the earth, I'll find" (401-05). 2) CALIDORUS: "Somehow, somewhere, (maybe) today, I'll find you silvery succor and salvation. Where, oh where will it come from? I don't know, but I know it will: I've got a twitching brow" (104-06). 3) PSEUD: "I don't quite know just how I'll pull it off . . . And yet I'll manage!" (567-68) |
In these examples, Pseudolus, Calidorus, and Pseudolus again all seem to decide their next action on the spot. The audience is on the edge of their seat, wondering what will happen. Being so involved in the unfolding plot events forges a connection between the audience and the stage. |
| PARABASIS | (not applicable) | Since there is no chorus in this play, there is also no parabasis. |
| CHORUS | Ballio's slaves act as a kind of chorus, though they do not sing or speak to the audience. | Plautus' chorus in Pseudolus does not act as an Aristophanic chorus, or even Menander's chorus--this chorus does not help link the audience to the stage, as they themselves barely react to the action unfolding there. |
| ALLUSION |
1) SIMO: "You'll be mightier than King Agathocles" (532). 2) SIMO: "I can hardly wait to appoint Pseudolus Mayor of Millstone Colony!" (1099-1100) |
In the first example, King Agathocles was mentioned: he was a famous tyrant and king of Syracuse, whose name every audience member would recognize. The second example refers to the fact that if Pseudolus is the first "colonist" of the forced-labor gristmill, the mill will be named after him. When the audience recalls the concepts to which Plautus is alluding, they feel connected to the action and to the stage. |
| Aristophanes' Birds | Charlie Chaplin |
| Menander's Old Cantankerous | |
| Plautus' Pseudolus | Alexander Mackendrick's Whiskey Galore! |
go to Conclusions for comparisons and constrasts between works