Cistellaria

Characters

• Selenium: a young courtesan, who turns out to be free-born
• Gymnasium: a prostitute, friend of Selenium
• Gymnasium's mother: (unnamed) also a prostitute
• Alcesimarchus: a young man of Sicyon, in love with Selenium
• Alcesimarchus's slave: (unnamed)
• Alcesimarchus's father: (unnamed)
• Melaenis: a prostitute, who adopted Selenium as a baby
• Lampadio: slave of Phanostrata
• Phanostrata: wife of Demipho, and birth-mother of Selenium
• Halisca: maidservant of Melaenis
• Demipho: a senator of Sicyon, husband of Phanostrata

Metrical structure

Plautus's plays are traditionally divided into five acts. However, it is not thought that the act-divisions go back to Plautus's time, since no manuscript contains them before the 15th century. Also, the acts themselves do not always match the structure of the plays, which is often more clearly shown by the variation in metres.

A common pattern in Plautus is for a metrical section to begin with iambic senarii (which were unaccompanied by music), followed optionally by a musical passage or song, and ending with trochaic septenarii, which were recited or sung to the music of a pair of pipes known as tibiae.

Although parts of the play are now lost because pages are missing from the manuscripts, the structure of the play seems to be as follows, taking A = iambic senarii, B = other metres, C = trochaic septenarii: :BBC, ABC, ABABCBC, AC, BBAC

Instead of the usual iambic senarii, this play opens with a polymetric song. The last section also opens with a polymetric song. In addition there are three passages in iambic septenarii, and a wild passage in anapaests where the young lover Alcesimarchus sings of his distress.

Selenium outlines her problem

• Act 1.1 (1–37): polymetric song (ba, ia-tr, an, cr) (37 lines)

• Act 1.1 (38–58): iambic septenarii (21 lines)

• Act 1.1 (59–119): trochaic septenarii (61 lines)

Selenium's birth and parentage are explained

• Act 1.2–1.3 (120–202): iambic senarii (79 lines)

Alcesimarchus's passion for Selenium

• Act 2.1 (203–228): anapaestic song (28 lines)

::(There is a gap in the manuscripts here of about 100 lines. Lines 231–491 which follow the gap exist only in the Ambrosian palimpsest and are illegible in parts.)

• Act 2.2–2.3 (231–272): trochaic septenarii (42+ lines)

::(253–272: Only a few traces survive. Another 70 lines is missing after 266.)

Alcesimarchus learns about the wedding preparations

• Act 2.3 (cont.) (273–304): iambic senarii (32 lines)

::(Another 70 lines are lost here.)

• Act 2.4 (305–373): iambic septenarii (37 lines) ::(322–362 are fragments only.) Alcesimarchus's father, who is unnamed, visits Selenium's house to tell her to keep away from his son. He finds Gymnasium there, and mistakes her for Selenium. He is smitten by her beauty, and she teases him by flirting with him...

::(There is another gap in the manuscript of about 55 lines between 372 and 389, and then only a few letters survive until line 449. Ten fragments quoted by the grammarians Priscian and Nonius, 15 lines in all, mostly in iambic senarii, are thought to belong in the gap. The last of these, 405–408, can definitely be placed as it matches the traces that survive.)

• Act 2.5–2.6 (cont.) (374–408): iambic senarii (15 lines) :: Gymnasium's mother comes to Alcesimarchus's house to fetch Gymnasium, who seems reluctant to leave.

• Act 2.7 (449–452): iambic octonarii (4 lines) ::...Alcesimarchus pleads with Selenium and her mother Melaenis, but to no avail. Selenium departs.

• Act 2.7 (453–460): trochaic septenarii (8 lines)

• Act 2.7 (461–464): fragmentary, metre uncertain, probably iambic (4 lines)

• Act 2.7 (465–535): trochaic septenarii (68 lines)

Melaenis finds out about Selenium's parents

• Act 2.8–2.9 (536–630): iambic senarii (95 lines)

• Act 3.1–4.1 (631–670): trochaic septenarii (39 lines)

Phanostrata and Demipho find their daughter

• Act 4.2 (671–703): polymetric song (an, ba, cr) (33 lines)

• Act 4.2 (704–773): iambic septenarii (43 lines)

• Act 4.2 (747–773): iambic senarii (27 lines)

• Act 5.1 (774–787): trochaic septenarii (14 lines)

Translations

• English translation by Henry Thomas Riley at Perseus: Cistellaria
• Wolfang de Melo, 2011

References

References

1. "Scaife Viewer | Cistellaria, or The Casket".
2. W. de Melo (2011), ''Plautus: The Casket Comedy'' (Loeb Classical Library), pp. 123–124.
3. W. de Melo (2011), ''Plautus: The Casket Comedy'' (Loeb Classical Library), pp. 129–130.
4. Merrill, F. R. (1972). ''Titi Macci Plauti Mostellaria'', p. xix.
5. For the ABC order, common in Plautus, see Moore, Timothy J. (2012), ''Music in Roman Comedy''. Cambridge University Press, pp. 237-42, 253-8, 305-8, 367-71.
6. For details of the metres line by line see: [http://romancomedy.wustl.edu/ Database by Timothy J. Moore of ''The Meters of Roman Comedy''], Washington University in St Louis.
7. It seems that the house is rented for her by Alcesimarchus: cf. lines 312, 319.
8. Compare the plot of Plautus's [[Truculentus]] for this motif.
9. Probably female, since the Greek equivalent {{lang. grc. Βοήθεια is feminine.
10. W. de Melo (2011), ''Plautus: The Casket Comedy'' (Loeb Classical Library), p. 157.
11. The whole of lines 203–535 is called Act 2.1 in Lindsay's 1905 Oxford text, but in de Melo's 2011 text the scenes are renumbered.
12. Plautus. (2011). "Plautus, Vol II: Casina; The Casket Comedy; Curculio; Epidicus; The Two Menaechmuses". Loeb Classical Library.