Poenulus

Plot

A young man, Agorastocles, is in love with a girl named Adelphasium, who is a slave belonging to the pimp Lycus. Agorastocles, Adelphasium, and her sister Anterastilis were all stolen as children from Carthage. Agorastocles was purchased by a rich childless man who wanted a son, whereas the girls were sold as slaves to the pimp who intended to make them prostitutes.

Milphio, the long-suffering slave of Agorastocles, attempts to help his master obtain Adelphasium. Their plan is to trick Lycus and get him into legal trouble. Collybiscus, Agorastocles' farm steward, dresses up as a foreigner and moves into Lycus' home. Agorastocles and some witnesses then accuse Lycus of harboring his slave and threaten to take him to court.

At this point Hanno arrives from Carthage, and it is soon revealed that he is the cousin of Agorastocles' dead parents, as well as the father of the two girls. In the end, the girls are seized from Lycus, who is punished, and the story concludes with a happy family reunion. Hanno gives Agorastocles his blessing to marry his daughter.

The play is set in Calydon, a city in Aetolia in central Greece. The stage set consists of a street with the slave-dealer Lycus' house on one side, and the young man Agorastocles' house on the other; between these is a temple of Venus.

Structure

The play is symmetrically structured around the trick played on Lycus as follows: :A – The two girls are in bondage; Agorastocles hopes to marry one : B – Lycus's unsuccessful sacrifice : C – The witnesses arrive; Lyco is tricked; the witnesses depart : B – Lycus's unsuccessful sacrifice :A – The girls are freed and one is promised to Agorastocles

However, certain elements, such as the two appearances of the soldier Antamoenides, and the arrival of Hanno, break the symmetry.

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 more clearly shown by the variation in metres.

A common metrical pattern in Plautus's plays is that each section begins with iambic senarii (which were spoken without music), then a song (canticum) in various metres, and finally each section is rounded off by trochaic septenarii, which were apparently recited or sung to the accompaniment of tibiae (a pair of reed pipes). Moore calls this the "ABC succession", where A = iambic senarii, B = other metres, and C = trochaic septenarii.

Taking iambic senarii as the beginning of a section, and trochaic septenarii as the end, Poenulus can be divided into five parts. The overall pattern is as follows: :ABC, AC, ABC, ABCBC, A... (Plautus's ending is lost)

Moore believes that everything from line 1332 (basically the whole of Act 5 scenes 6 and 7) is an interpolation, probably supplied by a producer when the original ending was lost.

The most commonly used metres in this play of 1332 lines are iambic senarii (754 lines) and trochaic septenarii (415 lines). Compared with other Plautus plays, the unaccompanied iambic senarii form an unusually large part (56%) of the play (the average in Plautus being 35%).

Prologue

• Prologue (lines 1–128): iambic senarii (128 lines)

Agorastocles tries to woo Adelphasium

• Act 1.1 (129–209): iambic senarii (81 lines)

• Act 1.2 (210–260): mainly bacchiac (51 lines)

• Act 1.2 cont. (261–409): trochaic septenarii (148 lines)

Agorastocles prepares to trick Lycus

• Act 1.3–Act 2 (410–503): iambic senarii (93 lines)

• Act 3.1–3.2 (504–614): trochaic septenarii (111 lines)

Lycus is tricked

• Act 3.3–3.6 (615–816): iambic senarii (202 lines)

• Act 4.1 (817–822): iambic octonarii (4 lines), iambic septenarii (2 lines)

• Act 4.2 (823–922): trochaic septenarii (100 lines)

Hanno finds his daughters

• Act 5.1–5.3 (940–1173): Punic (10 lines); iambic senarii (222 lines)

• Act 5.4 (1174–1200): polymetric (mainly anapaestic and iambic) (27 lines)

• Act 5.4 (cont.) (1201–1225): trochaic septenarii (25 lines)

• Act 5.4 (cont.) (1226–1273): iambic septenarii (48 lines)

• Act 5.4 (cont.)–5.5 (1274–1303): trochaic septenarii (30 lines)

The end

• Act 5.5–5.6 (1304–1331): iambic senarii (26 lines)

(The two endings below are probably not by Plautus.)

• **Act 5.6 (end) (1334–1371): iambic senarii **

(Alternative ending)

• Act 5.7 (1372–1397): iambic senarii

• Act 5.7 (cont.) (1398–1422): trochaic septenarii

Translations

• Henry Thomas Riley, 1912: Poenulus full text
• Paul Nixon, 1916–38
• Janet Burroway, 1970
• Amy Richlin, 2005
• Wolfgang de Melo, 2011

References

References

1. Gregor Maurach, ''Der Poenulus des Plautus'' (Carl Winter, 1988; {{ISBN. 3533038939), p. 33.
2. Sznycer, Maurice. (1967). "Les passages puniques en transcription latine dans le Poenulus de Plaute". Librairie C. Klincksieck.
3. Gratwick, A. S.. (1971). "Hanno's Punic Speech in the Poenulus of Plautus". Hermes.
4. Franko, George Fredric. (1996). "The Characterization of Hanno in Plautus' Poenulus". The American Journal of Philology.
5. See: Ferri, R. (2014). [https://core.ac.uk/download/pdf/80213457.pdf "The Reception of Plautus in Antiquity,"] pp. 767-81 in Fontaine and Scafuro (2014) ''The Oxford Handbook of Roman Comedy''. Oxford.
6. The name Lycus means "Wolf".
7. Cf., H. J. Rose, ''A Handbook of Latin Literature'' (London: Methuen 1936; 3d ed. 1954, reprint Dutton 1960) at 51-52.
8. Merrill, F. R. (1972). ''Titi Macci Plauti Mostellaria'', p. xix.
9. Moore, Timothy J. (2012), ''Music in Roman Comedy''. Cambridge University Press, pp. 237-42, 253-8, 305-8, 367-71.
10. "The Meters of Roman Comedy". [[Washington University in St. Louis]].
11. For details of the metres used in each line, see the [http://romancomedy.wulib.wustl.edu/ Database by Timothy J. Moore of ''The Meters of Roman Comedy''], Washington University in St Louis.
12. Omitting 101–107.
13. Omitting 930–939.
14. Omitting 1332–1422, considered non-Plautine by editors.
15. Plautus. (2012). "Plautus, Vol IV: The Little Carthaginian; Pseudolus; The Rope". Loeb Classical Library.