History of Roman Literature from its Earliest Period to the Augustan Volume I Part 8

It was certainly ingenious to make the adventures of the slave a parody on those of his master, and this new character produces an agreeable scene between her and Mercury, who is little pleased with the caresses of this antiquated charmer. On the other hand, the French dramatist has omitted the examination of the double Amphitryons, and nearly introduces them in the presence of two Thebans: Amphitryon brings his friends to avenge him, by a.s.saulting Jupiter, when that G.o.d appears in the clouds and announces the future birth of Hercules. Through the whole comedy, Moliere has given a different colour to the behaviour of Jupiter, from that thrown over it by Plautus. In the Latin play he a.s.sumes quite the character of the husband; but with Moliere he is more of a lover and gallant, and pays Alcmena so many amorous compliments, that she exclaims,

"Amphitrion, en verite, Vous vous moquez de tenir ce langage!"

Moliere evidently felt that Alcmena and Amphitryon were placed in an awkward situation, in spite of the a.s.surances of Jupiter-

"Alcmene est toute a toi, quelque soin qu'on employe; Et ce doit a tes feux etre un objet bien doux, De voir, que pour lui plaire, il n'est point d'autre voie, Que de paraitre son epoux.

_Sosie_. Le seigneur Jupiter sait dorer sa pilule."

In these, and several other lines, Moliere has availed himself of the old French play of Rotrou. The lively expression of Sosia,

"Le veritable Amphitryon est l'Amphitryon ou l'on dine,"

which has pa.s.sed into a sort of proverb, has been suggested by a similar phrase of Rotrou's Sosia-

"Point point d'Amphitryon ou l'on ne dine point;"

and the lines,

"J'etais venu, je vous jure, Avant que je fusse arrive,"

are nearly copied from Rotrou's

"J'etais chez-nous avant mon arrive;"

and Sosia's boast, in the older French play,

"Il m'est conforme en tout-il est grand, il est fort,"

has probably suggested to Moliere the lines,

"Des pieds, jusqu' a la tete il est comme moi fait, Beau, l'air n.o.ble, bienpris, les manieres charmantes."

The _Amphitrion_ of Moliere was published in 1668, so that Dryden, in his imitation of Plautus's _Amphitryon_, which first appeared in 1690, had an opportunity of also availing himself of the French piece. But, even with this a.s.sistance, he has done Plautus less justice than his predecessor. He has sometimes borrowed the scenes and incidents of Moliere; but has too frequently given us ribaldry in the low characters, and bombast in the higher, instead of the admirable grace and liveliness of the French dramatist. His comedy commences earlier than either the French or Latin play. Phbus makes his appearance at the opening of the piece. The first arrival of Jupiter in the shape of Amphitryon is then represented, apparently in order to introduce Phaedra, the attendant of Alcmena, exacting a promise from her mistress, before she knew, who had arrived, that they should that night be bed-fellows as usual since Amphitryon's absence. To this Phaedra, Dryden has a.s.signed an amour with Mercury, to the great jealousy of Sosia's wife, Bromia; and has mixed up the whole play with pastoral dialogues and _rondeaus_, to which, as he informs us in his dedication, "the numerous choir of fair ladies gave so just an applause."

The scenes of a higher description are those which have been best managed.

The latest editor, indeed, of the works of Dryden, thinks that in these parts he has surpa.s.sed both the French and Roman dramatist. "The sensation to be expressed," he remarks, "is not that of sentimental affection, which the good father of Olympus was not capable of feeling; but love of that grosser and subordinate kind, which prompted Jupiter in his intrigues, has been expressed by none of the ancient poets in more beautiful verse, than that in which Dryden has clothed it, in the scenes between Jupiter and Alcmena." Milbourne, who afterwards so violently attacked the English poet, highly compliments him on the success of this effort of his dramatic muse-

"Not Phbus could with gentler words pursue His flying Daphne; not the morning dew Falls softer, than the words of amorous Jove, When melting, dying, for Alcmena's love."

The character, however, of Alcmena is, I think, less interesting in the English than in the Latin play. She is painted by Plautus as delighted with the glory of her husband. In the second scene of the second act, after a beautiful complaint on account of his absence, she consoles herself with the thoughts of his military renown, and concludes with an eulogy on valour, which would doubtless be highly popular in a Roman theatre during the early ages of the Republic-

-- "Virtus praemium est optimum, Virtus omnibus rebus anteit profecto.

Libertas, salus, vita, res, parenteis, Patria, et prognati tutantur, servantur: Virtus omnia in se habet; omnia adsunt bona, quem pen'est virtus."

Dryden's Alcmena is represented as quite different in her sentiments: She exclaims, on parting with Jupiter,

"Curse on this honour, and this public fame!

Would you had less of both, and more of love!"

Lady M. W. Montague gives a curious account, in one of her letters, of a German play on the subject of Amphitryon, which she saw acted at Vienna.-"As that subject had been already handled by a Latin, French, and English poet, I was curious to see what an Austrian author could make of it. I understand enough of that language to comprehend the greatest part of it; and, besides, I took with me a lady that had the goodness to explain to me every word. I thought the house very low and dark; but the comedy admirably recompensed that defect. I never laughed so much in my life. It began with Jupiter falling in love out of a peep-hole in the clouds, and ended with the birth of Hercules. But what was most pleasant was, the use Jupiter made of his metamorphosis; for you no sooner saw him under the figure of Amphitryon, but, instead of flying to Alcmena with the raptures Dryden puts into his mouth, he sends for Amphitryon's tailor, and cheats him of a laced coat, and his banker of a bag of money-a Jew of a diamond ring, and bespeaks a great supper in his name; and the greatest part of the comedy turns upon poor Amphitryon's being tormented by these people for their debts. Mercury uses Sosia in the same manner; but I could not easily pardon the liberty the poet had taken of larding his play with not only indecent expressions, but such gross words as I do not think our mob would suffer from a mountebank."

In nothing can the manners of different ages and countries be more distinctly traced, than in the way in which the same subject is treated on the stage. In Plautus, may be remarked the military enthusiasm and early rudeness of the Romans-in the _Marito_ of L. Dolce, the intrigues of the Italians, and the constant interposition of priests and confessors in domestic affairs-in Dryden, the libertinism of the reign of Charles the Second-and in Moliere, the politeness and refinement of the court of Louis.

_Asinaria_, is translated from the Greek of Demophilus, a writer of the Middle comedy. The subject is the trick put on an a.s.s-driver by two roguish slaves, in order to get hold of the money which he brought in payment of some a.s.ses he had purchased from their master, that they might employ it in supplying the extravagance of their master's son. The old man, however, is not the dupe in this play: On the contrary, he is a confederate in the plot, which was chiefly devised against his wife, who, having brought her husband a great portion, imperiously governed his house and family. By this means the youth is restored to the possession of a mercenary mistress, from whom he had been excluded by a more wealthy rival. The father stipulates, as a reward for the part which he had acted in this stratagem, that he also should have a share in the favours of his son's mistress; and the play concludes with this old wretch being detected by his wife, carousing at a nocturnal banquet, a wreath of flowers on his head, with his son and the courtezan. It would appear, from the concluding address to the spectators, that neither the moral sense of the author, nor of his audience, was very strong or correct, as the bystanders on the stage, so far from condemning these abandoned characters, declare that the most guilty of the three had done nothing new or surprising, or more than what was customary:

"_Grex._ Hic senex, si quid, clam uxorem, suo animo fecit volup, Neque novum, neque mirum fecit, nec secus quam alii solent: Nec quisqua'st tam in genio duro; nec tam firmo pectore, Quin ubi quicquam occasionis sit, sibi faciat bene."

Lucilius, while remarking in one of his fragments, that the Chremes of Terence had preserved a just medium in morals by his obliging demeanour towards his son, had ample grounds for observing, that the Demaenetus of Plautus had run into an extreme-

"Chremes in medium, in summum ire Ademaenetus(231)."

However exceptionable in point of morals, this play possesses much comic vivacity and interest of character. The courtezan and the slaves are sketched with spirit and freedom, and the rapacious disposition of the female dealer in slave-girls, is well developed.

It is curious that this immoral comedy should have been so frequently acted in the Italian convents. In particular, a translation in _terza rima_ was represented in the monastery of St Stefano at Venice, in 1514(232). It was not of a nature to be often imitated by modern writers, but Moliere, who has borrowed so many of the plots of other plays of Plautus, has extracted from this drama several situations and ideas.

Cleaereta, in the third scene of the first Act of the _Asinaria_, gives, as her advice, to a gallant-

"Neque ille scit quid det, quid d.a.m.ni faciat: illi rei studet; Vult placere sese amicae, vult mihi, vult pedissequae, Vult famulis, vult etiam ancillis; et quoque catulo meo Sublanditur novus amator."

In like manner, in the _Femmes Savantes_, Henriette, while counselling c.l.i.tandre to be complaisant, says-

"Un amant fait sa cour ou s'attache son cur, Il veut de tout le monde y gagner la faveur; Et pour n'avoir personne a sa flamme contraire, Jusqu'au chien du logis il s'efforce de plaire."

_Aulularia_.-It is not known from what Greek author this play has been taken; but there can be no doubt that it had its archetype in the Greek drama. The festivals of Ceres and Bacchus, which in their origin were innocent inst.i.tutions, intended to celebrate the blessings of harvest and vintage, having degenerated by means of priestcraft, became schools of superst.i.tion and debauchery. From the adventures and intrigues which occurred at the celebration of religious mysteries, the comic poets of Greece frequently drew the incidents of their dramas(233), which often turned on damsels having been rendered, on such occasions, the mothers of children, without knowing who were the fathers. In like manner, the intrigue of the _Aulularia_ has its commencement in the daughter of Euclio being violated during the celebration of the mysteries of Ceres, without being aware from whom she had received the injury. The _Aulularia_, however, is princ.i.p.ally occupied with the display of the character of a Miser. No vice has been so often pelted with the good sentences of moralists, or so often ridiculed on the stage, as avarice; and of all the characters that have been there represented, that of the miser in the _Aulularia_ of Plautus, is perhaps the most entertaining and best supported. Comic dramas have been divided into those of intrigue and character, and the _Aulularia_ is chiefly of the latter description. It is so termed from _Aula_, or _Olla_, the diminutive of which is _Aulula_, signifying the little earthen pot that contained a treasure which had been concealed by his grandfather, but had been discovered by Euclio the miser, who is the princ.i.p.al character of the play. The prologue is spoken by the _Lar Familiaris_ of the house; and as the play has its origin in the discovery of a treasure deposited under a hearth, the introduction of this imaginary Being, if we duly consider the superst.i.tions of the Romans, was happy and appropriate. The account given by the _Lar_ of the successive generations of misers, is also well imagined, as it convinces us that Euclio was a genuine miser, and of the true breed. The household G.o.d had disclosed the long-concealed treasure, as a reward for the piety of Euclio's daughter, who presented him with offerings of frankincense and of wine, which, however, it is not very probable the miser's daughter could have procured, especially before the discovery of the treasure. The story of the precious deposit, of which the spectators could not possibly have been informed without this supernatural interposition, being thus related, we are introduced at once to the knowledge of the princ.i.p.al character, who, having found the treasure, employs himself in guarding it, and lives in continual apprehension, lest it should be discovered that he possesses it. Accordingly, he is brought on the stage driving off his servant, that she may not spy him while visiting this h.o.a.rd, and afterwards giving directions of the strictest economy. He then leaves home on an errand very happily imagined-an attendance at a public distribution of money to the poor. Megadorus now proposes to marry his daughter, and Euclio comically enough supposes that he has discovered something concerning his newly acquired wealth; but on his offering to take her without a portion, he is tranquillized, and agrees to the match. Knowing the disposition of his intended father-in-law, Megadorus sends provisions to his house, and also cooks, to prepare a marriage-feast, but the miser turns them out, and keeps what they had brought. At length his alarm for discovery rises to such a height, that he hides his treasure in a grove, consecrated to Sylva.n.u.s, which lay beyond the walls of the city. While thus employed, he is observed by the slave of Lyconides, the young man who had violated the miser's daughter. Euclio coming to recreate himself with the sight of his gold, finds that it is gone. Returning home in despair, he is met by Lyconides, who, hearing of the projected nuptials between his uncle and the miser's daughter, now apologizes for his conduct; but the miser applies all that he says concerning his daughter to his lost treasure.

This play is unfortunately mutilated, and ends with the slave of Lyconides confessing to his master that he has found the miser's h.o.a.rd, and offering to give it up as the price of his freedom. It may be presumed, however, that, in the original, Lyconides got possession of the treasure, and by its restoration to Euclio, so far conciliated his favour, that he obtained his daughter in marriage. This conclusion, accordingly, has been adopted by those who have attempted to finish the comedy in the spirit of the Latin dramatist. It is completed on this plan by Thornton, the English translator of Plautus, and by Antonius Codrus Urceus, a professor in the University of Bologna, who died in the year 1500. Urceus has also made the miser suddenly change his nature, and liberally present his new son-in-law with the restored treasure.

The restless inquietude of Euclio, in concealing his gold in many different places-his terror on seeing the preparations for the feast, lest the wine brought in was meant to intoxicate him, that he might be robbed with greater facility-his dilemma at being obliged to miss the distribution to the poor-are all admirable traits of extreme and habitual avarice. Even his recollection of the expense of a rope, when, in despair at the loss of his treasure, he resolves to hang himself, though a little overdone, is sufficiently characteristic. But while the part of a confirmed miser has been comically and strikingly represented in these touches, it is stretched in others beyond all bounds of probability. When Euclio entreats his female servant to spare the cobwebs-when it is said, that he complains of being pillaged if the smoke issue from his house-and that he preserves the parings of his nails-we feel this to be a species of h.o.a.rding which no miser could think of or enjoy(234).

One of the earliest imitations of the _Aulularia_ was, _La Sporta_, a prose Italian comedy, printed at Florence in 1543, under the name of Giovam-Battista Gelli, but attributed by some to Machiavel. It is said, that the great Florentine historian left this piece, in an imperfect state, in the hands of his friend Bernardino di Giordano of Florence, in whose house his comedies were sometimes represented, whence it pa.s.sed into the possession of Gelli, a writer of considerable humour, who prepared it for the press; and, according to a practice not unfrequent in Italy at different periods, published it as his own production(235). The play is called _Sporta_, from the basket in which the treasure was contained. The plot and incidents in Plautus have been closely followed, in so far as was consistent with modern Italian manners; and where they varied, the circ.u.mstances, as well as names, have been adapted by the author to the customs and ideas of his country. Euclio is called Ghirorgoro, and Megadorus, Lapo; the former being set up as a satire on avarice, the latter as a pattern of proper economy.

The princ.i.p.al plot of _The case is altered_, a comedy attributed to Ben Jonson, has been taken, as shall be afterwards shown from the _Captivi_ of Plautus; but the character of Jaques is more closely formed on that of Euclio, than any miser on the modern stage. Jaques having purloined the treasure of a French Lord Chamont, whose steward he had been, and having also stolen his infant daughter, fled with them to Italy. The girl, when she grew up, being very beautiful, had many suitors; whence her reputed father suspects it is discovered that he possesses hidden wealth, in the same manner as Euclio does in the scene with Megadorus. We have a representation of his excessive anxiety lest he lose this treasure-his concealment of it-and his examination of Juniper, the cobbler, whom he suspects to have stolen it; which corresponds to Euclio's examination of Strobilus. Most other modern dramatists have made their miser in love; but in the breast of Jaques all pa.s.sions are absorbed in avarice, which is exhibited to us not so much in ridiculous instances of minute domestic economy, as in absolute adoration of his gold:

"I'll take no leave, sweet prince, great emperor!

But see thee every minute, king of kings!"

It is thus he feasts his senses with his treasure: and the very ground in which it is hidden is accounted hallowed:

"This is the palace, where the G.o.d of gold s.h.i.+nes like the sun of sparkling majesty!"

But the most celebrated imitation of the _Aulularia_ is Moliere's _Avare_, one of the best and most wonderful imitations ever produced. Almost nothing is of the French dramatist's own invention. Scenes have been selected by him from a number of different plays, in various languages, which have no relation to each other; but every thing is so well connected, that the whole appears to have been invented for this single comedy. Though chiefly indebted to Plautus, he has not so closely followed his original as in the _Amphitryon_. One difference, which materially affects the plots of the two plays and characters of the misers, is, that Euclio was poor till he unexpectedly found the treasure. He was not known to be rich, and lived in constant dread of his wealth being discovered.

When any thing was said about riches, he applied it to himself; and when well received or caressed by any one, he supposed that he was ensnared.

Harpagon, on the other hand, had ama.s.sed a fortune, and was generally known to possess it, which gives an additional zest to the humour, as we thus enter into the merriment of his family and neighbours; whereas the penury of Euclio could scarcely have appeared unreasonable to the bystanders, who were not in the secret of the acquired treasure. Moliere has also made his miser in love, or at least resolved to marry, and amuses us with his anxiety, in believing himself under the necessity of giving a feast to his intended bride; which is still better than Euclio's consternation at the supper projected by his intended son-in-law. Euclio is constantly changing the place where he conceals his casket; Harpagon allows it to remain, but is chiefly occupied with its security. The idea, however, of so much incident turning on a casket, is not so happily imagined in the French as in the Latin comedy; since, in the latter, it was the whole treasure of which the miser was possessed, and there was at that time no mode of lending it out safely and to advantage. Harpagon gives a collation, but orders the fragments to be sent back to those who had provided it; Euclio retains the provisions, which had been procured at another's expense. From the restraint imposed by modern manners, and the circ.u.mstance of Harpagon being known to be rich, Moliere has been forced to omit the amusing dilemmas in which Euclio is placed with regard to his attendance on the distributions to the poor. In recompense, he has wonderfully improved the scene about the dowry, as also that in which the miser applies what is said concerning his daughter to his lost treasure; and, on the whole, he has displayed the pa.s.sion of avarice in more of the incidents and relations of domestic life than the Latin poet. Plautus had remained satisfied with exhibiting a miser, who deprived himself of all the comforts of life, to watch night and day over an unproductive treasure; but Moliere went deeper into the mind. He knew that avarice is accompanied with selfishness, and hardness of heart, and falsehood, and mistrust, and usury; and accordingly, all these vices and evil pa.s.sions are amalgamated with the character of the French miser.

The _Aulularia_ being a play of character, I have been led to compare the most celebrated imitations of it rather in the exhibition of the miserly character than in the incidents of the piece. Many of the latter which occur in the _Avare_, have not been borrowed from Plautus, yet are not of Moliere's invention. Thus he has added from the _Pedant Joue_ of Cyrano Bergerac that part of the plot which consists in the love of the miser and his son for the same woman, as also that which relates to Valere, a young gentleman in love with the miser's daughter, who had got into his service in disguise, and who, when the miser lost his money, which his son's servant had stolen, was accused by another servant of having purloined it.

Moliere's notion of the miser's prodigal son borrowing money from a usurer, and the usurer afterwards proving to be his father, is from _La Belle Plaideuse_, a comedy of Bois-Robert. In an Italian piece, _Le Case Svaligiate_, prior to the time of Moliere, and in the harlequin taste, Scapin persuades Pantaloon that the young beauty with whom he is captivated returns his love, that she sets a particular value on old age, and dislikes youthful admirers, whence Pantaloon is induced to give his purse to the flatterer. Frosine attacks the vanity of Harpagon in the same manner, but he, though not unmoved by the flattery, retains his money.

Moliere has availed himself of a number of other Italian dramas of the same description for scattered remarks and situations. The name of Harpagon has been suggested to him by the continuation of Codrus Urceus, where Strobilus says that the masters of the present day are so avaricious, that they may be called Harpies or Harpagons:

"Tenaces nimium dominos nostra aetas Tulit, quos Harpagones vocare soleo."

I do not know where Moliere received the hint of the _denouement_ of his piece. The conclusion of the _Aulularia_, as already mentioned, is not extant, but it could not have been so improbable and inartificial as the discovery of Valere and Marianne for the children of Thomas D'Alburci, who, under the name of Anselme, had courted the miser's daughter.