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Repetitions and Obsessions in Plavtvs

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  11 February 2009

F. W. Hall
F. W. Hall
Affiliation:
St. John's College, Oxford
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Extract

It would add greatly to our interest in the plays of Plautus if we knew more about the order in which they were produced. As it is, our knowledge of the dates of the plays is pitifully meagre and uncertain. Miles Gloriosus appears to have been produced soon after 206; Cistellaria about 201; Stichus (the only play that can be dated with certainty) in 200; Trinummus soon after 194; Pseudolus probably is 191, and Truculentus about 189. The date of the remaining seventeen plays is unknown. We can only infer their relation one to another from the internal evidence of language, metre, and structure. The results of an examination on these lines, if they converged, might be useful in enabling us to arrange the plays roughly in a number of well-defined groups. Mr. Sedgwick 1 has recently made an interesting attempt to approach the problem from the side of metre. I think that a more intensive study of the plays from the side of language might lead to profitable results. My immediate concern is, however, only with a small corner of this vast field—viz., the frequent coincidence of thought and phrase which is so marked a feature of these plays.

Type
Research Article
Information
The Classical Quarterly , Volume 20 , Issue 1 , January 1926 , pp. 20 - 26
Copyright
Copyright © The Classical Association 1926

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References

page 20 note 1 In C.R. XXIX. 55, 1925.

page 22 note 1 There are a good many such repetitions in Dickens—e.g. Jerry Cruncher and Rogue Riderhood when they wish to be especially impressive both ask that their words should be ‘took down in writing.’

page 23 note 1 In these passages and in Pers. 205 = Pseud. 250 quoted above we seem to have what MrCook, A. B., in his suggestive article in C.R. (1901) XV., pp. 338Google Scholar sqq., would call ‘associative reminiscence.’ A word is recalled in the author's 250 mind by others with which it is associated, though when recalled it is not used in exactly the same way—e.g. hodie here.

page 23 note 2 Cf. Fränkel, E., Plautinisches in P., pp. 198Google Scholar ff.