Moralization on the scene

sententiae in Plautus’ Rudens

Abstract

This article discusses the function of the sententiae, a rhetorical and moral expedient, in Plautus’ Rudens. The analysis of the sententiae contained in the prologue and in dialogues between mulieres and serui allowed to ponder on different interpretations of modern classicists (DINTER, 2016; HUNTER, 1989; MOORE, 1998) regarding the possibility of these apparently admonishing passages being a source for a moralistic understanding of Plautus’ comedies. The reading that this work proposes is primarily contextual, namely: it does not evaluate sententiae in isolation, but it points, above all, to the need to consider the intratextual and extratextual context of the play, establishing correlations between sententia and characters given by other passages with which they can keep connections, and observing how the sententiae contribute to the spectacle of scenic games (ludi scaenici). In addition, the study assumes Rudens' text from the perspective of Florence Dupont's (2017) non-Aristotelian theatrical studies, in which the author defends ancient Roman comedy as a result of a ritualistic theatrical performance, in which theater is part of the scenic games, conditioned not by mimesis, but by ludicism (ludus). The conclusions indicate that the sententiae are part of a comic theatrical technique, being employed mainly in scenes of deception, of discursive dispute between characters and in scenes in which indirectly characters abandon the morality disguised by the most moralists in the play: Arcturus, the prologus, and Dêmones, the senex. Such a renounce demonstrates, therefore, that sententiae would not be a source for moralization in Rudens.