The Character of the “Graceful Servant” in Camões’ Theatre

Accomplice of the Young Master. The Greco-Latins Paradigms’ Imitatio and Aemulatio

Abstract

Bearing in mind the motifs bequeathed by the Greco-Latin comic tradition, the figure of the slave accomplice of the master persists in the dramatic production of several authors. Regarding Portuguese theatre, our study focuses on the work of Camões, more precisely in the reconfiguration to which the Renaissance playwright subjects the seruus of Greco-Latin comedy. Converted into a graceful and cunning servant, but always ready to help his master in matters of love, to what extent does the “young servant” of Camões theatre maintain, by means of imitatio, characteristic traits that come from the old tradition? Or are there cases or some situations in which the aemulatio of the imitated paradigms is verified? In this article, we intend to answer to these questions, based on a hermeneutic reading and analysis of two “graceful young servants” of Camões’ dramatic production, namely: Vilardo, from the play Filodemo, and Leocádeo, from the Comédia d’El-Rei Seleuco.