BMCR 2009.07.03: Hunink on Christenson, Plautus: Four Plays. Casina, Amphitryon, Captivi, Pseudolus. Focus Classical Library

David Christenson (ed.), Plautus: Four Plays. Casina, Amphitryon,
Captivi, Pseudolus. Focus Classical Library.  Newburyport, MA:  Focus
Publishing, 2008.  Pp. 265.  ISBN 9781585101559.  $14.95 (pb).

Reviewed by Vincent Hunink, Radboud University Nijmegen
([email protected])
Word count:  1233 words
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Until relatively recently, the archaic Roman comedies of Plautus (ca.
254-184 B.C.) used to find little favour with classical scholars. His
plays were often labelled rude and primitive, lacking in dramatic
finesse and psychology, aiming at easy success with his audience,
without much sense for serious, moral values. The poet earned some
praise, meanwhile, for the liveliness of his works, which offer a
unique insight into daily life in early Rome, and for his creative use
of the Latin language. In recent years, by contrast, Plautus has been
given much attention and he seems to have become almost fashionable
among liberal-minded scholars. For example, English translations of
some Plautine plays were published by Amy Richlin (2006) and John
Henderson (2007), which each in their own way could be described as
radical and postmodern (I reviewed both books in BMCR 2006.05.35 and
2007.01.03 respectively).

Obviously in reaction to such trends in Plautine studies, David
Christenson has now published a new translation of four comedies by
Plautus that aims to steer a middle course between translations that
"seemed either ineptly stilted or too far removed from Plautus' Latin
and his culture", and between "accuracy and liveliness" (p. 31). That
is, Christenson has tried "to navigate between the Scylla and Charybdis
of slavish literalism on the one side, and the temptation to
over-indulge in contemporary slang and other imminently doomed,
ephemeral references on the other." (p. 31).

When an author aims at balance and compromise, he or she will not
easily satisfy extreme sides in modern readership, which often make
themselves readily heard. Christenson's translation will seem
needlessly free to the very strictest of philologists, while it will
inevitably be considered bleak and flat to the hard core innovators of
classical studies. But readers of Plautus who do not wish to be counted
to either extreme (and I hope that this still goes for a large
majority) will probably appreciate or even like this book.

Christenson has given us a clear, readable rendering of four
interesting plays, without a desire to surpass or outdo the original in
any way, but rather to make the Plautine text and context come alive
for a non-Latinist audience. The target group, defined as "students and
teachers in literature in translation courses" as well as "the general
reader" (p. 32), will profit from Christenson's easy, low-key style,
his informative introductions, and practical footnotes, which do not
suppose prior experience of Plautus, or indeed of antiquity as a whole,
and duly explain all that is needed to understand the text.

Since the book is primarily aimed to be read to get to know Plautus and
his world, the translation itself will not be immediately practicable
for stage performances (stage directions have been kept to an absolute
minimum, particularly in comparison with Nixon's old Loeb versions).
But since these are fair, reliable versions of Plautus' plays, the
texts might be reworked into stage texts.

In his choices as a translator, Christenson has opted for compromise as
well. While avoiding idiosyncratic style or a clearly poetical form
(whether metrical or in free verse), he does maintain Plautus' division
of lines and adopt what may be called a fairly neutral idiom. This
results in texts such as are not often written nowadays, with, at first
glance at least, the typographical "look and feel" of poetry, combined
with the flow and rhythm of prose. While this style is not distracting
or calling for attention to itself, it is also, I have to admit, a bit
indeterminate and does not seem quite convincing as a mirror of
Plautus' enchanting Latin.

But quite possibly, Christenson did not primarily wish to convey the
essence of Plautus' style. A closer look at this particular selection
of plays shows that it is rather the themes of the plays, their social
"messages", that are of interest to the translator (or "editor", as
Christenson calls himself).

In all four plays, Plautus seems concerned with larger social issues,
such as the role of women, the position of slaves, and the relations
between masters and slaves. Fortunately, Christenson does not go so far
as to argue that Plautus is a revolutionary thinker wishing to exert
direct influence on Roman society and to introduce real change. Indeed,
such a theory would not convince many readers of Plautus, since he
mostly seems to care precious little about matters of general interest
and rather more about immediate comic effect.

What Christenson does argue is that in these four plays, something
serious is happening and that more is at work than merely "letting off
of steam". The plays lay bare the conventions both of comedy and of
Roman views on status, power and gender at large, and by showing and
lightly questioning such conventions, they make their audiences think
about what they see. Theatre in such a form challenges common
assumptions about larger issues without actually changing them.

Admittedly, it is not easy to accept that Plautus can have a "serious"
side, but Christenson does have a point with these plays.

The Captivi in particular is an almost un-Plautine, pure play with no
markedly obscene or coarse language, no quarrels or fights, and no
disreputable, funny characters (prostitutes, pimps), as is explicitly
stated by the speaker of the prologue (lines 54-62). The play's
greatest hero is a slave, Tyndarus, who risks his life in order to save
his master from slavery. This shows how good or bad character need not
be directly correlated with social status: Tyndarus is, indeed,
something like "a noble slave". (That is, until he turns out to be not
a slave at all, but rather a freeborn son of the very man whom he
served as a slave -- the plot is a little too complex to describe in
one or two lines.) Yes, this may have made Roman viewers think about
the essence of slavery and "the arbitrariness of rank and status" (p.
24) without making them rebellious and ready to change the law on
slavery.

Likewise, the Amphitryon, with Jupiter and Mercury appearing on stage,
makes one think about the vulnerability of even mighty men when faced
with the gods; the Casina shows a woman, Cleostrata, gradually getting
the upper hand and gaining control of the play, while Pseudolus seems
so full of reflection about being a comedy that it may properly be
called "Plautus' most consciously theatrical play" (p. 25).

It is a clear merit of Christenson's book to draw attention to this
underrated aspect of Plautus' theatre, in the form of a combined
translation of the socially most relevant comedies, if I may call them
thus. Of course, there is more Plautus than merely these four plays, I
am happy to add. Many readers will, as I do, still prefer Plautus' more
raw and funny side, with bawdy talk, bad jokes, laughable stock
characters, and brilliant Latin puns, regardless of any ethics and
morals.

To sum up: Christenson has offered readers a useful and informative
edition of four Plautine plays in neutral, accessible English that,
unlike some recent Plautus translations, reaches out to a wide modern
audience, both classicist and general, both in Anglophone countries and
elsewhere in the world. Within the range of Plautus translations as
currently available, this is certainly a most welcome contribution.
Christenson's thematical focus on some of Plautus' more serious plays,
in which he seems almost like a social critic, is interesting and
provides food for thought.