Cistellaria


Cistellaria, translated as The Casket, is a comedic Latin play of the late 3rd century BC by the early Roman playwright Titus Maccius Plautus. The story, set in the Greek town of Sicyon, concerns a girl called Selenium who was exposed as a baby and brought up by a courtesan called Melaenis. By a happy chance it is discovered that her birth mother, married to a senator Demipho, lives next door, enabling her to marry the young man Alcesimarchus who loves her.
The play was adapted from a lost comedy by Menander called Synaristosai. The Cistellaria appears to be one of Plautus's earliest plays. In line 202, the hope is expressed that the war with Carthage will soon end with victory for the Romans. The same passage mentions "your allies old and new", which may be a reference to the treaty of alliance made with the Aetolian League in 209.

Characters

  • Selenium: a young courtesan, who turns out to be free-born
  • Gymnasium: a prostitute, friend of Selenium
  • Gymnasium's mother: also a prostitute
  • Alcesimarchus: a young man of Sicyon, in love with Selenium
  • Alcesimarchus's slave:
  • Alcesimarchus's father:
  • Melaenis: a prostitute, who adopted Selenium as a baby
  • Lampadio: slave of Phanostrata
  • Phanostrata: wife of Demipho, and birth-mother of Selenium
  • Halisca: maidservant of Melaenis
  • Demipho: a senator of Sicyon, husband of Phanostrata

    Metrical structure

Plautus's plays are traditionally divided into five acts. However, it is not thought that the act-divisions go back to Plautus's time, since no manuscript contains them before the 15th century. Also, the acts themselves do not always match the structure of the plays, which is often more clearly shown by the variation in metres.
A common pattern in Plautus is for a metrical section to begin with iambic senarii, followed optionally by a musical passage or song, and ending with trochaic septenarii, which were recited or sung to the music of a pair of pipes known as tibiae.
Although parts of the play are now lost because pages are missing from the manuscripts, the structure of the play seems to be as follows, taking A = iambic senarii, B = other metres, C = trochaic septenarii:
Instead of the usual iambic senarii, this play opens with a polymetric song. The last section also opens with a polymetric song. In addition there are three passages in iambic septenarii, and a wild passage in anapaests where the young lover Alcesimarchus sings of his distress.

Selenium outlines her problem

  • Act 1.1 : polymetric song
  • Act 1.1 : iambic septenarii
  • '''Act 1.1 : trochaic septenarii '''

    Selenium's birth and parentage are explained

  • '''Act 1.2–1.3 : iambic senarii '''

    Alcesimarchus's passion for Selenium

  • Act 2.1 : anapaestic song
  • '''Act 2.2–2.3 : trochaic septenarii '''

    Alcesimarchus learns about the wedding preparations

  • Act 2.3 : iambic senarii
  • Act 2.4 : iambic septenarii
  • Act 2.5–2.6 : iambic senarii
  • Act 2.7 : iambic octonarii
  • Act 2.7 : trochaic septenarii
  • Act 2.7 : fragmentary, metre uncertain, probably iambic
  • '''Act 2.7 : trochaic septenarii '''

    Melaenis finds out about Selenium's parents

  • Act 2.8–2.9 : iambic senarii
  • '''Act 3.1–4.1 : trochaic septenarii '''

    Phanostrata and Demipho find their daughter

  • Act 4.2 : polymetric song
  • Act 4.2 : iambic septenarii
  • Act 4.2 : iambic senarii
  • '''Act 5.1 : trochaic septenarii '''

    Translations

  • English translation by Henry Thomas Riley at Perseus:
  • Wolfang de Melo, 2011