Curculio (play)


Curculio, also called The Weevil, is a Latin comedic play for the early Roman theatre by Titus Maccius Plautus. It is the shortest of Plautus's surviving plays.
The date of the play is not known, but de Melo suggests it may come from the middle period of Plautus's career, from the moderate amount of musical passages it contains. Other indications of date are a possible reference in lines 509–511 to a law of 197 BC on money-lending, and from the mention of gold philippics, a coin which may have become familiar in Rome after the war in Macedonia of 194 BC.

Plot

In Curculio, Phaedromus is in love with Planesium, a slave girl belonging to the pimp Cappadox. Phaedromus sends Curculio to Caria to borrow money from a friend. Unsuccessful, Curculio happens to run into Therapontigonus, a soldier who intends to purchase Planesium. After Curculio learns of his plans, he steals the soldier's ring and returns to Phaedromus. They fake a letter and seal it using the ring. Wearing a disguise, Curculio takes it to the soldier's banker Lyco, tricking him into thinking he was sent by Therapontigonus. Lyco pays Cappadox, under the conditions that the money will be returned if it is later discovered that she is freeborn. Curculio takes the girl to Phaedromus. When the trick is later discovered, the angry Therapontigonus confronts the others. However, Planesium has discovered from the ring that she is actually Therapontigonus's sister. Since she is freeborn, Therapontigonus's money is returned, and Planesium is allowed to marry Phaedromus.
The play is set in Epidaurus, in Greece. On the stage are the houses of Phaedromus and Cappadox, and between them a temple of Aesculapius, the god of healing.

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. The structure of the plays 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.
The metrical structure of the Curculio is very simple. Taking A = iambic senarii, B = other metres, C = trochaic septenarii, with a break after each C passage, the order of passages might be seen as follows:
C. W. Marshall, however, prefers the following break-down, starting each section with iambic senarii:
He points out the effectiveness of the sudden change to iambic senarii, when the music stops, at the moment when the soldier reveals where he got the ring.
There is one polymetric canticum, and one passage of 90 lines of iambic septenarii. Apart from this the only metres used are the usual iambic senarii and trochaic septenarii. As with several other plays, the first music is sung by a female character. The iambic septenarii, which are often associated with love, are used when Planesium is brought out from Cappadox's house and seen off by the slave-dealer. Another short passage of iambic septenarii is used when Leaena pours a libation of wine to the goddess Venus.

Phaedromus visits Planesium

  • Act 1.1 : iambic senarii
  • Act 1.2 polymetric song
  • '''Act 1.3 : trochaic septenarii '''

Curculio returns with a plan

  • Act 2.1–2.2 : iambic senarii
  • '''Act 2.3 : trochaic septenarii '''

Curculio tricks the banker

  • Act 3.1 : iambic senarii
  • Act 4.1 : trochaic septenarii
  • Act 4.2 : iambic septenarii
  • '''Act 4.3–5.2 : trochaic septenarii '''

All ends well

  • Act 5.2 : iambic senarii
  • '''Act 5.3 : trochaic septenarii '''

Translations