Aulularia

by Plautus

Tito Macio Plauto (mediados del siglo III - h. 184 a. n. e.) es uno de los autores teatrales más importantes de la Antigüedad. Nacido en Sársina, en la región de Umbría, a pesar de su notoriedad, poco se sabe de su vida. Lo que sí es seguro es que, como autor de comedias, supo conectar con el gran público y cosechó un enorme éxito popular que ningún otro autor griego o romano posterior alcanzó. No es de extrañar que fuese imitado hasta la saciedad y que incluso Molière y Shakespeare buscaran inspiración en sus obras. La comedia de la olla , uno de sus títulos más conocidos, basa su comicidad en el carácter de Euclión, un viejo que de la noche a la mañana se hace rico gracias al hallazgo de una olla de oro. Su actitud neurótica y ridícula le sirve al autor latino para mostrar los aspectos más negativos que la avaricia acarrea y convirtió a su personaje en el estereotipo de tacaño, muy reconocible en la sociedad romana. «Los personajes de Plauto hablan como el pueblo romano de su tiempo, y hablan sin parar, con una verborrea maravillosa, llena de color, de matices, de refranes, de expresiones callejeras no raramente ordinarias y soeces». MARTÍN DE RIQUER

Genres: Classics, Plays, Drama, School, Theatre, Comedy, Roman

130 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 196

About the author

Titus Maccius Plautus (c. 254 – 184 BC), commonly known as Plautus, was a Roman playwright of the Old Latin period. His comedies are the earliest works in Latin literature to have survived in their entirety. He wrote Palliata comoedia, the genre devised by the innovator of Latin literature, Livius Andronicus. The word Plautine refers to both Plautus's own works and works similar to or influenced by his.

Reviews

[persephone ☾ · Rating 1 out of 5]

Plautus really woke up one day and said let me create the most misogynistic play on earth to entertain these plebeians <3

[Luís · Rating 4 out of 5]

One can often lose much more than one hoped to preserve by wanting too much.
Simple style punctuated by the small plot that will offer so many inspirations for centuries to come.

[Tamoghna Biswas · Rating 3 out of 5]

Probably the most popular of his plays, this one revels in its simplicity and farcical tone with which it explores greed and envy. I could find a distinctive impression of this play, on a play I read by Chekhov during high school, The Proposal. While slapstick humour is not necessarily my cup of tea, I was still quite taken aback by how ahead of his time Plautus was in analyzing the inherent nature of 'gossip'.

[Habib ✧ ✧ ✧ · Rating 4 out of 5]

🎭 سيكولوجية الجشع والتملك البشري 🎭

تعد مسرحية كنز البخيل من أهم المسرحيات التي تسلط الضوء على عمق الرغبات البشرية، عندما يتعلق الأمر بالتملك والجشع. فالإنسان هنا في العصر القديم لا يختلف عن الإنسان المعاصر، فكلاهما يسعيان للاحتفاظ بإرث فاني، يقضي على جوهر الروح ومهد الحضارة.

فما ينبع من الذات البشرية قد يرتبط بحالة من الهلع والتوجس إذا ما تعرض ذلك الإرث لضياع أو مسه أحد، فيضع نفسه في متاهة لا يقدر على الخروج منها، سجان نفسه من خلال رباط مادي بحت. فلو وجد تلك الفرصة في أن يؤتى ما طابت له نفسه من ملذات دنيوية بشكل مجاني، فإنه لن يتوانى في ذلك، حتى ولو اضطر لأن يبيع فلذة كبده، بغية ألا يمس ما يقض لاعجه بسوء.

هل الإنسان مضطر لأن يكذب الصواب حتى لا يفقد شيئاً من دنياه؟ مال، قصور، نساء، وما شابه ذلك؟ هل حياته تتوقف على وجود المادة؟ صحيح فالانتفاع بها سبيل لحياة جيدة، ولكن حينما تصبح غاية فإنا سنضحى كشبه أوكليدو نفتش الجيوب والأيادي حتى ترتاح هذه النفس المضطربة في ظلام دامس.

لقد أصبح الإنسان يقاس بأي شيء مادي بحت، يزن قيمته في "حقيبته" وليس داخل رأسه، كأننا فئران تجارب لغرائزنا نبيع الحقيقة في مزاد علني لمن يدفع الثمن. ربما عذابنا في شيء نكدسه حد المرض، في اللاشعور، فإذا ما تخلصنا منه، سيكون بمقدورنا أن نمضي إلى الخير الأعظم.

[David Sarkies · Rating 3 out of 5]

The miserly trap
24 September 2014

Sometimes I wonder why we have so few Roman plays, and that the plays that we do have are mostly comedies, and rather dull ones at that. Maybe it is because Rome was not the type of place where you could produce plays the likes of Aristophanes where the playwright is having a dig at the movers and shakers of the Republic, or maybe it is because the audience preferred New Comedy as opposed to Old Comedy. However I will leave this discussion until I review the collection of plays in The Pot of Gold and Other Plays.
The Pot of Gold, otherwise known as the 'Aulularia' is a classic example of New Comedy, though I suspect that by this time it is simply seen as 'Roman Comedy'. The play is about a not so wealthy man named Euclio who obsesses about a pot of gold that he has in his house. In fact he is so obsessed with this gold that he is almost too scared to leave his house, and when he does he pretty much runs back inside almost instantly. Throw in a beautiful daughter and a suitor and you have all the ingredients of a, well, Roman play.
The theme behind this play is the absurdity of holding onto wealth and the fact that in the end our wealth dominates us as opposed to us being able to be secure despite having wealth. This is the trap that a lot of people with wealth fall into (and I know it because I go through this as well) and that is that the wealth provides us not only with security, but also with identity, and because it gives us that sense of security and identity we begin to fret over what would happen if it was taken away from us. As such we literally go into a tail spin either trying to add to it so that we can then enjoy it without running out, or developing ever elaborate methods in protecting it so that we do not lose it.
While Euclio may in some ways be an extreme example of this type of character, I sometimes wonder if that is really the case. I think of the story of the miser whom Jesus speaks off that saved up all of his wealth to live a comfortable life when he retires only to have it all taken away from him when he dies the day beforehand. Here we have the example of the person who goes without his entire life (though I suspect that Jesus was referring to a wealthy landowner as opposed to somebody who squirrels away their wealth, living a barebones existence so that they may have plenty in retirement) with the mistaken belief that he can enjoy his golden years of retirement.
The play itself is incomplete, though we are able to reconstruct the ending using some outlines that have passed down to us. However I did notice that in the edition that I read there was a significant difference between the translated text and the reconstructed text. To me it felt as if a well rounded and animated character (who was threatening to sue everybody who even thought of stealing his gold) suddenly became little more than a cardboard cutout.

[Valentina Markasović · Rating 5 out of 5]

A pity this book only has 1 (now 2!) reviews. It's actually pretty funny and the language is easy to understand, unlike in so many other classics I had to read for school.

[Blanca · Rating 3 out of 5]

Modern Family versión siglo I a.C.

[маја · Rating 3 out of 5]

the fact that my enemy Molière has a better average rating than this.....oh society how doomed you are

[Dihia · Rating 4 out of 5]

ESTRÓBILO: De él? Si le pidieras, prestada el hambre, no te la daría; pues si dias atrás le cortó su barbero las uñas, y se llevó las recortaduras, después de haberlas recogido con el mayor cuidado.

Una lectura muy entretenida que gira en torno a la codicia. Lo recomiendo encarecidamente para las personas interesadas en los clásicos. Las figuras de estilo, la descripción y el uso de un léxico muy rico permiten que esta obra teatral sea cada vez más interesante y divertida.


AL PUEBLO.
Páginas son de tu vida
las páginas que componen
la Leyenda que te traigo,
la Leyenda de esta noche.

No solo para los ricos,
no solo para los pobres,
mi leyenda es para todos,
ora sufran, ora gocen.

Para el que habita palacios,
para el pastor de los montes,
para el que mora en la aldea
ó en la soledad se esconde.
Cantor de tus alegrías y
cantor de tus dolores,
vengo a llamar á las puertas
de todos los corazones.

Llamaré con los recuerdos,
que en lo hondo del alma se oyen
mas que los gritos mas altos
y las aldabas de bronce.

Los recogí por el mundo,
en los mares, en los bosques,
en las desiertas cabanas,
en los dorados salones.

Y asi será mi Leyenda
un eco de las mil voces,
que vienen del mundo y hablan
en la hora presente al hombre.

VENTURA RUIZ AGUILERA.

[Mike · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is the earliest miser story in Western literature, but it remains fresh and funny. I enjoyed reading the source of one of my favorite plays by Moliere, who “borrowed" heavily from Plautus. It is a little disappointing that the conclusion of the play has been lost, but we all know exactly how the events will end, so that is less of a problem than is often the case with partial or unfinished literary works. I was most delighted by moments when characters broke the fourth wall and acknowledged the audience. We like to think of such meta-theater as a modern development, so I'm always amused when the ancients offer surprises like that, reminding us that there really isn't much new under the sun.

[Illiterate · Rating 3 out of 5]

Another comedy with pacy dialogue and classic characters (the miser). The end is missing but it’s clear what happens.

[Cynka · Rating 5 out of 5]

cytując klasyka:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0_9rw...

[Preetam Chatterjee · Rating 4 out of 5]

The Pot of Gold has a dense and close-knit structure. The play has a single plot which develops in a most convincing manner without any deviations or digressions. It has a single and simple theme, namely the ‘folly of human avarice and miserliness’; and the play has largely been built around one character, namely Euclio, who is the focus of most of our attention.

Euclio is the central character in the play; and in portraying him, the author has satirized the twin follies of stinginess and an obsession with wealth. The play has a moral which is stated at the end by another character, namely Megadorus, who is important next only to Euclio.

All the situations and events in the play are intended to ridicule the two follies of Euclio. Nothing hinders the progress of the plot which moves forward at a brisk pace and which continues to hold our attention throughout.

All the preliminary facts necessary to our understanding of the initial situation in the play have been stated in the form of a prologue by a character called ‘Lar Familiaris’.

After these facts have been brought to our notice, the play gathers speed, with Euclio scolding and rebuking his house-keeper, Staphyla, on the purely imaginary ground that she has come to know of his pot of gold and that she has even told his neighbours about it. Thus, the very first situation in the play exposes the central character's over-suspicious nature and his unreasonableness. While leaving his house for a little while, Euclio gives strict instructions to his house-keeper to keep a watch over everything in the house and not to open the door to anybody.

These instructions emphasize Euclio's anxiety about the safety of his pot of gold and serve only to amuse us. The next situation introduces the other important character in the play. This character is Megadorus, who is being urged by his sister to get married.

Megadorus tells his sister that he would like to marry Euclio's daughter, Phaedria. After his sister has left, Megadorus enters into a conversation with Euclio who happens to meet him. Megadorus offers to marry Euclio's daughter; and Euclio lays down the condition that Megadours should not demand a dowry. This situation further confirms Euclio's miserliness, and also his pretence of poverty even though he owns a lot of wealth in the form of a pot full of gold coins.

Then Euclio is shown as hiding his pot of gold first in the shrine of Good Faith and then in the grove of Silvanus, with the slave watching Euclio and resolving to steal the treasure. Next, we find Euclio discovering his loss and lamenting it. At this point, Lyconides encounters Euclio and confesses his guilt in having seduced Euclio's daughter. Ultimately, acting under the advice and guidance of his uncle Megadorus, Lyconides restores the pot of gold to Euclio and obtains Euclio's consent to his marrying Euclio's daughter.

Thus every event and incident in the play helps the onward movement of the plot which reaches its climax in Euclio's giving away his treasure to Lyconides because he feels that the treasure is not worth all the trouble and botheration which one has to undergo to save it from being stolen.

At the end, Megadorus states briefly and neatly, the lesson of the play. It is a lesson which Euclio has learnt through his personal experience. It is to be noted also that Lyconides' seduction of Euclio's daughter and his decision to try to marry that girl have skilfully been interwoven with the story of Euclio's miserliness and avarice, and his transformation at the end.

All the events and the dialogues of the play occur close to the houses of Euclio and Megadorus who are neighbours. The shrine of Good Faith, where Euclio hides his pot of gold on the first occasion, is situated between those houses. When Euclio decides to take his treasure to the grove of Sylvanus, he is not shown going there actually or hiding his treasure there nor is the slave shown actually taking out Euclio's treasure from where Euclio has hidden it, so that unity of place is in no way violated. Nor are we actually taken to the market where Euclio goes to buy the provisions for the wedding feast and from where he returns empty-handed.

As for the unity of time, the entire action of the play takes only a few hours. The action begins in the morning when Euclio is scolding and rebuking his house-keeper and when, a few moments later, Eunomia comes to see her brother Megadorus.

The play ends a few hours later probably by the noon or in the afternoon when the wedding feast at Euclio's house is ready. The unity of action is evident from the fact that the author concentrates his attention on a single theme, building the play around its central personage, with hardly any digression (unless Euclio's quarrel with Congrio be regarded as a digression). Actually there is not a single incident which is not closely related to the progress of the plot.

The use of comic irony in this play is most conspicuous in the dialogue which takes place between Euclio and Lyconides when Lyconides is accosted by Euclio and asked who he is. In the course of this dialogue, every remark made by each of the two characters means one thing for him and something absolutely different for the other man.

We, the readers or the audience, understand exactly what each of the two speakers means; but each of the speakers means something entirely different from what his listener takes him to mean. Here we feel greatly amused by the misinterpretation by each of the persons of every remark made by the other person. Thus, when Lyconides says that the wicked deed, which is causing Euclio so much distress, had been committed by himself (that is, by Lyconides), Lyconides means to say that he had seduced Euclio's daughter and that he is, therefore, responsible for all Euclio's distress. Lyconides makes this remark because he thinks that Euclio is feeling miserable on account of his daughter's pregnancy and the delivery which is imminent.

Thus there is comic irony behind Megadorus's remark. Then there is a striking use of comic irony in a dialogue which takes place between Euclio and Lyconides., In the course of this dialogue, Euclio completely misunderstands what Lyconides says; and Lyconides completely misunderstands what Euclio says. We, the readers or the audience; know what each of these two persons means by his remarks but the two characters themselves misunderstand each other's remarks. Lyconides all the time thinks that Euclio is referring to his daughter's pregnancy without her having been married, while in actual fact Euclio is referring to his pot of gold.

Similarly, Lyconides, in all his remarks, refers to his seduction of Euclio's daughter, while Euclio thinks that Lyconides is confessing his guilt in having stolen the pot of gold about which Lyconides, in fact, knows nothing. This whole dialogue is among the chief sources of comedy in the play.

There are other cases in which also the use of irony by the author amuses us greatly. On two occasions, once in the shrine of Good Faith and then in the grove of Silvanus, Euclio expresses his confidence that he is hiding his pot of gold at a place where nobody can find it. But each time the slave overhears Euclio's plan and decides to steal the pot of gold.

There is comic irony in both these situations because of the contrast between Euclio's ignorance of the slave's presence nearby and our awareness of the slave's presence.

There is similar irony later in the answers which the slave gives to Euclio's questions after the pot of gold has been restored to Euclio. There is plenty of humour in the situation in which Euclio gives a beating to Congrio under the wrong impression that Congrio has stolen his pot of gold. There is comic irony behind this situation also because we know that Congrio is a cook, not a thief. The quarrel that takes place between the two men is very amusing for us indeed.

The scene in which Euclio gives a beating to the slave is also very amusing.

We feel greatly amused by the manner in which the slave describes his own character and by the manner in which he makes his plans for stealing Euclio's pot of gold.

Even Megadorus's sister Eunomia contributes somewhat to the humour of the play by her overbearing manner and her categorical tone of speaking to her brother. She also amuses us by her criticism of the female sex when she tells her brother that no woman can be the best woman known to him because every woman is worse than all, others in some way or the other.

The Pot of Gold has, indeed, a specific moral lesson to teach us. Ordinarily, a literary writer does not state the moral of his work in explicit terms. A literary writer leaves it to the readers to draw the moral from the particular work which he has written with a moral purpose. In many cases, a writer does not have a specific moral lesson to convey to the reader because his only object in writing a literary work is to please or delight the readers.

But sometimes a writer does have a specific moral in view. Even in such cases, a writer may convey the moral to the reader only indirectly or in a veiled manner.

The Pot of Gold has, however, a specific moral which has been stated at the end in specific terms. This moral is stated by Megadorus when he says:

"Contentment, peace of mind, and sound sleep at night are worth more than a dozen pots of gold".

What Megadorus means to say is that money and gold should not be hoarded or cherished for their own sake and that, if the possession of money and gold endangers a man's peace of mind and his sleep, such money or gold is not worth having. Megadorus states this moral on the basis of what Euclio has said to explain why he has handed over his pot of gold to his would-be son-in-law, Lyconides. Euclio has said that he would like his money to go where it can do some gold.

[erika uk]

umrla od smijeha

[Sergej · Rating 5 out of 5]

I am disappointed because its ending is lost,but,anyway,I like this comedy!

[pau rofes · Rating 3 out of 5]

Molt entretinguda.

[Sara Shemes · Rating 2 out of 5]

2.5

[Niloofar · Rating 2 out of 5]

خمره‌ی طلا یا دفینه‌ی طلا از پلوتوس
نمایشنامه‌ای که نصفه هست و ادامه‌اش از بین رفته و این جنبه‌ی بد و خوب داره
و امتیازم ۲/۵ هست !!
نمیدونم واقعا دوستش داشتم یانه
ولی بازهم میگم سلیقه من نیست و بیشتر ارزش و قدمت ادبی داره

[Martina T · Rating 2 out of 5]

1.75

[albi · Rating 1 out of 5]

i literally have no idea when this ends bc i read a a version where some random finished the story

[hegel tubinga · Rating 1 out of 5]

(rilettura) immonda esecrabile tediosa squallida banale prevedibile stucchevole asettica insomma orrenda come la prima volta che fui costretto a leggerla.

[Marc Gómez · Rating 4 out of 5]

Muy divertida.

[giulia☆ · Rating 2 out of 5]

mah non mi ha fatta ridere

[jana · Rating 3 out of 5]

3.5
pel cole. no està gens malament pro tampoc té més. em vaig deixar de comentar lu fort que és com blanquejen una violació…

[Joaquin Hernandez]

Muy bueno el final abierto, no sé cuándo sale la 2

[iva · Rating 4 out of 5]

prizorišče bo problem

[Júlia · Rating 4 out of 5]

lmao this was actually pretty funny. specially the bit where licônidas is confessing that he slept with euclião's daughter and euclião thinks he's talking about stealing his secret treasure...... man, what? also, hopefully the whole sleeping together thing was an actual unplanned sex situation instead of a rape situation. because god knows these greek and roman writer dudes are about that life sometimes.....

[majstoricamagije · Rating 3 out of 5]

This is a writer: and after such time he is interesting and funny!

[جابر طاحون · Rating 3 out of 5]

المسرحية كويسة ، بس مستمتعتش بالنهاية إلي اختارها د . عبد المعطي شعراوي ، و عمومًا كل النهايات الي وضعت لاكمال المسرحية مبتذلة .

[Samuel Fuente · Rating 3 out of 5]

Dos divertidas comedias. No están mal.