As it is often important for the audience to know the thoughts of stage
characters, the aside and the soliloquy in all species of dramatic
composition have always been recognized as the only feasible conventional
mode of conveying them. According to the strictest canons of dramatic art,
the ideally constructed play should be entirely free from this weakness.
Mr. Gillette is credited with having written in "Secret Service" the first
aside-less play. But this is abnormal and rather an affectation of
technical skill. The aside is an accepted convention. But in the plays of
Plautus we
have a profuse riot of solo speeches and passages that transcends the
conventional and becomes a gross weakness of composition, pointing plainly
to a poverty of technique and hence further strengthening the conception
of entertainment as the author's sole purpose. And often too, as we shall
point out, this very form can be used for amusement. To attempt a complete
collection of these passages would mean a citation of hundreds of lines,
comprising a formidable percentage of all the verses.
And furthermore, the Plautine character is not so tame and spiritless as
merely to think aloud. He has a fondness for actual conversation with
himself that shows a noble regard for the value of his own society. This
is attested by many passages, such as _Amph._ 381: Etiam muttis?; _Aul._
52: At ut scelesta sola secum murmurat; _Aul._ 190: Quid tu solus tecum
loquere?; _Bac._ 773: Quis loquitur prope?; _Cap._ 133: Quis hic
loquitur?[134]
One character standing aside and commenting on the main action is a
familiar situation and often productive of good fun. An excellent example
is _Most._ 166 ff., where Philematium is performing her conventionally
out-door toilet with the aid of her duenna Scapha. Philolaches stands on
the other side of the stage and interjects remarks:
"PHILEM. Look at me please, Scapha dear; is this gown becoming? I want to
please Philolaches, the apple of my eye....
SC. Why deck yourself out, when your charm lies in your charming manners?
It isn't gowns that lovers love, but what bellies out the gowns.
PHILO. (_Aside._) God bless me, but Scapha's clever; the hussy has
horse-sense....
PHILEM. (_Pettishly._) Well, then?
SC. What is it?
PHILEM. Look me over anyhow and see how this becomes me.
SC. The grace of your figure makes everything you wear becoming.
PHILO. (_Aside._) Now for that speech, Scapha, I'll give you some present
before the day is out--and so on for a whole long scene.
The quips are amusing in an evident burlesque spirit. Such a scene was
easily done on the broad Roman stage, whether it was a heritage from the
use of the orchestra in Greek comedy, as LeGrand thinks,[135] or not. In
similar vein, clever by-play on the part of the cunning Palaestrio would
make a capital scene out of _Mil. 1037 ff._[136] A perfectly unnatural but
utterly amusing scene of the same type is _Amph. 153-262_, where Mercury
apostrophizes his fists, and the quaking Sosia (cross-stage) is frightened
to a jelly at the prospect of his early demise. In Cap. 966, Ilegio, staid
gentleman that he is, introduces an exceeding "rough" remark in the middle
of a serious scene. The aside of Pseudolus in _Ps. 636 f._ could be
rendered as a good-natured burlesque as follows:
"HARPAX. What's your name?
PS. (_Hopping forward and addressing audience with hand over mouth._) The
pander has a slave named Surus. I'll say I'm he. (_Hopping back and
addressing Harpax._) I'm Surus." Many other scenes were doubtless rendered
by one character's thus stepping aside and confiding his ideas to the
spectators, as for example _Aul. 194 ff._ and _Trin. 895 ff._ Often our
characters blurt out their inmost thoughts to the public, as in _Cas. 937
ff._, with eavesdroppers conveniently placed, else what would become of
the plot?
The soliloquy is constantly used to keep the audience acquainted with the
advance of the plot[137], or to paint in narrative intervening events that
connect the loose joints of the action. This is of course wholly
inartistic, but may often find its true office in keeping a noisy,
turbulent and uneducated audience aware of "what is going on." In many
cases the soliloquy is in the nature of a reflection on the action and
seems to bear all the ear-marks of a heritage from the original function
of the tragic chorus[138]. It devolved upon the actor by sprightly mimicry
to relieve, in these scenes, the tedium that appeals to the reader. So in
_Cap._ 909 ff. the _canticum_ of the _puer_ becomes more than a mere
stopgap, if he acts out vividly the violence of Ergasilus; and in _Bac._
1067 ff. the soliloquy would acquire humor, if confidentially directed at
the audience. In _As._ 127 ff., as Argyrippus berates the _lena_ within,
it must be delivered with an abundance of pantomime.