The Comedies of Plautus and Their Influence on A Funny Thing Happened on the Way to the Forum

Roman Comedy came into existence over 2000 years ago. Being greatly influenced by Greek New Comedy, it dealt with much more common themes than the drama that preceded it. Roman Comedy was for the masses and it’s most important development was the elimination of the Greek chorus. It’s scenarios took place in the street in front of the character’s houses and involved cases of mistaken identity, eavesdropping, marital strife and relations between neighbors. Political issues were not an element found in Roman Comedy. The most influential of Roman Comedy writers was Titus Macius Plautus. The foundation that Plautus invented is still very much an influence in today’s comic world. From Broadway plays to television sitcoms, some of the comic conventions that he created are accepted today as stock comic characters. Many writers may be unaware of his influence. However, at least one play has been created that was specifically meant to be a tribute to the works of Plautus. Written by Burt Shevelove, Larry Gelbart and Stephen Sondheim, their intent was to mine the riches of the ancient writer’s plays and create a new musical based on them. The result was A Funny Thing Happened on the Way to the Forum which opened on Broadway in 1962 and ran for 964 performances.1 Forum is an amalgamation of many of Plautus’ ideas and characters, yet still a completely original piece on it’s own.

Plautus was born in about 254 B.C.E. Originally an actor and at times a business venturer, he eventually turned to the study of drama which led to his career of playwright. As Erich Segal writes in his book on Plautus, he was the first known professional playwright and the most successful comic writer in the ancient world.2 Although there are about twenty of his plays in existence today, he is thought to have written up to 130. He wrote nearly twice as many comedies as Aristophanes (Lysistrata) and more than three times as many as his Roman Comedy counterpart, Terence.3 The on-line encyclopedia Wikipedia.com explains that the actual number of plays that Plautus wrote is hard to determine since his popularity encouraged other writers to write plays and then present them under his name. Plautus was so successful during his time that his plays were popular often due to the simple fact that he had written it. He was perhaps theatre’s first “brand name.” In contrast, Terence’s plays struggled for spectators attention and never mentioned the playwright himself in the prologues even though Plautus is mentioned in his prologues on three separate occasions.4

Almost twenty-two hundred years later, one of musical theatre’s “brand names” was born. Stephen Sondheim has been a huge influence in theatre for six decades. Like Plautus, his shows can find an audience based on the fact that he wrote it. The first Broadway show that he contributed both music and lyrics to was Forum. Previously, he had written lyrics for West Side Story and Gypsy. Along with writers Burt Shevelove and Larry Gelbart, he went through Plautus' plays and developed a new show that took characters, plots, situations and even jokes from plays written 2000 years earlier and made a contemporary Roman Comedy.

The writing of Forum took over five years to complete. According to Larry Gelbart, the collaborators wanted to maintain the “sense of silliness, pomposity and hypocrisy” that was present throughout Plautus’ writings.5 They were able to prove that stock characters established in an ancient time still had the ability to maintain the interest of a contemporary society. In a review of the original Broadway production, Robert Brustein of New Yorker magazine writes,

Although the resulting plot structure is original,

the authors have managed to retain the spirit

of the Roman comic theater and infuse the

play with the zany humor of American burlesque,

thus combining Roman convention and American

convention.6

Plautus introduced characters for the first time that today are taken for granted; the hen-pecked husband, the domineering wife, the servant who knows better than the master. These are all characters that first appeared on the pages of Plautus that still turn up now in the same form. Sondheim and his fellow writers wanted to remind today’s audience of the importance of Roman Comedy. In Forum’s opening number, the lyrics suggest the very definition of Roman Comedy:

Nothing with kings.

Nothing with crowns.

Nothing with God’s.

Nothing with fate.

Something that’s gaudy,

Something that’s bawdy.

Something for everybawdy-

Comedy tonight!7

Forum is based on several different works, most specifically, Pseudolus, The Brothers Menaechmus, and Miles Gloriosus . While reading these three plays, it is easy to see how each piece directly influenced the musical. Forum was probably most influenced by the play Pseudolus. Briefly, it is about a young man’s love for a courtesan and his slave’s attempt to buy her for him. The slave’s name is Pseudolus which means “liar.”8 This is exactly what he must do in order to obtain the courtesan for his young master. This plot line is directly inserted into Forum where even the name of the slave remains the same. Many of the characters in Plautus’ work also appear in the Sondheim creation with simple name changes. The young lover in Pseudolus is called Calidorus while in Forum he is aptly named Hero. The object of his affection is called Phoenicium in the ancient work and Phillia in the contemporary piece. In both plays, the courtesan has been sold to someone else and the slave must figure out a way for the lovers to be united before she is taken away by her new owner. Pseudolus in each of the plays is essentially the same character. In Forum, he is willing to help Hero gain Phillia’s love in exchange for his freedom while the ancient Pseudolus is probably doing it for the same reason or at the very least a guarantee of impunity from Calidorus’ father. The life of a slave would certainly be easier with a guarantee of no punishment for the remainder of his life. In the end of both plays, the lovers are united through a series of tricks, lies and mistaken identity. Both slaves succeed with ancient Pseudolus assured of a punishment free life and the newer Pseudolus gaining his freedom. There are other similarities of the two Pseudolus’ throughout each play. Both of them often refer directly to the audience and the fact that they are performing a play. In the prologue of Plautus’ play, the audience is told to stretch their legs because the play is a long one. Also, even though the prologue is only a few lines long, the audience is reminded that they are about to see a work by Plautus. Similarly, Pseudolus in Forum tells the audience at the end of Act One that he has one word for them, “intermission!” Each Pseudolus is quite comfortable speaking directly to the audience.

Far and beyond influencing Forum, it is wondrous to think how much influence Plautus has had on all forms of entertainment. The part of Phoenicium is one of the stock characters that he created that is still so accepted in today’s various forms of entertainment; the courtesan with the heart of gold. This is a girl who is in a less than ideal situation despite being good and true. This character is seen often from Fantine in Les Miserables to Charity Hope Valentine the dance hall girl in the musical Sweet Charity to Julia Roberts’ role in Pretty Woman. Likewise, the character of Pseudolus is also seen often today. Then, he was the slave who knew more than his master while today that role is the servant who is wiser than their employer. Examples of this stock character are often seen on television from Alice (The Brady Bunch) and Hazel (Hazel), both housekeepers who often solved problems with their common sense, to the butlers Mr. Belvedere and Benson on their own shows. All of these characters knew the answers to problems that their employers did not. Plautus and Roman Comedy touches so much in today’s world, yet most people have no idea that those characters first appeared in 200 B.C.E.

The second play of Plautus’ that shares much of it’s plot with Forum is The Brothers Menaechmus. Summarizing, the story relays the tale of identical twin brothers, Menaechmus and Sosicles, who were separated as children when one was kidnapped. Years later, the remaining son, Sosicles, goes abroad to find his long lost brother. When he arrives in the town where his kidnapped brother now lives, they are mistaken for each other causing confusion but are reunited in the end. In the prologue it is again announced that the audience has a work of Plautus before them reinforcing the importance of the author during his time. There are several plot points in The Brothers Menaechmus that are seen in Forum. The most obvious is the situation of twins who are separated as children. In the musical, there is a character named Erronius who’s children were both kidnapped. He has spent his whole life trying to find them so he can again have a family. In Plautus’ work, the twins being identical allows for mistaken identity. In Sondheim’s piece, the twins are a brother and sister. Although they are not mistaken for each other, their relationship is still confusing. Phillia, in love with Hero, has been sold to a warrior soldier named Miles Gloriosus. By the end of the show it has been discovered that Phillia is actually the sister to her prospective owner and that they are the kidnapped children of Erronius. The father has found his children and Phillia can no longer be bought by Miles allowing her to stay with her true love, Hero. Pseudolus sings,

Lovers divided

Get coincided.

Something for everyone-

A comedy tonight!9

In The Brothers Menaechmus, there is a slave of Sosicles named Messino. He is the first person who pieces together the cases of mistaken identity and realizes that the man everyone thought was one person is actually identical twins. For this realization, he is rewarded with his freedom. Again, Plautus introduces the audience to a slave who is perhaps smarter than his owner, similar to the character of Pseudolus. Messino seems to have influenced the character of Hysterium in Forum. Hysterium is another slave that lives in the same house as Pseudolus. Although Messino is intelligent, he is not as assured as Pseudolus. He is more cowardly and understanding of his place in Roman society. He says,

I’d rather take the trouble to stay out

of trouble. That’s why I’ve decided to be a

good slave and not a bad one. I can bear a

lash of the tongue more easily than a lash

of the whip.10

Meanwhile, in Forum Hysterium says things like, “And I answered. Ever your humble.” and “I live to grovel.”11 Both slaves appear to know their place.

There is another section of Menaechmus that appears to influence Forum. In the beginning of the play, a character is explaining the surest way to keep a slave from wanting to leave. He says,

...the best way to do it is with food and

drink. I’ll guarantee he’ll never run away

then. Food-it’s a marvelously effective

kind of straight jacket.

This is almost a direct translation into Pseudolus’ song in Forum where he sings,

I have a roof,

Three meals a day,

And I don’t have to pay a thing...

I’m just a slave and everything is free.

There are other similarities within the two plays. In Menaechmus, it is very early in the play when Menaechmus appears wearing a dress in order to sneak it out of his home without his wife knowing so that he may give it to his mistress. He wears it for one scene and is even given stage directions to pose in a graceful manner.12 This cheap laugh is also used in Forum when Hysterium is asked to pose as Phillia in an attempt to trick Miles. Hysterium has a whole song called “Lovely” to take advantage of this centuries old gag.

In addition, Menaechmus refers to his marital strife, as is typical of Roman Comedy. He has a mistress who lives next door and he does not enjoy the company of his wife. In Forum, Hero’s father Sennex also despises his wife and tries to have Phillia be his mistress next door. Again, it is clear that Plautus has created a stock character that is still prevalent today, this time the henpecked husband. Larry Gelbart attributes Plautus to being the inventor of jokes on marital strife. Gelbart refers to one joke in a Plautus work where one Roman citizen asks another, “How’s your wife?” to which the second replies, “Immortal.” This is the original version of the old joke, “Take my wife. Please.” The husband with the domineering wife is still seen today from Will being henpecked by Ado Annie in the musical Oklahoma to Mr. and Mrs. Roper in the television sitcom Three’s Company.

From Plautus’ comedy, Miles Gloriosus (The Swaggering Soldier), Forum borrows the title to name it’s vain soldier. In both Forum and Miles Gloriosus, the character of the soldier is a conceited man who believes that all women must be in love with him because of his assumed perfection. The soldier in the original work is named Pyrgopolynices. The two characters are essentially the same man. This is very clear when comparing dialogue from each play. From Forum,

PSEUDOLUS: She is magnificence personified! If

you would have been born a woman, you would

have been she!

MILES: As magnificent as that?13

And from Miles Gloriosus,

PALAESTRIO: She is a perfect match for you,

if ever I saw one.

PYRGOPOLYNICES: She must be a beauty indeed.14

Forum also borrows several ideas from the original text. Once more, there is a slave who must contrive a way to unite lovers in hopes of gaining freedom as his reward. In Miles Gloriosus, the woman of desire is Philocomasium who is having an affair with a young lover named Pleusicles who lives next door, just as Phillia is having her affair with Hero who lives next door to her. Her master, the arrogant soldier Pyrgopolynices is tricked by his cunning slave Palaestrio which results in the uniting of the two lovers and the slave earning freedom in exchange. Again, both plays share the plot devices of twins and mistaken identity. Miles Gloriosus also brings forth the use of a ring to symbolize a connection between two people. Palaestrio gives his egotistical owner a ring telling him it is from a woman who is in love with him. In Forum, the old Erronius had given each of his children rings before he lost them to kidnappers. When he eventually finds his children, he is able to identify them because they each still wear the rings from childhood. This is one more device that the writers of Forum used that had been inspired by a Plautus comedy. Gelbart acknowledges that Forum has one line that is taken directly from the mouth of the original character of Miles. “I am a parade,” is said by both of the pompous soldiers. When the audience responds to that line when watching the musical, they are laughing at a joke that is 2000 years old.15

Although only three plays have been examined to show their connection to A Funny Thing Happened on the Way to the Forum, Sondheim, Gelbart and Shevelove probably took bits and pieces from every Plautus comedy to create their new show. Essentially, they wrote a contemporary Roman Comedy farce with music. They wanted to maintain the original ideas that made Roman Comedy what it was. At one point in the Forum process, the character of miles Gloriosus had a song called “There’s Something About a War.” Sondheim said the song was cut because “Burt (Shevelove) felt there should be no political or satirical edge to the show. It was to be strictly a domestic farce and not a commentary.”16 Many people feel they achieved this goal. John Simon writes that Forum may be “the best book associated with any subsequent Sondheim collaborators.”17 Sondheim himself has said of Gelbart and Shevelove that he thinks that they produced “the best farce ever written.”18

Few people in today’s world know who Plautus was, much less know of his influence. His plays are still entertaining, easy to read and relatable. Everyone can understand what it may be like to be in love with someone and what one is willing to do to obtain that love. Because Plautus kept his plays about common themes like love, friendship and desire, it can be assured that his plays will always be around. These matters are ones that never fade from importance. It can also be assumed that his plot devices and characters that have been used for so many centuries will continue to live on in contemporary writings. Titus Macius Plautus left far more than just plays. He left the foundation for jokes, situations, characters and plots that writers continue to borrow from in order to create their works. Plautus was not only the master of Roman Comedy, it could be said that he is the father of contemporary comedy as well.