The Miser

Abstract

Abstract “The specificity of a foreign culture cannot be grasped without setting it off against others, or at all events one’s own.” This observation by Christian Meier may serve as the justification for the final chapter of this book, which compares an ancient comedy with one of its descendants composed in the early modern era. The purpose is to set in relief the social distinctions and codes of the classical city-state as they in¬ form New Comedy by determining how they are transformed in a work produced under the new social conditions of modern nation-states. Thus, the present concern is not primarily with questions of sources, dramatic technique, or aesthetic ideals. The Miser (L’Avare) by Moliere and its model, Plautus’ Aulularia (The Play of the Pot) have been selected for analysis because the contrasts are particularly illuminating in cases of imitation. This choice has also to do with literary historical considerations: Aristophanic comedy had a limited influence on European drama, and while New Comedy inaugurated a brilliant tradition, the plays of Menander and his contemporaries were unknown until the beginning of this century, apart from brief fragments, and their legacy was transmitted through the Latin versions by Plautus and Terence. The Greek antecedent for Plautus’ Aulularia is not known, but the play bears a close resemblance to Menander’s Grouch, and many scholars have unhesitatingly affirmed that the original must have been by Menander himself.