Date of Award

4-1936

Degree Type

Bachelors Essay

Degree Name

Bachelor of Arts (BA)

Department

History

First Advisor

George R. Griffin

Second Advisor

William J. Grace

Abstract

Just as there is satire from Demosthenes through Juvenal to G. K. Chesterton, so there is comedy from Aristophanes through Plautus to Oscar Wilde. To show that comedy can be the gentler brand of indictment will be the task of this, our paper. It is true that, in the case or the (comic) playwright, the aim, than that of the professed censor, is rather more vaguely reprehensive. One may not deny, however, that the serious reader finds in Plautus's comedies the rationes seminales of the three hundred years' "dying fall" of the Roman Empire. In the Plautine repertoire is the parasite, the mercenary soldier, and that Messala-like gallant who, after bestowing upon himself the first two places in his heart's heart, loves his country in the third. That Plautus should have hallowed these shortcomings 1s the greater pity. It is easy to exonerate our author of any desire to overthrow his adopted country, but the fact that his dramatic mirror could never have flattered the Gracchi is evident.

Comments

A Thesis submitted to. the Faculty of the College of Liberal Arts, Marquette University, in Partial Fulfillment of the Requirements for the Degree of Bachelor of Arts

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