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Important Quotes. "As the grass of summer, so brief is my life: Quickly did I rise, so quickly was I mowed down." (Scene 1 , Lines 38-39) Calidorus, with great melodrama, explains to Pseudolus that his lover, the prostitute Phoenicium, is about to be sold by Ballio to a Macedonian soldier. Calidorus’s overblown language annoys Pseudolus, who ...
Alone on stage, Pseudolus boasts of his ability to carry about schemes. Soon Pseudolus encounters Harpax, the Macedonian soldier’s slave, who is looking for Ballio. Pseudolus pretends to be Ballio’s slave, Surus, and tells Harpax he can leave the money for Phoenicium with him. Harpax refuses, but he does leave a sealed letter from his master.
You’ll live” (96).Just as Pseudolus insults his intellectual inferior, Simo insults Pseudolus, his social inferior, calling him, among other things, “the worst human being alive” (1285). Ballio issues a long host of insults at his slaves and prostitutes, calling them “slackers” (132) and “asses” (136), claiming their ...
Sep 5, 2023 · Pseudolus is a comedy with many elements of farce. While it pokes fun at the individual characters’ foibles, and its action hinges on stock devices such as deceit, disguise, and mistaken ...
After Pseudolus pushes his master's son to tell him what is wrong, Calidorus shows him a letter he received. Pseudolus first mocks the poor handwriting it is written in then reads the letter, which says that Calidorus' lover Phoenicium, a prostitute, has been sold and the man who is supposed to come with the last of the money to pay for her and pick her up for her new master is coming very soon.
It shows Pseudolus as superior to the evil Ballio, and Pseudolus earns his master, Simo's, admiration at the play's end. The play suggests that having to survive by one's wit sharpens the ...
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Dec 15, 2023 · For the modern viewer, Pseudolus and Simia, the other seruus callidus in this scene, also represent the unpalatable reality of Roman culture: it both enslaved millions of people and found comedic enjoyment in watching genuine fears, potential punishments, and lack of agency experienced by enslaved characters play out as foibles, games, and slapstick on the stage. In a history classroom, it is ...
