Miles Gloriosus (play) - Things To Know About The Play/Roman Comedy

Things To Know About The Play/Roman Comedy

• Eric Bentley suggests that comedy and tragedy are similar because they both try to cope with despair, mental suffering, guilt, and anxiety. The tragedy of the play is that the Braggart Soldier has kidnapped a beautiful young woman from a proud man. The comedy of course is that both men are absent minded and overall buffoons.

• The term Braggart soldier originated from this play. Afterward, he became a stock character in many plays and even transforming into other types of characters in later years. The Italian commedia character, Il Capitano is an adaptation of the Braggart Soldier, as is Shakespeare's Ancient Pistol.

• Roman Comedy normally presents an erotic intrigue between a young man and a young woman which is usually blocked by some kind of opposition, usually the father figure of the young woman. Throughout the play this opposition is usually dealt with through some kind of twist in the plot and everything usually works out for the hero.

• The final scene, in Roman Comedy, always has a happy ending, usually taking place in a large festival or party. This final scene always tends to be a large spectacle leaving the audience or reader with a good socially, not always morally, acceptable ending. In the case of Miles Gloriosus the slave and townspeople work together to overthrow the soldier, or their leader. Although we don’t know the true past of the Braggart Soldier, we do know that he is the opposition that the two lovers must get through to be with each other. Thus uniting the town people and overthrowing Pyrgopolynices.

• William S. Anderson suggests that in the play, the quality of “heroic badness” has transformed from a conventional hero to the clever slave who outwits their masters. The reason being that more people could relate to the slave and was the only character that did not look foolish by the end of the play. Palaestrio solved the problem and defeated the soldier using his mind and not his brawn.