Le théâtre et l'histoire du texte de comédies de Plaute

The fact is well known that Plautus translated plays by Menander and other poets of the « New Comedy » for a theatre with traditions rather different from those of the Athenian stage and that these traditions did to a large extent influence the method of translation used by Plautus. One also knows that the staging of the Latin plays was resumed time and again during the century that followed the poet's death. A considerable amount of Menander's poetry has been lately recovered and the incoherences in the texts of Plautus' comedies, as they are found in the manuscripts, are becoming, from a Hellenist's point of view, increasingly striking. The question is therefore unavoidable : to what extent are these incoherences traceable to Plautus himself and to what extent are they traceable to the stage managers and actors of a later period who were perhaps more sensitive to the tastes of a Roman audience than to Attic elegances ? The lecture will deal with a few problems raised by the critics in relation with the text of Poenulus.