Article: Music and Structure in Roman Comedy

Abstract

Wellover A century ago, Friedrich Ritschl and Theodor Bergk independently reached the same conclusion regarding the markings of DV and C in some of the manuscripts of Plautus: the initials stand for diverbium and canticum; and their association, respectively, with scenes in iambic senarii and scenes in other meters implies that in Roman com? edy passages in iambic senarii were unaccompanied, whereas passages in all other meters were cantica, accompanied by the tibiae (Ritschl 1871-72, Bergk 1872).1 Ritschl's and Bergk's conclusions provide the best explanation not only of the rubrics in the manuscripts, but also of descriptions of performance in the grammarians and other ancient au? thors, and several allusions to the tibicen in the plays of Plautus.It is therefore not surprising that while there have been a few dissenters, most scholars have agreed with Ritschl's and Bergk's basic distinction between iambic senarii and other meters based on accompaniment.2The implications of that distinction for the structure of Roman comedy, however, have remained unappreciated.Not that meter has been ignored by those proposing structural rules for Roman comedy.Soon after Ritschl and Bergk presented their 1On the markings, which appear in only a few of the manuscripts, see also Lindsay 1900