I suppositi

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I Suppositi in the verse version published by Gabriele Giolito in Venice in 1551

I Suppositi is a five-act comedy by Ludovico Ariosto , which premiered on February 6, 1509 at the court of Ferrara . It is Ariost's second comedy. She influenced later Italian comedies, such as B .:

  • Bernardo da Bibbienas La Calandria (1513)
  • Nicola Grasso's Eutichia (1513)
  • Pietro Aretino's first version of La Cortigiana (1525) and Il Marescalco (1533)
  • Ruzantes Vaccharia (~ 1532) and Anconitana (~ 1534/35 )

In 1528–31 Ariosto wrote a version of the same comedy in verse.

The title of the mistaken comedy I Suppositi (~ dt: The exchanged) refers to the constant role reversal of the comedy staff. The action takes place in Ferrara after the Otranto campaign , i. H. between 1500 or 1498 and 1508.

content

prolog

Ariost's new comedy I Suppositi (~ dt: the exchanged ) is introduced and it is revealed what the reason for the title is: Were children exchanged in the comedies of antiquity, whether in contemporary real life as well as in antiquity If this is the case, then it might seem outrageous to the audience that young people swapped the old. This is the case in I Suppositi . Since I suppositi can also mean to submit to homosexual practices, Ariost jokes against it. What is new is that the servants are exchanged for the masters and vice versa: the masters for the servants. Role models are Plautus ' Eunuchus (in which a young man named Cherea falls in love with a girl and pretends to be the eunuch in order to remain unrecognized by his love rivals and to be able to get into the immediate vicinity of his loved ones) and Terenz ' Captivi ( in which the master, Tindaro [Tyndarus], swaps roles with his slave Filocrate [Philopolemos]). Just as the Latin comedy poets tried to imitate both the vulgar behavior or the vulgar language of expression of the people as well as the structure of the plot of the works of their Greek models Menandro ( Menander ) and Apollodoro ( Apollodor von Gela ), so I Suppositi should in turn imitate an imitation the Latin comedy poet portray in both aspects. Ariost differentiates between imitation and plagiarism , but leaves it to the audience to decide whether I Suppositi is an imitation or a plagiarism. He closes the prologue with the wish that I Suppositi should please the audience no less than the previous play La Cassaria .

first act

Polinesta, daughter of a wealthy Ferrari businessman, has fallen in love with Dulippo, a servant of her father. Since Dulippo Polinesta's wet nurse had confessed his love for Polinesta, she paired her with him. But Dulippo is really Erostrato, son of Filogonos, one of the richest men in Sicily. Erostrato originally traveled to Ferrara from Sicily to study there. Hardly on land, he met Polinesta and fell so in love with her that he didn't even start studying, but courted Polinesta. In order to be able to be near her, he has switched roles with his servant Dulippo and has entered the service of Damones, the father of his beloved. He has been Damone's servant for two years now and despite the constant presence of Polinesta and despite having sex with her almost every night, contrary to his hopes, he still hasn't had enough of her. Erostrato therefore had Dulippo disguised as Erostrato ask for Polinesta's hand to forestall his rival Cleandro. Cleandro, a lawyer from Otranto, who settled first in Padua and then in Ferrara after the Otranto campaign, asked for Polinesta's hand through Pasifilo. Pasifilo, on the other hand, has recently also been working in the service of Dulippo disguised as Erostrato. He always intends to work with whoever pays the best. Since Erostrato and Cleandro are rivals, he hopes to successfully play the two off against each other for his own benefit. The real Erostrato, on the other hand, does not know that Dulippo is letting Pasifilo work for him and worries that Cleandro will always succeed in making Damone incline to his will.

Second act

In retrospect, Erostrato learns from Dulippo of Pasifilo double play: Pasifilo had betrayed him the amount that Cleandro Damone had offered for Polinesta. Based on this information, it was possible for him (disguised as Erostrato) to outbid Cleandro's offer. However, since Erostrato himself does not have the amount offered, Dulippo alleged to Damone that he had received a letter in which Filogono asked Damone to wait fifteen more days. Filogono was on his way to Ferrara and would soon pay him the requested amount. Furthermore, Dulippo Erostrato reports that he had met a Sienese whom he had been able to make useful for his plans through a story of lies: Siena and Ferrara, he had told the Sienese, had recently become enemies. All Sienese who were in the domain of the Duke of Ferrara or who entered it should be stripped down to the last shirt and finally chased away. The gullible Sienese, who has been traveling for over a month now, believed him and wanted to turn around, but Dulippo held him back and offered him - although, as he claims, it cost him (Dulippo, disguised as Erostrato) his own life could- live with him, provided that the Sienese identified himself as his father, i. H. as Filogono from Catania. The Sienese accepted the proposal.

Third act

Erostrato, disguised as Dulippo, has a feast prepared for “his” upcoming engagement to Polinesta. In order for the engagement to take place, the only thing missing is Pasifilo, who as an intermediary between Erostrato and Damone is supposed to make the deal perfect. While Dulippo, disguised as Erostrato, is looking for Pasifilo, Damone meets his servant, whom he intends to lure into a trap and arrest afterwards, because the maid Psiteria had revealed to him the love affair between his servant and Polinesta - but not with bad intent: Psiteria In an argument with the nurse Polinestas, I insulted her as a matchmaker, believing that the master of the house would not hear her. But Damone called them over and confronted them.

Fourth act

Filogono goes ashore in Ferrara. He traveled to Ferrara because, despite his requests, his son refused to return to Sicily to continue studying in Ferrara and Filogono is now concerned about Erostrato's well-being (he believes his son is studying too much and could go insane) and also because Filogono doesn't want to spend his old age alone. When he stands in front of the house of Erofilos, he is not opened. Filogono learns from the cook Erostratos that a Filogono from Catania is already living in the house. Filogono is then confronted with his alter ego from Siena. He thinks this is a fraud. The Sienese are insulted and the cook compliments Filogono. Since Erostrato is not at home, the real Filogono and his companions set out to look for him. They come across Dulippo disguised as Erostrato. Filogono recognizes him as his servant, while Dulippo pretends not to know Filogono and thus enrages his master. Since a resident of Ferrara, who has accompanied Filogono the whole time since his arrival, assures Filogono that he has only known Erostrato by this name since he was in town, Filogono believes that Dulippo killed Erostrato, sold Erostrato or did other business at his expense and usurped his personality. He decides to seek help from a municipal authority to take Dulippo to court. The Ferrarese recommends Filogono to take Cleandro as his lawyer, since personal animosities existed between him and the defendants. Despite the corruption of the legal scholars, it can be assumed that it would be in Cleandro's interest to resolve the case in Filogono's favor.

Fifth act

Dulippo learns of Erostrato's arrest from bustling Pasifilio. Dulippo, who wanted to escape to avoid punishment, decides to visit the Erostrato and confess the truth to him. Meanwhile, Filogono went to see Cleandro. During their conversation it turns out that Dulippo is actually Carino, the son of Cleandro, who was stolen from him by the Turks during the Otranto campaign. Sicilians who were friends with Filogono had captured a Turkish ship after the Turks had conquered Otranto and brought it to Sicily, where Filogono bought the still small Carino. Carino was called Dulippo because he kept calling this name of his former teacher and educator. Pasifilo, who apparently overheard the conversation between Filogono and Cleandro, tells Damone the truth about Erostrato and Dulippo: Dulippo, whom he was holding captive, is actually Erostrato, Erostrato is actually Dulippo and Dulippo is Carino, Cleandro's son. Now that the intrigue is unraveled and everything seems to be in the right balance, there are numerous gestures of reconciliation: Filogono and the Sienese make peace. Damone, in turn, is reconciled with Erostrato, who was once disguised as Dulippo, and accepts him as his future son-in-law. The rivalry between Cleandro and Erostrato no longer exists, because the intention behind Cleandro's courtship for Polinesta was to father an heir. But since he now has Carino back with him, this matter has been dealt with again for him. Filogono also seems to have forgiven his son for his intrigues, as he greeted him wordlessly with tears.

Differences between the version of 1532 and the version of 1509 (selection)

  • The considerations in the prologue of the prose version (1509) about the problem of this comedy with regard to imitation or plagiarism of ancient Roman models are replaced by allusions to a current scandal at the Roman court .
  • In the version (1532), Cleandro put Latin words in his mouth, which are intended to further clarify his pedantry compared to the version of 1509.
  • In the language of poetry, the number of "Tuscanisms" has increased, a sign of Ariosto's closeness to the theories of Pietro Bembo , which he expounded in the treatise Prose della volgar lingua (1525).

people

  • Damone , wealthy Ferrari businessman
  • Polinesta , daughter of Damone
  • Psinteria , Polinesta's maid and Damones
  • Polinesta's nurse
  • Filogono , wealthy Sicilian businessman
  • Erostrato , son of Filogonos
  • Dulippo , servants of Filogonos and Erostratos
  • Pasifilo , "parasite"
  • Cleandro , legal scholar
  • Sienese
  • Ferrarese
  • other people: Nebbia , Lico , Dalio , Carione , servant of the Sienese, Caprino

Further information

  • There are several parallels to the predecessor piece La Cassaria : The protagonist Erofilo / Erostrato is so in love that he is ready to do anything to own his lover. In order to achieve his master's goal, Volpino or Fulcio / Dulippo devises a plan. The absence of Crisobolo / Filogonos gives him a free hand. The beloved reciprocates the protagonist's love, she is also available to him, provided that he pays her master / father a horrific price for her. The unexpected return of Crisobolos / Filogonos upsets the plans of Erofilos / Erostratos. Both pieces have a happy ending.
  • The intimidation of the Sienese by Dulippo's story of lies is reminiscent of the intimidation of Lucranos by Fulcio.
  • Dulippo's story of lies reminds of Pinabello in Orlando furioso (1516/32), who disarms or undresses everyone who enters his domain, or of Rodomonte, the knight passing by with armor and the grave of his beloved (whom he previously killed while intoxicated) decorates.
  • In contrast to La Cassaria , Polinesta is not the slave of a coupler, but the daughter of a wealthy businessman.
  • The criticism of authorities is formulated much more cautiously in I Suppositi than in La Cassaria , probably because I Suppositi is not only performed in Ferrara, but also takes place there. As in La Cassaria, there is talk of the corruption of the customs officers. In the third scene of the fourth act, Filogono complains to his Ferrares travel guide about the customs officers who opened and dismantled his luggage on the arduous journey from Catania. He even feared he would be flogged because customs officials hoped to find contraband between his skin and his bones. According to Douglas Radcliffe-Umstead, the social criticism in I Suppositi, as well as many other comedies of the Renaissance that denounced grievances, should not be regarded as really subversive, since their mockery was not directed against princes and their highest officials, but rather against lower officials such as e.g. . B. Customs officers.
  • In addition to the above criticism, there are other allusions to everyday life and contemporary events, including allusions to the close relationships between the courts of Ferrara and Naples; to pilgrims who are on their way to Loreto ; on student life and finally on the Turkish invasion of Otranto .
  • The plot represents the 24-hour climax of a two-year love relationship. This fulfills the requirement formulated by Aristotle in his rhetoric that the plot should not exceed a period of 24 hours.
  • In I Suppositi the figure of the pedant appears for the first time , who will be an important part of the learned comedy and later as the stupid dottore of the Commedia dell'arte . One aspect of Cleandro, which would later become typical of the dottore / pedant in the Commedia dell'arte , is his latent or even manifest homosexuality , which is supposed to discredit him additionally. In the third scene of the second act, Erostrato, posing as Dulippo, claims to Cleandro that Pasiphilo claimed that Cleandro wanted a young woman in order to attract young, handsome men.
  • While love in La Cassaria is merely a pretext for a complicated intrigue, I Suppositi ends with the lovers' marriage. Marriage is a kind of protective measure against Erostrato's fear of losing his beloved. The marriage at the end of the comedy gives a certain stability to the relationship and thus to the gender balance, as in other comedies that follow.

Literary role models

Ancient Roman Literature

Both Plautus ' Captivi (~ 250 BC) and Terenz ' Eunuchus (161 BC) are comedies in which, among other things, master and slave swap roles. In the following, further influences of the works of both authors on I Suppositi are mentioned.

Plautus

  • Plautus' Captivi is about the war between Aetolia and Elis . The wealthy Aetolian Hegio trades with prisoners of war and in this way can ransom his son Philopolemus. Among the prisoners of war of Hegio is the wealthy Philocrates and his slave Tyndarus. Tyndarus, however, plays the master and Philocrates the slave. Hegio sends Philocrates to Elis to negotiate the release of his son.
  • Just as it turns out in Plautus ' Captivi that Tyndarus is Hegios' second son who was captured by an escaped slave, Dulippo turns out to be the kidnapped son of the lawyer Cleandro.
  • According to Douglas Radcliffe-Umstead, the boy Caprino, only a minor character in I Suppositi , is probably borrowed from the character of "puer" in Plautus' comedies Persa , Stichus or Pseudolus seems to be taken.

Terence

  • In Terence's Eunuchus , the young Charea falls passionately in love with the girl Pamphila, who is being held by the courtesan Thais, who in turn is the lover of Charea's older brother Phaedria. Phaedrias slave Parmeno receives the order to give Thais a eunuch as a gift. The eunuchs are actually Charea herself, who wants to gain access to his beloved in this way. When she arrives at his beloved, Charea rapes her in the absence of Thais.
  • There are parallels between the parasite Pasifilo and the parasite Gnatho in Terence's Eunuchus .
  • Both in Ariostos I Suppositi and in Terence ' Heautontimoroumenos a father regrets the excessive severity towards his son. At Ariost's, Cilinia, the son of Menedemus, falls in love with a poor girl and lives together as if he were married to her. Menedemus is angry at this illegitimate relationship, which leads his son to run away. Menedemus then repents of his anger and decides to atone for his crime by working on the land.

Italian literature

In contrast to La Cassaria , I Suppositi is not a mere reconstruction of ancient Roman comedies, because I Suppositi also contains numerous elements from Boccaccio's Decameron .

Boccaccio

  • The motif of the disguise as a slave, which should serve to get to a loved one, can be found similarly in the seventh story of the seventh day in Boccaccio's collection of novels. The novella is about the young Lodovico and the beautiful Beatrice, wife of Egano de 'Galluzzi from Bologna, about whom the protagonist found out. Lodovico goes to Bologna, is employed by Egano as a servant to Antichino, wins his trust and in this way gains access to Beatrice without ever arousing the husband's suspicion. However, unlike Lodovico, Erostrato is less fortunate to be caught and punished.
  • In the first story of the fourth day of the Decameron , Trancredi, the lord of Salerno Guiscardo, has his daughter's lover hanged and his heart cut out. When his daughter Ghismonda receives her lover's heart, she commits suicide. Both in I Suppositi and in Boccaccio's novella, the fathers feel deep shame and disappointment that the daughter is sacrificing the family honor of love for a lowly placed person.
  • In the seventh story of the fifth day of the Decameron , the servant Teodoro impregnates the daughter of his master Amerigo Abate of Trapani. Amerigo reports his servant to the king's captain. He has the servant captured and tortured. He is supposed to be hanged after all. Amerigo gives his daughter up to take her own life. The newborn grandson is also said to be murdered. When Teodoro is about to be hanged, he is accidentally recognized by an Armenian nobleman while passing through as his son and the tragedy dissolves in favor. As in I Suppositi, both lovers are finally allowed to marry.
  • We find a figure similar to Cleandro in the tenth story of the second day of the Decameron . The Pisan Riccardo di Chinzica believes that wealth and intelligence alone are enough to bind a young woman to himself. However, when she is kidnapped by a pirate, she refuses to return to him because Riccardo, as a lover, cannot keep up with the pirate. Ariostus exaggerates the Pisan's absurdity by making fun of not only his inadequate art of love, but also of her dubious abilities as a lawyer.

Further literary models

literature

Text output

  • Lodovico Ariosto: Comedie, cioè, I Suppositi, la Cassaria, la Lena, il Negromante, & la Scolastica . Venice, Gabriel Giolito de Ferrari, 1562.
  • "I Suppositi", in: Ludovico Ariosto: Commedie 1. La Cassaria / I Suppositi (in prosa) (1997). Milano: Mursia.
  • Both versions: Ludovico Ariosto: Tutte le opere. Volume quarto. Commedie (1974). Milano: Mondadori.

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ cf. 22nd song, 47-61. verse
  2. ↑ cf. 29th song, 31.-39. verse
  3. ^ Douglas Radcliff-Umstead: The Birth of Modern Comedy in Renaissance Italy (1969). Chicago / London: The University of Chicago Press: 81.
  4. ↑ cf. Douglas Radcliff-Umstead: The Birth of Modern Comedy in Renaissance Italy (1969). Chicago / London: The University of Chicago Press: 81-82.
  5. ↑ cf. Manfred Brauneck : The world as a stage. History of European Theater. First volume (1993). Stuttgart / Weimar: JW Metzler: 422
  6. ↑ cf. Douglas Radcliff-Umstead: The Birth of Modern Comedy in Renaissance Italy (1969). Chicago / London: The University of Chicago Press: 73.
  7. ↑ cf. Dieter Kremers: "The Italian Renaissance Comedy and the Commedia dell'Arte", in: August Buck (Ed.): Renaissance and Baroque. Part I (1972). Frankfurt am Main. Academic Publishing Society Athenaion: 317.
  8. ↑ cf. Douglas Radcliff-Umstead: The Birth of Modern Comedy in Renaissance Italy (1969). Chicago / London: The University of Chicago Press: 73.
  9. ↑ cf. Manfred Brauneck: The world as a stage. History of European Theater. First volume (1993). Stuttgart / Weimar: JW Metzler: 422.
  10. ↑ cf. Douglas Radcliff-Umstead: The Birth of Modern Comedy in Renaissance Italy (1969). Chicago / London: The University of Chicago Press: 79-81.
  11. ↑ cf. Douglas Radcliff-Umstead: The Birth of Modern Comedy in Renaissance Italy (1969). Chicago / London: The University of Chicago Press: 84.
  12. ↑ all information on this section (ie ancient Roman literature) cf. Douglas Radcliff-Umstead: The Birth of Modern Comedy in Renaissance Italy (1969). Chicago / London: The University of Chicago Press: 74-77.
  13. ↑ all information on this section (ie Italian literature) cf. Douglas Radcliff-Umstead: The Birth of Modern Comedy in Renaissance Italy (1969). Chicago / London: The University of Chicago Press: 77-80.