Recordings
of Plautine Cantica
by Timothy
J. Moore
Department
of Classics
The University of Texas
at Austin
Cistellaria
671-694
The handmaiden Halisca frantically searches for a
basket she has dropped. She begins with very regular anapests
that underline her steady motion as she moves forward from the house
seeking the basket. She switches to bacchiacs as she tries to
catch her breath. Yet the irregularity of these bacchiac verses reveals
that she hardly calms down as she does so. She then returns to anapests
for a plea to the audience. That plea is a daring
incorporation of the spectators into the plot, so Halisca begins
haltingly, with a hiatus and almost all spondees, until she gets her
stride and sings mostly anapests.
Again, Halisca's momentum does not last,
and she returns once again to bacchiacs. This set of bacchiac
quaternarii is far more regular than the previous set: Halisca has
started to get a grip on herself as she sets out methodically to search
for the basket.
Not surprisingly, Halisca's hard-won
self-control does not last. In the next verse she turns to
her feelings of fear, and she sings a long string of anapests as her
panic drives her on. Then she slows down once more, this time
to cretics. In contrast to the driving anapests and the
struggling bacchiacs, cretics often have a playful effect. Hence the
very regular cretics here, as Halisca turns from her own terror to the
mocking joy of the basket's finder. She returns once again to
bacchiacs as she encourages herself to get moving and look for the
basket. These bacchiac verses, truncated and irregular,
reflect Halisca’s state of despair and uncertainty.
Text
Recording
last modified 3 June
2010 by timmoore@mail.utexas.edu