Querolus, comédie latine anonyme: Le Grincheux

by Anonymous, Catherine Jacquemard-Le Saos (editor)

Comedie philosophique, satire sociale, pamphlet politique, le Querolus occupe une place originale dans la litterature latine. Seule comedie, avec les pieces de Terence et de Plaute, a nous etre parvenue dans son integralite, le Querolus, compose par un familier du droit romain et de la bureaucratie imperiale, se revele un temoignage precieux sur les occupations et preoccupations des hauts fonctionnaires a la cour dans le premier quart du Veme siecle en Occident. Dediee a Rutilius Namatianus et ecrite pour lui, (peut-etre en Gaule) c'est une oeuvre bien enracinee dans la tradition culturelle latine qui exprime, avec un talent et un humour certains, les inquietudes des derniers representants du paganisme eclaire. Cette edition est la premiere a utiliser le temoignage du manuscrit de Hambourg, Scrin.185, qui n'a ete decouvert qu'en 1976. L'apport de ce manuscrit s'avere extremement interessant puisqu'il permet, a de nombreuses reprises, de combler les lacunes ou de corriger les lecons fautives du reste de la tradition manuscrite. L'introduction, les notes au texte et a la traduction, s'efforcent d'elucider les realites contemporaines auxquelles l'oeuvre fait allusion. This edition is the first to use testimony from the Hamburg manuscript, Scrin. 185, which was only discovered in 1976. The contribution of this manuscript has proven very interesting in that, on numerous occasions, it provides missing information or permits the reader to correct faulty readings found in the rest of the manuscript tradition.

204 pages, Paperback

First published April 20, 2010

About the author

Books can be attributed to "Anonymous" for several reasons:

* They are officially published under that name
* They are traditional stories not attributed to a specific author
* They are religious texts not generally attributed to a specific author

Books whose authorship is merely uncertain should be attributed to Unknown.

See also: Anonymous

Reviews

[Lukerik · Rating 4 out of 5]

The last play written before the fall of the Roman Empire in the west. This, and then silence for 550 years.

It’s much better than I expected for something so late. Why I should be surprised at the quality, I don’t know. After all, they’d all had time to practice by this point. It’s a bit of fun really, very much in the Plautine tradition with a couple of differences.

There’s no B-plot, no slave-girls, no women of any description, no conventional recognition scene. In place of these you have a couple of long monologues which would stage well if you had particularly engaging actors.

The other big difference is that, like Seneca, it hasn’t been done as part of a religious festival. There is a god in it, but he’s no so much a trickster god as a piss-taking one. It’s generally very satirical of religion in general.

Light entertainment, and as enjoyable in itself as it is for being a literary oddity and historically interesting.

This particular edition is a doctoral thesis that has been ebooked. If you don’t mind a pdf you can have it for free from the Royal Holloway’s website here:

https://repository.royalholloway.ac.u...

I bumped it up a star because O’Donnell’s additions really do elevate it. It has the Latin text of the play and the Lex Convivialis (if you can read it) with a translation of both. There’s also a massive critical apparatus. Some of this is technical and will please the scholars. For the rest of us there’s an introduction that will tell you everything any human will ever want to know about the play and its history. Particularly amusing is her account of previous scholars. The play appears to have attracted the lunatic fringe of scholarship. This play is where they’ve all been hanging out.

[Lulu]

Querolus/Aulularia - early 5th


Trans: The Complete Roman Drama Volume Two
Duckworth