
i'm a boy from indiana and this is very emotional for me
My brain is a little broken today so I’m busting out an old classroom exercise and I’m going to translate some ancient Roman spooky stories from Latin. I’ll update the post as I go but to get started here’s the beginning of Pliny the Younger’s epistle 7.27.
| Latin | English |
|---|---|
| Pliny 7.27 C. Plinius Surae Suo S. | Pliny to his dear friend Licinius Sura |
| Et mihi discendi et tibi docendi facultatem otium praebet. Igitur perquam velim scire, esse phantasmata et habere propriam figuram numenque aliquod putes an inania et vana ex metu nostro imaginem accipere. | We have some free time and that means I get to learn, and you get to teach me. So I want to know whether you think ghosts (phantasmata) exist, and have their own substance and spirit, or are formless and empty and simply take their appearance from our fear. |
| Ego ut esse credam in primis eo ducor, quod audio accidisse Curtio Rufo. Tenuis adhuc et obscurus, obtinenti Africam comes haeserat. Inclinato die spatiabatur in porticu; offertur ei mulieris figura humana grandior pulchriorque. Perterrito Africam se futurorum praenuntiam dixit: iturum enim Romam honoresque gesturum, atque etiam cum summo imperio in eandem provinciam reversurum, ibique moriturum. Facta sunt omnia. Praeterea accedenti Carthaginem egredientique nave eadem figura in litore occurrisse narratur. Ipse certe implicitus morbo futura praeteritis, adversa secundis auguratus, spem salutis nullo suorum desperante proiecit. | Now I am inclined to believe they are real, primarily from this story I heard about what happened to Curtius Rufus. While he was still not very famous, he was on the staff of the incoming governor of the province of Africa . One afternoon while he was walking on his porch, he encountered the figure of a woman, bigger and more beautiful than any human. He was terrified, but she said she was Spirit of Africa and she was there to tell his future: he was going to go back to Rome, and hold a high office, and then he would return to the province with supreme authority, and that’s where he would die. And all these things happened. They even say that the same specter met him on the beach when he was disembarking upon his arrival at Carthage. What’s definitely true is that when he eventually fell ill, he reckoned his future by things past, [remembering the specter’s prophecy,] and judged his present misfortune according to his past fortunes, and so even though none of the people around him thought the illness was serious, he gave up any hope of recovering |
i don't have any big thoughts about Brecht himself, as my knowledge is mainly couched around his interest in Shakespeare. but you are correct to discern that Brecht sees in the early modern theater an avenue for the development of his own dramaturgy. one part of this that matches up pretty well is Brecht recognizing that many early modern historical plays (or otherwise) are often written in ways that make commentary on their contemporary political developments (staging "history" was a way to get around scandals and censors). he follows suit in this, writing stories that work as fables and as political polemics. the thing i tend to bring up more often is probably the rickety nature of theatrical belief, which plays of Shakespeare's time are constantly trying to shore up or incite. this is where the distinctions matter; a simple reading of early modern plays would see them grasping toward an audience that accepts their fictions with little prompting, ie, a naturalized docility in the theatrical spectator, whereas Brecht is taking cues from archaic theatrical practices or less formal popular entertainments in order to undo that precise spectatorial mode.