User:Cynwolfe/Ancient Roman mime

Barefoot masked actor in a phlyax play, an antecedent of Roman mime (bell krater, ca. 360 BC–350 BC, from Paestum

Herakles chasing a woman, scene of a phlyax play. Apulian red-figured oinochoe, ca. 370–360 BC

Ancient Roman mime (Latin mimus) was a popular form of theatrical performance featuring risqué language and jokes, sex scenes, action sequences, political satire, dance numbers and striptease; theatre that could not be categorized in any other genre might be loosely referred to as mimus. It was an "anarchic genre" that could range from the mimilogus, which was scripted comedy with a plot, to variety acts based on juggling and acrobatics. Unlike other forms of ancient drama such as Atellan farce and the literary comedies of Plautus and Terence, mime was performed without masks, which not only promoted stylistic realism in acting and facial expressions, but gave women the opportunity to play female roles that in traditional theatre were performed by masked men in drag (see also travesti).

A few writers of mime achieved literary status, and famous performers might be taken into elite circles of Roman society, in the manner of modern celebrities. A performer of mime was a mimus (masculine, plural mimi) or mima (feminine, plural mimae). Mimi were sometimes called planipedes, "flat-foots," because they didn't wear the elevated shoes that were conventional in "serious" drama. (Or that's what Conte says; others say they performed barefoot.) By the late Republic, mime had eclipsed traditional literary comedy in popularity. From the second half of the 2nd century AD, mime performers gained in status, earning public honors and recognition.

Ancient mimus bears virtually no resemblance to contemporary mime, but was closely related to the ancient performance genre called "'pantomime"' (Greek pantomimos), which contained no spoken dialogue. Story ballet is probably the modern form most comparable to the ancient pantomime.

during the Imperial era, story ballet and dumbshow came to predominate the form, leading to the rise of pantomime. Conte seems to be wrong about this

Plot and characters

The actor Xanthias (? or perhaps we mean the character Xanthias?), again not a mime, but from Campania, and interesting for the presence of Hercules yadda yadda

xxxxx "Escape and pursuit" is a typical motif, suggesting the physicality of mime. Seneca indicates that staging a voyage and even a shipwreck was not beyond the capacity of mime, in contrast to literary comedy, which was more likely to rely on verbal virtuosity.

Some poems from the Latin literary canon are known to have been staged at mimus performances. Ovid says that his love elegies were often staged, as was poetry by Vergil. Elaine Fantham has suggested that the Apocolocyntosis of Seneca, which was known in the Middle Ages as the Ludus de morte Claudi ("Play on the death of Claudius"), was a literary adaptation of a mime written for a performance before Nero at the Saturnalia. Seneca has Janus refer to the "bean mime" as a precedent in depicting a prominent political figure and his woes in the afterlife.

Scaenica adulteria

The "adultery mime" exploited the comic situation of a wife attempting to have an affair in the absence of her husband, who returns inopportunely and prompts the lover's panicky efforts to hide or escape. Several poets refer to this scenario, which may be seen as a forerunner to Falstaff in the laundry basket during The Merry Wives of Windsor by Shakespeare.

Props and costuming

A papyrus fragment lists two phalluses

Writers of mime

During the time of Julius Caesar (mid-1st century BC), two noted playwrights who produced mimes were Decimus Laberius and Publilius Syrus. Their works are preserved only in fragments and references to performances recorded by other authors. Although Laberius and Syrus achieved status as literary figures, other writer-directors of mime produced work mainly oriented toward performance, bare-bones plots featuring improvisation, songs, skits, and stripteases.

Mimi and mimae

The lead actor of a mime troupe was the archimimus or archimima, though lists containing more than one archmime indicate that arch- may simply indicate "professional" or "leading."

Those who wrote and produced mimes could be of higher social rank than the performers; Laberius was an equestrian. Like other entertainers, as well as prostitutes and gladiators, mimes were of low social status and excluded from the legal protections normally accorded a citizen, even if the entertainer were technically a free person (see infamia). In defending a client, Cicero dismissed an allegation that the accused had participated in the gang rape of a girl-mime (mimula) by shrugging it off as "boys will be boys" behavior.

A "star" might consort with the highest echelons of Roman society, not excluding the emperor himself. The pantomime dancer Mnester was among the lovers of Caligula.

Although their place in mainstream society was ambiguous, inscriptions indicate the existence of performing arts guilds and a theatre community that supported its members. Several memorials to mimes have survived. The earliest epitaph for a mime dates to the first half of the 2nd century BC: "Here lies Protogenes Cloelius, the delightful mime, who gave the people a lot of pleasure with his nonsense." The mima Basilla was commemorated at the amphitheater of Aquileia by her fellow performers, not without some self-promotion:

She won resounding fame on the stage earlier among many peoples and many cities for manifold excellence among mimes, later among choruses, often in musical contests. Herakleides, a good speaker and character mime, erected this memorial to the mime actress Basilla, the tenth Muse, thus not dead; though she is a corpse, she has won life as her fair reward, having found a resting place for her body in the soil of the Muses. That's life. Your fellow performers say to you: 'Take heart Basilla: nobody is immortal.'

In late antiquity, the empress Theodora had been a mima before she married Justinian.

Parasites of Apollo

Main article: Parasites of Apollo

User:Cynwolfe/Parasites of Apollo

The Parasites of Apollo (Latin Parasiti Apollinis) was a prestigious theatrical guild for mime artists and pantomimes. It was formed during the Hannibalic War in 211 BC, the second year the Ludi Apollinares (Apollonian Games) were held, but most of the evidence for it comes from the Imperial era. In comedy, the parasitus was a "dinner g

Pantomime

"Mimes dealt in a realistic, comic, sententious, and often outrageously vulgar way with any theme whatsoever, while pantomime was a ballet enactment of a usually mythical story; it may have tended to appeal to higher tastes with tragic themes but could be erotic and comic as well."

Continuity

Mime continued to be performed in Gaul during the 6th to 8th centuries, and thereafter. Carolingian sources indicate the continuity of secular theatre. The Council of Mainz prohibited members of the clergy from attending these shows, which were condemned by Alcuin several times. Alcuin quoted Augustine as saying "a man who introduces into his house clowns, mimes or dancers does not know what tumult will follow because of their impious spirits." (Check other translations: I'm not convinced this is the most accurate rendering of quam magna eos immundorum sequitur turba spiritum, which seems more like "A man who brings clowns, mimes and dancers into his own home is unaware of how great a throng of unclean spirits follows them"—mindful of Augustinian usage, as in turba deorum, "a mob of gods", and spiritus immundus regularly meaning "unclean spirit"; this passage seems to be more in keeping with the Fathers' usual admonitions to stay away from water shrines or other matters of the old religion that would open up contact with "demons").

See also

• vaudeville
• burlesque
• variety show

References

• Duckworth [1]

[[Category:Ancient Roman theatre