Artes Dictandi; use of French and of verse in letters; the verse epistle as a lyric genre; autobiographical ballade sequences; appropriation and imitation; doubt as between art and actuality

Chapter 2 begins by examining the correspondence between lovers Toxilus and Lemniselenis, using it to further investigate the metatheatrical dynamics of written correspondence on the Plautine stage and to consider the love letter qua category of epistolary writing. Next, it considers the ruse enacted via forgery. Relying on the same letter-as-script and letter-as-scheme metaphor active in Bacchides, Persa establishes an association between writing and belief to meditate on the nature of theatrical illusion. This chapter continues, then, to unpack the synergy between performance and text in Plautus but it focuses on the other end of the epistolary and dramatic processes via analysis of Persa’s onstage reading scene, which generates a simultaneously theatrical and anti-theatrical vision of an actor reading his lines on stage. Finally, I concentrate on Persa’s deception which replicates the content of the larger play it inhabits, delving deeper into the mechanics of mise-en-abymes to show how Plautus employs embedded text and internal dramaturgy to address the problem of creative originality, prompting us to question whose play we are watching.

Chapter 8 treats the subject of love and death from two different angles. Ovid’s Heroides is a series of letters by famous women in myth, addressed to their absent husbands, lovers, or sweethearts, some of whom write back. A number of the women writers face imminent death. The first part of this chapter examines the main characteristics of the letters in the Heroides and applies these to one particular, and particularly haunting, film: Max Ophüls’ Letter from an Unknown Woman, based on a novella by Stefan Zweig. In this case, background Ovidianism is especially striking, as can be seen and heard in the opening sentence of the letter written by the film’s heroine to her callous lover: “By the Time You Read This Letter, I May Be Dead.” Who could resist such an opening? The chapter’s second part examines a variety of screen responses to the myth of Philemon and Baucis from the Metamorphoses. These range from a big-budget Hollywood “weepie” (The Notebook) to Mr. Sycamore, an independent production with a quirky not-quite-romance. This little gem deserves renewed appreciation. Discussions of some other European and American productions round off the chapter.