علوم قرآن و حدیث

دانلود فایل صوتی ریدینگ دوم زبان عمومی (زبان انگلیسی) آزمون دکتری رشته انسانی سال 1398

The basic scenic background in the Roman theatre was the scaenae frons. In comedy, this façade was treated as a series of houses opening onto a city street represented by the stage. In tragedy, the façade normally represented a palace or temple. Although some plays are set in the country or other open places devoid of buildings, there was probably little attempt to change the visual appearance of the stage from one play to another. As the Prologue of The Menaechmi says: “This city is Epidamnus during the performance of this play; when another play is performed it will become another city.” The audience probably depended primarily upon the dramatists’ words to locate the action. Richard Beacham has argued that several surviving wall paintings from Pompeii and elsewhere depict the stages of temporary theatres, each of which could differ in appearance

There are, notwithstanding, a number of problems relating to the scenic background. One concerns the amount and kind of three-dimensional detail required by the plays of Plautus and Terence, some scholars arguing that there must have been porticos, alcoves, or other similar architectural features, with others maintaining that all details were painted. The question has arisen largely because of the many scenes in comedies involving eavesdropping or scenes in which one character is not supposed to see others who were on satge at the same time. One group of historians has insisted that three-dimensional structures would have been necessary to stage the scenes convincingly, while another insists that the conventions of the Roman stage permitted characters to see each other or not as the dramatic situation dictated

Closely connected with this problem is another involving interiors. Since a few scenes in the comedies depicted banquets or other actions that would ordinarily occur indoors, some scholars have argued that such scenes were staged in porches or vestibules in front of doors, to give a more convincing sense of an interior. Others have insisted that none of these scenes occurred indoors, and that it is only the influence of modern realism that has led historians to such conjectures. Neither of these arguments can be proven, although it seems likely that convention was stronger than realism in the time of Plautus and Terence