41 pages • 1-hour read
Pseudolus
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Scenes 9-12Chapter Summaries & Analyses
Scene 9 Summary
Calidorus enters with his friend, Charinus, who has agreed to help. Charinus assures Calidorus that he’s “a friend and ally” (699) but that he isn’t sure about Pseudolus; Calidorus asserts that Pseudolus is “the very picture of human perfection—and my mastermind” (700). Pseudolus tells Calidorus that he has the token and that Calidorus will “be wrapping your arms around a free woman today” (722) as long as they can provide a man who is “unscrupulous, / Clever, devious and smart, a quick study” (724-25). Charinus says he can provide his father’s new slave. Pseudolus explains that the slave, Simia, is to dress in the costume of the Macedonian’s slave and that he will “take the token and the five minae to the pimp, / And then take the woman away with him” (753-54)—he will borrow the five minae from Charinus and pay it back later that day. After they agree to a meeting place, Calidorus and Charinus leave. Pseudolus, alone, expresses delight that “all looks auspicious for [his] plan” (762).
Scene 10 Summary
A slave boy emerges from Ballio’s house. He laments that he not only was made by the gods to be a slave for a pimp but also that he is unattractive. He then explains that Ballio has threatened to torture the slaves if they don’t provide him with gifts for his birthday and that he doesn’t know what “someone in my situation [is] supposed to do” (779). After a subtle reference to his being forced to perform as a male prostitute, he wonders if he will “learn how to just grin and bear it” (787). When he sees Ballio approach, he sneaks away.
Scene 11 Summary
Ballio enters with a cook he has brought back from the forum. He complains that he “could not possibly find a poorer / Specimen of a cook than the one I’ve brought here” (792-93). When the cook asks why he hired him if he thinks so ill of him, Ballio says a “[l]abor shortage” (799) left him “no other choice” (799). Ballio asks why the cook hadn’t been hired yet; the cook responds that while most cooks work cheaply but don’t provide good value, he himself cooks heavenly dishes. Ballio, frequently insulting the cook, tells one of his slaves to watch the cook to make sure he doesn’t steal anything. The cook’s assistant emerges from the house and announces dinner is almost ready. Ballio says he doesn’t “know what to guard first: / A house full of thieves or the robber next door” (894-95). He states that Simo warned him to watch out for Pseudolus, who intends to “swindle [him] out of the woman” (900).
Scene 12 Summary
Pseudolus and Simia engage in sharp banter. Pseudolus acknowledges that Simia is “as wicked as me” (910) and that the gods must want to help Calidorus by sending Simia to them. Simia promises to “be a better Harpax than he is” (926). Pseudolus promises to give him “plums and perks” (947) if Simia succeeds: “Delightful delicacies, hors d’oeuvres, perfumes, liqueurs—and / A delightful lady to smother with kisses of course!” (948-49).
Scenes 9-12 Analysis
Inversions continue in Scene 9, this time in the definition of good and bad. Though Calidorus tells Charinus that Pseudolus is “the very picture of human perfection” (700), five lines later, Pseudolus informs the men that he has performed “[a] triumph of trickery, treachery, and downright roguery!” (705-06). Pseudolus boasts about the ease with which he deceives Simo, Ballio, and others, admitting with no hesitation to his ability to create “a web of deceit” (399) and an “army of tricks” (572). Similarly, in Scene 12, Pseudolus exclaims that Simia, the slave who impersonates Harpax in order to trick Ballio, is “a fine fellow!” (943)—only moments after commenting that Simia is so “disrespectful” (917), “wickedly wicked” (938),and that if the gods gave him what he “truly deserve[d]” (937), he would receive “[l]ess than nothing” (938). In fact, Pseudolus admires Simia because of—rather than despite—his wickedness, telling him, “I love, cherish, and honor your dishonesty!” (945). Pseudolus respects Simia for the same qualities he appreciates in himself, and the two slaves—whose back-and-forth banter is some of the wittiest of the play—are established not only as equals but as superior, in both intellect and quick thinking, to the masters they serve.
Though Pseudolus and Simia are slaves plotting to steal from someone of superior status, even they are more ethical than Ballio, whose examples of cruelty and greed are numerous. In these scenes alone, readers meet a slave boy who describes rape and forced prostitution in Ballio’s care and a cook verbally abused by Ballio, who calls the cook “a babbler, a bragger, a fool and a slacker” (794) and tells him to “go to hell” (839). Though Pseudolus is unscrupulous, he is no less scrupulous than Ballio: while Pseudolus at least works to free Phoenicium from an abusive master, Ballio appears mean for meanness’s sake. Ballio seems to deserve the punishment he’s about to receive. Readers are left in the strange position of sympathizing with the conniving slaves, cheering for the success of their conspiracy over those of superior status whom they strive to trick. In this way, morality, like social class, is turned on its head.
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