The Meters of Roman Comedy

 [First posted in AWOL 7 January 2018, updated 14 February 2025]

 The Meters of Roman Comedy

Timothy J. Moore, The Meters of Roman Comedy

This database is dedicated to the memory of Cesare Questa (1934-2016), the incomparable master of Roman Comedy’s numeri innumeri, without whom it would not have been possible.

Introduction

This is a database of all metrical units (passages in an individual meter) in the extant plays of Plautus and Terence except for the fragmentary Vidularia.

Each record represents a metrical unit, or a passage in a single meter (these range from one verse to over 200 verses), and includes the following fields:

Fields immediately visible in each record:

• Playwright
• Play
• Starting Line: the number of the first verse of this metrical unit
• Ending Line: number of the last verse of this metrical unit
• Line Count: total number of verses in this metrical unit
• Starting Text: a quotation of the first verse in the passage
• Ending Text: a quotation of the last verse in the passage
• Meter: the meter of the passage (in the case of verses that include more than one meter, all are recorded as one: e.g.: ba2bacol counts as one meter, as does a versus reizianus and cr2tr4cat)
• Meter Before: the meter of the passage immediately preceding this one
• Meter After: the meter of the passage immediately following this one
• Character, Character Verses, Character Type: The name of each character who speaks or sings in the passage, the number of verses in which that character speaks or sings in the passage (in verses where one or more characters speak, one verse is attributed to each character, regardless of how much or how little of the verse that character delivers); and the character's type.
• Meter Type: the type of meter to which the meter of the passage belongs (if two or more meter types occur in the same verse, both are counted: e.g.: cr2tr4cat counts as both cretic and trochaic)

Fields accessed by clicking “Notes” at the right of each record: (to hide the notes again, click on the box where they appear)

• Closure: notes on how the passage ends (e.g., whether the end of the metrical unit corresponds with the end of a sentence or a scene)
• Comments on Length: remarks on such matters as numbers of long and short syllables, resolutions, and variations on standard metrical forms
• Comments, Other: notes on textual questions, content, choice of meter, and other matters.

How to Use the Database

• Each of the following fields—“Playwright”, “Play”, “Character Type”, “Character”, “Meter”, “Meter Type”, “Meter Before”, and “Meter After”—comprises a dimension. Dimensions are listed on the left side of the database. Each dimension includes two or more facets (e.g., the dimension “Playwright” includes the facets “ Plautus” and “Terence”).
• All the facets within a dimension can be viewed by clicking on the box with the dimension name. To hide the facets, click on the box again.
• Using the upper row of the database, with its “select all” and “deselect all” options, in combination with the list of dimensions on the left column, one can view and calculate various aspects of Plautus and Terence’s metrical practice together or separately.
• The same identical fields appear in each of the three pages of the database—“By Line,” “By Character Verse,” and “By Unit”—but the three pages calculate different things.
  • The page “By Line” calculates the total number of verses for each playwright, play, meter type, and meter.
  • The page “By Character Verse” calculates the total number of character verses (parts or all of a verse delivered by any individual character) for each playwright, play, character type, character, meter type, and meter. Note that these numbers tend to be higher than the number of verses because characters often share verses. If two characters of the same type share a verse, two character verses are counted for the character type.
  • The page “By Unit” calculates the total number of metrical units for each playwright, play, meter type, and meter, as well as how many times individual meters occur before and after metrical units.

Home By line By character verse By unit