ABSTRACT
In 1513, Bernardo Dovizi's play, La Calandria, was premièred at the ducal court at Urbino. Dovizi's plot was drawn from some ancient Latin comedies of Plautus, but his prologue claimed the piece as more original than that: ‘Today you'll see a new comedy, Calandria – prose, not verse; modern, not ancient; Italian, not Latin… If some say the author has blatantly plundered Plautus… that big oaf…, examine Plautus's comedies yourself. You'll find nothing missing.’ The stage set was a realistic representation of Rome. The actors, all scrumptiously costumed men, in the manner of the ancient republican Roman theatre, spoke witty, elegant Italian. The play's theme was, as in Plautus and Terence, the relations between men and women, and its expression overtly sexual. The prologue was somewhat tendentious in downplaying its ancient connections but, derived or not, Calandria was a hit and in Rome the following year it was revived before the newly enthroned Pope Leo X, Giovanni de’ Medici. That the Pope would allow such a thing is less surprising than it might have been, given that Dovizi was himself a priest – in fact, a prince of the Church, Cardinal Bibbiena.
