Review date: 18/3/1999
Publisher: Penguin
Translation published: 1965
E.F. Watling doesn't seem to like this particular play terribly much, and gives a variety of criticisms of it in the brief introduction to his translation. This is perhaps a response to the rather over the top praise given it in the eighteenth century by the German poet G.E. Lessing, who said that it was the most perfect comedy every produced on any stage. (Watling suggests that the reason for Lessing's comment was that The Prisoners has a high moral tone compared to many other comedies.)
The plot of The Prisoners is one of those where the ending is obvious from the start (particularly if you've every read any other comedies of this sort). Hegio, from Aetolia, buis a pair of slaves captured in a war with Elis, the wealthy Philocrates and his personal slave, Tyndarus. Hegio's own son, Philopolemus, is a captive in Elis, and Hegio wants to send Tyndarus to offer an exchange.
In a fit of personal devotion to his master, Tyndarus pretends to be Philocrates, so that Philocrates can escape, leaving him to almost certain death. But of course Tyndarus turns out to be Hegio's other son, lost while a small child and sold into slavery.
The charges Watling makes against the play include inconsistencies in the plot (it is difficult to see when Tyndarus and Philocrates could agree to the exchange of identities, as it must be before they meet Hegio but after knowing of his plan to send Tyndarus to Elis), a warped sense of time (one character, Ergasilus, is given activities which imply that only a single day is occupied by the action of the play, yet Philocrates has time to travel to Elis and back), and the rushed ending which nevertheless leaves time for the action to sag in the middle of the play, which centres around the minor character of Ergasilaus.
None of these problems are particularly obvious when reading the play through, and only the last would be noticeable in a good performance. (And that would mainly be because Ergasilaus is a character who is likely to appear rather tedious to modern audiences: he is a professional dinner guest, a hanger-on.)
Return to list of reviews by author - by submission date.