Lo sfogo dell'amante e la 'retorica' del prologo (Plauto Merc. 1-39)

In the Mercator\u2019s prologue the necessity to tell the background overlaps the ethos of the lover, who, through his unruly language, fluctuates between the \u2018talking too much\u2019 and the \u2018talking too little\u2019. These categories bring to a metapoetic and \u2018rhetoric\u2019 reflection on the composition and modality of the prologue itself. If the invitation to the brevity is a constant scenic standard in all the Plautus comedies, the opportunity to \u2018speak little\u2019 is necessary especially in the prologues, in order to receive the public\u2019s benignitas (in other words, the willingness to listen). The Mercator\u2019s long exposition therefore represents a playful infraction, which subverts this obligatory rule in the prologizon\u2019s exposition. When in de or. 2 , 326 ff. Cicero shows the limits of a brevitas that provides only the essential details about the events, he uses the example of the Terentius\u2019 Andria first scene, demonstrating on the contrary the qualities of a varied and dwelled and, therefore, effective and enjoyable narratio