‘‘danced’’ publicly, and his language points to adaptation rather than
recital.^55 Whatever form these stage shows may have taken, they are far
from showing the primacy of performance over text. Instead, the staging
of poetry by people other than the author could only have occurred after
there was an independently circulating, written text.^56 Further, the fact
that a book (nearly any book) is capable of being read aloud or adapted
for the stage is not in itself significant. Cervantes has furnished ballets;
T. S. Eliot has been turned into a musical; Joyce has been turned into
films. Despite the fact (if it is a fact) that theEclogueswere put on stage,
they remain a book, intended for readers. Vergil says so (Ecl. 3.84–85):
Pollio amat nostram, quamuis est rustica, Musam:
Pierides, uitulamlectoripascite uestro.(‘‘Pollio loves my Muse, though she is rustic.
Pierides, feed up a calf for yourreader.’’)Recitationes
The second venue, the recitation, is the most familiar.^57 That a work
could become known—in the first instance, in any case—by the poet
reading aloud to a limited audience (in the strict sense) is not at issue.^58
Famous occasions include Vergil reading the completed Georgicsto
Augustus and parts of books 2, 4, and 6 of theAeneidto the imperial
family.^59 One of Vergil’s recitations was the occasion for someone in
55.Tr. 2.519 20: ‘‘Et mea sunt populo saltata poemata saepe / saepe oculos etiam
detinuere tuos [Augustus]’’; 5.7.25 28: ‘‘Carmina quod pleno saltari nostra theatro, /
uersibus et plaudi scribis, amice, meis, / nil equidem feci (tu scis hoc ipse) theatris, / Musa
nec in plausus ambitiosa mea est.’’ For later incidents, Suet.Nero54: Nero threatened that
‘‘proditurum se... histrionem saltaturumque Vergili Turnum’’ (‘‘he would exhibit himself as
an actor and dance Vergil’s Turnus’’). Macr. 5.17.5 points to adaptation for mime or the like
(actors along with painters and sculptors all use Dido). See White 1993, 53, for a list of
incidents; however, Pliny 7.4.9 and Hor.Sat. 1.10.17 19 (contrastlegitin the previous line)
do not indicate staged performance; see Markus 2000 on the meaning ofcantare.
56.Vit. Don. 26:edidit(quoted above, n. 53); cf. Dupont 1997, 46 n. 5.
- Pliny 8.21 for a detailed description of the purpose and physical setting. This two
day affair is carefully distinguished from dinner entertainment: ‘‘et in triclinio... positis ante
lectos cathedris amicos collocavi.’’ See Roller 1998, esp. 90 3. - For two excellent surveys, see Salles 1994, 93 110, and Dupont 1997. The fullest set
of data is still Funaioli 1914 (REI A 435 46). In exceptional circumstances the poet, though
present, could rely on someone else to read for him, if he did not feel up to the task. So Vergil
is said to have asked Maecenas to take over (Vit. Don. 27); and Pliny (9.34) thinks about
using a stand in (see n. 62).
59.Vit. Don. 27, 32, Serv.A. 4.323, 6.861; cf. Serv.Ecl. 6.11. All marked as hearsay in
the sources (fertur,dicitur,constat). A famous anecdote has been consistently misunderstood
(Vit. Don. 29): ‘‘Seneca reported that Julius Montanus the poet used to say that he’d steal
Vergil’s verses, if he could steal his voice (vocem), facial expression (os), and way of
202 Books and Texts