『オクタウィア』の構造 : 観客の視点から

Abstract

The Octavia is an unfortunate work, because there always stand two obstacles before we investigate it as a work of theater. One of them is a matter of authorship. This problem has long been argued since the 14th century, and even now it has not been completely settled. Most of the scholars, however, think that the Octavia was not written by Seneca, but that it was wrongly attributed to him. The present writer agrees to this opinion. The other problem is how Seneca's plays and the Octavia were performed. This is also a controversial problem and there are two interpretations. One is that Seneca wrote his tragedies for performance in the theater and the other is that he wrote them merely for recitation. If we define performance in a wider sense, then those plays for recitation can also be included in plays for performance. And I presume the Octavia as such. These two matters having been settled, the next step I took was to analyze the plot of the Octavia from the viewpoint of audience. The whole work is usually divided into five acts, but this division does not always reflect the true structure. So I reconsidered the plot of the Octavia from the different angle, namely the viewpoint of audience, which, I believe, will disclose the hidden structure of the Octavia. The result is that this work is incidentally divided into five parts, or five days : 1st day : 11.1-645 ; 2nd day : 11.646-689 ; 3rd day : 11.690-761 ; 4th day : 11.762-819 ; 5th day : 11.820-982. The chorus of the Octavia, which is another controversial thing, marks the turn from the 2nd day to the 3rd day(689), from the 3rd day to the 4th day(762), and from the 4th day to the 5th day(819). Thus we could confirm that the plot construction is not the same as the formal construction and that the plot construction is the essence of theater which can be recognized only through the viewpoint of audience.