WHERE DID THE AUDIENCE GO?

WHERE DID THE AUDIENCE GO?The first two attempts at presenting the Hecyra to the public were failures.As we know from Terence's prologues, the performances were interrupted by an unruly audience.Beare' explains the nature of the disturbances thus: "The theatre had to compete with other forms of entertainment such as rope-dancing.Failure to make an immediate impression might result in empty benches, as the two prologues to Terence's Hecyra show."Beare's explanation was adopted by Duckworth:2 "If a play had less appeal than some nearby attractions, such as a boxing match or a gladiatorial combat, they might rush from a theatre, as in fact happened in the case of the first two performances of the Hecyra."Beare and others apparently believe that dramatic performances and other types of entertainment were given simultaneously, at nearby locations.The audience was free to move from one place to another, from the less popular attraction to the more appealing form of entertainment. presentation abandoned by its audience was inter rupted, since it was pointless to continue to perform in front of empty benches.Beare does not specify the site nor does he seem to mind the fact that the two performances took place on different occasions (see below).The text of the two prologues, however, does not support the rather modern notion of an uninterested or disgusted audience leaving the