Plautine Pirates, or
A Modern Interpretation of the Servus Callidus

Amber Scaife (Kenyon College)

Johnny Depp has claimed that he modeled his character in the movie Pirates of the Caribbean, Captain Jack Sparrow, after Keith Richards and Pepé Le Pew.  If one looks closely, however, it becomes clear that this pirate character is in fact a modern day replica of the Plautine servus callidus, the clever slave. 

It is rare to find a modern parallel to an ancient work that so closely fits the original as this movie resembles the plot of a Plautine comedy, in particular the Pseudolus.  A young man of modest means is in love with a girl who is out of his reach.  He enlists the help of the servus callidus, Pseudolus, who, through a series of tricks and schemes, gets the girl for the young man and manages to get away unscathed and unpunished, despite his status as a slave and his treatment of his betters.  This is, in essence, the plot of Pirates of the Caribbean as well.  More specifically, it is the similarities of the characters of Pseudolus and Jack Sparrow that best bring out the parallel nature of the two dramatic works.  As recent scholarship has argued, it is the clever slave’s status as a slave – and thus a social outsider – that gives him the freedom to carry out his tricks and schemes and also govern the action of the plot.  Jack Sparrow is not a slave, but he has been branded as a pirate, which places him firmly outside of normal society and into the position of trickster and plot manipulator. 

In both works, nothing is as it first appears, and even when it seems as though the slave and the pirate do not have any control over their respective plots and events, by the end we are left wondering why we ever doubted their abilities to accomplish their plans, escape from the authorities unpunished, and keep us laughing all the way.

In this paper, I will use examples from both works to show just how closely the character of Jack Sparrow follows his ancient predecessor, and discuss the implications of this resemblance to the study of the influence of ancient works on modern pop culture.  For instance, because Depp’s character so perfectly embodies the spirit of the servus callidus, Pirates of the Caribbean is an excellent tool for bringing the clever slave to life for students who may find it difficult to imagine how this type of character functions as such an integral part of Roman comedy.