Pragmatics of gestural communication in Plautus: the lovers’ kiss in Miles Gloriosus

In Plautus Miles gloriosus, against the backdrop of a widespread tapestry of non-verbal gestures, poses and signals, it is possible to identify a true gestural and systemic gag built on the theme of the lovers’ kisses and embraces. The ‘gestural catchphrase’ is interweaved throughout the entire comedy: in this comedy, in other words, gestures offer the opportunity to develop not only single extemporanous solutions or circumscribed mimic scenes, but also a specific comedic thread that is structurally inherent in the essential drammaturgic developments of the double deception and its final denouement.