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DRAMA
there, and lopped at the end. In Stichus Plautus all but discards the main action
of the Adelphoi, and the play turns into a balletic satura of joyous home-coming
— the Punic War was not long over — in which the opposed fortunes of the
resident parasite and of the below-stairs characters amount to a theme, hardly
a plot. In Casina (from Diphilus; after 186 B.C.) Plautus has cut the return of
the young lover, the recognition of Casina, and their betrothal (Cas. 65).
Papyri published in the late nineteen fifties and sixties provided important
direct evidence, previously all but lacking, of the great freedom with which
Plautus treated the plots of his models. An extensive fragment of Menander's Dis
exapaton shows that Plautus has cut a scene of this, the original of his Bacchides,
and has re-cast dramaturgy radically at an act-break of the original, though not
without trace. 1 In the Poenulus (from Alexis; 189—187 B.C.) Plautus has seriously
distorted the dramatic structure of the original (Karchedonios) both by episodic
expansions (e.g. 330—409) and more importantly by the insertion of a 'second
trick' (1086—no; see below). Terence appeals to the example of Naevius,
Plautus, and Ennius when defending himself for making alien additions which
are not merely episodic in character (Ter. An. 1 ^ff.), and he adds to his version
of Menander's second Adelphoi z. scene of Diphilus' Synapothneskontes 'Partners
in death' which, he says, Plautus had left out in his version of that play (Ter.
Ad. 9f.). Another addition of a scene containing a dramatic idea, gravely distorting
the structure as a whole, occurs in Miles gloriosus. z It used to be maintained,
on a partial and imperfect statement of the problems of these plays, that here
and elsewhere Plautus had taken all or most of two Greek originals, and joined
them end to beginning. There is no external evidence for this method of
composition, and the internal evidence alone, if correctly stated, proves that it
was not used in these two cases, which Leo regarded as certain. 3 As an illustration
of Plautus' workmanship, and incidentally of his less flamboyant style,
it will be convenient to look in more detail at the case of the Poenulus.
The central peculiarity of this play is that it contains two tricks which cause
it to fall into unsatisfactory halves. The first three acts are devoted to a deception
which is sufficiently comprehensive to put the procurer Lycus in a very
difficult position. He has been successfully ' framed' thanks to the slave Milphio's
wiles, so that Milphio's master Agorastocles can threaten Lycus: ' Either you
allow me access to my beloved Adelphasium, or I shall prosecute you for theft;
you will be condemned to pay me compensation so huge that all your property,
including the girls, will be mine.' The threat is less immediate than Plautus
makes out, since 'today' is a holiday and the courts will only be open
'tomorrow', but Plautus, magnifying Milphio, puts no emphasis on this
1
See Handley (1968), Gaiser (1970) 51—87, Questa (1970) 183—218, Wright (1974) 138—41,
Arnott (1975) 38—41.
1 3
G. W. Williams (1958) 79-105.
Leo (1912) 170.
98
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