THE DRAMATIC VALUES IN PLAUTUS

igeassent en riant." All this is disappointing. We should have
expected Gallic esprit to risc superior to such banality.
The celebrity of French criticism is somewhat redeemed by
LeGrand in his monumental work entitled Daos.
LEGRAND Tableau de la comedie grecque pendant la periode dite
nouvelle (Annales de l'Universite de Lyon, 19IO), in
the conclusion to the chapter on 'Intentions didactiques et valeur
morale' (Part III, Chap. I, page 583) : "Tout compte fait, au
point de vue moral, la velZ dut etre inoffensive (en son temps) ."
This is the culmination of a calm, dispassionate discussion and
analysis of the extant remains of New Comedy and Palliatae.
Even Ritschl fails to escape the taint of degrading Plautus to
the status of a petty moralizer.29 In particular, he lauds the Aul.
unreservedly as a chef d'oeuvre of character delineation and
pronounces it immcasurably superior to Moliere's imitation,
"L' Avare. "30 This whole critique, while interesting, falls into the
prevailing trend of imputing to Plautus far too high a planc of
dramatic artistry.31
Indced, Langen has already scored Ritschl on this very point
in remarking32 that Ritschl's condemnation of an
LANGEN alleged defect in the Cas.33 implies much too favorable
an estimate of Plautus' artistic worth, as the defects
cited are represented as scmething isolated and remarkable,
whereas they are characteristic of Plautine comedy. Langen still
displays clear-headed judgment when he says of the Miles34:
"Wenn die Farben so stark aufgetragen werden, hort jede Feinh..:::t
der Charakterzeichnung auf und bei einem Dichter, der sich dies
gestattet, darf man bezuglich der Charakterschilderungen nicht zu
viele Anspruche machen. Es ist schr wahrscheinlich, dass Plautus
mit Rucksicht auf den Geschmack eines Publikums die Zuge
des Originals sehr vergrobert hat."
But Langen fails to follow this splendid lead. Without taking
advantage of the license that he himself offers the poet, he severely
290puscula Philologica, Vol. II. p. 743.
300pusc. II. 733 ff.
3'In Opusc. III. 455, Ritschl relates that Varro wrote six books on drama,
with Plautus as the especial object of his interest: de originibus scaenicis,
de scaenicis actionibus, de actibus scaenicis, de personis, de descriptionibus,
quaestiones Plautinae.
32Langen , op. cit., p. I27.
330pUSC. II. 746.
I3
340p. cit., p. I65.