THE DRAMATIC VALUES IN PLAUTUS

paulum se movit extra numerum, aut si versus pronuntiatus est
syllaba una brevior aut longior, exsibilatur, exploditur, " says
Cicero.53 The actor dare not even have a cold, for on the slightest
manifestation of hoarseness, he was hooted off, though favorites
such as Roscius might be excused on the plea of indisposition.54
The Scholiast Cruquius to Hor. Ser. 1. 10.3 7 ff. notes : "Poemata
in theatris exhibita imperitae multitudinis applausum
captare."
It is cvident from all this that, whilc the Roman public had made
considerable advances in education, their demonstrative temperament
had not cooled. It seems eminently fair to deduce that the
far ruder and less cultivated audiences of Plautus' day were even
more violent in their manifestations of pleasure and displeasure, but
that their criterion of taste was solely the amount of amusement
derivcd from the performance52 and that they bothered themselves
little about niceties of rhythm. To the Roman, the scenic and
histrionic were the vital features of a production. Again we
reiteratc, only the bold brush could have pleased them.
That the plays of Plautus attai.ned a permanent position in the
theatrical repertoire of Rome is of course well known ; but he wrote
primarily for his own age, and in a difficult environment. Not
only did he have to please a highly volatile and inflammable public,
but he must have been forced to exercise tact to avoid offending the
patrician powers, as the imprisonment of Naevius indicates.
Mommsen has an apt summary :55 "Under such circumstances,
where art worked for daily wages and the artist instead of receivi;lg
due honour was subjected to disgrace, the new national theatre of
the Romans could not present any dev,elopmcnt either original or
even at all artistic."
This brief discussion of the relation between public a:1d pl3;ywright
will suffice for our purposes. In the course of it we have
insensibly encroached upon the next topic : the
THE ACTOR relation of public and actor. Who after all is the
chief factor in the success or failure of a drama, in
spite of the oft misquotcd adage, "The play's the thing?" The
actor ! The actor, who can mouth and tear a passion to tatters,
53Parad. III. 2,26. Cf. Or. 5 1.I73, de Or. III. 50.I96:
reclamant"; Hor. Ep. II. 1.200 fl. ; Suet. Nero, 24.1.
54Cic. de Or. 1.61.259, I. 27.I24.
"Hist. Rome, ed. cit., Vol. III, p. I40 .
2I
" theatra tota