THE DRAMATIC VALUES IN PLAUTUS

ally every performer was cast for parts to which his physique was
best suited.67
It is doubtful whether such an elaborate system had been
developed in Plautus' time, but this much is certain : the comedian
was on the stage lively, energetic and constantly spurred on
by the fear of punishment from the dominus gregis and the violent
disapproval of a fickle, tempestuous and withal exacting public.
Polybius68 relates that the visit of a troupe of Greek actors to Rome
was a failure because of their over-staid deportment, until, learning
the desires of the volatile Italians, they improvised a vastly more
vivid pantomime depicting a mock battle, with huge success.
Assuredly the early Roman comedianmust have acted with greater
abandon and clownish drollery, if not with the elaborate histrionic
technique of the later actor.69 We have heard Dr. Charles Knapp
relate that the performance of the Ajax of Sophocles by a troupe
of modern Greek players went with amazing and incredible
rapidity and vivacity. It is all of a piece. We must inevitably
associate vivid temperament with the sons of the Mediterranean in
all ages. Yet we have just seen that the Greeks of old were too
self-contained for their Italian brethren.
\iVith this brief discussion of the condition, incentive and
motive of the Plautine actor, let us pass on to a more detailed
consideration of his methods and technique. Natur­
THE ally by far the most important, part of this was
HISTRIONISlVI gesture. Here again, while some of our evidence is
somewhat unreliable, practically every shred of
extant testimony indicates an extreme liveliness and vivac:ty. In
the rhetoricians frequent warning is issued to the forensic neophyte
to avoid the unrestraint of theatrical gesticulation. Cicero says
(De Or. I. 59. 251) : "Nemo suaserit studiosis dicendi adulescentibus
in gestu discendo histrionum more elaborare." Quintilian
echoes (I. 1I.3) : "Ne gestus quidem omnis ac motus a comediis
petendus est. . . . Orator plurimum aberit a scaenico,
nec vultu nec manu nec excursionibus nimius." And in the
67Cic. de Off. I. 3 1.114, ad Au. IV. 15.6.
68Ap. Athen. XIV. 615 A.
69For a full discussion of the ancient actor v. Pauly-vVissowa, Real-Encyclo­
piidie der classischen Altertumswissenschaft, s. v. histrio; Friedlander m
Marquardt-Mommsen Handbuch der romischen Altertiimer, VI. p. 508 ff. ;
J. van Wageningen, Scqenica Romana; Warnecke, Die Vortragskunst der
romischen Schauspieler, in Neue Jahrbiicher, 1908, p. 704 ff.
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