THE DRAMATIC VALUES IN PLAUTUS

Griechen und Romer," Chap. XI, p. 203 ff.83 But whatever be the
exact date of the original, in our extant copies the old traditional
gestures are lost and the gesture of everyday life supplied. In
fact, in the analyses appended by Leo, van Wageningen and
'Warnecke, in the works cited above, we arrive at little but that the
gestures natural to any Italian-born person in a like situation are
reproduced, such as "gestus abeuntis, cogitantis, parasiti," etc.
It is almost too much to make any of this a basis for argument as to
classical and pre-classical stage-craft. It is at least significant that
every character with hands free is gesticulating and the scene from
Eun. IV. 6-7 is evidently full of vigorous action.
An old and discursive article84 by T. Baden, containing a description
and analysis of the gestures and posture of a number of familiar
figures from comedy exemplified in some collections of statuettes
(chiefly those in Borgia's Museum of Baden's time) , is open to the
same objection as the above. The gestures of slave, pander,
parasite, etc., described in the article are lively and expressive to
be sure, but contain little to differentiate them from those of
daily life.
While much of our evidence is still to come, we believe that we
are already justified in the deduction that the actor contemporary
with Plautus must have indulged in the extravagances of the
players in the Atellan farces and the mimes. The mimus of the
Empire, we know, specialized in ridiculous facial contortions. 85
We must not forget too the vivacity indicated by the comic
scenes among the Pompeian and Herculanean wall-paintings, 86
which have a close kinship with the Terentian MSS. pictures. Nor
must we lose sight of the fact that all our pictorial reliquiae portray
the later masked characters, and hence play of feature, which must
have been a notable concomitant of the original Plautine performance,
is entirely obscured.
83Their precise age and antiquity have been disputed with some acrimony .
With Sittl d. Bethe, Praef. Cod. Ambros. p. 64; van Wageningen, op. cit.,
p. 50 ff. ; Leo in Rhein. Mus. XXXVIII, p. 342 ff. V. reproductions in Wieseler,
Theatergebdude und Denkmaler des Biihnenwesens bei den Griecken und Romern,
Tafel X; and Bethe, ed. of Codex Ambrosianus.
8'Neue Jahr., Sup. Band I (1832), p. 447 ff.
"Quint. VI. 3.29, Mart. Cap., Chap. 43, p. 543 ed. Kopp.
86V. reproductions in Baumeister, Denkmaler des klassischen Altertums, s. v.
"Lustspiel" and Wieseler, op. cit., note 83.
26