THE DRAMATIC VALUES IN PLAUTUS

MES. Bore it out ! A hole's good enough for his face ! You
villians, you thieves, you robbers ! (General melee. Lorarii
weaken.)
LOR. We're done for ! Oh Lord, please !
MES. Let go then !
MEN. What right had you to lay hands on me ? Give them a
good beating up ! (Lorarii break and scatter wildly under the ferocious
onslaught.)
MES. Come, clear out ! To the devil with you all ! That for
you ! (Strikes.) You're the last ; here ; s your reward ! (Strikes
again.)"
The lines themselves are sufficiently graphic and need but little
annotation. Other pugilistic activities crop up at not infrequent
intervals in the text,4 and in Ps. I35 ff. Ballio generously plies the
whip. In the lacuna of the Amph. after line I034, Mercury proba
bly bestows a drenching on Amphitru05. In As. III. 3, especially
697 ff., Libanus makes his master Argyrippus "play horsey" with
him, doubtless with indelicate buffonery. With invariable energy,
even so simple a matter as knocking on doors is made the excuse
for raising a violent disturbance, as in Amph. IOI9 f. and I025:
Paene effregisti, fatue, foribus cardines.6 And this idea is actually
parodied in As. 384 ff. No, Plautus did not allow his public to
lan &.!!. for want of noise.
V Burlesque, farce and extravagance of situation and
dialogue.
Under this head we include such conscious strivings for comic
e as are frankly and plainly exaggerated and hyper-natural.
rue burlesque.
This is in effect pure parody, cartooning. Patent burlesque of
tragedy appears in Trin. 820 ff. (Charmides returns from abroad.)
"CHAR. To Neptune, ruler of the deep, and puissant brother
unto Jove and Nereus, do I in joy and gladness cry my praises and
gratefully proclaim my gratitude ; and to the briny waves, who
held me in their power, yea, even my chattels and my very life,
and from their realms restored me to the city of my birth," etc., etc.
4V. Amph. 370 ff., As. 431, Cas. 404 ff., Cur. 192 ff., 624 ff., Mil. I394 ff.,
Mos. I ff., Per. 809 ff., Poen. 382 ff., Rud. 706 ff.
5V. Frag. IV, G. & S., ap. Non. p. 543.
'Cf. Bae. 581 ff., II 19, Cap. 830 ff., Most. 898 ff., Rud. 414, St. 308 ff.,
True. 254 ff.
37