THE DRAMATIC VALUES IN PLAUTUS

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apid-fire tongue-lashing. Another phase of this ' profuse riot of words appears in the formidable Persian name that Sagaristio, disguised as a Persian, adopts in the Per. (700 ff.) : "DORDALUS. What's your name? SAG. Listen then, and you shall hear : False-speaker-us Girlseller-son Much-o'-nothing-talk-son Money-gouge-out-son Talk . up-to you-son Coin-wheedle-out-son What-I-once-get-son Nevergive-up-son : there you are ! DOR. (With staring eyes and gasping breath.) Ye Gods ! That's a variegated name of yours ! SAG. (With a superior wave of the hand.) It's the Persian fashion." The second point in this category is own cousin to the above. We should label it persistent interruption and repetition. An excellent instance is Trin. 582 ff., when Stasimus, Lesbonicus and Philto have just hatched a plot. Philto departs. "LES. (To Stasimus.) You attend to my instructions. I'll be there presently. Tell Callicles to meet me. ST. Now you just clear out ! (Pushes him after Philto.) LES. (Calls out as he is being shoved away.) Tell him to see what has to be done about the dowry. ST. Clear out ! LES. (Raising his voice.) For I'm determined not to marry her off without a dowry. ST. Won't you clear out ? LES. (Still louder.) And I won't let her suffer harm by reason. ST. Get out, I say ! LES. (shouts.)-of my carelessness. ST. Clear out ! LES. It seems right that my own sins ST. Clear out ! LES.-should affect me alone. ST. Clear out ! LES. (M ock heroically.) Oh father, shall I ever behold you again ? ST. Out, out, out ! (With a final shove.) (Exit Lesbonicus.) A t last, I've got him away ! (Breathes hard.)" The fun, if fun there be, lies in the hammer-like repetition of "I modo," a sort of verbal buffoonery. A clever actor could din this with telling effect. The device is employed several times. 44
In Most. 974 ff. the word is aio, in Per. 482 ff. credo, in Poen. 731 ff. quippini, in Ps. 484 ff. va/ yap, in Rud. 1212 ff. licet and 1269 ff. censeo. The last two examples are the lengthiest.14 The third of these motives is the introduction of clearly unnatural dialogue, wholly incidental and foreign to the action, for the sake of lugging in a joke. The As. (38 ff.) yields the following conversation between Demaenetus senex and his slave Libanus : I'LL By all that's holy, as a favor to me, spit out the words you have uttered. DE. All right, I'll be glad to oblige you. (Coughs.) Ll. Now, now, get it right up ! (Pats him on the back.) DE. More ? (Coughs.) Ll. Gad, yes, please ! Right from the bottom of YO'ur throat : more still ! (Pats.) DE. Well, how far down then? Ll. (Unguardedly.) Down to Hades is my wish ! DE. I say, look out for trouble ! Ll. (Diplomatically.) For your wife, I mean, not for you. DE. For that speech I bestow upon you freedom from punishment. " lS The childish bandying of words in Truc. 8S8 ff. is egregiously tiresome in the reading, but in action could have been made to produce a modicum of amusement if presented in the broad burlesque spirit that we believe was almost invariably employed. Wa. ives us a clue to the next topic. B. Devices absurd and inexplicable unless interpreted in a broad fa cal spirit. This includes peculiarities that have usually been commented on as weaknesses or conventions, or else been given up as hopeless incongruities, but which we hope to prove also yield their quota of amusement if clownishly performed. The foremost of these is the fa OUnning Slave or Parasite. We all know him : rushing madly cross stage at top-speed (if we take the literal word of the text for it), with girded loins, in search of somebody right under his nose, the while unburdening himself of exhaustive periods that, however great the breadth of the Roman HCf. also Poen. 426 fl., Rud. 938 fl. 15Cf. similarly Cap. 121 fl., In fl., Cas. 725 fl., Most. 909, 999 f. Cf. infra II. B· S· 45
Page 1 and 2: UNIVERSITY OF PENNSYLVANIA THE DRAM
Page 3: FOREWORD THIS dissertation was writ
Page 6 and 7: lishment of the undoubted respectab
Page 8 and 9: (A Literary History of Rome, p. 197
Page 10 and 11: ideals, in the belief that "der ach
Page 12 and 13: Menschen, der ihn lenkt, frohlich r
Page 14 and 15: condemns35, the scene in which Peri
Page 16 and 17: J. W. Donaldson, in his lectures on
Page 18 and 19: We say only "in large measure," bec
Page 20 and 21: present day at public fireworks and
Page 22 and 23: or swing a piece of trumpery into p
Page 24 and 25: Auctor ad Herennium we find (III. 1
Page 26 and 27: Griechen und Romer," Chap. XI, p. 2
Page 28 and 29: Rufus quidam, ventriosus, crassis s
Page 30 and 31: the apportionment of the various cl
Page 32 and 33: frank and vivid burlesque not even
Page 34 and 35: PART II AN ANALYSIS OF THE DRA MA T
Page 36 and 37: Whether this passage had an ulterio
Page 38 and 39: To tickle the ears of the groundlin
Page 40 and 41: "PH. (In languishing accents, with
Page 42 and 43: MEG. There's nobody." lo Another ol
Page 46 and 47: stage, would carry him several time
Page 48 and 49: have seen roars of laughter created
Page 50 and 51: SAG. That's the chap, I'm sure. TOX
Page 52 and 53: duenna Scapha. Philolaches stands o
Page 54 and 55: The slave class is the topic of man
Page 56 and 57: "JUP. I am the renowned Amphitruo,
Page 58 and 59: Moliere again imitated almost slavi
Page 60 and 61: irrepressible Pseudolus in reading
Page 62 and 63: of the handsome widow) , and simila
Page 64 and 65: ance of the Velabrum,70 or Capitoli
Page 66 and 67: IN CONCLUSION In contrast to these
Page 68 and 69: absurdities and deficiencies. This

THE DRAMATIC VALUES IN PLAUTUS

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