THE DRAMATIC VALUES IN PLAUTUS

in the text that thave is on the runt;:) He is the bearer of
news of ment ; 3. e fails to reco other characters on
stage; I is halte by the very man he is so violently seeking.
He cit the genuine occurrences of the servus or parasitus
currens, besides the passages mentioned above, Cap. 781 ff., Ep.
I ff., 192 ff., Mer. III ff., Per.· 272 ff., St. 274 ff. Furthermore, he
argues convincingly that this was an independent Roman development
without a prototype on the Greek stage and neatly refutes
Weise and LeGrand by proving that there are no extant Greek
fragments sufficient to furnish a ground for any but the most
tenuous argument. Above all, he correctly interprets the poet's
aim with the dictum : "Praeterquam quod hac persona optime
utitur ad actionem bene continuandam id maxime spectat ut per
eam spectatorum risum captet." And this from a German youth
of twenty-two !
It is in his attempt to explain the mechanism that we believe
Weissman fails. He essays an exegesis of each passage, though
the separate explanations are naturally similar. It will suffice to
quote one, that to As. 267 ff. : "Hoc nullo modo aliter mihi
declarari posse videtur nisi sic : Oratio Leonidae currentis maior
est quam ut arbitrari possimus current em semper eum habuisse
eam. Ex versu 290 Leonidam de celeritate sua remisisse plane
apparet. Quod semel solum eum fecisse cum non satis mihi esse
videatur, saepius-bis vel ter-per breve tempus eum cursum suum
interrupisse, circumspexisse, Libanum autem non spectavisse (hoc
consilium poetae erat, licentia poetica est) et hoc modo per totam
scaenam cursum suum direxisse arbitror."
It will be observed that for lack of any tangible evidence he very
properly makes use of subjective reasoning. Now it has long been
the opinion of the writer that the maximum of comic effect (and
that this was the purpose of the servus currens there can surely be
no doubt) could best be obtained by the actor's making a violent
and frenzied pretense of running while scarcely moving from the
spot. Consider the ludicrous spectacle of the rapidly moving legs
and the flailing arms, with the actor's face turned toward the
audience, as he declaims sonorously of his haste to perform his
vital errand, while making but a snail's progress. Truly then his
plea of exhaustion would not be without excuse ! This is an explanation
at once simpler, more potentially comic, more in accord with
what we predicate as the spirit of Plautus, and furthermore we
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