THE DRAMATIC VALUES IN PLAUTUS

Moliere again imitated almost slavishly (L'Avare, V. 3). Longwinded
as the thing is, it is clear that the liveliness of the action not
only relieves it, but could make it immensely amusing. At least
it is superior to the average vaudeville skit of the present day. It
must not be forgotten too that, as Plautus was in close touch with
his players, he could have done much of the stage-directing himself
and might even have worked up some parts to fit the peculiar
talents of certain actors, as is regularly done in the modern "tailormade
drama."
There are numbers of scenes of the sort quoted above, where the
apparent monotony and verbal padding could be converted into
coin for laughter by the clever comedian. Amph. 551-632 could
be worked up poco a poco crescendo e animato; in Poen. 504 ff.,
Agorastocles and the Advocati bandy extensive rhetoric ; in Trin.
276 ff., the action is suspended while Philto proves himself Polonius'
ancestor in his long-winded sermonizing to Lysiteles and his
insistent laudatio temp oris acti ; in St. 326 ff., as Pinacium, the
servus currens, finally succeeds in "arriving" out of breath (he has
been running since 274) , bursting with the vast importance of his
news, he postpones the delivery of his tidings till 371 while he
indulges in irrelevant badinage. This is pure buffoonery. And we
can instance scene upon scene where the self-evident padding can
either 'furnish an excuse for agile histrionism, or become merely
tiresome in its iteration.52 The danger of the latter was even
recognized by our poet, when, at the end of much word-fencing,
Acanthio asks Charinus if his desire to talk quietly is prompted by
fear of waking "the sleeping spectators" (Mer. 160). This was
probably no exaggeration.
When the padding takes the form of mutual "spoofing," the
scene assumes an uncanny likeness to the usual lines of a modern
"high-class vaudeville duo." Note Leonida and Libanus, the
merry slaves of the As. in 297 ff., Toxilus and Sagaristio in the Per.,
Milphio and Syncerastus in the Poen. (esp. 851 ff.), Pseudolus and
Simia in Ps. 905 ff., Trachalio and Gripus in Rud. 938 ff., Stichus
and Sagarinus in the final scene of the St., and in Ps. II67 ff.
52V. Bae. 235-367, Cap. 835-99, Cis. 203 ff., 540-630, 705 ff., Cur. 251-73
and passim (this play is full of bandying of quips), Ep. 1 ff., Men. 137-81,
602-67, Mer. 474 ff., 708 ff., 866 ff., Most. 633 ff., 717 ff., 885 ff., Per. I ff.,
201 ff., Poen. 210 ff., Ps. 653 ff. and passim, Rud. 485 ff. (the jokes here are
unusually good), 780 ff., St. 579 ff., Trin. 39 ff., 843 ff., True. 95 ff.
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