THE DRAMATIC VALUES IN PLAUTUS

irrepressible Pseudolus in reading a letter from Calidorus' mistress
says (27 ff.) :
"What letters ! Humph ! I'm afraid the Sibyl is the only person
capable of interpreting these.
CAL. Oh why do you speak so rudely of those lovely letters
written on a lovely tablet with a lovely hand?
PS. Well, would you mind telling me if hens have hands ? For
these look to me very like hen-scratches.
CAL. You insulting beast ! Read, or return the tablet !
PS. Oh, I'll read all right, all right. Just focus your mind on
this.
CAL. (Pointing vacantly to his head.) Mind? It's not here.
PS. What ! Go get one quick then !"53
In order that the machinations of these cunning slaves may
mature, it is usually necessary to portray their victims as the
veriest fools. Witness the cock-and-bull story by which Stasimus,
in Trin. SIS ff., convinces Philto that his master's land is an
undesirable real estate prospect. Dordalus in Per. (esp. 493 ff.)
exhibits a certain amount of caution in face of Toxilus' "confidence
game," but that he should be victimized at all stamps him as a
caricature.
LeGrand is certainly right in pronouncing the cunning slave a
pure convention, adapted from the Greek and so unsuitable to
Roman society that even Plautus found it necessary to apologize
for their unrestrained gambols, on the ground that 'that was the
way they did in Athens !'54
Certain of the characters are caricatures par excellence, embodiments
of a single attribute. Leaena of the Cur. is the perpetually
thirsty lena: "Wine, wine, wine !"55 Cleaerata of the As. is a
plain caricature, but is exceptionally cleverly drawn as the lena
with the mordant tongue. Phronesium's thirst in the True., is
gold, gold, gold ! The danista of the Most. finds the whole expression
of his nature in the cry of "Faenus !"56 Assuredly, he is the
progenitor of the modern low-comedy Jew : "I vant my inderesd !"
Calidorus of the Ps. and Phaedromus of the Cur. are but bleeding
53C£. Sosia im Amph. (esp. 659 fl.), Libanus in As. 1 fl., Palinurus in Cur. ,
Acanthio in Mer. (esp. 137 fl.), Milphio in Poen., Sceparnio in Rud. (esp. 104
fl.) and Trachalio, Pinacium in St. (esp. 331 fl.), Stasimus in Trin.
54St. 446 fl., Prol. Cas. 67 fl. For an exhaustive discussion of the 'truth to
life' of the characters, v. LeGrand, Daos, Part I, Chap. V.
55V. esp. 96 fl. 56603 fl.
60