THE DRAMATIC VALUES IN PLAUTUS

scenes is ancient and regularly indicated in manuscripts of Plautus
and Terence."
Langen seems surprised67 when Menaechmus Sosic1es, on beholding
his twin for the first time (Men. 1062), though he was the
object of a six years' search, wades through some twenty lines of
amazed argument before Messenio (with marvelous cunning !) hits
on the true explanation. It is of course conceived in a burlesque
spirit. What would become of the comic action if Menaechmus II
simply walked up to Menaechmus I and remarked : "Hello,
brother, don't you remember me ?"
That the seven months of Most. 470 miraculously change into
six months in 954 is the sort of mistake possible to any writer. In
the Amph. 1053 ff., Alcmena is in labor apparently a few minutes
after consorting with Jupiter ; but the change of acts may account
for the lapse of time, here as in Cas. 530 ff.
But after the exhaustive work of Langen, we need linger no
longer in this well-ploughed field. We repeat, the evidence all
points irresistibly to the conclusion that Plautus is wholly careless
of his dramatic machinery so long as it moves. The laugh's the
thing !
The St. is an apt illustration of the probable workings of Plautus'
mind. The virtue of the Penelope-like Pamphila and Panegyris
proves too great a strain and unproductive of merriment. The
topic gradually vanishes as the drolleries of the parasite Gelasimus
usurp the boards. He in turn gives way to the hilarious buffoonery
of the two slaves. The result is a succession of loose-jointed
scenes.68 The Aul. too is fragmentary and episodical. The Trin.
is insufferably long-winded, with insufficient comic accompanimer2]The
Cis. is a wretched piece of vacuous inanity.69 .
4. ' oman admixture and topical allusions.
us' frequent forgetfulness of his Greek environment and
the interjecti on of Roman references-what De Quincey calls
"anatopism"-is another item of careless composition too well
known to need more than passing mention. The repeated appear-
67P. 157.
68C£. Daos, p. 60.
69Cf. in general the conclusions of LeGrand, Daos, p. 550, and his admirable
analysis (Part II) of "La structure des comedies." He has recognized the
existence of a number of the characteristics treated above, but his discussion
is in different vein and with a different object in view.
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