66 Postquam est mortem aptus Plautus, Comoedia luget, (2) WORKS. Plautus' plays were early criticized as to their genuineness. Gell. iii. 3, 1-3, after mentioning the canons of Aelius Stilo, Sedigitus, etc., says that Varro admitted twenty-one plays which were given by all the canons, and added some more. 'Nam praeter illas unam et viginti, quae Varronianae vocantur, quas idcirco a ceteris segregavit, quoniam dubiosae non erant, set consensu omnium Plauti esse censebantur, quasdam item alias probavit adductus filo atque facetia sermonis Plauto congruentis easque iam nominibus aliorum occupatas Plauto vindicavit.' About one hundred and thirty plays were current under the name of Plautus; the theory of Varro (Gell. iii. 3, 10) that these were written by a certain Plautius is improbable. Gell. iii. 3, 11, 'Feruntur sub Plauti nomine comoediae circiter centum atque triginta.' There is little doubt that the 'fabulae Varronianae' are those which have come down to us with the addition of the Vidularia, which was lost between the sixth and the eleventh centuries. The number of Varro's second class, consisting of those pieces that stood in most of the indices and exhibited Plautine features, Ritschl has fixed at nineteen, from citations in Varro de lingua Latina. Besides the genuine plays the names of thirty-two others are known. The extant plays1 are as follows: 1. Amphitruo, a tragicomoedia, the only play of Plautus of the kind. Prol. 59, 1 The references are to the revised edition of Ritschl. The original and the date are unknown. The play shows the features of the Sicilian Rhinthonica.1 About three hundred lines have been lost after Act. iv., Scene 2. The scene is Thebes, which, with Roman carelessness or ignorance, is made a harbour; cf. 11. 629 sqq. os indifference 2. Asinaria (sc. fabula), from the 'Ovayós of Demophilus, supposed to have been a writer of the New Comedy Prol. 10-12, 'Huic nomen Graece Onagost fabulae; Demophilus scripsit, Maccius vortit barbare. Asinariam volt esse, si per vos licet.' Authorities assign the play to about B.C. 194. is Athens. The scene 3. Aulularia (from aulula, ‘a little pot.')-Neither the original nor the exact time of composition is known. From Megadorus' tirade against the luxury of women, ll. 478 sqq., it has been inferred that the play was written after the repeal of the Oppian Law in B.C. 195. The end of the play is lost. The scene is Athens. 4. Captivi, a piece without active interest (stataria), without female characters, and claiming a moral purpose; 1029, 'Spectatores, ad pudicos mores facta haec fabulast.' Some authorities think that the parasite (Ergasilus) is an addition to the original play, which may have belonged to the New Comedy. The scene is in Aetolia. 5. Curculio, so called from the name of the parasite. The Greek original is unknown; but ll. 462-86 contain a speech from the Choragus, in the style of the Tapáẞaois of the Old Comedy. In 1. 509, 1 A species of burlesque tragedy, called after its inventor Rhinthon, who flourished B.C. 300. 'Rogitationes plurumas propter vos populus scivit there is probably an allusion to the Lex Sempronia de pecunia credita, B.C. 193. The scene is Epidaurus. 6. Casina, so called from a slave-girl introduced. original was the Kλŋpoúμevoɩ of Diphilus. Prol. 31, 'Clerumenoe vocatur haec comoedia Graece, Latine Sortientes. Deiphilus 1 The The inference from 1. 979, 'Nam ecastor nunc Bacchae nullae ludunt,' that the play was written after the s.c. de Bacchanalibus in B.C. 186, is improbable; the words rather show, as Mommsen 1 believes, an anterior date, when it was not yet dangerous to speak of the Bacchanalia. Some authorities find support for the latter date in the words of the prologue, ll. 9-20 (written after the poet's death). The text of the play has suffered greatly. The scene is Athens. 7. Cistellaria.-This play contains a reference to the war against Hannibal then going on; ll. 197 sqq., 'Bene valete, et vincite virtute vera, quod fecistis antidhac, . ut vobis victi Poeni poenas sufferant.' According to Ritschl, about 600 verses have been lost. The scene is Sicyon. 8. Epidicus.-This play is referred to in the Bacchides, 11. 213-5 (spoken by Chrysalus), where the unpopularity of the play is attributed to the acting of Peliio. 1R. H. ii. p. 431 trans. 'Non res, sed actor mihi cor odio sauciat. Etiam Epidicum, quam ego fabulam aeque ac me ipsum amo, nullam aeque invitus specto, si agit Pellio.' Epid. 222, 'Sed vestita, aurata, ornata ut lepide! ut concinne! ut nove!' etc., shows that the piece was written after the repeal of the Lex Oppia Sumptuaria, B.C. 195. The plot is complicated, and contaminatio is assumed by some authorities. The play contains only seven hundred and thirty-three lines, and some believe it to be a stage edition. The scene is Athens. 9. Bacchides. The first part of this play, along with the last part of the Aulularia,1 has been lost, as also the prefaces of the grammarians, so that we do not know what was in the first part. The original was probably Menander's Ais ἐξαπατῶν. Plautus appears to refer to this twice, 1. 1090, 'Perii: pudet. Hocine me aetatis ludos bis factum esse indigne'; 1. 1128, 'Pol hodie altera iam bis detonsa certost.' The line, ὃν οἱ θεοὶ φιλοῦσιν, ἀποθνῄσκει νέος, which belongs to the same play (Stobaeus, Serm. 120, 8) is translated in 11. 816-7, 'quem di diligunt adulescens moritur.' The date is pretty well fixed by 1. 1073, 'Quod non triumpho: pervolgatumst, nil moror.' 1 This shows that the ancient (rough alphabetical) order has been departed from. Some grammarian of the fifth century altered the position of the play on account of the reference to it in Epid. 213-5 (quoted above). Now, triumphs were not frequent till after the Second Punic War, and were especially frequent from B.C. 197 to 187. The play probably refers to the four triumphs of B.C. 189, and may have been brought out in that or the following year. The scene is Athens. 10. Mostellaria (sc. fabula, 'a play dealing with a ghost,' from mostellum, dim. of monstrum).-The play is quoted by Festus, p. 166, as 'Mostellaria'; pp. 162 and 305, as 'Phasma.' According to Ritschl, the Páoμa of Philemon was Plautus' model. The reference to unguenta exotica (1. 42) points to a late date, when Asiatic luxury was growing common. The play is imitated in Ben Jonson's Alchemist. The scene is Athens. 11. Menaechmi.—If 11. 409 sqq., 'Syracusis ... ubi rex ..... nunc Hierost,' were written independently by Plautus, the date must be before B.C. 215; but the reference may only mean that the Greek original was composed between 275 and 215 B.C. It has been conjectured that a comedy by Posidippus (possibly called Aídvμo) was the original, from Athenaeus, xiv. p. 658, οὐδὲ γὰρ ἂν εὕροι τις ὑμῶν δουλόν τινα μάγειρον ἐν κωμῳδίᾳ πλὴν παρὰ Ποσειδίππῳ μόνῳ. Now, the Menaechmi is the only play of Plautus where a cook is a house-slave, Cylindrus being the slave of Erotium; in his other plays cooks are hired from the Forum. The scene is Epidamnus. 12. Miles Gloriosus.-In ll. 211-2 (the only personal allusion in Plautus), 'Nam os columnatum poetae esse indaudivi barbaro, we have a reference to the imprisonment of Naevius, which shows that the play was written before his banishment, probably B.C. 206-5 (see under 'Naevius'). Line 1016, |