A Dictionary of Greek and Roman biography and mythology. By various writers. Ed. by William Smith. Illustrated by numerous engravings on wood.

410 PLAUTUS. PLAUTUS.
only a few have been preserved. They are: - the new Attic comedy whom Plautus took as his
i. Colax. 2. Carbonaria. 3. Acharistio. 4. Bis models.
compressa. 5. Anus. 6. Agroecus. 7. Dyscolus. It was, however, not only with the common
8. Phagon. (?) 9. Cornicula or Cornicularia. 10. people that Plautus was a favourite; educated
Calceolus. 11. Baccaria. 12. Lipargus. (?) 13. Romans read and admired his works down to the
Caecus or Praedones. Thus we have the titles of latest times. The purity of his language and the
21 Varronian comedies of the first class, 19 of the refinement and good-humour of his wit are celesecond and third classes, and 13 comedies not ac- brated in particular by the ancient critics. The
knowledged by Varro, in all 53. Accordingly, if grammarian L. Aelius Stilo used tod say, and Varro
there were 130 comedies bearing the name of adopted his words, "'that the Muses would use
Plautus, we have lost all notice of 77. There is a the language of Plautus, if they were to speak
play entitled Querolus or Aulularia, which hears Latin." (Apud Quintil. x. I. ~ 99.) In the same
the name of Plautus in the manuscripts, and is manner A. Gellius constantly praises the language
quoted under his name by Servius (ad Viry. Aen. of Plautus in the highest terms, and in one passage
iii. 226). It is evidently, however, not the pro- (vii. 17) speaks of him as " homo linguae atqne
duction of our poet, and was probably written in elegantiae in verbis Latinae princeps." Cicero (de
the third or fourth century of the Christian aera. Off. i. 29) places his wit on a par with that of the
The best edition of it is by Klinkhammer, entitled, old Attic comedy, and St. Jerome used to console
" Querolus sive Aulularia, incerti auctoris comoedia himself with the perusal of the poet after spending
togata," Amsterdam, 1829. many nights in tears, on account of his past sins..
The comedies of Plautus enjoyed unrivalled po- The favourable opinion which the ancients enterpularity among the Romans. Of this we have a tained of the merits of Plautus has been confirmed
proof in their repeated representations after the by the judgment of the best modern critics, and
poet's death, to which we have already alluded. by the fact that several of his plays have been
In a house at Pompeii a ticket was found for ad- imitated by many of the best modern poets. Thus
mission to the representation of the Casina of the Amphzitsuo has been imitated by Moliere and
Plautus (see Orelli, Issscript. No. 2539), which Dryden, the Aulularia by Moliere in his Avarce, the
must consequently have been performed at that Mlostellaria by Regnard, Addison, and others, the
time, shortly before its destruction in A. D. 79; and Menaeclsmi by Shakspere in his Comzedy of Erwe learn from Arnobius that the Amphitruo was rours, the Trianzumus by Lessing in his Sclatz,
acted in the reign of Diocletian. The continued and so with others. Lessing, who was undoubtedly
popularity of Plautus, through so many centuries, one of the greatest critics of modern times, dewas owing, in a great measure, to his being a dares the Captivi of Plautus to be the finest
national poet. For though his comedies belong comedy that was ever brought upon the stage, and
to the Comoedia palliata, and were taken, for says that he had repeatedly read it with the view
the most part, from the poets of the new Attic of discovering some fault in it, and was never able
comedy, we should do great injustice to Plautus to do so; but, on the contrary, saw fresh reasons
if we regarded him as a slavish imitator of the for admiring it on each perusal. Horace (De A1rte
Greeks. Though he founds his plays upon Greek Poet. 270), indeed, expresses a less favourable
smodels, the characters in them act, speak, and opinion of Plautus, and speaks with contempt of
joke like genuine Romans, and he thereby secured his verses and jests; but it must be recollected
the sympathy of his audience more completely than that the taste of HIorace had been formed by a
Terence could ever have done. Whether Plautus different school of literature, and that he disliked
borrowed the plan of all his plays from Greek the ancient poets of his country. Lessing, howmodels, it is impossible to say. The Cistellaria, Bac- ever, has shown that the censure of Horace prochides, Poenulus, and Stichus were taken from Me- bably does not refer to the general character of
nander, the Casina and Rudens from Diphilus, and Plautus's poetry, but merely to his inharmonious
the Mercator and the Trinummus from Philemon, verses and to some of his jests. And it must be
and many others were undoubtedly founded upon admitted that only a blind admiration of the poet
Greek originals. But in all cases Plautus allowed can fail to recognise some truth in the censure
himself much greater liberty than Terence; and in of Horace. Prosody and metre are not always
some instances he appears to'have simply taken strictly attended to, and there is frequently a want
the leading idea of the play fro6m the Greek, and of harmony in his verses. His jests, also, are
to have filled it up in his own fashion.:It has often coarse, and sometimes puerile; but it must
been inferred from a well-known line of Horace be recollected that they were intended to please
(Epist. ii. 1. 58), " Plautus ad exemplar Siculi the lower classes of Rome, and were accordingly
properare Epicharmi," that Plautus took great adapted to the tastes of the day. The objections
pains to imitate Epicharmus. But there is no brought against the jokes of Plautus are equally
correspondence between any of the existing plays applicable to those of Shakspere.
of Plautus, and the known titles of the comedies The text of Plautus has come down to us in a
of Epicharmus; and the verb propecare probably very corrupt state. It contains many lalcunae and
has reference only to the liveliness and energy of interpolations. Thus the Aulularia has lost its
Plautus's style, in which he bore a resemblance to conclusion, the Bacchides its commencement, &c.;
the Sicilian poet. Another mistake has arisen and we find in the grammarians several quotafrom the statement of Jerome (Ep. 57, 101) that tions from the existing plays of Plautus which are
Plautus imitated the poets of the old Attic co- not found in our present copies. The interpolainedy, but the only resemblance he bears to them tions are still more numerous than the lacunae, and
is in the coarseness and boldness of his jokes. He were for the most part made for the purpose of supborrowed to a slight extent from the middle Attic plying gaps in the original manuscript. Some of
( comedy, from which the Amphitruo was taken; but, these were introduced in ancient times, as is proved
a.s we have already remarked, it was the poets of by their existence in the Palimpsest manuscript at