Ille miserrimum se retur, minimum qui misit mihi.
Illi inter se certant donis; ego haec mec.u.m mussito: Bona mea inhiant: certatim dona mittunt et munera."
I have often thought that the character of Durazzo, in Ma.s.singer"s _Guardian_, was formed on that of Periplectomenes. Like him, Durazzo is a jovial old bachelor, who aids his nephew Caldoro in his amour with Calista. When the lover in Plautus apologizes to his friend for having engaged him in an enterprize so unsuitable to his years, he replies-
"Quid ais tu? itane tibi ego videor oppido Acheronticus, Tam capularis; tamne tibi diu vita vivere?
Nam equidem haud sum annos natus praeter quinquaginta et quatuor, Clare oculis video, pernix sum manibus, sum pedes mobilis."
In like manner Durazzo exclaims-
"My age! do not use That word again; if you do, I shall grow young, And swinge you soundly. I would have you know, Though I write fifty odd, I do not carry An almanack in my bones to predeclare What weather we shall have; nor do I kneel In adoration at the spring, and fall Before my doctor." --
Periplectomenes boasts of his convivial talents, as also of his amorous disposition, and his excellence at various exercises-
"Et ego amoris aliquantum habeo, humorisque meo etiam in corpore: Nequedum exarui ex amnis rebus et voluptariis.
Tum ad saltandum non Cinaedus magis usquam saltat quam ego."
This may be compared with the boast of Durazzo-
"Bring me to a fence school, And crack a blade or two for exercise; Ride a barbed horse, or take a leap after me, Following my hounds or hawks, and, (by your leave,) At a gamesome mistress, you shall confess I"m in the May of my abilities."
It may be perhaps considered as a confirmation of the above conjecture concerning Ma.s.singer"s imitation of Plautus, that the cook in the _Guardian_ is called Cario, which is also the name of the cook of Periplectomenes.
There is, however, a coincidence connected with this drama of Plautus, which is much more curious and striking than its resemblance to the _Guardian_ of Ma.s.singer. The plot of the _Miles Gloriosus_ is nearly the same with the story of the _Two Dreams_ related in the _Seven Wise Masters_, a work originally written by an Indian philosopher, long before the Christian aera, and which, having been translated into Greek under the t.i.tle of _Syntipas_, became current during the dark ages through all the countries of Europe, by the different names of _Dolopatos_, _Erastus_, and _Seven Wise Masters_,-the frame remaining substantially the same, but the stories being frequently adapted to the manners of different nations. In this popular story-book the tale of the Two Dreams concerns a knight, and a lady who was constantly confined by a jealous husband, in a tower almost inaccessible. Having become mutually enamoured, in consequence of seeing each other in dreams, the knight repaired to the residence of the husband, by whom he was hospitably received, and was at length allowed to build a habitation on his possessions, at no great distance from the castle in which his wife was inclosed. When the building was completed, the knight secretly dug a communication under ground, between his new dwelling and the tower, by which means he enjoyed frequent and uninterrupted interviews with the object of his pa.s.sion. At length the husband was invited to an entertainment prepared at the knight"s residence, at which his wife was present, and presided in the character of the knight"s mistress. During the banquet the husband could not help suspecting that she was his wife, and in consequence he repaired, after the feast was over, to the tower, where he found her sitting composedly in her usual dress. This, and his confidence in the security of the tower, the keys of which he constantly kept in his pocket, dispelled his suspicions, and convinced him that the Beauty who had done the honours of the knight"s table, had merely a striking resemblance to his own lovely consort. Being thus gradually accustomed to meet her at such entertainments, he at last complied with his friend"s request, and kindly a.s.sisted at the ceremony of the knight"s marriage with his leman. After their union, he complacently attended them to the harbour, and handed the lady to the vessel which the knight had prepared for the elopement. This story also coincides with Le Chevalier a la Trappe, one of the Fabliaux of the Norman Trouveurs(252), with a tale in the fourth part of the Italian _Novellino_ of Ma.s.succio Salernitano, and with the adventures of the _Vieux Calender_, in Gueulette"s _Contes Tartares_.
_Mercator_-is one of the plays for which Plautus was indebted to Philemon, the contemporary and the successful rival of Menander, over whom he usually triumphed by the theatrical suffrages, while contending for the prize of comedy. The Roman critics unanimously concur in representing these popular decisions as unjust and partial. But Quintilian, while he condemns the perverted judgment of those who preferred Philemon to Menander, acknowledges that he must be universally admitted to have merited the next place to his great rival.-"Qui ut pravis sui temporis judiciis Menandro saepe praelatus est, ita consensu tamen omnium meruit credi secundus(253)."
An interesting account of Philemon is given in the _Observer_, by c.u.mberland, who has also collected the strange and inconsistent stories concerning the manner of his death. He is represented to us as having been a man of amiable character, and cheerful disposition, seldom agitated by those furious pa.s.sions which distracted the mind of Menander. He lived to the extraordinary age of a hundred and one, during which long period he wrote ninety comedies. Of these, the critics and grammarians have preserved some fragments, which are generally of a tender and sentimental, sometimes even of a plaintive cast. Apuleius, however, informs us, that Philemon was distinguished for the happiest strokes of wit and humour, for the ingenious disposition of his plots, for his striking and well managed discoveries, and the admirable adaptation of his characters to their situations in life(254). To judge by the Latin Mercator, imitated or translated from the ?p???? of Philemon, it is impossible not to consider him as inferior to those other Greek dramatists from whom Plautus borrowed his _Amphitryon_, _Aulularia_, _Casina_, and _Miles Gloriosus_; yet it must be recollected, that those are the best comedies which suffer most by a transfusion into another language. The English Hypocrites and Misers would indeed be feeble records of the genius of Moliere. Of one point, however, we may clearly judge, even through the mist of translation.
Notwithstanding what is said by Apuleius concerning the purity of Philemon"s dramas, in none of the plays of Plautus is greater moral turpitude represented. A son is sent abroad by his father, with the view of reclaiming him from the dissolute course of life which he had followed.
The youth, however, is so little amended by his travels, that he brings a mistress home in the ship with him. The father, seeing the girl, falls in love with her. His son, in order to conceal his pa.s.sion, proposes to sell its object, but engages one of his acquaintances to purchase her for him.
By some mismanagement, she is bought by a friend whom the father had employed for this purpose, and is carried, as had been previously arranged, to the purchaser"s house. The friend"s wife, however, being jealous of this inmate, her husband is obliged to explain matters for her satisfaction, and the old debauchee, in consequence, incurs, before the conclusion of the comedy, merited shame and reproach.
An old libertine may be a very fit subject for satire and ridicule, but in this play there is certainly too much lat.i.tude allowed to the debaucheries of youth. The whole moral of the drama is contained in three lines near the conclusion:-
"Neu quisquam posthac prohibeto adolescentem filium Quin amet, et scortum ducat; quod bono fiat modo: Si quis prohibuerit, plus perdet clam, quam si praehibuerit palam."
Nothing can be more ridiculous than the delays and trifling of the persons in this piece, under circ.u.mstances which must naturally have excited their utmost impatience. Examples of this occur in the scene which occupies nearly the whole of the first act, between Charinus and his slave Acanthio, and the equally tedious dialogue in the fifth act between Eutychus and Charinus.
The _Mercator_ of Plautus is the origin of _La Stiava_, an Italian comedy by Cecchi; and in the second scene of the second act, there are two lines which have a remarkable resemblance to the conclusion of the celebrated speech of Jaques, "All the world"s a stage," in _As you Like it_.
"Senex c.u.m extemplo est jam nec sent.i.t, nec sapit.
Aiunt solere eum rursum repuerascere."
_Mostellaria_,-which the English translator of Plautus has rendered the Apparition,-represents a young Athenian, naturally of a virtuous disposition, who, during the absence of his father on a trading voyage, is led into every sort of vice and extravagance, partly by his inordinate love for a courtezan, and partly by the evil counsels of one of his slaves, called Tranio. During an entertainment, which the youth is one day giving in his father"s mansion, he is suddenly alarmed by the accounts which Tranio brings, of the unexpected return of the old man, whom he had just seen landing near the harbour. At the same time, however, the slave undertakes to prevent his entering the house. In prosecution of this design he there locks up his young master and his guests, and, on the approach of the old gentleman, gravely informs him that the house was now shut up, in consequence of being haunted by the apparition of an unfortunate man, long since murdered in it by the person from whom it had been last purchased. Tranio has scarcely prevailed on the father to leave the door of the dwelling, when they unluckily meet a money-lender, who had come to crave payment of a large debt from the profligate son; but the ingenious slave persuades the father, that the money had been borrowed to pay for a house which was a great bargain, and which his son had bought in place of that which was haunted. A new dilemma, however, arises, from the old gentleman"s asking to see the house: Tranio artfully obtains leave from the owner, who being obliged to go to the Forum, nothing is said on this occasion with regard to the sale. He examines the house a second time along with the owner, but Tranio had previously begged him, as from motives of delicacy, to say nothing concerning his purchase; and the whole pa.s.ses as a visit, to what is called a Show-house. The old man highly approves of the bargain; but at length the whole deception is discovered, by his accidentally meeting an attendant of one of his son"s companions, who is just going into the haunted house to conduct his master home from that scene of festivity. He has thus occasion to exercise all his patience and clemency in forgiveness of the son by whom he has been almost ruined, and of the slave by whom he had been so completely duped.
In this play, the character of the young man might have been rendered interesting, had it been better brought out; but it is a mere sketch. He is a grave and serious character, hurried into extravagance by bad example, evil counsel, and one fatal pa.s.sion. A long soliloquy, in which he compares human life to a house, reminds us, in its tone of feeling and sentiment, of "All the world"s a stage." The father seems a great deal too foolish and credulous, and the slave must have relied much on his weakness, when he ventured on such desperate expedients, and such palpable lies. Slaves, it will already have been remarked, are princ.i.p.al characters in many of the dramas of Plautus; and a curious subject of inquiry is presented in their insolence, effrontery, triumphant roguery, and habitual familiarity with their masters at one moment, while at the next they are threatened with the lash or crucifixion. In Athens, however, where the prototype of this character was found, the slave was treated by his master with much more indulgence than the Spartan Helot, or any other slaves in Greece. The masters themselves, who were introduced on the ancient stage, were not in the first ranks of society; and the vices which required the a.s.sistance of their slaves reduced them to an equality. Besides, an Athenian or Roman master could hardly be displeased with the familiarity of those who were under such complete subjection; and the striking contrast of their manners and situation would render their sallies as poignant as the spirited remarks of Roxalana in the seraglio of the Sultan. The character, too, gave scope for those jests and scurrilities, which seem to have been indispensable ingredients in a Roman comedy, but which would be unsuitable in the mouths of more dignified persons. They were, in fact, the buffoons of the piece, who avowed without scruple their sensual inclinations and want of conscience; for not only their impudence, but their frauds and deceptions, seem to have been highly relished by the spectators. It is evident that both the Greeks and Romans took peculiar pleasure in seeing a witty slave cheat a covetous master, and that the ingenuity of the fraud was always thought sufficient atonement for its knavery. Perhaps this unfortunate cla.s.s of men derived so few advantages from society, that they were considered as ent.i.tled, at least on the stage, to break through its ties. The character of a saucy and impudent slave had been already portrayed in the old Greek comedy. In the _Plutus_ of Aristophanes, Carion, the slave of Chremylus, is the most prominent character, and is distinguished by freedom of remark and witty impudence.
To these attributes there was added, in the new comedy, a spirit of roguery and intrigue: and in this form the character was almost universally adopted by the Latin dramatists. The slaves of Plautus correspond to the valets-the Crispins, and Merlins of the French theatre, whose race commenced with Merlin, in Scarron"s _Marquis Ridicule_. They were also introduced in Moliere"s earliest pieces, but not in his best; and were in a great measure dropped by his successors, as, in fact, they had ceased to be the spring of any important event or intrigue in the world. Indeed, I agree with M. Schlegel, in doubting if they could ever have been introduced as happily on the modern as the ancient stage. A wretch who was born in servitude, who was abandoned for life to the capricious will of a master, and was thus degraded below the dignity of man, might excite laughter instead of indignation, though he did not conform to the strictest precepts of honesty. He was placed in a state of warfare with his oppressor, and cunning became his natural arms.
The French dramatist who has employed the character of the intriguing valet to most advantage, is Regnard; to whom, among many other agreeable pieces, we are indebted for a delightful imitation of the _Mostellaria_ of Plautus, ent.i.tled, _Le Retour Imprevu, comedie en prose, et en une acte_.
In this play, the incidents of the _Mostellaria_ have been in general adopted, though they have been somewhat transposed. We have the imposture of Merlin, who corresponds with Plautus"s Tranio, as to the haunted house, and his subterfuge when the usurer comes to claim the money which he had lent. In place, however, of asking to see the new house, the father proposes to deposit some merchandise in it. Merlin then persuades him, that the lady to whom it formerly belonged, and who had not yet quitted it, was unfortunately deprived of reason, and, having been in consequence interdicted by her relations from the use of her property, the house had been exposed to sale. At the same time, the artful valet finds an opportunity of informing the real owner, that the old man had gone mad in consequence of having lost all his merchandise at sea. Accordingly, when they meet, neither of them pays the smallest attention to what each considers the raving of the other. Instead of a courtezan, Regnard has introduced a young lady, with whom c.l.i.tandre is in love; but he has given her the manners rather of a courtezan, than a young lady. There is one incident mentioned in the _Mostellaria_ which is omitted in the _Retour Imprevu_, and of which even Plautus has not much availed himself, though it might have been enlarged on, and improved to advantage: the old man mentions, that he had met the person from whom he had bought the haunted house, and that he had taxed him with the murder of his guest, whose apparition still walked, but that he had stoutly denied the charge.
The _Fantasmi_ of Ercole Bentivoglio, an Italian comedy of the sixteenth century, is formed on the same original as the _Retour Imprevu_. The _Mostellaria_ has likewise suggested the plot of an old tragi-comedy by Heywood, printed in 1633, and ent.i.tled _The English Traveller_. Fielding"s _Intriguing Chambermaid_ is also derived from the _Mostellaria_, but through the medium of Regnard"s comedy. Indeed, it may be considered as almost a translation from the French; except that the author has most absurdly a.s.signed the part of the Latin Tranio, and French Merlin, to a chambermaid, whom he calls Mrs Lettice, and has added a great number of songs and _double entendres_.
It has been said, that the last act of Ben Johnson"s _Alchemist_, where Face, in order to conceal the iniquities committed in his master"s house during his absence, tries to persuade him, that it was shut up on account of being visited by an apparition, has been suggested by the _Mostellaria_(255); but, as there is no resemblance between the two plays in other incidents, we cannot be a.s.sured that the _Mostellaria_ was at all in the view of the great English dramatist.
_Persa_.-In this play, which belongs to the lowest order of comedy, the characters are two slaves, a foot-boy of one of these slaves, a parasite, a pander, and a courtezan, with her waiting-maid. The manners represented are such as might be expected from this respectable group. The incidents are few and slight, hinging almost entirely on a deceit practised against the pander, who is persuaded to give a large sum for a free woman, whom the slaves had dressed up as an Arabian captive, and whom he was obliged to relinquish after having paid the money. The fable is chiefly defective from the trick of the slaves being intended to serve their own purposes.
But such devices are interesting only when undertaken for the advantage of higher characters; a comedy otherwise must degenerate into farce.
_Pnulus_, (the Carthaginian,) is one of the longest, and, I think, on the whole, the dullest of Plautus" performances. It turns on the discovery of a lost child, who had been stolen from her Carthaginian parents in infancy, and had been carried to Greece. In none of those numerous plays which turn on the recognition of lost children, has Plautus ever exhibited an affecting interview, or even hit on an expression of natural tenderness. The characters are either not brought on the stage at the conclusion, and we are merely told by some slave or parasite that the discovery had taken place: or, as in the instance of Hanno and his daughter in the present drama, the parties most interested teaze and torment each other with absurd questions, instead of giving way to any species of emotion. It is a high example, however, of the n.o.ble and generous spirit of the Romans, that Hanno, the Carthaginian introduced in this play, which was represented in the course of the Punic wars, is more amiable than almost any other character in Plautus. It is evident, from his quibbles and obscene jests, that the Latin dramatist adapted his plays to the taste of the vulgar; and if the picture of a villainous or contemptible Carthaginian could have pleased the Roman public, as the Jew of Malta gratified the prejudices of an English mob, Plautus would not have hesitated to accommodate himself to such feelings, and his Hanno would doubtless have appeared in those hateful colours in which the Jews, or in that ridiculous light in which the French, have usually been exhibited on the British stage.
The employment of different dialects, or idioms, which has been so great a resource of the modern comic muse, particularly on the Italian stage, had been early resorted to in Greece. Aristophanes, in one of his comedies, introduced the jargon of a woman of Lacedaemon, where the Doric dialect was spoken in its rudest form. Plautus, in a scene of the _Pnulus_, has made his Carthaginian speak in his native language; and as the Carthaginian tongue was but little known in Greece, it may be presumed that this scene was invented by Plautus himself.
Those remains of the Punic language which have been preserved, (though probably a good deal corrupted,) are regarded as curious vestiges of philological antiquity, and have afforded ample employment for the critics, who have laboured to ill.u.s.trate and restore them to the right readings. Commentators have found in them traces of all the ancient tongues, according to their own fancy, or some favourite system they had adopted. Joseph Scaliger considered them as little removed from the purity of original Hebrew(256); and Pareus, in his edition of Plautus, printed them in Hebrew characters, as did Bochart, in his _Phaleg et Canaan_(257).
Others, from the resemblance of single letters, or syllables, have found in different words the Chinese, Ethiopian, Persian, or Coptic dialects(258). Plautus, it is well known, had considerable knowledge of languages. Besides writing his own with the greatest purity, he was well acquainted with Greek, Persian, and Punic. The editor of the Delphin Plautus has a notable conjecture on this point: He supposes that in the mill in which Plautus laboured, (as if it had been a large mill on the modern construction,) there was a Carthaginian, a Greek, and a Persian slave, from whom alternately he acquired a knowledge of these tongues in the hours of relaxation from work!
_Pseudolus_-is one of those plays of Plautus which hinge on the contrivance of a slave in behalf of his young master, who is represented at the commencement of the play, as in despair at not having money sufficient to redeem his mistress, just then sold by Ballio, a slave-dealer, to a Macedonian captain for twenty _minae_. Fifteen of these had been paid, and the girl was to be delivered up to him as soon as he sent the remaining five, along with an impression of a seal-ring, which the captain had left behind as a pledge. Pseudolus, the slave, having encountered the captain"s messenger, on his way to deliver a letter containing the token and the balance of the stipulated price, personates the pander"s servant, and is in consequence intrusted with the letter.
While the messenger is refreshing himself at a tavern, Pseudolus persuades one of his fellow-slaves to a.s.sume the character of the captain"s emissary, and to present the credentials (which Pseudolus places in his possession) to the pander, who immediately acknowledges their authenticity, and, without hesitation, delivers up the girl in return.
When the real messenger afterwards arrives, the slave-merchant treats him as an impostor hired by Pseudolus.
Next to the slave, the princ.i.p.al character in this comedy is that of the pander, which is sketched with the strong pencil of a master, and is an admirable representation of that last stage of human depravity and wretchedness, in which even appearances cease to be preserved with the world, and there exists no longer any feeling or anxiety concerning the opinion of others. Calidorus, the lover of the girl, upbraids him for his breach of faith-
"Juravistine te illam nulli venditurum nisi mihi?
_Ballio._ Fateor. _Cal._ Nempe conceptis verbis. _Bal._ Etiam consultis quoque.
_Cal._ Perjuravisti, sceleste. _Bal._ At argentum intro condidi: Ego scelestus nunc argentum promere possum domo."
M. Dacier, however, is of a different opinion with regard to the merit of this character. He thinks that the _Pseudolus_, though mentioned by Cato in Cicero"s Dialogue _De Senectute_, as a finished piece which greatly delighted its author(259), and though called, by one of his commentators, _Ocellus Fabularum Plauti_(260) was chiefly in Horace"s view when he spoke, in his _Epistles_, of Plautus" want of success in the characters of a young pa.s.sionate lover, a parsimonious father, and a cunning pimp,-
-- "Aspice, Plautus Quo pacto partes tutetur amantis ephebi, Ut patris attenti, lenonis ut insidiosi."
These three characters all occur in this comedy; and Dacier maintains that they are very poorly supported by the poet.-Calidorus is a young lover, but his character (says the critic,) is so cold and lifeless, that he hardly deserves the name. His father, Simo, corresponds as little to the part of the _Patris attenti_; for he encourages the slave to deceive himself, and promises him a recompense if he succeed in over-reaching the slave-merchant, and placing in the hands of his son the girl on whom he doated. Ballio, the slave-dealer, so far from sustaining the character _lenonis insidiosi_, who should deceive every one, very foolishly becomes the dupe of a lying valet(261).
The scene between Calidorus and the pander, from which some lines are extracted above, and that by which it is preceded, where Ballio gives directions to his slaves, seem to have suggested two scenes in Sir Richard Steele"s comedy of the _Funeral_. The play has been more closely imitated by Baptista Porta, the celebrated author of the Magia Naturalis in _La Trappolaria_, one of the numerous plays with the composition of which he amused his leisure, after the mysteries and chimeras of his chief work had excited the suspicion of the court of Rome, and he was in consequence prohibited from holding those a.s.semblies of learned men, who repaired to his house with their newly discovered secrets in medicine and other arts.
His play, which was first printed at Bergamo in 1596, is much more complicated in its incidents than the Latin original. Trappola, the Pseudolus of the piece, feigns himself, as in Plautus, to be the pander"s slave, and persuades a parasite to act the part of the pander himself: By this stratagem, the parasite receives from the captain"s servant the stipulated money and tokens, but delivers to him in return his ugly wife Gabrina, as the Beauty he was to receive; and there follows a comical scene, produced by the consequent amazement and disappointment of the captain. The parasite then personates the captain"s servant, and, by means of the credentials of which he had possessed himself, obtains the damsel Filesia, whom he carries to her lover. With this plot, chiefly taken from Plautus, another series of incidents, invented by the Italian dramatist, is closely connected. The father of the young lover, a.r.s.enio, had left his wife in Spain; and also another son, who had married there, and exactly resembled his brother in personal appearance. a.r.s.enio being ordered by his father to sail from Naples, where the scene is laid, for Spain, in order to convey home his relatives in that country, and being in despair at the prospect of this separation from his mistress, the father is persuaded, by a device of the cheat Trappola, that he had not proceeded on the voyage, as his brother had already arrived. Availing himself of his resemblance, a.r.s.enio personates his Spanish brother, and brings his mistress as his wife to his father"s house, where she remains protected, in spite of the claims of the captain and pander, till the whole artifice is discovered by the actual arrival of the old lady from Spain. a.r.s.enio"s mistress being then strictly questioned, proves to be a near connection of the family, who had been carried off in childhood by corsairs, and she is now, with the consent of all, united to her lover.
There is also a close imitation of the incidents of the _Pseudolus_ in Moliere"s _Etourdi_, which turns on the stratagems of a valet to place a girl in possession of his master Lelie. His first device, as already mentioned, was suggested by the Epidicus(262); but this having failed, he afterwards contrives to get into the service of his master"s rival, Leander, who, having purchased the girl from the proprietor, had agreed to send a ring as a token, at sight of which she was to be delivered up. The valet receives the ring for this very purpose, carries it to the owner, and by such means is just on the point of obtaining possession of the girl, when his stratagem, as usual, is defeated by the _etourderie_ of his master. This notion of the valet"s best-laid plans being always counteracted, was probably suggested by the _Bacchides_ of Plautus, where Mnesilochus repeatedly frustrates the well-contrived schemes of his slave Chrysalus; though, perhaps through the medium of the _Inavert.i.to_ of the Italian dramatist, Nicolo Barbieri, printed in 1629, or Quinault"s _Amant Indiscret_, which was acted four years before Moliere"s _Etourdi_, and is founded on the same plan with that drama. In the particular incidents the _Etourdi_ is compounded of the tricks of Plautus" slaves; but Moliere has shown little judgment in thus heaping them on each other in one piece.
Such events might occur once, but not six or seven times, to the same person. In fact, the valet is more of an _Etourdi_ than his master, as he never forewarns him of his plans; and we feel as we advance, that the play could not be carried on without a previous concert among the characters to connive at impossibilities, and to act in defiance of all common sense or discretion.
_Rudens_.-This play, which is taken from a Greek comedy of Diphilus, has been called _Rudens_ by Plautus, from the rope or cable whereby a fisherman drags to sh.o.r.e a casket which chiefly contributes to the solution of the fable. In the prologue, which is spoken by Arcturus, we are informed of the circ.u.mstances which preceded the opening of the drama, and the situation in which the characters were placed at its commencement.
Plautus has been frequently blamed by the critics for the fulness of his preliminary expositions, as tending to destroy the surprise and interest of the succeeding scenes. But I think he has been unjustly censured, even with regard to those prologues, where, as in that of the _Pnulus_, he has antic.i.p.ated the incidents, and revealed the issue of the plot. The comedies of Plautus were intended entirely for exhibition on the public stage, and not for perusal in the closet. The great ma.s.s of the Roman people in his age was somewhat rude: They had not been long accustomed to dramatic representations, and would have found it difficult to follow an intricate plot without a previous exposition. This, indeed, was not necessary in tragedies. The stories of Agamemnon and dipus, with other mythical subjects, so frequently dramatized by Ennius and Livius Andronicus, were sufficiently known; and, as Dryden has remarked, "the people, as soon as they heard the name of dipus, knew as well as the poet that he had killed his father by mistake, and committed incest with his mother; that they were now to hear of a great plague, an oracle, and the ghost of Laius(263)." It was quite different, however, in those new inventions which formed the subjects of comedies, and in which the incidents would have been lost or misunderstood without some introductory explanation. The attention necessary to unravel a plot prevents us from remarking the beauties of sentiment or poetry, and draws off our attention from humour or character, the chief objects of legitimate comedy. We often read a new play, or one with which we are not acquainted, before going to see it acted. Surprise, which is everything in romance, is the least part of the drama. Our horror at the midnight murders of Macbeth, and our laughter at the falsehoods and facetiousness of Falstaff, are not diminished, but increased, by knowing the issue of the crimes of the one, and the genial festivity of the other. In fact, the sympathy and pleasure so often derived from our knowledge outweighs the gratification of surprise. The Athenians were well aware that Jocasta, in the celebrated drama of Sophocles, was the mother of dipus; but the knowledge of this fact, so far from abating the concern of the spectators, as Dryden supposes(264), must have greatly contributed to increase the horror and interest excited by the representation of that amazing tragedy. The celebrated scene of _Iphigenia in Tauris_, between Electra and Orestes, the masterpiece of poetic art and tragic pathos, would lose half its effect if we were not aware that Orestes was the brother of Electra, and if this were reserved as a discovery to surprise the spectators. Indeed, so convinced of all this were the Greek dramatists, that, in many of their plays, as the _Hecuba_ and _Hippolytus_ of Euripides, the issue of the drama is announced at its commencement.
But, be this as it may, the prologue itself, which is prefixed to the _Rudens_, is eminently beautiful. Arcturus descends as a star from heaven, and opens the piece, somewhat in the manner of the Angel who usually delivers the prologue in the ancient Italian mysteries-of the Mercury who frequently recites it in the early secular dramas, and the Attendant Spirit in the Masque of Comus, who, by way of prologue, declares his office, and the mission which called him to earth. In a manner more consistent with oriental than with either Greek or Roman mythology, Arcturus represents himself as mingling with mankind during day, in order to observe their actions, and as presenting a record of their good and evil deeds to Jupiter, whom the wicked in vain attempt to appease by sacrifice-
"Atque hoc scelesti in animum induc.u.n.t suum, Jovem se placare posse donis, hostiis: Et operam et sumptum perdunt." --
Arcturus having thus satisfactorily accounted for his knowledge of the incidents of the drama, proceeds to unfold the situation of the princ.i.p.al characters. Daemones, before whose house in Cyrene the scene is laid, had formerly resided at Athens, where his infant daughter had been kidnapped, and had been afterwards purchased by a slave merchant, who brought her to Cyrene. A Greek youth, then living in that town, had become enamoured of her, and having agreed to purchase her, the merchant had consented to meet him and fulfil the bargain at an adjacent temple. But being afterwards persuaded that he could procure a higher price for her in Sicily, the slave-dealer secretly hired a vessel, and set sail, carrying the girl along with him. The ship had scarcely got out to sea when it was overtaken by a dreadful tempest over which Arcturus is figured as presiding. The play opens during the storm, in a manner eminently beautiful and romantic-an excellence which none of the other plays of Plautus possess.
Daemones and his servant are represented as viewing the tempest from land, and pointing out to each other the dangers and various vicissitudes of a boat, in which were seated two damsels who had escaped from the ship, and were trying to gain the sh.o.r.e, which, after many perils, they at length reached. The decorations of this scene are said to have been splendid, and disposed in a very picturesque manner. Madame Dacier conjectures, "that at the farther end of the stage was a prospect of the sea, intersected by many rocks and cliffs, which projected considerably forward on the stage.
On one side the city of Cyrene was represented as at a distance; on the other, the temple of Venus, with a court before it, in the centre of which stood an altar. Adjacent to the temple, and on the same side, was the house of Daemones, with some scattered cottages in the back ground."
Pleusidippus, the lover, comes forward to the temple during the storm, and then goes off in search of Labrax, the slave-merchant, who had likewise escaped from the shipwreck. The damsels, whose situation is highly interesting, having now got on sh.o.r.e, appear among the cliffs, and after having deplored their misfortunes, they are received into the temple by the priestess of Venus, who reminds them, however, that they should have come clothed in white garments and bringing victims! Here they are discovered by the slave of Pleusidippus, who goes to inform his master.