The Dramatic Values in Plautus | Page 3

neglect of Plautine criticism among his immediate
predecessors and contemporaries, he attempts to prove that Plautus was
a great "original" poet and dramatic artist. Surely no one today can be
in sympathy with such a sentiment as the following (Becker, p. 95): "Et
Trinummum, quae ita amabilibus lepidisque personis optimisque
exemplis abundat, ut quoties eam lego, non comici me poetae, sed
philosophi Socratici opus legere mihi videar." I believe we may safely

call the Trinummus the least Plautine of Plautine plays, except the
Captivi, and it is by no means so good a work. The Trinummus is
crowded with interminable padded dialogue, tiresome moral
preachments, and possesses a weakly motivated plot; a veritable
"Sunday-school play."
But Becker continues: "Sive enim seria agit et praecepta
pleno effundit penu, ad quae componere vitarn oporteat; in sententiis
quanta gravitas, orationis quanta vis, quam probe et meditate cum
hominum ingenia moresque novisse omnia testantur." We feel sure that
our Umbrian fun-maker would strut in public and laugh in private,
could he hear such an encomium of his lofty moral aims. For it is our
ultimate purpose to prove that fun-maker Plautus was primarily and
well-nigh exclusively a fun-maker.
[Sidenote: Weise] K. H. Weise, in "Die Komodien des Plautus, kritisch
nach Inhalt und Form beleuchtet, zur Bestimmung des Echten und
Unechten in den einzelnen Dichtungen" (Quedlinburg, 1866), follows
hard on Becker's heels and places Plautus on a pinnacle of poetic
achievement in which we scarcely recognize our apotheosized
laugh-maker. Every passage in the plays that is not artistically
immaculate, that does not conform to the uttermost canons of dramatic
art, is unequivocally damned as "unecht." In his Introduction (p. 4)
Weise is truly eloquent in painting the times and significance of our
poet. With momentary insight he says: "Man hat an ihm eine immer
frische und nie versiegende Fundgrabe des ächten Volkswitzes." But
this is soon marred by utterances such as (p. 14): "Fände sich also in
der Zahl der Plautinischen Komodien eine Partie, die mit einer andern
in diesen Hinsichten in bedeutendem Grade contrastirte, so konnte man
sicher schliessen, dass beide nicht von demselben Verfasser sein
könnten." He demands from Plautus, as ein wahrer Poet, "Congruenz,
und richtige innere Logik harmonische Construction" (p. 12),
and finally declares (p. 22): "Interesse, Character, logischer Bau in der
Zusammensetzung, Naturlichkeit der Sprache und des Witzes, Rythmus
und antikes Idiom des Ausdrucks werden die Kriterien sein mussen,
nach dem wir uber die Vortrefflichkeit und Plautinität plautinischer
Stücke zu entscheiden haben."

On this basis he ruthlessly carves out and discards as "unecht" every
passage that fails to conform to his amazing and extravagant ideals, in
the belief that "der ächte Meister Plautus konnte nur Harmonisches, nur
Vernunftiges, nur Logisches, nur relativ Richtiges dichten" (p. 79),
though even Homer nods. The Mercator is banned in toto. To be sure,
Weise somewhat redeems himself by the statement (p. 29 f.): "Plautus
bezweckte ... lediglich nur die eigentliche und wirksamste Belustigung
des Publicums." But how he reconciles this with his previously quoted
convictions and with the declaration (p. 16): "Plautus ist ein sehr
religioser, sehr moralischer Schriftsteller," it is impossible to grasp,
until we recall that the author is a German.
[Sidenote: Langen] Such criticism stultifies itself and needs no
refutation; certainly not here, as P. Langen in his Plautinische Studien
(Berliner Studien, 1886; pp. 90-91) has conclusively proved that the
inconsistent is a feature absolutely germane to Plautine style, and has
collected an overwhelming mass of "Widerspruche, Inkonsequenzen
und psychologische Unwahrscheinlichkeiten" that would question the
"Plautinity" of every other line, were we to follow Weise's precepts.
Langen too uses the knife, but with a certain judicious restraint.
We insist that the attempt to explain away every inconsistency as
spurious is a sorry refuge.
[Sidenote: Langrehr] Langrehr in Miscellanea Philologica (Gottingen,
1876), under the caption Plautina[18] gives vent to further solemn
Teutonic carpings at the plot of the Epidicus and argues the play a
contaminatio on the basis of the double intrigue. He is much exercised
too over the mysterious episode of 'the disappearing flute-girl.'
Langen, who is in the main remarkably sane, refutes these conclusions
neatly.[19] How Weise and his confrères argue Plautus such a
super-poet, in view of the life and education of the public to whom he
catered, let alone the evidence of the plays themselves, and their
author's status as mere translator and adapter, must remain an insoluble
mystery. The simple truth is that a playwright such as Plautus, having
undertaken to feed a populace hungry for amusement, ground out plays
(doubtless for a living),[20] with a wholesome disregard for niceties of

composition, provided only he obtained his sine qua non--the
laugh.[21]
[Sidenote: Lessing] In our citation of opinions we must not overlook
that impressive mile-stone in the history of criticism, the discredited
but still great Lessing. In his