The Dramatic Values in Plautus | Page 5

delineation and pronounces it
immeasurably superior to Molière's imitation, "L'Avare."[30] This
whole critique, while interesting, falls into the prevailing trend of
imputing to Plautus far too high a plane of dramatic artistry.[31]
[Sidenote: Langen] Indeed, Langen has already scored Ritschl on this
very point in remarking[32] that Ritschl's condemnation of an alleged
defect in the Cas[33] implies much too favorable an estimate of
Plautus' artistic worth, as the defects cited are represented as something
isolated and remarkable, whereas they are characteristic of Plautine
comedy. Langen still displays clear-headed judgment when he says of
the Miles[34]: "Wenn die Farben so stark aufgetragen werden, hort jede
Feinhet der Charakterzeichnung auf und bereinem Dichter, der sich
dies gestattet, darf man bezuglich der Charakterschilderungen nicht zu
viele Anspruche machen. Es ist sehr wahrscheinlich dass Plautus mit
Rucksicht auf den Geschmack eines Publikums die Zuge des Originals

sehr vergrobert hat."
But Langen fails to follow this splendid lead. Without taking advantage
of the license that he himself offers the poet, he severely condemns[35],
the scene in which Periplecomenus shouts out to Philocomasium so
loudly that the soldier's household could not conceivably help hearing,
whereas he is supposed to be conveying secret information.[36] If
carried out in a broadly farcical spirit, the scene becomes potentially
amusing.
[Sidenote: Mommsen] Mommsen in his History[37], in the course of an
interesting discussion on palliatae and their Greek originals, has a far
saner point of view. He says of the authors of New Comedy, "They
wrote not like Eupolis and Aristophanes for a great nation; but rather
for a cultivated society which spent its time ... in guessing riddles and
playing at charades.... Even in the dim Latin copy, through which we
chiefly know it, the grace of the original is not wholly obliterated. palliatae> persons and incidents seem capriciously or carelessly
shuffled as in a game of cards; in the original a picture from life, it
became in the reproduction a caricature."
Naturally we are not concerned with any consideration of the value of
his estimate of New Comedy. Assuredly he rates it too highly, as later
investigations have indicated.[38] But here for the first time we are able
to quote a well-balanced appreciation of some essential features of
Plautine drama: a "capricious shuffling of incidents" and "caricature."
In fact it will be our endeavor to show that the palliata was not a true
art form, but merely an outer shell or mold into which Plautus poured
his stock of witticisms.
[Sidenote: Korting] Still more trenchant is the conclusion of Korting in
his Geschichte des griechischen und römischen Theaters (P. 218 ff.):
"Die neue attische Komödie und folglich auch ihr Abklatsch, die
romische Palliata, war nicht ein Lustspiel im höchsten, im sittlichen
Sinne des Wortes, sondern ein blosses Unterhaltungsdrama. Amüsieren
wollten die Komödiendichter, nichts weiter. Jedes höhere Streben lag
ihnen fern. Wohl spickten sie ihre Lustspiele mit moralischen
Sentenzen.... Aber die schönen Sentenzen sind eben nur Zierat, sind nur

Verbramung einer in ihrem Kerne und Wesen durch und durch
unsittlichen Dichtung ... Mit der Wahrscheinlichkeit der Handlung wird
es sehr leicht genommen: die seltsamsten Zufälle werden als so
ziemlich selbstverständliche Möglichkeiten hingestellt ... Es ginge das
noch an, wenn wir in eine phantastische Märchenwelt geführt werden,
in welcher am Ende auch das Wunderbarste möglich ist, aber nein! es
wird uns zugemutet, überzeugt zu sein, dass alles mit natürlichen
Dingen zugehe.
"Alles in allem genommen, ist an dieser Komödie, abgesehen von ihrer
formal musterhaften Technik, herzlich wenig zu bewundern.... An
Zweideutigkeiten, Obscönitäten, Schimpfscenen ist Überfluss
vorhanden."
With admirable clarity of vision, Korting has spied the vital spot and
illuminated it with the word "Unterhaltungsdrama." That amusement
was the sole aim of the comic poets we firmly believe. But if this was
so, why arraign them on the charge of trying to convince us that
everything is happening in a perfectly natural manner? The outer form
to be sure is that of everyday life, but this is no proof that the poets
demanded of their audiences a belief in the verisimilitude of the events
depicted. Can we have no fantastic fairyland without some outlandish
accompaniment such as a chorus garbed as birds or frogs? But we
reserve fuller discussion of this point until later. We might suggest an
interesting comparison to the nonsense verse of W. S. Gilbert, which
represents the most shocking ideas in a style even nonchalantly
matter-of-fact. Does Gilbert by any chance actually wish us to believe
that "Gentle Alice Brown," in the poem of the same name, really
assisted in "cutting up a little lad"?
Korting regains his usual clear-headedness in pronouncing 'that there is
little in the technique of palliatae to excite our admiration.' Again we
insist (to borrow the jargon of the modern dramatic critic) it was but a
"vehicle" for popular amusement.
[Sidenote: Schlegel] Wilhelm