The Dramatic Values in Plautus | Page 9

abrogated the whipping of actors, but
an attempt was made in Tiberius' time to renew the practice.[57] On the
other hand, there seem to have been prizes awarded to successful
actors,[58] as well as to the poet;[59] but this practice surely arose after
Plautus' lifetime. At any rate, whatever was the nature of the reward, in
his day the large emoluments won by Roscius and other popular
favorites were impossible.[60] The effort demanded by the elaborate
education of the actor,[61] in which naturally gesticulation was the
most vital element, was out of all proportion to the precarious reward.
A rigid course of training was prescribed and strenuous exercises were
required, for both actor and orator to keep the voice in proper form.[62]
Indeed, Quintilian advises the budding orator to take instruction in
voice production and gesticulation from the comic actor.[63] For the
comic actor was at all times recognized as livelier and more vivid in his
performance than the tragedian.[64] The two were usually sharply
differentiated.[65] Specialization arose, too, and we hear of actors who
confined their efforts to feminine roles,[66] though naturally every
performer was cast for parts to which his physique was best suited.[67]
It is doubtful whether such an elaborate system had been developed in
Plautus' time, but this much is certain: the comedian was on the stage
lively, energetic and constantly spurred on by the fear of punishment
from the dominus gregis and the violent disapproval of a fickle,

tempestuous and withal exacting public. Polybius[68] relates that the
visit of a troupe of Greek actors to Rome was a failure because of their
over-staid deportment, until, learning the desires of the volatile Italians,
they improvised a vastly more vivid pantomime depicting a mock battle,
with huge success. Assuredly the early Roman comedian must have
acted with greater abandon and clownish drollery, if not with the
elaborate histrionic technique of the later actor.[69] We have heard Dr.
Charles Knapp relate that the performance of the Ajax of Sophocles by
a troupe of modern Greek players went with amazing and incredible
rapidity and vivacity. It is all of a piece. We must inevitably associate
vivid temperament with the sons of the Mediterranean in all ages. Yet
we have just seen that the Greeks of old were too self-contained for
their Italian brethren.
[Sidenote: The Histrionism] With this brief discussion of the condition,
incentive and motive of the Plautine actor, let us pass on to a more
detailed consideration of his methods and technique. Naturally by far
the most important part of this was gesture. Here again, while some of
our evidence is somewhat unreliable, practically every shred of extant
testimony indicates an extreme liveliness and vivacity. In the
rhetoricians frequent warning is issued to the forensic neophyte to
avoid the unrestraint of theatrical gesticulation. Cicero says (De Or. I.
59. 251): "Nemo suaserit studiosis dicendi adulescentibus in gestu
discendo histrionum more elaborare." Quintilian echoes (I. 11. 3): "Ne
gestus quidem omnis ac motus a comediis petendus est.... Orator
plurimum ... aberit a scaenico, nec vultu nec manu nec excursionibus
nimius." And in the Auctor ad Herennium we find (III. 15. 26):
"Convenit igitur in vultu et pudorem nec acrimoniam esse, in gestu et
venustatem nec turpitudinem, ne aut histriones aut operarii videamur
esse."[70] That the nature and liveliness of gesture on the stage was
determined by the character portrayed, it is almost needless to say.[71]
Cicero's analysis (de Or. III. 59. 220) of the difference between
theatrical and forensic gesture implies that the former illustrates
individual words and ideas, while the latter comprehends more broadly
the general thought and sentiment.[72] It is most unfortunate that we
have lost Cicero's treatise De Gestu Histrionis.[73]

By Cicero's time a more restrained mode of acting was evidently
considered good taste; witness de Off. (I. 36. 130): "Histrionum non
nulli gestus ineptus non vacant, et quae sunt recta et simplicia
laudantur."[74] But the passages cited above bear ample testimony to
the vigor of histrionic gesticulation even at this later and far more
cultivated epoch. Again we repeat, what must have been the energy and
abandon of the original Plautine actor?[75]
Apart from the rhetoricians, the most fruitful literary source of our
information on gesture is Donatus' commentary on Terence. The
trustworthiness of this has been the subject of much argument. Sittl[76]
accuses him of speaking merely from the standpoint of a professor of
rhetoric, as comedies of Terence were no longer given in the time of
Donatus. Weinberger in his "Beitrage zu den Buhnenaltherthumern aus
Donats Terenz-commentar,"[77] admonishes us to be very careful not
to put too high a value on the commentary. Van Wageningen[78] is of
the opinion that much of the work was inspired by Donatus' having
seen in his own time unmasked actors play. To this view color is lent
by