feasts, and were regaled with instrumental
music. Regular dramatic pieces were first
exhibited about 240 B.C., but they had to
contend with the public shows and
spectacles. It is doubtful whether the earliest
production, represented at Rome by Livius
Andronicus, was a comedy or a tragedy.
Whichever it was, the author acted it
alone, unhelped by other actors. Being,
however, not seldom called upon to repeat
certain passages, which caused his voice to
become hoarse, he claimed permission of
his audience to introduce a boy who should
rehearse or sing the lyrical portions to the
accompaniment of the flute, reserving to
himself only the declamation of the dialogue.
Livius Andronicus and Naevius were the
first authors of regularly-constructed plays,
but it is to Plautus we must look as the
father of Roman comedy, and to Terence
as the improver. Both imitated the later
productions of Greece; indeed, the regular
comedy of the Romans was of the kind
termed Palliatæ—so called from the Greek
habit pallium, which the actors wore—
because the personages and incidents were
Grecian. Their serious and genteel comedy
was named Togatæ, from toga, the Roman
gown, the characters being persons of good
rank; and sometimes Prætextatæ, when the
characters were Roman, from the habit of
Roman noblemen. Low comedy was called
Tabernariæ, from taberna, a shop or tavern.

Horace has censured Plautus for
negligence in the metre of his verses; but the
subject is so obscure that it is hard to
understand what is meant by the charge.
We shall therefore consider the man and
his works without reference to the question.
Plautus was born at Sarsina, now Sezza—
a small town in Umbria, or Æmilia, as it
was more recently denominated. The poet
was called Plautus from his splay feet;
his proper name was Marcius Accius. He
was probably the son of a slave named
Libertus. He died about 184 B.C., but the
period of his birth is unknown; nor can we
fix the time when his plays were acted. It
is, however, on record that he was
handsomely paid for his work; but he risked the
proceeds in trade, and lost them. He was,
in consequence, so far reduced that, in a
period of general famine, he was compelled
to work at a mill. While thus employed,
however, he contrived to compose three
plays. He wrote twenty in all; at least no
more are extant, though some say he wrote
six more. His humour was peculiar, and
considered to be inimitable. His Amphitryo
was once played on a solemn occasion to
pacify the anger of Jupiter. The poet
composed an epitaph for himself, highly
laudatory, stating that with him, wit,
laughter, jest, and harmony deserted the
stage. He was, indeed, by the
acknowledgment of all, remarkable for his wit,
if not for his elegance. Always lively
and entertaining, he was admitted to
have "hastened with his characters to the
winding-up of his play," in which particular
Horace compares him with Epicharmus,
a Greek comic writer and a scholar of
Pythagoras; but he charges him
meanwhile with having overcharged some of his
characters and neglected others. As to
style, his critics tell us that his sentences
have a peculiar smartness, conveying the
thought with point and clearness which
secures attention and pleases the fancy.

Of the plays of Plautus, the Amphitryo
is tolerably well known to French and
English readers by the imitations of Molière
and Dryden. The characters are gods and
princes; and as Euripides wrote a drama
under the same title, it may have been
partly derived from the Hellenic poet. His
next play, Asinaria (the Ass-Driver), was
certainly rendered from the Greek of
Demophilus. It is supposed, also, that he
was indebted to a Greek original for his
Aulularia (the Casket), from which Molière
took his Avare, and our own Wycherly his
Miser.

The first comedy of Plautus represented
is supposed to have been the Cistellaria
(the Basket), acted the eighteenth year of
the Punic war, the prologue of which is
spoken by the god Auxilium. This apparent
absurdity is, however, justifiable by
the nature of the argument. In another
play he adopted the same expedient,
namely, Rudens (the Cable), translated
from the Greek of Diphilus. The prologue
is spoken by the god or the constellation
Arcturus, whose heliacal rising and setting
were reckoned tempestuous. In another
play, called Trinummus (the Hidden
Treasure), the prologue is spoken by the
allegorical characters of Luxury and Penury.

Plautus has had many imitators. Ben
Jonson in part copied his Alchymist from
Plautus's Mostellaria (the Ghost), and
Shakespeare has imitated his Menæchmi
(the Twins), in the Comedy of Errors. His
Pseudolus (the Cheat) has been variously
imitated by modern writers.

The play on which Plautus most prided
himself is entitled Truculentus (the Churl).
It is, however, a translation from the
Greek. His remaining productions are
respectively entitled, Captivi (the Captives);
Curculio, or the Discovery; Epidicus (the