CHAPTER III.
PLAUTUS.
All the writers of Comedy for the Roman stage, of whose works we have any knowledge, were direct imitators of Menander and his school. Plautus, however, was probably less indebted to him than were his successors, Cæcilius, Lavinius, and Terence. Of the two intermediate authors we know very little; but Plautus and Terence have been more fortunate in securing for themselves a modern audience. Their comedies may not have been really better worth possessing than those of other writers who had their day of popularity: but theirs alone have been preserved, and it is from them that we have to form our judgment of the Comedy of Republican Rome.
Titus Maccius Plautus—the second would be what we should call his surname, and the last simply means "flat-foot"[1] in the dialect of Umbria, the district in
- ↑ Literary tradition in some quarters asserted that in one of his comedies he introduced a sketch—certainly not too flattering—of his own personal appearance:
"A red-haired man, with round protuberant belly,
Legs with stout calves, and of a swart complexion:
Large head, keen eyes, red face, and monstrous feet."
—Pseudolus, act iv. sc. 7.
