named Surus. I'll say I'm he. (_Hopping back and
addressing Harpax._) I'm Surus." Many other scenes were doubtless rendered
by one character's thus stepping aside and confiding his ideas to the
spectators, as for example _Aul. 194 ff._ and _Trin. 895 ff._ Often our
characters blurt out their inmost thoughts to the public, as in _Cas. 937
ff._, with eavesdroppers conveniently placed, else what would become of
the plot?

The soliloquy is constantly used to keep the audience acquainted with the
advance of the plot[137], or to paint in narrative intervening events that
connect the loose joints of the action. This is of course wholly
inartistic, but may often find its true office in keeping a noisy,
turbulent and uneducated audience aware of "what is going on." In many
cases the soliloquy is in the nature of a reflection on the action and
seems to bear all the ear-marks of a heritage from the original function
of the tragic chorus[138]. It devolved upon the actor by sprightly mimicry
to relieve, in these scenes, the tedium that appeals to the reader. So in
_Cap._ 909 ff. the _canticum_ of the _puer_ becomes more than a mere
stopgap, if he acts out vividly the violence of Ergasilus; and in _Bac._
1067 ff. the soliloquy would acquire humor, if confidentially directed at
the audience. In _As._ 127 ff., as Argyrippus berates the _lena_ within,
it must be delivered with an abundance of pantomime.

2. Lengthy monodies, monologues and episodical specialties.

Frequently the soliloquy takes the form of a long solo passage directed at
the audience, while the action halts for a whole scene to allow the actor
to regale his public with the poet's views on the sins of society,
economic topics of the day, or topics of the by-gone days in Athens, and
the like. The resemblance to the interpolated song and dance of musical
comedy is most striking. The comparison is the more apt, as about
two-thirds of the illustrative scenes referred to in the next paragraph
are in _canticum_. It is a pity that the comic chorus had disappeared, or
the picture were complete. That it is often on the actor's initial
appearance that he sings his song or speaks his piece, strengthens the
resemblance. But this is a natural growth under the influence of two
publics, the Greek and the Roman, notably fond of declamation and oratory.
LeGrand believes this a characteristic directly derived from a narrative
form of Middle Comedy embodied in certain extant fragments.[