t O Palaemon! Hallowed comrade of Neptune ... what scene meets my
eye?

DAE. What do you see?

SC. I see two poor lone women sitting in a bit of a boat. How the poor
creatures are being tossed about! Hoorah! Hoorah! Fine! The waves are
whirling their boat past the rocks into the shallows. A pilot couldn't
have steered straighter. I swear I never saw waves more high. They're safe
if they escape those breakers. Now, now, danger! One is overboard! Ah, the
water's not deep: she'll swim out in a minute. Hooray! See the other one,
how the wave tossed her out! She is up, she's on her way shoreward; she's
safe!"

Sceparnio clasps his hands, jumps up and down, grasps the shaking Daemones
convulsively and communicates his excitement to the audience. It is a
piece of thrilling theatrical declamation and must have wrought the
spectators up to a high pitch. In general, the _Rud._ is a superior play.

In _Cas._ 229 ff. there is developed a piece of faithful and entertaining
character-drawing, as the old roue Lysidamus fawns upon his militant
spouse Cleostrata, with the following as its climax:

"CLE. (_Sniffling._) Ha! Whence that odor of perfumes, eh?

LYS. The jig's up."

In the whole panorama of Plautine personae the portrayal of Alcmena in the
_Amph._ is unique, for she is drawn with absolute sincerity and speaks
nothing out of character. Certainly no parody can be made out of the nobly
spoken lines 633-52, which lend a genuine air of tragedy to the professed
_tragi(co)comoedia_ (59, 63); unless we think of the lady's unwitting
compromising condition (surely too subtle a thought for the original
audience). Note also the exalted tone of 831-4, 839-42. But all through
this scene Sosia is prancing around, prating nonsense, and playing the
buffoon, so that perchance even here the nobility becomes but a foil for
the revelry. And in 882-955 his royal godship Jove clowns it to the lady's
truly minted sentiments.

No, we are far from attempting to deny to Plautus all dramatic technique,
skill in character painting and cleverness of situation, but he was never
hide-bound by any technical considerations. He felt free to break through
the formal bonds of his selected medium at will. He had wit, esprit and
above all a knowledge of his audience; and of human nature generally, or
else he could not have had such a trenchant effect on the literature of
all time.

At any rate, the above lonely landmarks cannot affect our comprehensive