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 Hist