is difficult to realise the moral state of those who
could derive amusement from hearing men threatened with bull-hidings,
and flogged on the stage. Such terms as "whip-knave" became stale from
repetition, and so many jokes were made even about crucifixion, that we
might suppose it to be a very trifling punishment. Chrysalus, a slave,
facetiously observes, that when his master discovers he has spent his
gold, he will make him "cruscisalus" _i.e._ "cross jumper." In "The
Haunted House," Tranio, who, certainly seems to have been a great scamp,
soliloquises as follows on hearing of his master's return:--

"Is there any one, who would like to gain a little money, who could
endure this day to take my place in being tortured? Who are those
fellows hardened to a flogging, who wear out iron chains, or those who
for three didrachmas[19] would get beneath besieging towers, where they
might have their bodies pierced with fifteen spears? I'll give a talent
to that man who shall be the first to run to the cross for me, but on
condition that his feet and arms are doubly fastened there. When that is
done, then ask the money of me."

Acoustic humour appears not only in puns, but under the form of long
names of which Plautus was especially fond, Periplecomenus,
Polymacharoplagides, and Thesaurochrysonicocrae are specimens of his
inventive genius in this direction.

In the "Three Coins," Charmides asks the sharper's name.

_Sh._ You demand an arduous task.

_Charmides._ How so?

_Sh._ Because if you were to begin before daylight at the first
part of my name 'twould be dead of night before you could reach the
end of it. I have another somewhat less, about the size of a wine
cask.

In the "Persian," Toxilus gives his name as follows,

"Vaniloquidorus Virginisvendonides
Nugipolyloquides Argentiexterebronides
Tedigniloquides Nummorumexpalponides
Quodsemelarripides
Nunquamposteareddides."

There are a few other cases in which there is a playing upon sound, as
where Demipho remarks that if he had such a good-looking girl as
Pasicompsa for a servant, all the people would be "staring, gazing,
nodding, winking, hissing, twitching, crying, annoying, and serenading."

The failings of the fair seems always to have been a favourite subject
for men's attack, but reflections of this kind have decreased in number
and acerbity since the days of Aristophanes. We find, however, some in
Plaut