ptives_ may well be made particular: "Plautus
finds few plays such as this which make good men better." Yet there is
little in his plays which makes men--to say nothing of good men--worse.
A bluff Shakespearean coarseness of thought and expression there often
is, together with a number of atrocious characters and scenes and
situations. But compared with the worst of a Congreve or a Wycherley,
compared with the worst of our own contemporary plays and musical
comedies, the worst of Plautus, now because of its being too revolting,
now because of its being too laughable, is innocuous. His moral land
is one of black and white, mostly black, without many of those really
dangerous half-lights and shadows in which too many of our present day
playwrights virtuously invite us to skulk and peer and speculate.

Comparatively harmless though they are, the translator has felt obliged
to dilute certain phrases and lines.

The text accompanying his version is that of Leo, published by
Weidmann, 1895-96. In the few cases where he has departed from this
text brief critical notes are given; a few changes in punctuation have
been accepted without comment. In view of the wish of the Editors of
the Library that the text pages be printed without unnecessary
defacements, it has seemed best to omit the lines that Leo brackets as
un-Plautine[16]: attention is called to the omission in each case and
the omitted lines are given in the note; the numbering, of course, is
kept unchanged. Leo's daggers and asterisks indicating corruption and
lacunae are omitted, again with brief notes in each case.

The translator gladly acknowledges his indebtedness to several of the
English editors of the plays, notably to Lindsay, and to two or three
English translators, for a number of phrases much more happily turned
by them than by himself: the difficulty of rendering verse into prose--
if one is to remain as close as may be to the spirit and letter of the
verse, and at the same time not disregard entirely the contributions
made by the metre to gaiety and gravity of tone--is sufficient to make
him wish to mitigate his failure by whatever means. He is also much
indebted to Professors Charles Knapp, K.C.M. Sills, and F.E. Woodruff
for many valuable suggestions.

Brunswick, Me.,

September, 1913.

[Footnote 15: The _Asinaria_ was adapted from the +Onagos+ of
Demophilus; the _Casina_ from the +Kle:roumenoi+, the _Rudens_ from
an unknown play, perh