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R.Blake, D

The Students' Series of Latin Classics

THE

MENAECHMI OF PLAUTUS

EDITED

ON THE BASIS OF BRIX'S EDITION

BY

HAROLD NORTH FOWLER, PH.D.

PROFESSOR IN THE WESTERN RESERVE UNIVERSITY

οὐ πόλλ ̓ ἀλλὰ πολύ

BENJ. H. SANBORN & CO.

BOSTON, U.S.A.
1901

HARVARD
UNIVERSITY
LIBRARY

COPYRIGHT, 1889,

By HAROLD NORTH FOWLER.

TYPOGRAPHY BY J. S. CUSHING & CO., BOSTON.

PREFACE.

THIS edition of the Menaechmi is based upon the third edition (Leipzig, 1880) by the late Dr. Julius Brix, that eminent Plautine critic, to whom all recent scholars are so deeply indebted. The few variations from his text are almost without exception a nearer approach to the reading of the Mss., and are mentioned in the notes.

The introduction is mainly a translation and abridgment of Brix's introductions to the Menaechmi and the Trinummus.

In addition to the notes of Brix's Menaechmi, which I have for the most part translated, I have inserted many from his editions of other plays to which he merely refers. I have also made other additions to the notes, including several references to Shakespeare's "Comedy of Errors," and have, in some cases, ventured to disagree with Brix.

I have placed a critical apparatus containing the principal variations of the Mss. and the most important conjectures at the foot of the text, and transferred the notes to the end of the book, in accordance with the plan of this series. Most of the textual discussion is relegated to an appendix.

Besides Brix's edition, I have made constant use of others, especially those of Ussing, Vahlen, and Wagner.

The references to other plays are by the lines of the Ritschl edition edited by Goetz, Schoell, and Loewe, but since five plays are still wanting in that edition, I have referred to Brix's edition of the Miles Gloriosus, and to Ussing's of the Casina, Cistellaria, Mostellaria, and Persa, giving also references to act and scene in these plays.

I take pleasure in expressing my thanks to those who have aided me in my work, especially to Prof. E. M. Pease, editorin-chief of this series, and Prof. H. C. Elmer, both of whom have read the proof with care and diligence, and given me valuable suggestions.

EXETER, N.H., October, 1889.

HAROLD N. FOWLER.

INTRODUCTION.

COMEDY derives its origin among the Romans as among the Greeks, from the rural festivals of harvest and vintage. At these festivals jokes and personalities, often of a sharp and bitter character, were embodied in the uersus Fescennini, verses sung or recited in responses. The metre was the so-called Saturnian verse, a mixture of iambic and trochaic rhythm.1

A second stage in the development of comedy is marked by the introduction of Etruscan actors (ludiones) in the year 364 B.C. (A.U.C. 390), in the consulship of C. Sulpicius Paeticus and C. Licinius Stolo. They performed pantomimic dances to the music of the flute, but sang no words.

The combination of the Etruscan mimic dance with the uersus Fescennini produced the satura, disconnected dramatic representations of scenes from daily life or whatever would appeal to the common people. The name satura is probably derived from lanx satura, a dish full of all sorts of fruits (for other derivations see Diomed. G. L. I. 485, Mommsen Hist. of Rome, Vol. I., p. 54). It was, then, a sort of poetic potpourri or medley.

Different from the satura was the burlesque popular comedy known as fabulae Atellanae. This was of Oscan origin, and the scene of the action was supposed to be the small Campanian town of Atella. These fabulae had some sort of a plot, carried

1 On this metre, see L. Müller, Der Saturnische Vers und seine Denkmäler, Leipsic, 1885; 0. Keller, Der Saturnische Vers als rhythmisch erwiesen, 1883, and Der Saturnische Vers, 1886. The following lines may serve as an example:

Hoc ést factúm monumentum - Madrco Caícílio.
Hospés, gratum ést quom apúd meas-réstitistei seédes;
bene rém gerás et váleas - dórmiás sine qúra.

(Corp. Inscr. Lat. I, 1006, Allen, Remnants of Early Latin, 137.)

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