actor,[61] in which naturally gesticulation was the most vital element,
was out of all proportion to the precarious reward. A rigid course of
training was prescribed and strenuous exercises were required, for both
actor and orator to keep the voice in proper form.[62] Indeed, Quintilian
advises the budding orator to take instruction in voice production and
gesticulation from the comic actor.[63] For the comic actor was at all
times recognized as livelier and more vivid in his performance than the
tragedian.[64] The two were usually sharply differentiated.[65]
Specialization arose, too, and we hear of actors who confined their
efforts to feminine roles,[66] though naturally every performer was cast
for parts to which his physique was best suited.[67]

It is doubtful whether such an elaborate system had been developed in
Plautus' time, but this much is certain: the comedian was on the stage
lively, energetic and constantly spurred on 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.