The precise details of the histrionic technique and "stage business" in
vogue must remain more or less a mystery to us. Our limitations in this
respect are admirably enunciated by Saunders (TAPA. XLIV, p. 97): "One
must conclude then, that it is dangerous to dogmatize on this subject, as
on most others connected with the early Roman stage. Our evidence is too
slight and the period of time involved is too long...." We can, therefore,
deal in little but generalities. The Romans must have imitated and
developed their Greek and Etruscan models.[91] When Livius Andronicus
first fathered _palliatae_, he must have chosen the New Comedy not only as
the type of drama most available to him, but as wholly adaptable to his
audiences. When Plautus wrote, he had the machinery already built for him,
and he doubtless seized upon the _palliata_ form as the natural medium for
the exploitation of his talents. By Cicero's time considerable technical
equipment was required; the actor must be an adept in gesticulation,
gymnastic and dancing.[92] Appreciable refinement had been reached in
Quintilian's age, for he scores the comic actor who departs too far from
reality and pronounces the ideal player him who declaims with a measured
artistic heightening of everyday discourse.[93] It is noteworthy that this
practically coincides with the accepted standard of modern realistic
acting. But the Plautine actor could never have felt himself trammeled by
any such narrow and sophisticated restrictions, as we believe the evidence
accumulated above amply proves. At any rate, the delineation of different
roles must have been at all times strictly in character. The need of
feminine vocal tones, unless another jest is intended is indicated by
_Rud._ 233:

Certe vox muliebris auris tetigit meas.

And Quintilian admonishes the youth who is taking lessons from a comic
actor in voice-production not to carry his precepts so far as to imitate