the _Most._ (ASec. 11), likens Plautine drama to "an opera of the early
schools."

One feature of the performance still remains to be discussed--the
"stage-business," that is, the movements of the actors apart from mere
gesticulation and dialogue. Much of this too will find a place in Part II,
in the treatment of special peculiarities, but in general we note here
that the text itself contains many indications that are as plain as
printed stage directions regarding the movements being made or about to be
made by the characters. Examples of the more significant follow: _Amph._
308: Cingitur: Certe expedit se; 312: Perii, pugnos ponderat. (Sosia
speaks aside of Mercury and similarly during the succeeding scene); 903:
Potin ut abstineas manum?; 955: Aperiuntur aedis. This motif is
commonplace and frequent; 958: Vos tranquillos video; 1130: quam valide
tonuit; _As._ 39: Age, age, usque excrea; _Bac._ 668: quod sic terram
optuere?; _Cap._ 557: Viden tu hunc, quam inimico voltu intuitur?; 594:
Ardent oculi;[106] 793: Hic homo pugilatum incipit; _Ep._ 609: illi
caperrat frons severitudine; _Mer._ 138: iam dudum spato sanguinem; _Mil._
1324: Nefle; _Most._ 1030: vocis non habeo satis. (He must have been
shouting); _Ps._ 458: Statum vide hominis, Callipho, quam basilicum; 955:
transvorsus ... cedit, quasi cancer solet: _Trin._ 623 f.: celeri
graducunt uterque: ille rcprehendit hunc priorem pallio.[107]

This practice of indicating business in the lines, of making the
play act, is common to all the older types of drama, Elizabethan as
well as classic. A single striking example from Shakespeare will
furnish a parallel, in the well-known lines from _Macbeth_:

The devil damn thee black, thou cream-faced loon,
Where gott'st thou that goose look? (V. 3).