The modern playwright robs his lines of their vividness and
throws the onus on the actor through the medium of his interpolated
direction, a custom which reaches its most exaggerated form
in the plays of Bernard Shaw, as mentioned above.

[Sidenote: Thesis] We have now made a perceptible advance towards getting
an answer to our original questions: "What manner of drama is this?" and
"How was it done?" The comments of the most eminent critics on the former
question have left us rather bewildered by their diversity. Almost to a
man they have taken Plautus too seriously or else have arraigned him for
not conforming to their preconceived code of comedy, without questioning
whether it were Plautus' own or not. This has really nullified their
efforts to explain away the peculiarities and absurdities of his style.
Some _solvent_ of these difficulties is needed.

As to the second question, we have examined briefly the extant evidence
regarding the actor's employment of gesture and business, his delivery of
the dialogue, make-up and character delineation, and found a disappointing
paucity, but a general and irresistible trend towards liveliness, vivacity
and broad undiluted comedy that must have been the sort of dramatic fare
demanded by the primeval appetite of the Plautine audience. But again we
find ourselves falling short of a satisfying answer to our question.
Again, some _solvent_ is needed. As the last resort, we turn to the
evidence of the plays themselves and the unbounded realm of subjective
criticism.

From the earliest times gesture and business in Aristophanes and the Old
Comedy were marked by the riotous license of all the media of that notable
epoch[108] of comedy. From the broad spirit of its frank and vivid