burlesque not even the most stolidly Teutonic of humorless critics ever
thought of demanding a "picture of life." But with the abandonment of the
purpose of political propaganda, the consequent disappearance of the
chorus with its burlesque trappings (largely through motives of state
economy), and the establishment in the New Comedy of a type of dramatic
machinery that had a specious outer shell of reflection of characters and
events in daily life, the critics instantly seem to demand the standard of
dramatic technique of Aristotle and Freytag and condemn all departures
from this standard. In reality, we believe that the kinship of Plautus
with Aristophanes is much closer than has usually been realized.

Is, then, the change from Old to New Comedy as great as has been
represented? Does not the change consist rather in the outer form and in
the ideas expounded than in the spirit of the histrionism and mimicry? And
must not the vigor, from what we have seen, have been intensified in
Plautus? LeGrand alone seems to have caught the essence of this:[109] "Que
dire de la mimique? D'aprA"s les indications contenues dans le texte mAme
des comA(C)dies, d'aprA"s les commentaires--notamment ceux de Donat, d'aprA"s
les monuments figurA(C)s--en particulier les images des manuscrits, elle
devait Atre en general trA"s vive, souvent trop vive pour le goA"t des
modernes.... Et puis, ils s'addressaient a des spectateurs mA(C)ridionaux,
coutumiers dans la vie quotidienne d'une gesticulation plus animA(C)e que la
nAtre." And this is said as a combined estimate of New Comedy and
_palliatae_.

We are now prepared to advance a definite thesis, that shall gather up the
random threads of argument and suggestion scattered through the foregoing
pages and shall, we hope, provide a conclusive and final answer to both of
our original questions. If we can establish: that our author's sole aim
was to feed the popular hunger for amusement; that, while after leaving