make a capital scene out of _Mil. 1037 ff._[136] A perfectly unnatural but
utterly amusing scene of the same type is _Amph. 153-262_, where Mercury
apostrophizes his fists, and the quaking Sosia (cross-stage) is frightened
to a jelly at the prospect of his early demise. In Cap. 966, Ilegio, staid
gentleman that he is, introduces an exceeding "rough" remark in the middle
of a serious scene. The aside of Pseudolus in _Ps. 636 f._ could be
rendered as a good-natured burlesque as follows:

"HARPAX. What's your name?

PS. (_Hopping forward and addressing audience with hand over mouth._) The
pander has a slave named Surus. I'll say I'm he. (_Hopping back and
addressing Harpax._) I'm Surus." Many other scenes were doubtless rendered
by one character's thus stepping aside and confiding his ideas to the
spectators, as for example _Aul. 194 ff._ and _Trin. 895 ff._ Often our
characters blurt out their inmost thoughts to the public, as in _Cas. 937
ff._, with eavesdroppers conveniently placed, else what would become of
the plot?

The soliloquy is constantly used to keep the audience acquainted with the
advance of the plot[137], or to paint in narrative intervening events that
connect the loose joints of the action. This is of course wholly
inartistic, but may often find its true office in keeping a noisy,
turbulent and uneducated audience aware of "what is going on." In many
cases the soliloquy is in the nature of a reflection on the action and
seems to bear all the ear-marks of a heritage from the original function
of the tragic chorus[138]. It devolved upon the actor by sprightly mimicry
to relieve, in these scenes, the tedium that appeals to the reader. So in
_Cap._ 909 ff. the _canticum_ of the _puer_ becomes more than a mere
stopgap, if he acts out vividly the violence of Ergasilus; and in _Bac._