PLAUTUS, the third of the Roman drama tists in chronological order and the first in lit erary and linguistic importance. His full name was Titus Maccius Plautus; it was formerly supposed to be M. Accius Plautus and is so given in editions before 1850. He was born in Sar sina, a small Umbrian town, about 254 a.c., prob ably of free parents, but in humble station. Of the events of his life only three are known definitely: the was written by him for the plebian games in 200 sc.; the (Pseu was given at the dedication of the temple of the Magna Mater in 191; he died in 184. There is a brief notice of his literary activity in Gellius, 3, 14, in which it is stated that after coming to Rome he was engaged in some work connected with the stage, that he used the money thus earned in trading by sea and having lost it, he returned to Rome in such straits that he was obliged to support himself by grinding at a mill; that while so occupied he wrote three plays and began his career as a dramatist. This account is said to be taken from Varro, but it contains some evident inconsistencies, and it is not improbable that it is a grammarian's con struction, based upon supposed personal refer ences in the plays and put together after the analogy of the literary Lives written by Greek grammarians. The uncertainties which attend the attempt to reconstruct the earlier Roman history are especially great in matters of lit erary history, which were not of sufficient im portance to be officially recorded.
Of the writings of Plautus, 20 plays have come down to us, with considerable fragments of a 21st. But it is probable that these consti tute only a part of his work. During the cen tury of dramatic activity in Rome (c. 250-150 sc.), there was no established theatre in the city, nor were there frequent presentations of plays. The genuine plays of Platus became confused with others which passed under his name, so that later traditions varied, some as signing to him as many as 130 plays, others as few as 21. There was during his lifetime no reading public, but in the half-century after 150 the plays came into circulation for reading and efforts were made by critics to distinguish the genuine from the spurious. This culminated in the fixing by Varro of a canon of 21 plays which were regarded by all critics as Plautine, and which are beyond reasonable doubt the plays that we now possess. Of the 20, the best
known are The Captivi,> (Trinummus,) (Men aechmi) and (Aulularia,) partly because they are most suitable for class-room reading; the (Bacchides,> (Pseudolus,) (Rudens) and 'Miles Gloriosus) are superior to them in style and humor. About half the plays are corrupt in text, or fragmentary or of inferior merit.
The comedies of Plautus are based upon Greek plays of the New Comedy (c. 321-250 sc.), and in a few cases Greek poets — Menan der, Philemon, Diphilus —are named. His plays therefore illustrate that fusion of Greek form with Roman spirit which is generally char acteristic of Latin literature. The plots, with their fundamental element of trickery, are wholly Greek, as are the characters and situa tions, at least in outline, and the subject-matter of the plays is the social and family life of a Greek city. Plautus was himself a man of Italian temperament; he was able to make the Greek plots and characters the vehicle for the expression of a genuine and original humor, to fill in the Greek outlines with the rich Italian coloring. In some plays, for example, in the the fusion is not complete and a cer tain degree of incongruity may be detected; in others, as in the the hearty and almost riotous humor blends the two elements into a harmonious whole. That he truly ex pressed the spirit of his race is evident from his popularity during his lifetime and from the long-continued presentation of his plays upon the Roman stage. His comedy has not been without influence also upon modern literature; Moliere founded his (L'Avare) upon the (Aulu laria,) and Shakespeare's 'Comedy of Errors) is an adaption of the (Menaechmi.) Bibliography.— The best complete edition is the Teubner text by Goetz and Schoell, a con densation of the great critical edition begun by Ritschel in 1848 and completed by his three pupils, Goetz, Schoell and Loewe, in 1894. There are good commentaries on single plays by Brix and Lorenz, and in English by Tyrell and Sonnenschein. In Sellar's 'Roman Poets of the Republic) may be found an excellent essay upon the literary qualities of Plautus. No complete English translation has appeared since Thornton's (2d ed., 5 vols., 1769).