" All this is
disappointing. We should have expected Gallic esprit to rise superior to
such banality.
[Sidenote: LeGrand] The celebrity of French criticism is somewhat redeemed
by LeGrand in his monumental work entitled _Daos Tableau de la comedie
grecque pendant la periode dite nouvelle_ (Annales de l'Universite de
Lyon, 1910), in the conclusion to the chapter on 'Intentions didactiques
et valeur morale' (Part III, Chap. I, page 583): "Tout compte fait, au
point de vue moral, la {~GREEK SMALL LETTER NU~}{~GREEK SMALL LETTER EPSILON WITH TONOS~}{~GREEK SMALL LETTER ALPHA~} dut etre inoffensive (en son temps)." This is
the culmination of a calm, dispassionate discussion and analysis of the
extant remains of New Comedy and _Palliatae_.
Even Ritschl fails to escape the taint of degrading Plautus to the status
of a petty moralizer[29]. In particular, he lauds the _Aul_ unreservedly
as a _chef d'oeuvre_ of character delineation and pronounces it
immeasurably superior to Moliere's imitation, "L'Avare."[30] This whole
critique, while interesting, falls into the prevailing trend of imputing
to Plautus far too high a plane of dramatic artistry.[31]
[Sidenote: Langen] Indeed, Langen has already scored Ritschl on this very
point in remarking[32] that Ritschl's condemnation of an alleged defect in
the _Cas_[33] implies much too favorable an estimate of Plautus' artistic
worth, as the defects cited are represented as something isolated and
remarkable, whereas they are characteristic of Plautine comedy.
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