" And in the _Auctor
ad Herennium_ we find (III. 15. 26): "Convenit igitur in vultu et pudorem
nec acrimoniam esse, in gestu et venustatem nec turpitudinem, ne aut
histriones aut operarii videamur esse."[70] That the nature and liveliness
of gesture on the stage was determined by the character portrayed, it is
almost needless to say.[71]
Cicero's analysis (_de Or._ III. 59. 220) of the difference between
theatrical and forensic gesture implies that the former illustrates
individual words and ideas, while the latter comprehends more broadly the
general thought and sentiment.[72] It is most unfortunate that we have
lost Cicero's treatise _De Gestu Histrionis_.[73]
By Cicero's time a more restrained mode of acting was evidently considered
good taste; witness _de Off._ (I. 36. 130): "Histrionum non nulli gestus
ineptus non vacant, et quae sunt recta et simplicia laudantur."[74] But
the passages cited above bear ample testimony to the vigor of histrionic
gesticulation even at this later and far more cultivated epoch. Again we
repeat, what must have been the energy and abandon of the original
Plautine actor?[75]
Apart from the rhetoricians, the most fruitful literary source of our
information on gesture is Donatus' commentary on Terence. The
trustworthiness of this has been the subject of much argument. Sittl[76]
accuses him of speaking merely from the standpoint of a professor of
rhetoric, as comedies of Terence were no longer given in the time of
Donatus.
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