By Cicero's time considerable technical
equipment was required; the actor must be an adept in gesticulation,
gymnastic and dancing.[92] Appreciable refinement had been reached in
Quintilian's age, for he scores the comic actor who departs too far from
reality and pronounces the ideal player him who declaims with a measured
artistic heightening of everyday discourse.[93] It is noteworthy that this
practically coincides with the accepted standard of modern realistic
acting. But the Plautine actor could never have felt himself trammeled by
any such narrow and sophisticated restrictions, as we believe the evidence
accumulated above amply proves. At any rate, the delineation of different
roles must have been at all times strictly in character. The need of
feminine vocal tones, unless another jest is intended is indicated by
_Rud._ 233:
Certe vox muliebris auris tetigit meas.
And Quintilian admonishes the youth who is taking lessons from a comic
actor in voice-production not to carry his precepts so far as to imitate
the female falsetto, the senile tremolo, the obsequiousness of the slave,
the stuttering accents of intoxication or the intonations of love, greed,
fear.[94]
Where Donatus gives instructions as to the vocal expression with which
certain lines are to be delivered, as in the case of his comments on
gesture, they are almost painfully evident from the context.
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