_ 905 ff.), the sycophant
is garbed as messenger (_Trin._ 843 ff.), Phronesium elaborately pretends
to be a mother (_Truc._ 499 ff.). A swindle is almost invariably the
object in view. But we have said enough on this score: no one who knows
the plays at all can fail to recognize the predominance of farce. Compare
on the modern stage the sudden appearance of "the long-lost cousin from
Chicago."
c. Extravagances obviously unnatural and merely for the sake of fun.
This group of course often contains marked features of burlesque and
farce, and hence shows a close kinship with the foregoing.
The extravagance of the love-sick swain is a fruitful source of this
species of caricature. The ridiculous Calidorus, always wearing his heart
on his sleeve, rolls his eyes, brushes away a tear and says (_Ps._ 38
ff.): "But for a short space have I been e'en as a lily of the field.
Suddenly sprang I up, as suddenly I withered." The irreverent Pseudolus
replies: "Oh, shut up while I read the letter over." Calidorus finds his
counterpart in Phaedromus of the _Cur._, who, accompanied by his slave,
approaches milady's abode (_Cur._ 10 ff.):
"PH. (_In languishing accents, with eyes cast upward_): Shall I not take
sweets to the sweet: what is culled by the toil of the busy bees to my own
little honey?... (_They advance to milady's doorway which he sprinkles
with wine_, 88 ff.
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