An excellent example
is _Most._ 166 ff., where Philematium is performing her conventionally
out-door toilet with the aid of her duenna Scapha. Philolaches stands on
the other side of the stage and interjects remarks:
"PHILEM. Look at me please, Scapha dear; is this gown becoming? I want to
please Philolaches, the apple of my eye....
SC. Why deck yourself out, when your charm lies in your charming manners?
It isn't gowns that lovers love, but what bellies out the gowns.
PHILO. (_Aside._) God bless me, but Scapha's clever; the hussy has
horse-sense....
PHILEM. (_Pettishly._) Well, then?
SC. What is it?
PHILEM. Look me over anyhow and see how this becomes me.
SC. The grace of your figure makes everything you wear becoming.
PHILO. (_Aside._) Now for that speech, Scapha, I'll give you some present
before the day is out--and so on for a whole long scene.
The quips are amusing in an evident burlesque spirit. Such a scene was
easily done on the broad Roman stage, whether it was a heritage from the
use of the orchestra in Greek comedy, as LeGrand thinks,[135] or not. In
similar vein, clever by-play on the part of the cunning Palaestrio would
make a capital scene out of _Mil. 1037 ff._[136] A perfectly unnatural but
utterly amusing scene of the same type is _Amph. 153-262_, where Mercury
apostrophizes his fists, and the quaking Sosia (cross-stage) is frightened
to a jelly at the prospect of his early demise.
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