A student of Plautus readily
recognizes this point. The entire development of the _Rud._ and _Poen._
exemplifies it in the highest degree. Hanno in the _Poen._, in particular,
meets first of all, in the strange city of Calydon, the very man he is
looking for! When Pseudolus is racking his wits for a stratagem, Harpax
obligingly drops in with all the requisites. The ass-dealer in the _As._
is so ridiculously fortuitous that it savors of childlike naivete.
Characters are perpetually entering just when wanted. We hear "Optume
advenis" and "Eccum ipsum video" so frequently that they become as
meaningless as "How d'ye do!"[174]; though, as shown above[175], even this
very weakness could at moments be made the pretext for a mild laugh.
For a complete catalogue of the formidable mass of inconsistencies and
contradictions that throng the plays, the reader is referred to the
_Plautinische Studien_ of Langen, as aforesaid. It will be of passing
interest to recall one or two. In _Cas._ 530 Lysidamus goes to the "forum"
and returns _32 verses later_ complaining that he has wasted the whole day
standing "advocate" for a kinsman. But this difficulty is resolved, if we
accept the theory of Prof. Kent (TAPA. XXXVII), that the change of acts
which occurs in between, is a conventional excuse for any lapse of time,
in Roman comedy as well as in Greek tragedy. But it is extremely doubtful
that Prof.
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