But it all adds inevitably and relentlessly to
our argument--Plautus was heedless of the petty demands of technique and
realism. His attention was too much occupied in devising means of
amusement.
The occasional topical allusions belong in the same category as above; for
example, the allusion to the Punic war (_Cis._ 202),[185] the _lex
Platoria_ (_Ps._ 303, _Rud._ 1381-2), Naevius' imprisonment (_Mil. _
211-2), Attalus of Pergamum (_Per._ 339, _Poen._ 664), Antiochus the Great
(_Poen._ 693-4). Again we have a modern parallel: the topics of the day
are a favorite resort of the lower types of present-day stage production.
5. Jokes on the dramatic machinery.
But the most extreme stage of intimate jocularity is reached when the last
sorry pretense of drama is discarded and the dramatic machinery itself
becomes the subject of jest. So in the _Cas._ 1006 the cast is warned:
Hanc ex longa longiorem ne faciamus fabulam. In _Per._ 159-60 Saturio
wants to know where to get his daughter's projected disguise:
"SAT. {~GREEK SMALL LETTER PI~}{~GREEK SMALL LETTER OMICRON WITH TONOS~}{~GREEK SMALL LETTER THETA~}{~GREEK SMALL LETTER EPSILON~}{~GREEK SMALL LETTER NU~} ornamenta?
TOX. Abs chorago sumito. Dare debet: praebenda aediles locaverunt." (Cf.
_Trin._ 858.)
Even the _Ps._, heralded as dramatically one of the best of the plays,
yields the following: Horum caussa haec agitur spectatorum fabula (720);
hanc fabulam dum transigam (562) and following speech; verba quae in
comoediis solent lenoni dici (1081-2); quam in aliis comoediis fit (1240);
quin vocas spectatores simul? (1332).
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