148 Specimens of Latin Comedy [FEB. 



central district of Greece ; he had two sons, one of whom, when only 

 four years old, was carried off by a slave, and sold in Elis, a country in 

 the north-west of the Peloponnesus, or the Morea. Hegio was soon 

 afterwards deprived also of his other son, and has to lament that he has 

 " begot his children only to be childless ;" for a war subsequently broke 

 out between the Elians and the Aetolians, and he was taken captive by 

 the Elians. The bereaved father, with a view of afterwards ransoming 

 his son, by an exchange, purchased an Elian prisoner, called Philocrates, 

 together with his servant, Tyndarus ; and the play opens with the 

 master, Philocrates, personating his slave, while the slave, Tyndarus, 

 assumes the character of his master. Hegio, a good-natured old man, 

 though none of the keenest, is thus deceived, and is persuaded to send 

 the true Philocrates (the master), under the name of Tyndarus (the 

 slave), to Elis, in order to effect the exchange of his son. The fraud, 

 however, is discovered to Hegio by one of his other captives, called 

 Aristophontes, before Philocrates returns ; and we find the old man 

 execrating both master and slave, and lamenting that he has ' ' lost the 

 kernel/ and, for security, the shell is left" him. Hegio, now fearing 

 that he has lost all hope of ransoming his child, condemns Tyndarus to 

 labour in the mines. Just after this Philocrates returns from Elis with 

 Hegio's son, and also brings with him the fugitive slave, who had stolen 

 his other son in infancy. It is then discovered that Tyndarus is this 

 son, who was sold by the slave to the father of Philocrates, and was by 

 him appointed to wait on Philocrates, who afterwards treated him as his 

 confidant and friend. Our readers cannot but be struck with the great 

 resemblance of this plot to that of Ben Jonson's comedy, entitled, " The 

 Case is altered." 



The scene is laid in Calydon, a city of Aetolia. 



One of the most interesting characters, which we have omitted to 

 mention in our account of the plot, that there might be no interruption 

 to the thread of the narrative, is the Parasite. He is the broad comic 

 character of the drama. In this, as in most of the other plays of Plautus, 

 the Parasite is a sort of episodical character ; he is not so familiar on 

 the modern stage, but he is chiefly exhibited in the old comedies of 

 Ariosto and Aretine, who copied so servilely from the plays of Plautus 

 and Terence. On him we depend chiefly for the humour of the piece. 

 In the Captives he goes prowling about all day for a supper, and failing 

 in all his attempts, at last we find him entering on the stage, at the com- 

 mencement of the third act, with the following amusingly lugubrious 

 soliloquy in his mouth : 



It is a sad case for a poor wretch, to prowl 



In quest of a meal's meat, and at the last 



With much ado to find one ; sadder is it 



To fish and hunt the live-long day, 



And at the last find nothing ; but most sad 



To have a keen and craving appetite, 



Without a morsel to appease its longing. 



A plague upon this day ! I'd dig its eyes out, 



Had I the power ; it has so filled mankind 



With enmity towards me. Never sure 



W r as there a wretch so starved, so crammed with hunger, 



Or one whose projects have so little prospered. 



I fear my throat and belly must keep holiday. 



Would it were hanged for me, this scurvy trade, 



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