Macilentis malis, rufulus, aliquantum ventriosus,
Truculentis oculis, commoda statura, tristi fronte.
In the Mer. Lysimachus is described as a veritable thensaurus mali (639-40):
Canum, varum, ventriosum, buculentum, breviculum,
Subnigris oculis, oblongis malis, pansam aliquantulum.
Curculio was one-eyed: "Unocule, salve" (Cur. 392). Pseudolus must have been a joy to the groundlings (Ps. 1218 ff.):
Rufus quidam, ventriosus, crassis suris, subniger,
Magno capite, acutis oculis, ore rubicundo, admodum
Magnis pedibus. BA. Perdidisti, ut nominavisti pedes.
Pseudolus fuit ipsus.
His red slave's wig is thus made a feature in the characterization. (Cf. Ter. Phor. 51). When Trachalio is looking for the procurer, he inquires (Rud. 316 ff.):
Ecquem
Recalvom ad Silanum senem, statutum, ventriosum,
Tortis superciliis, contracta fronte...?[90]
The precise details of the histrionic technique and "stage business" in vogue must remain more or less a mystery to us. Our limitations in this respect are admirably enunciated by Saunders (TAPA. XLIV, p. 97): "One must conclude then, that it is dangerous to dogmatize on this subject, as on most others connected with the early Roman stage. Our evidence is too slight and the period of time involved is too long...." We can, therefore, deal in little but generalities. The Romans must have imitated and developed their Greek and Etruscan models.[91] When Livius Andronicus first fathered palliatae, he must have chosen the New Comedy not only as the type of drama most available to him, but as wholly adaptable to his audiences. When Plautus wrote, he had the machinery already built for him, and he doubtless seized upon the palliata form as the natural medium for the exploitation of his talents. By Cicero's time considerable technical equipment was required; the actor must be an adept in gesticulation, gymnastic and dancing.[92] Appreciable refinement had been reached in Quintilian's age, for he scores the comic actor who departs too far from reality and pronounces the ideal player him who declaims with a measured artistic heightening of everyday discourse.[93] It is noteworthy that this practically coincides with the accepted standard of modern realistic acting. But the Plautine actor could never have felt himself trammeled by any such narrow and sophisticated restrictions, as we believe the evidence accumulated above amply proves. At any rate, the delineation of different roles must have been at all times strictly in character. The need of feminine vocal tones, unless another jest is intended is indicated by Rud. 233:
Certe vox muliebris auris tetigit meas.
And Quintilian admonishes the youth who is taking lessons from a comic actor in voice-production not to carry his precepts so far as to imitate the female falsetto, the senile tremolo, the obsequiousness of the slave, the stuttering accents of intoxication or the intonations of love, greed, fear.[94]