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Published online by Cambridge University Press: 11 February 2009
The statement that masks were not introduced on the Roman stage until after the time of Terence is still repeated by editors (e.g. Menaechmi, Thoresby Jones, 1918, p. 19; Menaechmi, Moseley aria Hammond, 1933, p. 19) and has the support of Pauly Wissowa (Bieber, s.v. ‘Maske’, 1930) as well as Daremberg and Saglio (Navarre, s.v. histrio); it may, in fact, be regarded as generally accepted. Yet so long ago as 1912 A. S. F. Gow (J.R.S. ii. 65–77) put forward strong arguments on the opposite side; his article, though mentioned with respect in Bursian (1936, pp. 51 ff.) and referred to by Schanz-Hosius (i. 149), has not yet been satisfactorily answered, so far as I am aware. Gow did not claim that a final solution of this problem could be attained on our present evidence, but he did show that the orthodox position is open to attack. I hope to prove that the arguments in favour of the early use of masks are even stronger than he claimed.
page 140 note 1 Gow, on the authority of Hand's Tursellinus (which is followed by all the dictionaries, including theThesaurus), held that etiam turn, etiamtune must mean ‘even at that late period’; this interpretation, as he points out, would imply surprise on the part of Donatus at finding that Prothymus, to whom he ascribes the introduction of masks (c) was still wearing them when heproduced the Eunuchus; Donatus must therefore have supposed that masks were worn only for a few years. This is nonsense; accordingly Gow decided to give up any attempt to explain the de Comoedia passage (c). Not possessing Hand's Tursellinus, I was driven to looking up the passages quoted in the dictionaries; the first I looked at was Suet. Tib. 42, tiro etiam tum, which the lexicographers evidently interpret as ‘a novice even at that late date’. Suetonius is retailing the scandals of Tiberius' life in Capreae; he goes on ‘in castris tiro etiam turn propter nimiam uini auiditatem pro Tiberio Biberius, pro Claudio Caldius, pro Nerone Mero uocabatur. postea princeps…’ Clearly in castris is meant to take the reader back to the Emperor's youth (contrasting with postea princeps), and Rolfe correctly translates ‘even at the outset of his military career’.
page 142 note 1 The negative is missing from the manuscripts, but it is inserted by some editors, and seems indispensable.
page 143 note 1 The use of masks on the Elizabethan stage seems to have been confined to ogres, etc.
page 145 note 1 How inconsistent the orthodox position is will appear from comparing (1) the frequent assertions of thoroughgoing Plautine alterations —by contamination or the like—in the Stichus with (2) the stock view that doubling of roles had no interest for Plautus and (3) the demon strable fact that the Stichus, as we have it, with its eleven characters, could be performed by a company of not more than three.
