And (of the kind) the
comic comes nearest; because in moving the minds of men, and
stirring of affections (in which oratory shows, and especially
approves her eminence), he chiefly excels. What figure of a body
was Lysippus ever able to form with his graver, or Apelles to paint
with his pencil, as the comedy to life expresseth so many and
various affections of the mind? There shall the spectator see some
insulting with joy, others fretting with melancholy, raging with
anger, mad with love, boiling with avarice, undone with riot,
tortured with expectation, consumed with fear; no perturbation in
common life but the orator finds an example of it in the scene. And
then for the elegancy of language, read but this inscription on the
grave of a comic poet:
"Immortales mortales si fas esset fiere,
Flerent divae Camoenae Naevium poetam;
Itaque postquam est Orcino traditus thesauro,
Obliti sunt Romae lingua loqui Latina." {146a}
L. AElius Stilo.--Plautus.--M. Varro.--Or that modester testimony
given by Lucius AElius Stilo upon Plautus, who affirmed, "Musas, si
Latine loqui voluissent, Plautino sermone fuisse loquuturas.
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