... Tentamen strictuarum in quasdam M. Accii Plauti comoedias

§. III.

BACCHID. Act IV, Sc. X, vs. 1.

I would prefer that Act V, Scene I begin from this small verse rather than Act IV, Scene X; for since actors ought never to leave the stage altogether in the middle of an act, this arrangement will be far more appropriate than the division of scenes handed down in the copies. For what prevents Act IV from being concluded with those words of Scene IX: Nunc hanc praedam omnem jam ad quaestorem deferam, and conversely, Act V, Scene I from beginning with Philoxenus’ monologue, Quam magis in pectore, etc.? Furthermore, the scene does not pause for even a single moment once Philoxenus’ speech is finished; rather, when Philoxenus ceases to speak to himself alone, Nicobulus begins to speak to himself in the same manner, with Philoxenus, in my opinion, never moving a step, for he, upon noticing Nicobulus at verse 18 of that scene, begins thus:

Whence the old men, having begun to converse with one another, remain on stage until the end of the play, so that from the words, Quam magis in pectore, etc., Act V appears to be continued in a perpetual flow.

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§. IV.

MENAECHM. Act I, Sc. I, v. 9.

In vain do the distinguished interpreters labor, who prefer to read lamnam or any other less suitable word rather than januam. The true meaning of the passage seems to me capable of being restored by a very slight correction, by drafting the text of this verse thus:

that is: they wear down the door together with the doorposts themselves. If we accept limen (threshold) as used for postibus (doorposts), it is a synecdoche by no means unusual for writers.

Nunc superum limen scinditur, is found in our author, Bacchid. A. IV, Sc. IX, v. 63.

Limen superum inferumque vale, Mercat. Act V, Sc. I, v. 1, and in many other places in Steph. Thes. L. L. s.v. LIMEN. What, therefore, prevents limen from being accepted for the entire frame of the doorposts?