Author Description

This historic book may have numerous typos and missing text. Purchasers can download a free scanned copy of the original book (without typos) from the publisher. Not indexed. Not illustrated. 1893 Excerpt:...II. Comparison Of The Use Of The Words in particular. Hercle (Mehercle). Edepol (Pol). Ecastor (Mecastor). Plautus 642 606 118 Terence 98 77 7 Hercle. Edepol (Pol). Ecastor. i.e. Plautus 5.432: 5.135: 1 Terence 14: 11:1 III. Comparison Of The Use Of Forms Of The Same Word. Hercle. Mehercle. Edepol. Pol. Ecastor. Mecastor. Plautus 639 3 356 250 101 17 _i.e. 213: 1 1425: 1 6:1 Terence 96 2 22 55 52 i.e. 48: 1 1:2.5 2.5: 1 i.e. Plautus prefers form Edepol to Pol in ratio 1.5: 1. Terence prefers form Pol to Edepol in ratio 2.5: 1. Note.--In both poets, women prefer the form Pol to Edepol (Plautus, 81: 27, i.e. 3:1; Terence, 46: 10, i.e. 4.6: 1); while men prefer the form Edepol to Pol (Plautus, 329: 169, i.e. 2:1; Terence, 12:9, i.e. 1.3: 1). See § VIII., Table 3, below. IV. The Use Of These Words By Men And Women Distinguished. (Me)hercle. A. (me)hercle is used altogether by men in Plautus and Terence. Note.--There are four possible exceptions to this rule; cases where, according to the Mss., hercle is used by women. These have all been emended by various editors, to conform to the general rule, as laid down by Gellius, Noct. Att. XI. 6. These cases are the following:--1. Plaut. Casina 982. Ritschl and Ussing both give the speech "Haud mentire hercle; nam pa...." to a woman, the former to Cleostrata, the latter to Myrrhina. The passage is very corrupt; the hercle of the other Mss. is indecipherable in the Ambrosian, though the space would admit it. The state of the text also makes it doubtful as to the persons to whom this and the two preceding speeches should be referred. Several of the Mss., including the Ambrosian, do not separate this speech from the Egone just preceding. The Delphin Edition gives the words "haud mentire hercle, etc.,&q...