Comedies

PREFACE

As for the fact that I was ordered, for the sake of young students, to standardize the orthography, I have chosen to continue through all the plays the same orthography that we can extract from the best evidence of the manuscripts in the later plays. For that method in an edition of this kind is perhaps better than following the orthography standardized in some scribe's workshop of the Middle Ages in the first eight plays. Therefore, I have always written caussa, quoi, opsecro, optineo, maxumus, optumus (but minimus), and similar forms; but where a variety of orthography appeared, as in aio and aiio, quoius (in the genitive case) and quoiius, I have either followed the writing of the manuscripts (aio Capt. 710, aiio Cas. 71) or have seized the opportunity to consult the readers and indicate prosodic variety through orthographic variety. Know, therefore, that the common spelling quoius expresses the common prosody2 of the genitive, while the spelling quoiius expresses the trochaic form; furthermore, immutatum signifies 'changed,' and inmutatum 'not changed.' However, I preferred either to omit silently forms that were too unfamiliar (e.g., quomqueneiscam for conquiniscam Cist. 657) or ambiguous (e.g., quom as a preposition, quit and nequit for quid and nequid, perierat for pei(i)erat, ei for long i in the imperative ei, aureis as accusative plural, deicere), or, if they seemed worthy of mention, to relegate them from the text to the notes; for in an edition of this kind, the convenience of the readers seemed more important than strict consistency3 or the preservation of traditional spelling. I have also conformed the division of words to the explanation of the meter, such as sī quidem4 and sĭquidem, tū quidem and tŭquidem.

1: Cf. to Asin. 589, 593. Traces of antiquity are rarely preserved in this part except through ignorance, such as that quo iusserat (Capt. 887) which was for quoius, since that corrector (B³) was careless of ancient orthography.

2: Whether monosyllabic 'quoĭus' or disyllabic 'quŏyŭs.' For 'grammarians differ and the case is still before the judge' original: "grammatici certant et adhuc sub iudice lis est" (Horace, Ars Poetica).

3: I have always written vaco, but in Cas. 527 I could not help but write vocent: 'Let your house have a tongue. Why so? When I come, let them call out.'

4: I have kept the separated spelling, as it is more common, wherever doubt seemed to exist.