Jonson's _Alchemist_. The scene is Athens.

11. _Menaechmi_.--If ll. 409 _sqq._, 'Syracusis ... ubi rex ... nunc
Hierost,' were written independently by Plautus, the date must be
before B.C. 215; but the reference may only mean that the Greek
original was composed between 275 and 215 B.C. It has been conjectured
that a comedy by Posidippus (possibly called +Didymoi+) was
the original, from Athenaeus, xiv. p. 658, +oude gar an heuroi
tis hymon doulon tina mageiron en komodia plen para Poseidippo
mono+. Now, the _Menaechmi_ is the only play of Plautus where a cook
is a house-slave, Cylindrus being the slave of Erotium; in his other
plays cooks are hired from the Forum. The scene is Epidamnus.

12. _Miles Gloriosus_.--In ll. 211-2 (the only personal allusion in
Plautus),

'Nam os columnatum poetae esse indaudivi barbaro,
quoi bini custodes semper totis horis occubant,'

we have a reference to the imprisonment of Naevius, which shows that
the play was written before his banishment, probably B.C. 206-5 (see
under 'Naevius'). Line 1016, 'Cedo signum, si harum Baccharum es,'
shows that the play is anterior to B.C. 186.

The original is the +Alazon+ of some Greek poet. Cf. ll. 86-7,

'Alazon Graece huic nomen est comoediae:
id nos Latine gloriosum dicimus.'

The play, however, exhibits _contaminatio_. Two distinct actions, the
cheating of Sceledrus (Act i.) and the cheating of the Miles (Acts ii.
and iii.), are united rather loosely; and it has been conjectured that
Menander's +Kolax+, or (according to Ritschl) Diphilus'
+Hairesiteiches+, was the play used. Ritschl's view is perhaps
supported by the word _urbicape_ in l. 1055. The play is the longest
_palliata_ preserved. The scene is Ephesus.

13. _Mercator_.--The original is Philemon's +Emporos+; ll. 5-6,

'Graece haec vocatur Emporos Philemonis;
eadem Latine Mercator Macci Titi.'

Some light is thrown on the date by ll. 524-6.

'_L._ Ovem tibi eccillam dabo, natam annos sexaginta,
peculiarem. _P._ Mei senex, tam vetulam? _L._ Generis Graeci est.
Eam sei curabeis, perbonast; tondetur nimium scite.'

This could not have been written before B.C. 196, the date of the
settlement of Greece. The play shows traces of two distinct editions.
The scene is Athens.

14. _Pseudolus_.--The Greek original is unknown. The date of
production (B.C. 191) is got from the didascalia, as restored by
Ritschl, 'M. Iunio M. fil. pr. urb. acta Megalesiis.' The Megale