ABSTRACT
By adding an epilogue to hi a play, the author of Merourius Ruatioana la departing from the lava for the writing of comedy laid down by the Romans and Greeks, and is following those of the Elizabethan theatre. It was customary for Roman comedy to come to an abrupt end – as soon as the plot had been successfully unravelled, or mistaken identities discovered – with one of the characters asking the audience to give their applause. In Terence’s Phormio (1.1055)t for example, the ‘cantor’ turns to the spectators, and says: “wos valete et plaudits”; similarly, in the Amphitruo of Plautus, Amphitruo (1.1146), addresses the members of the audience thust “nunc, spectatores, Iovis summi causa clare plaudits.”
