Living Poets

{{DISPLAYTITLE:Gellius ''Noctes Atticae'' 1.24.3}}
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epigramma Plauti, quod dubitassemus an Plauti foret, nisi a M. Varrone positum esset in libro de poetis primo:
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postquam est mortem aptus Plautus, Comoedia luget
scaena deserta {{#lemma: [est] | [''est''] Orelli (see E. Courtney,''The Fragmentary Latin Poets'' (Oxford: 1993), 48-9).}}; dein Risus, Ludus Iocusque,
et Numeri innumeri simul omnes {{#lemma: conlacrimarunt | A deliberate pun: ‘countless rhythms all wept together’ (cf. Lucr. 2.1054) but also ‘rhythms all simultaneously losing their rhythm wept’ (cf. Courtney, 49).}}.
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We would doubt whether the epitaph of Plautus were really by the poet, if Marcus Varro had not quoted it in the first book of ''On Poets'': 
<blockquote>‘Since the death of Plautus, Comedy has been in mourning because the stage is deserted: then Laughter, Play, and Wit, and countless rhythms all wept together’.
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[[Category:Plautus Collections]]