Aulus 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:

postquam est mortem aptus Plautus, Comoedia luget
scaena deserta [est] [est] Orelli (see E. Courtney,The Fragmentary Latin Poets (Oxford: 1993), 48-9).; dein Risus, Ludus Iocusque,
et Numeri innumeri simul omnes 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)..

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:

‘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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