AVLVLARIA WITH NOTES CRITICAL AND EXEGETICAL AND AN INTRODUCTION · BY WILHELM WAGNER, PH. D. PROFESSOR AT THE JOHANNEUM, HAMBURG. PREFACE TO THE FIRST EDITION. As the present work is intended to supply the wants of more than one class of readers, I think that on its completion a few words will not be superfluous in order to explain its origin and purpose. of In pursuance my studies on the Aulularia, a first specimen of which I had given in my dissertation de Plauti Aulularia (Bonn, Marcus, 1864), I had as well as I could emended the text and collected much material towards an exegetical commentary. Easter 1865 I visited London to collate the MS. J in the British Museum. On my return to Manchester, I went over the text again, and in this way a critical commentary was at last produced which appeared to give a clearer idea of the textual history of this play than could be had from any former edition. In June, I went again to London, and there it was that Professor Key kindly encouraged me to publish my labours. Now, although I had at first planned nothing more than a critical edition of the Aulularia, I soon found that my book would be more useful and perhaps agreeable to a larger range of readers, if an exegetical commentary should be added. It may be that only a few scholars will care for the critical notes, but surely many students will desire to have explanatory notes, without which the edition would to them be quite useless. As it is my opinion that no Latin author can be advantageously explained in the same language, I have written my notes in English, though I am well aware that in so doing I must rely on the forbearance and kindness of my readers, who will, I hope, not be very strict in the case of a foreigner whose acquaintance with the English language is not of very long standing. I may say that I have read and studied all the commentaries ever written on the Aulularia, and there scarcely can be anything of importance in them which would not be found. in my notes. But at the same time, I have tried to avoid all unnecessary and superfluous erudition which seemed to have no connexion with the explanation of the text. On the whole I venture to hope that a student will after the perusal of my notes be sufficiently prepared for a critical study of the Plautine comedies. I have not thought my commentary to be a place wherein to mention the names of former commentators whenever I am indebted to them for explanations or quotations; there is indeed a great deal of exegetical matter running through all commentaries, and wellknown to every scholar; special mention has, however, been thought necessary in exceptional cases where peculiar honour seemed due to the discovery of difficult explanations or happy quotations. Whether the original additions and illustrations given in the present commentary will be thought an improvement or not, I must leave to my readers to decide. In the Introduction I have chiefly endeavoured to give a brief, but clear and sufficient summary of the laws of Plautine prosody. This seemed the more necessary as the results of the investigations of Ritschl and other German scholars on this subject are either totally unknown or, at best, but partially known in this country, and are moreover not easily accessible to the English student, they being scattered through Ritschl's Plautus and prooemia, and many volumes of German philological periodicals. In concluding this preface, it gives me great pleasure publicly to acknowledge the manifold obligations which I owe to Dr Ernest Adams, who has not only kindly touched my English style in many a sore part, but to whose hints and suggestions both the Introduction and notes are greatly indebted. Thus I dismiss my book, though I feel that it stands in need of much indulgence and forbearance-I venture to say that it would be better if I could have written it at a place more favourable to philological studies than Manchester. RUSHOLME, NEAR MANCHESTER, The present work will be found to differ from the first edition in not a few respects. In the first place I have omitted the critical commentary which will appear in an amended shape in a critical edition to be published shortly. I have, however, revised the text with much |