Of a very different type is the piece which comes next the _Amphrituo_ in acknowledged excellence, the _Captivi_. It is a comedy of sentiment, without female characters, and therefore without the coarseness which (as one is forced to say with regret) disfigures some of the other plays. The development of the plot has won high praise from all critics, and justifies the boast of the epilogue, _Huiusmodi paucas poetae reperiunt comoedias_. But the praise which the author gives to his own piece-- _Non pertractate facta est neque item ut ceterae, Neque spurcidici insunt versus immemorabiles, Hic neque periurus leno est nec meretrix mala Neque miles gloriosus--_ is really a severe condemnation of two other groups of Plautine plays. The _Casina_ and the _Truculentus_ (the latter, as we know from Cicero, a special favourite with its author) are studies in pornography which only the unflagging animal spirits of the poet can redeem from being disgusting; and the _Asinaria, Curculio_, and _Miles Gloriosus_ are broad farces with the thinnest thread of plot. The last depends wholly on the somewhat forced and exaggerated character of the title-rôle; as the _Pseudolus_, a piece with rather more substance, does mainly on its _periurus leno_, Ballio, a character who reminds one of Falstaff in his entire shamelessness and inexhaustible vocabulary. A different vein, the domestic comedy of middle-class life, is opened in one of the most quietly successful of his pieces, the _Trinummus_, or _Threepenny-bit_. In spite of all the characters being rather fatiguingly virtuous in their sentiments, it is full of life, and not without gracefulness and charm. After the riotous scenes of the lighter plays, it is something of a comfort to return to the good sense and good feeling of respectable people. It forms an interesting contrast to the _Bacchides_, a play which returns to the world of the bawd and harlot, but with a brilliance of intrigue and execution that makes it rank high among comedies.