Since our extant plays belong exclusively to the fifth and fourth centuries, the size of the troupes furnished by the guilds could have exerted no influence upon them. But it is quite possible that the dramatists of later times deliberately adapted their technique to the needs of subsequent presentation by such companies. For example, the number of characters who can have a speaking part in a dialogue naturally cannot exceed the number of actors at the poet’s disposal. Whatever may have been the situation previously, in the technitae period this would be three. Therefore if the technitae did not give rise to, they at least fixed the so-called aesthetic law that if a fourth character is present at a conversation between three others he must keep silent. This rule is expressed by Horace[283] in the words: “Let no fourth character strive to speak,” and it is often mentioned by writers of the Alexandrian and Roman periods. The scholiasts belong to this time and their comments frequently reveal an attempt to foist the aesthetic law upon the fifth-century dramas. The difficulty which the fifth-century writers encountered in mastering even the three-part dialogue (see p. 170) lends to such an attempt a misleading facility. In tragedy the normal restriction of actors to three makes the task especially easy, but even here the law is only superficially observed. For the coryphaeus often participates so freely in a conversation between actors (see pp. 164 f. and 169 f., above) that only by courtesy can it be called a three-part dialogue. In Seneca’s Roman tragedies, on the contrary, the coryphaeus never speaks if more than one actor is present.[284] Now Professor Rees would trace the aesthetic law back to fifth-century times, but Dr. Kaffenberger (_op. cit._, pp. 22 f.) rightly demurs. He points out that in Sophocles’ _Oedipus at Colonus_, vss. 1099-1555, Oedipus, Antigone, and Ismene are continuously present but that Ismene says never a word. What is the cause of this silence? During vss. 1099-1210 and vss. 1500-1555 Theseus is also present and during vss. 1249-1446 Polynices is present. In these scenes, therefore, it is possible to explain Ismene’s silence on the basis of the aesthetic law. But during vss. 1447-99 Oedipus and his two daughters are left alone, and Ismene still remains silent. Consequently the aesthetic explanation breaks down at this point and we must stand by our earlier conclusion (see pp. 181 f., above) that throughout these scenes Ismene is impersonated by a mute. Moreover, since Oedipus forbids his daughters sharing his final moments with him, why does the poet not let him take leave of them on the stage instead of resorting to a messenger’s narrative (cf. vss. 1611 ff.)? The answer is obvious. In such a situation Ismene simply _must_ have spoken and this a mute could not have done for her. Moreover, there is no aesthetic reason why the law should not be as binding in comedy as in tragedy. Nevertheless, fifth-century comedies