Plautus Pleads His Case.

Plautus Pleads His Case.
                                          Barra de Navidad. Dec 27, 2007.
                                              Verse composed in very loose heroic couplets.

In ancient days, when drama was still witty,
For scripts were not yet written by committee,
And poets wrote their plays in classical Latin
Since Rome was where the seat of power was sat in,
The leading Roman playwright of the age,
Whose comedies monopolized the stage
--And get there on occasion still today--
Plautus stood accused of padding a play
With passages composed by noble friends
Willing to stoop to serve ignoble ends
By offering elegant verse for his adoption.

The facts were clear; denial was not an option;
Yet Plautus claimed the charge exaggerated,
And he remained undiscombobulated.

He prefaced his next play with this defense:
That far from constituting an offense,
The lines he owed to men of noble birth
Paid tribute to his own poetic worth;
That a playwright should win friends of exalted station
Admitted of no other explanation.
Such friends, whose rank forbade authorial fame,
Were eager to put their verses in his name.

Poets are to sophists near allied,
As Oscar's essay (and his trial) implied;
Irrelevance distracts the public mind
While questions are ignored, then left behind.

The evening, without question, gave such pleasure
That Plautus was declared a national treasure!
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The reference is to Oscar Wilde's The Decay of Lying, the contents of which largely slip my mind.