Saturday, September 27, 2008
In the Wrong
Zeph Stewart, Introduction to Arthur Darby Nock, Essays on Religion and the Ancient World, vol. I (Cambridge: Harvard University Press, 1972), p. 2:
I read Plautus' Casina recently, and I wanted to see what Eduard Fraenkel had to say about it in Plautine Elements in Plautus, tr. Tomas Drevikovsky and Frances Muecke (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2007). There is an extended discussion of the play on pp. 199-214. After reading Fraenkel's discussion, I turned to the Addenda and saw these words (p. 419): "My analysis of Casina has been convincingly refuted by Jachmann, Plautinisches und Attisches, 105 ff."
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Unlike most scholars (and most men) he was delighted when someone could prove him wrong; his interest in getting at the truth overrode all considerations of vanity and personal theorizing.The opposite quality, the conviction and insistence that one is always in the right (in matters of scholarship, religion, politics, and in relations with others), must at times be a heavy burden. It is sometimes a relief to confess one's errors, shortcomings, and ignorance.
I read Plautus' Casina recently, and I wanted to see what Eduard Fraenkel had to say about it in Plautine Elements in Plautus, tr. Tomas Drevikovsky and Frances Muecke (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2007). There is an extended discussion of the play on pp. 199-214. After reading Fraenkel's discussion, I turned to the Addenda and saw these words (p. 419): "My analysis of Casina has been convincingly refuted by Jachmann, Plautinisches und Attisches, 105 ff."
