Foolish Leaps: From Seneca, to Plautus, to law and liberty, to... Jephthah?
In a recent LinkedIn post , Pino Blasone spoke of a Pompeian fresco depicting actors, and also mentioned some other details relating to theater. Adrienne Darvay Nagy , in a comment on Pino's post, mentioned a line from Hamlet in which Polonius seems to be reading from a handbill advertising the arrival of the players: "...Seneca cannot be too heavy, nor Plautus too light. For the law of writ and the liberty, these are the only men." (HAMLET - Act II. Scene 2.) The thread of thinking at this moment in the play goes from Seneca to Plautus, to "For the law of writ and the liberty, these are the only men." Then Hamlet mentions Jephthah - this seems like a tangent, and Polonius seems confused at the leap of thought. But in fact, perhaps Hamlet intuits that Jephthah *should* follow, because it has something to do with "the law of writ and the liberty" and the claim of exclusivity that Polonius has read from the handbill? The tale ...