Peculiarities in the text of Plautus

[Ascyltos]

Hello!

I'm writing my university thesis on Plautine comedy and had questions about line numbering and symbols in the text.

I'm using Questa's text of the Casina in the Editiones Plautinae Sarsinates series.

* What do the symbols <> mean in: nam<que> ubi amor condimentum inerit, cuiuis placituram <escam> credo (221)?

* Some single lines are given two numbers – e.g. tace sis, stulta, et mi ausculta. noli sis tu illi advorsari (204-205). Is this a reflection of variant numbering in Manuscripts or something else? If referencing these lines, should I use include both numbers?

* Other sequences of lines include letters: heia, mea Iuno, non decet / esse te tam tristem tuo Ioui (230-230a). What do these signify?

Any help would be much appreciated!
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[scrabulista]

I'm guessing that the <> symbols indicate an uncertain word. When the manuscript was copied, it wasn't clear whether it was nam or namque,
or placituram or placitescam (although I can't find any attestation of the latter).

With the two lines in one - two lines of text fit on one physical line.

Plautus: Casina

I have no thoughts on the third one.

 

[Dantius]

Usually the <> indicates that those words have been added by editors (and [] indicates words included in the manuscripts that editors think should be removed). In the case of Plautus, the plays are metrical but the copyists of the manuscripts didn't understand the meter, so they often omitted words and phrases that are necessary for the line to work metrically. So I think the <> brackets are things editors have inserted.

 

[Gregorius Textor]

the plays are metrical but the copyists of the manuscripts didn't understand the meter,

Those silly copyists!