Menander's The Arbitration is the work of a stronger playwright. This impression is left by the play's nested plots.
On top of the general plot about another classic mix up involving a father, a son, and a baby of "mysterious" origins, the play also involves a sub-plot wherein the shepherd who found this baby and the servant of its unwitting father seek an arbitrator to settle the matter of who owns the trinkets found with the baby.
What's troubling about this play though, is it's casual treatment of rape. The baby at the plot's center is the result of the main character's raping his wife four months before they're married. As to why he doesn't remember this incident, it's revealed that he had done it while drunkenly barging into a women's festival. Given this context (and what Marrou mentioned about the mixing of the sexes at festivals), I can understand how such a rape could be a plot device.
But, the coolness with which the characters treat the rape sets a strange scene for a comedy. The play's jokes aren't that dark, though. Generally speaking, they're more like verbal slapstick.
It may be that the bits missing from the play contextualized its plot's rape to some extent. As it is, though, and as a modern reader, a rape is out of place in a comedy. Unless Menander pioneered dark comedy.
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