Terence has wrought up the second act of this play with the utmost art

and caution: a particular beauty in the pieces written by this great

poet appears in the judicious disposition of his incidents, and in his

so industriously concealing his catastrophe until the proper time for

its appearance. This is a circumstance of great importance in dramatic

writing, to which some authors pay too little attention. An ingenious

critic of the last age has pointed out a very extraordinary instance of

a total deficiency of art in this respect, where both the _plot_ and

the _catastrophe_ are completely _revealed in the very title_. This

piece is _Venice Preserved, or the Plot Discovered_, which is, in other

respects, a very fine production. How much such a title as this must

deaden the interest that an audience would otherwise feel from their

suspense! This is a point which admits of no argument.

“Vestibulum ante ipsum, primoque in limine FINIS

Scribitur.”――――

NOTE 139.

_Lesbia._

The circumstance of a female officiating as a medical attendant is of

some importance. Caius Hyginus, a learned Spaniard, and the freedman

of Augustus Cæsar, mentions in his “_Mythological Fables_” an ancient

Athenian law, prohibiting women from the practice of physic: this

prohibition was productive of great inconvenience in _many cases_,

and afterwards repealed; when _free women_ were suffered to practise

midwifery. To ascertain the date of this repeal, would afford us some

guide to fix on _the times_, when the scenes described in this play

were supposed to happen, and the _manners_ of which both Menander and

Terence meant to portray.

NOTE 140.

_Glycera._

I have taken the liberty of following the example of Bernard, Echard,

and most of the French translators, in softening the word Glycerium,

which, to an English ear, sounds masculine enough for the name of Cæsar

or of Alexander. But, for a female’s name,

――――“Why, it is harder, Sirs, than Gordon,

Colkitto, or Macdonnel, or Galasp?

Those rugged names to our like mouths grow sleek,

That would have made _Quintilian_ stare and gasp.”

MILTON.

NOTE 141.

_Mysis.――For, girl or boy, he has given orders,

that the child shall be brought up._

Nam quod peperisset _jussit_ tolli.

_Vide_ Notes 93, 126. When circumstances would not allow the father

of an infant to take it up from the ground himself, if he intended to

preserve it, he commissioned some friend to perform the ceremony for

him. This is the meaning of _jussit tolli_ in this passage. _Vide_

Pitis Dict., Art. _Expositio_, and Athenæ. B. 10.

NOTE 142.

_Simo.――O Jupiter! what do I hear? it is all over if what she says

be truth!――is he so mad? a foreigner too!_

I imagine that in this passage, Terence meant Simo to call Glycera

a _foreigner_ merely, and not a woman of light character, which

_peregrina_ sometimes means, (_vide_ Note 82.) Madame Dacier translates

the words ex peregrina by “_quoi d’une étrangère? c’est à dire d’une

courtisane, car comme je l’ai remarqué ailleurs, on donnoit le nom

d’étrangères à toutes les femmes debauchées_: et je crois qu’ils

avoient pris cela des Orientaux; car on trouve étrangère en ce sens

là dans les livres du VIEUX TESTAMENT.” But peregrina will hardly

bear this interpretation in this particular passage, because we must

suppose that Simo had not that opinion of Glycera’s character; for he

himself (Act I. Scene I.) says, that her appearance was “so modest

and so charming, that nothing could surpass it.” Simo, however, had

sufficient reason for exclamation; supposing that he considered Glycera

merely as a person who was not a native of Athens. The Athenian laws

were rigorously strict in prohibiting a citizen from contracting a

marriage with any woman who was not a citizen: if such a marriage was

contracted, and the parties impeached and convicted, the husband was

fined very heavily, in proportion to his property; the wife sold for

a slave; and any person who was proved to have used any species of

deceit to induce the Athenian to form this forbidden connexion, was

punished with the worst kind of infamy, which included the loss of his

liberty and of his estate. The first of these punishments was called

ζημία, the second δουλεία, and the third ἀτιμία. If Simo, therefore,

supposed that Glycera was not a citizen, and believed Pamphilus to be

her husband, his apprehensions appear very natural.

NOTE 143.

_Glycera.――O Juno, Lucina, help! save me, I beseech

thee._

Though Juno was sometimes called Lucina, Diana is the goddess here

called Juno Lucina. Diana received the appellation of Juno, (as I

apprehend,) because she was considered by the ancients as presiding

over women in child-birth: and might, therefore, very properly be

termed _Juno_, the guardian _genius_ of women; as Junones was the usual

name for those spirits who were supposed to be the protectors of women,

as the genii were thought to be the guardians of men: (_vide_ Note

106.) _Catullus_ addressing Diana, calls her expressly by the names

Juno Lucina:

“Tu _Lucina_ dolentibus

_Juno_ dicta puerperis.”

And thou, Juno Lucina called

By women who implore thy aid.

_Cicero_ also confirms the assertion of Catullus, “Ut apud Græcos

Dianam eamque Luciferam, sic apud nostros _Junonem Lucinam_ invocant.”

As the Greeks call upon Diana Lucifera, so we call upon the same

goddess by the names of Juno Lucina. Diana was almost universally

worshipped in Greece, where many magnificent temples were erected in

her honour: amongst which, was that of Ephesus, reckoned one of the

wonders of the world. Of this magnificent structure, the ruins may now

be seen near Ajasalouc in Natolia. The temple was purposely burned by

Eratorastus, who adopted this mode of perpetuating his name. The Greek

festivals celebrated in honour of their imaginary deities were almost

innumerable: and those dedicated to Diana, shew the high estimation in

which she was held. A surprising number of festivals were celebrated in

honour of this goddess, in various parts of Greece. The following are

the names of the chief of those held in Athens,

Τεσσαρακοστὸν, Μουνυχία, Θαργήλια, Λιμνατίδια, Ἀρτεμίσια, Βραυρώνια,

Ἐλαφηβόλια. _Vide_ Athen., Δειπνοσο, B. 14.

NOTE 144.

_Why, Davus, your incidents are not well timed at

all, man._

“Non sat commode

Divisa sunt temporibus tibi, Dave, hæc.”

Another allusion to the drama: Simo compares Davus’s supposed plot to

a comedy, and Davus the contriver of it he calls _magister_, which was

the title of the person who instructed the actors in their parts, or

perhaps the title of the author. Simo accuses Davus of bringing forward

his catastrophe too soon, and asks him whether the actors in his piece

(_discipuli_) had forgotten their parts.

Ancient dramatic writers were very strict in adhering to their rules of

composition.

According to Vossius, the ancients divided a comedy into three parts:

1. _protasis_, 2. _epitasis_, 3. _catastrophe_. The _protasis_

occupied Act I., and was devoted to the explanation of the argument.

The _epitasis_ took up Act II. III. IV., contained the incidents, and

wrought up the mind to a degree of interest, taking care to leave

it _in doubt_; which brought on the catastrophe, which unravelled

and cleared up the whole; and is defined by _Scaliger_ thus,

“_conversio negotii exagitati in tranquillitatem non expectatam_:”

_a sudden changing of the hurry and bustle of action into unexpected

tranquillity_. The same learned critic adds a fourth part to the

before-mentioned three, which he calls _catastasis_, and places

immediately before the catastrophe: he defines the catastasis as

follows, “_vigor ac status fabulæ, in qua res miscetur in ea fortunæ

tempestate, in quam subducta est_:” _that liveliness and issue of the

plot, in which the various incidents are mixed up in such a commotion

of fortune as to be in a proper state to be brought down to the

catastrophe_.

NOTE 145.

_What a laughing-stock would this rascal have made

of me._

Quos mihi _ludos_ redderet.

This is an allusion to the games which were exhibited among the

ancients with a view to entertain the people; and also to create in

them a spirit of emulation in glorious actions. Games, both in Greece

and Rome, constituted a part of religious worship; they were divided

into three classes, 1. what the Romans called _ludi equestres_, or

horse, and chariot-races; 2. _ludi agonales_, or combats of gladiators

and others, and also of beasts; 3. _ludi scenici et musici_, or

dramatic exhibitions of all kinds, music, dancing, _&c._ The chief

games among the Greeks were, 1. the _Olympic_, dedicated to Jupiter;

2. the _Pythian_, to Apollo; 3. the _Nemæan_, to Hercules; 4. the

_Isthmian_, to Neptune; 5. the games celebrated at the observation of

the _Eleusinian_ mysteries, in honour of Ceres and Proserpine: 6. _the

great Panathenæa_, dedicated to Minerva. Those who obtained the victory

in these games, were universally distinguished; and their success

reflected glory on their family, and even on the cities from whence

they came; part of the wall of which was thrown down to admit them in

triumph on their return. Those Athenians who were conquerors in the

Olympic games, were afterwards (_at their own option_,) maintained at

the public charge, and enjoyed various extraordinary privileges. Among

the Romans, the principal games were, 1. _the Ludi Romani_, dedicated

to Jupiter, Juno, and Minerva; 2. _the Sæculares_, to the deities

and the fates; 3. _the Consuales_, to Neptunus Equestris; 4. _the

Capitolini_, to Jupiter Capitolinus. The Romans celebrated their games

chiefly in the Circus Maximus; which, as a place of entertainment,

was magnificently extensive. Pliny asserts that it would contain _one

quarter of a million_ of spectators; and more modern authors have

augmented that number to 380,000.

NOTE 146.

_Now, first, let her be bathed._

Nunc primum _fac――――ut lavet_.

Though I have followed the common reading in this passage, as it is

not a point of any importance, I think it doubtful whether Terence

meant Lesbia to speak of the mother or the child, when she said the

words _fac ut lavet_, as the Greeks practised a remarkable ceremony

on new-born infants, in order to strengthen them. A mixture of water,

oil, and wine, was made in a vessel kept for the purpose, which

they called λουτρὸν and χύτλος, and, with this liquid, they _washed_

the children; as some think, they wished to try the strength of the

infant’s constitution, which, if weak, yielded to the powerful fumes

of the wine, and the children fell into fits. I imagine that this was

done, when it was the question if an infant should be exposed, as puny,

sickly children sometimes were. (_Vide_ Note 93.)

NOTE 147.

_Davus.――Truly, at this rate, I shall hardly dare

open my mouth._

Sed, si quid narrare occæpi continuo dari

Tibi verba censes.

S. _Falso._

D. Itaque hercle nil jam mutire audeo.

Dr. Bentley reads _falso_ in Davus’s speech; and Cooke thinks it

should be altogether omitted. I have followed the old English edition

in supposing the word in question to be spoken _ironically_, which is

certainly consistent with the usual style of conversation between Simo

and Davus.

NOTE 148.

_Now, finding that the marriage preparations are going forwards in

our house, she sends her maid to fetch a midwife._

This is a very subtle contrivance. Davus intends that the birth of

Pamphilus’s child shall be reported to Chremes to alarm him, (as we see

Act V. Scene I. page 82,) and, therefore, that Simo may not suspect

_him_, he persuades him that Glycera is contriving to spread reports

of Pamphilus’s engagements to her. M. Baron has entirely omitted the

incident of the birth of the child. He introduces Sosia again to fill

up the chasm. In a scene between Simo, Davus, and Chremes, the latter

is induced to renew his consent to the marriage, by overhearing a

conversation between Simo and Davus; in which, as in the original, the

slave invents a tale that Pamphilus and Glycera are at variance.

Sir R. Steele varies the third act altogether; he makes it turn wholly

on the underplot, of which the chief personages are Lucinda, and her

two lovers Myrtle and Cimberton: the latter is a pedantic coxcomb, and

added to the original characters by the English poet.

NOTE 149.

_And to provide a child at the same time, thinking that unless you

should see a child, the marriage would not be impeded._

――――“Et puerum ut adferret simul;

Hoc nisi fit puerum ut tu videas, nil _moventur_ nuptiæ.”

_Moventur_, in this passage, does not mean to _move forward_: but

signifies _to move back with disturbance_, _to hinder_, or _to

disorder_, and is used instead of _perturbantur_. Moveo is very

unfrequently though sometimes employed in this sense. I shall cite

one passage from _Horace_, where it has the same meaning as in the

before-mentioned line from _Terence_.

――――“Censorque _moveret_

Appius, ingenuo si non essem patre natus.”

He to whom I owe my birth was free,

A freeborn citizen: had he not been so,

The censor Claudius Appius would have _stopt_,

And _driven_ me _back_.

NOTE 150.

A. III. S. III. _Simo. (alone) I am not exactly, &c._

Terence uses an expression in the beginning of this scene that has

been a source of discussion among the critics. It is in the following

line,

“Atque haud scio AN quæ dixit sint vera omnia.”

I have selected from a very long note on this passage, by an eminent

writer, the following extracts, which will afford, I trust, a

satisfactory elucidation of the line in question.

“_Atque haud scio an quæ dixit sint vera omnia_: this seems, at first

sight, to signify, _I do not know if all that he has told me be truth_;

but, in the elegance of the Latin expression, however, _haud scio an_,

means the same as _fortasse_ (perhaps) as if he had said _haud scio

an non_. Thus, in the Brothers, A. IV. S. V. v. 33. _Qui infelix haud

scio an illam misere non amat_: which does not mean, _I do not know

whether he loves her_, but, on the contrary, _I do not know that he

does not love her_. Also, in Cicero’s Epistles, B. IX. L. 13., _Istud

quidem magnum, atque haud scio an maximum_; _this is a great thing, and

perhaps the greatest of all, or, I do not know but it is the greatest

of all_. And, also, in his Oration for Marcellus, when he said that

future ages would form a juster estimate of Cæsar’s character than

could be made by men of his own times; he says, _Servis iis etiam

indicibus qui multis post sæculis de te judicabunt, et quidem haud

scio, an incorruptius quam nos_. There are numberless examples of this

kind in the writings of Cicero, and I know that there are some which

make for the opposite side of the question, as in his book on “_Old

Age_,” speaking of a country life, he says, _Atque haud scia an ulla

possit esse beatior vita_. But, it is my opinion, that these passages

have been altered by some person who did not understand that mode of

expression, and that it ought to be, Atque haud scio an _nulla_ possit

esse beatior vita.” THE AUTHOR _of the old Translation of Terence.

Printed 1671. Paris._

Terence frequently has this construction: the two following sentences

are of similar difficulty: they both occur in this play:

Id paves, ne ducas tu illam; tu autem, ut ducas.

Cave te esse tristem sentiat.

NOTE 151.

A. III. S. IV. _Simo, Chremes._

_Simo.――Chremes, I am very glad to see you._

“Jubeo Chremetem (_saluere_)”: the last word is not spoken, because the

speaker is interrupted by Simo. It is necessary to observe that _jubeo_

does not always signify to _command_, but sometimes means to _wish_,

to _desire_, especially when the speaker’s wish is afterwards verbally

expressed; according to what Donatus observes on this passage,

“Columus animo, jubemus verbis.”――OLD PARIS EDITION.

Terence has portrayed Chremes as a very amiable character; he is mild

and patient, and the most benevolent sentiments issue from his lips.

It was necessary, as Donatus observes, to represent Chremes with this

temper, for, had he been violent and headstrong, he could not have

been supposed to seek Simo, and afterwards _renew his consent_, which

is a very important incident, upon which the remainder of the epitasis

entirely hinges. The Chremes of Sir R. Steele (_Sealand_) has all the

worth of Terence’s original, but is deficient in that polish of manners

which renders the Latin character so graceful.

NOTE 152.

_The quarrels of lovers is the renewal of their love._

Amantium iræ amoris integratio est.

In this sentence I have followed the Latin grammatical construction;

and I believe it is also allowable in English, in such a case as

this, to choose at pleasure either the antecedent or the subsequent

for the nominative case. Very few sentences from profane writers have

(I imagine) been more frequently repeated than _Amantium iræ amoris

integratio est_, an observation which is undeniably just. This

sentence has been repeatedly imitated.

As by _Seneca_,

_Plisth._ “Redire pietas, unde summota est, solet.

Reparatque vires justus amissas amor.”

THYESTES, A. III. S. I.

Affection, though repell’d, will still return:

And faithful love, though for a moment curb’d,

Or driven away, will, with augmented strength,

Regain its empire.

And also by _Ovid_,

Quæ modò pugnarunt jungunt sua rostra columbæ,

Quarum blanditias verbaque murmur habet.

OVID, _Art. Am._, B. 2. v. 465.

NOTE 153.

_Simo.――Yet the most serious mischief, after all, can amount but to

a separation, which may the gods avert._

The Athenian laws permitted citizens to divorce their wives on very

trivial pretences; but compelled them, at the same time, to give in a

memorial to the _archons_, stating the grounds on which the divorce

was desired. A citizen might put away his wife, without any particular

disgrace being attached to either the husband or the wife; and when

the divorce was by mutual consent, the parties were at liberty to

contract elsewhere. He who divorced his wife, was compelled to restore

her dowry, though he was allowed to pay it by instalments: sometimes it

was paid as alimony, nine oboli each month.

For a very flagrant offence, a wife, by the Athenian laws, might

divorce her husband: if the men divorced, they were said ἀποπέμπειν, or

ἀπολεύειν, to send away their wives: but if the women divorced, they

were said ἀπολείπειν, to quit their husbands. (_Vide Potter’s Arch.

Græc._, Vol. II. B. IV. C. 12.)

Terence artfully makes Simo use the word _discessio_ instead of

_divortium_, or _discidium_, or _repudium_: which means the worst kind

of divorce. _Discessio_, among the Romans, was nearly the same as _a

separation_ among us: by separation, I mean what our lawyers call

_divorce a mensa et thoro_; _which does not dissolve the marriage_; and

which they place in opposition to _divorce a vinculo matrimonii_; which

is a total divorce. In the earlier ages of the Roman Republic, the wife

had no option of divorcing her husband: but it was afterwards allowed,

as we see in _Martial_.

“Mense novo Jani _veterem, Proculeia, maritum

Deseris_, atque jubes res sibi habere suas.

Quid, rogo, quid factum est? subiti quæ causa doloris?”

B. 10. Epigr. 39.

NOTE 154ᴬ.

_Why is not the bride brought? it grows late._

An Athenian bride was conveyed to her bridegroom’s house in the evening

by torchlight, attended by her friends: _vide_ Notes 116, 117, 118,

119. Various singular customs prevailed among the Athenians at their

marriages: when the bride entered her new habitation, quantities of

sweetmeats were poured over her person: she and her husband also ate

quinces, and the priests who officiated at marriages (_vide St. Basil_,

_Hom._ 7, _Hexame._) first made a repast on grasshoppers, (τέττιγες,

cicadæ,) which were in high esteem among the Athenians, who wore

golden images of this insect in their hair, and, on that account, were

called τέττιγες. Grasshoppers were thought to have originally sprung

from the earth; and, for that reason, were chosen as the symbol of the

Athenians, who pretended to the same origin.

NOTE 154ᴮ.

_I have been fearful that you would prove perfidious, like the

common herd of slaves, and deceive me in this intrigue of

Pamphilus._

Ego dudum non nil veritus sum.

Donatus makes a remark on the style of this sentence, which deserves

attention, “gravis oratio ab hoc pronomine (_ego_) plerumque

inchoatur,” a speech which begins with the pronoun _ego_ is generally

grave and serious: to which some commentator has added the following

remark respecting the before-mentioned passage from Terence, “Est autem

hoc principium orationis Simonis à benevolentia per antithesin.” The

remarks of _Donatus_ and _Nonnius_ on the style of our author, are

generally very acute and ingenious. _Scaliger_, _Muretus_, and _Trapp_,

may be added to the critics before mentioned. The learned writer last

named has composed a treatise in Latin “_De Dramate_,” which contains

many very valuable hints relative to dramatic writing.

NOTE 155.

_Simo.――Ha! what’s that you say?_

There is a play upon words here, which I have endeavoured to preserve

in the English. The Latin is as follows. _Davus._ OCCIDI. _Simo._

Hem! quid dixisti? _Davus._ OPTUME inquam factum. If the requisite

similarity of sound was preserved in this pun, it may be conjectured

that the Latin _i_ was not pronounced very differently from the _i_ of

the modern Italians. _Vide_ Note 92.

NOTE 156.

_Pam.――What trust can I put in such a rascal?_

Oh! tibi ego ut credam FURCIFER?

The epithet _furcifer_ (rascal) is of singular derivation; and, though

it was an appellation of great reproach in the times of Terence,

yet, in later ages of the Roman Republic, it bore a very different

signification. The name of _furcifer_, which was originally given to

slaves, took its rise from the Roman custom of punishing a slave who

had committed any flagrant offence, by fastening round his neck a heavy

piece of wood, in the shape of a fork, and thence called furca; this

occasioned the delinquent to be afterwards called furcifer, (furcam

ferre.) Three modes of punishment by the furca were practised at Rome:

1. ignominious, 2. penal, 3. capital. In the first, the criminal merely

carried the furca on his shoulders for a short period; in the second,

he wore the furca, and was whipped round the Forum; in the third, after

having been tied to a large furca, somewhat like a modern gallows, he

was beaten to death. Slaves were treated more severely by the Romans

than by the Athenians, who were celebrated for their mild and gentle

behaviour to that class of persons. The furca was afterwards employed

in a very different manner; and, from a badge of disgrace, was changed

to a serviceable implement. Caius Marius, nearly a hundred years after

Terence composed this play, introduced the use of the furca among his

soldiers. It was employed to carry baggage and other requisites; and,

in use, somewhat resembled a modern porter’s knot, hence, the word

_furculum_ or _ferculum_, became an expression to signify a burden, or

any thing carried in the hand: and sometimes, also, the various courses

brought to table, as in _Horace_,

“Multaque de magnâ superessent _fercula_ cœnâ,

Quæ procul extructis inerant hesterna canistris?”

B. II. Sat. 6.

NOTE 157.

_Ah! how foolishly have I relied on you, who, out of

a perfect calm, have raised this storm._

Hem quo fretu siem

Qui me hodie ex tranquillissima re conjecisti in nuptias.

“My father reads this passage thus, _en quo fretus sum_, _that is, the

rascal on whom I relied_,” &c.

MADAME DACIER.

If an error has been insinuated into the text in this passage, it

can scarcely be of sufficient importance to render an alteration

essential: the correction suggested by Madame Dacier, is not so

decidedly superior to the usual mode of reading the lines, as to

compensate for the inconvenience which must be occasioned by a general

variation of the text.

NOTE 158.

_Pam.――What do you deserve?_

This alludes to the Athenian custom of questioning supposed criminals,

either before sentence was passed, or while they were under the

torture, to the following effect: What have you deserved? and,

according to the tenor of the reply, they augmented or diminished the

punishment: _vide Nonni. Miscel._, B. 2. It was also customary, at

Athens, when the punishment was not fixed by the laws, but was left to

the discretion of the judges, that the condemned person was required

to state what injury he thought his adversary had suffered from him;

and the answer, when delivered upon oath, was called διαμοσία; by

which the final sentence was in some measure regulated.

NOTE 159.

_Char. (alone.) Is this credible, or to be mentioned

as a truth?_

“Hoccine credibile est, aut memorabile,

Tanta vecordia innata cuiquam ut siet,

Ut malis gaudeat alienis, atque ex incommodis

Alterius, sua ut comparet commoda? ah!

Idne est verum? Imo id genus est hominum pessimum

In denegando modo queis pudor est paululum:

Post ubi jam tempus est promissa perfici,

Tum coacti necessario se aperiunt et timent,

Et tamen res cogit eos denegare. Ibi

Tum impudentissima eorum oratio est:

Quis tu es? quis mihi es? cur meam tibi? heus;

Proximus sum egomet mihi.”

Terence, in the composition of these lines, has admirably succeeded

in expressing the sense by the sounds and measure of his verse, and

the very lines seem as angry (if I may be allowed to use such an

expression) as Charinus, who is to speak them, is supposed to be.

The whole speech is written with a great deal of fire and spirit;

and represents, in a very lively manner, the impatient bursts of

indignation, and the broken periods which issue from the mouth of an

enraged and disappointed person, during the first transports of his

anger. The ancients particularly studied this poetical beauty; and

many of them have reached a degree of excellence scarcely inferior to

that of the moderns. Terence has as eminently distinguished himself

by his success in this ornament to composition as he has by his other

excellencies: as familiar verse, his compositions are extremely

harmonious.

Mr. Pope has described the poetical embellishment before mentioned in

a most inimitable poem, which at once explains and exemplifies his

meaning.

“’Tis not enough no harshness gives offence,

The sound must seem an echo to the sense:

Soft is the strain when zephyr gently blows,

And the smooth stream in smoother numbers flows;

But when loud surges lash the sounding shore,

The hoarse, rough verse should like the torrent roar:

When Ajax strives some rock’s vast weight to throw,

The line too labours, and the words move slow;

Not so, when swift Camilla scours the plain,

Flies o’er th’ unbending corn, and skims along the main.”

Virgil was particularly successful in his endeavours to impart this

ornament to his composition. The following lines are reckoned by the

critics to be a beautiful specimen of his ability in this species of

verse.

“Ter sunt conati imponere Pelio Ossam

Scilicet, atque Ossæ frondosum involvere Olympum.”

Georg., B. I. V. 281.

Sternitur exanimisque tremens procumbit humi bos.

Æneis, B. 5.

NOTE 160.

_Those men have characters of the very worst description, who

make a scruple to deny a favour; and are ashamed, or unwilling

to give a downright refusal at first; but who, when the time

arrives. &c._

This is one of those beautiful passages which prove Terence to have

been so able a delineator of character. How faithful a picture does

he here draw of this particular species of weakness! A man is asked

a favour which he knows it is out of his power to compass, and yet

feels a repugnance to candidly avow it: he cannot bear to witness the

uneasiness of the disappointed person, and, from a kind of false shame,

he misleads him with a promise which he cannot perform. To detect those

lurking impulses which almost escape observation, though they influence

the actions: to describe with force and elegance, and convince the mind

of a feeling of which it was before scarcely conscious, is an effort of

genius worthy of a Terence.

NOTE 161.

_If any one tell me, that no advantage will result from it: I

answer this, that I shall poison his joy: and even that will

yield me some satisfaction._

Ingeram mala multa: atque aliquis dicat; Nihil promoveris.

Multum; molestus certè ei fuero, atque animo morem gessero.

This sentiment has been imitated by the first of dramatists in his

Othello: he has expanded it into a greater number of lines, which are

extremely beautiful.

_Iago._ Call up her father,

Rouse him, make after him, poison his delight.

Proclaim him in the streets, incense her kinsmen.

And tho’ he in a fertile climate dwell,

Plague him with flies: tho’ that his joy be joy,

Yet throw such changes of vexation on’t,

As it may lose some colour.――

SHAKSPEARE’S _Othello_, A. 1. S. 1.

The soliloquy of Charinus, (of which the lines I have cited in the

commencement of this Note form a part,) is one of the best written in

the plays of our author: it is exactly of the kind recommended by the

_Duke of Buckingham_.

“Soliloquies had need be very few,

Extremely short, and spoke in passion too.

Our lovers, talking to themselves, for want

Of others, make the pit their confidant:

Nor is the matter mended yet, if thus

They trust a friend only to tell it us.”

A soliloquy is introduced with most success, when the speaker of it

is supposed to be deliberating with himself on doubtful subjects:

but, when narration is to be introduced, it is brought forward with

more advantage in the shape of a dialogue between the speaker and

his confidant. But a skilful dramatist can often employ a preferable

method to either of those I have just named, for the disposition of

narration. Papias lays it down as an absolute rule for the composition

of soliloquies, that they must be deliberations only.

NOTE 162.

_Well, take her._

Sir R. Steele, in his play, called _the Conscious Lovers_, does not

represent Myrtle as comporting himself in his disappointment with the

moderation observed by Charinus. He challenges Bevil: though the duel

is afterwards prevented by the patience and forbearance of the latter,

who communicates to his angry friend a letter which he had received

from Lucinda, expressive of her favourable thoughts of Myrtle. The

ingenious author of the Conscious Lovers imagined, no doubt, that to

an English audience, Charinus’s easy resignation of his mistress to

Pamphilus would appear tame and unnatural. In nothing do the manners

of the ancients and the moderns differ more widely than in their

respective behaviour in cases of private injury, real or imagined.

Among the ancient Greeks and Romans, _duelling_ was totally unknown.

Alexander and Pyrrhus, Themistocles, Leonidas, and Epaminondas, the

Scipios and Hannibal, Cæsar and Pompey, all men whose fame will never

be surpassed, and a countless number of the heroes of antiquity, would

have scorned to draw their swords in a private quarrel. It was reserved

for Christians, to introduce and countenance this barbarous practice;

which ought to be the shame of civilized humanity. Barbarous, however,

it can scarcely with justice be called: for those nations whose

unpolished manners caused them to be termed barbarians, were never

known to have adopted it; nor has a single instance occurred, where

men, in a state of uncultivated nature, have been known to sacrifice a

brother’s life in the mortal arbitration of a private quarrel. Duelling

was originally practised among northern nations. Those who wish to

entertain just ideas on this subject cannot do better than to consult

_A Discourse on Duelling, by the Rev. Thomas Jones, A.M., Trinity

College, Cambridge_.

NOTE 163.

_Pam.――Why do you vex me thus?_

Cur me enicas.

Eneco and enico are thought by some critics to have been exactly

similar in signification; but eneco generally means to kill, as in

Plautus _angues enecavit_: whereas enico signifies only to teaze, or to

torment; as in the passage in Terence before mentioned. _Vide_ Horace

Ep., B. I. Ep. 7. L. 87.

NOTE 164.

_Davus.――Hist! Glycera’s door opens._

_Hem’! st, mane, crepuit a Glycerio ostium._

Literally, a noise is made on the inside of Glycera’s door. As all the

street-doors in Athens opened towards the street, it was customary to

knock loudly on the inside, before the door was thrown open, lest, by

a sudden and violent swing, the heavy barrier should injure any of the

passengers. The Greeks called this ceremony ψοφεῖν θυραν. All the doors

of the Romans opened inwards, unless (which rarely happened) a law was

passed to allow any particular person to open his door towards the

street. This was considered a very great honour, and never conferred

but as a reward for very eminent services.

In Sparta, a law prevailed that no instrument but a kind of saw should

be employed in making the doors of the houses; this regulation was

intended to prevent luxury, and wasteful expense. Both in Athens and

Rome, the first room within the door was made extremely large, and

highly ornamented. This room was called aula by the Romans, and, by

the Greeks αὐλὴ. Here were placed the trophies gained by the master of

the house, and by his family. In later and more luxurious ages, the

doors were made of more costly materials, sometimes they formed them

of metal, either iron or brass; sometimes also ivory was used for this

purpose, or scarce and curious kinds of wood.

NOTE 165.

_Mysis. (speaking to Glycera within.) I will directly, Madam;

wherever he may be, I’ll take care to find your dear Pamphilus,

and bring him to you: only, my love, let me beg you not to make

yourself so wretched._

Sir R. Steele and Monsieur Baron have brought both Glycera and

Philumena on the stage; but, in the Latin drama, the principal female

characters (if they appear at all) are generally mutes. It is a

circumstance worthy of our attention, that (except in one instance)

Terence never brings on the stage any female character of rank and

consideration: the women who take a part in the dialogue are generally

either attendants, or professional people, as nurses, midwives, _&c._

But this exclusion, (though our author has been compelled to sacrifice

to it all those embellishments which the portraiture of the Athenian

ladies must have added to his scenes,) is in strict conformity with

the manners of the Greeks. Grecian women of rank seldom appeared in

company, and closely confined themselves within doors, occupying the

most remote parts of the house. Unmarried women were scarcely allowed

to quit the rooms they inhabited, without giving previous notice to

their protectors. Terence was instructed clearly in this point, by his

great original _Menander_; who expressly says, that the door of the

αὐλὴ, or hall, was a place where even a married woman ought never to be

seen. Women, among the Greeks, seldom inhabited the same apartment with

the men: their rooms were always kept as retired as possible, usually

in the loftiest part of the house. _Vide_ Hom. Il., γʹ v. 423; their

apartments were called Gynæceum, (γυναικεῖον). _Vide_ Terence’s

Phormio, Act 5. S. 6, where he says,

“Ubi in _Gynæceum_ ire occipio, puer ad me accurrit Mida.”

These rooms were sometimes called ὦα, which signifies also _eggs_; it

is supposed that the fable of Castor, Pollux, Helen, and Clytemnestra,

being hatched from eggs, took its rise from the double signification of

the word ὦα.

NOTE 166.

_Pam.――The oracles of Apollo are not more true: I wish that, if

possible, my father may not think that I throw any impediments

in the way of the marriage: if not, I will do what will be

easily done, tell him frankly that I cannot marry Chremes’

daughter._

Among the Greeks, no oracles were either so numerous or so highly

esteemed as those of Apollo. The first place among them is assigned to

the oracle at Delphi, near mount Parnassus, which excelled the others

in magnificence, and claimed the precedence in point of antiquity. Next

to this, ranks the oracle in the island of Delos, the birthplace of

Apollo and Diana. It is situated in the north part of Mare Ægeum, or

Archipelago, not far from the Isle of Andros, and between Myconus and

Rhene. The Athenians reverenced this oracle above all others, and its

answers were held to be infallible. Theseus, the most celebrated of the

Athenian heroes, instituted a solemn procession to Delos, in honour of

Apollo. A certain number of Athenian citizens were chosen, who were

called Θεωροὶ, who made the voyage in a sacred ship; the same in which

Theseus and his companions were said to have sailed to Crete. This

ship was denominated ἀειζώοντα, on account of its great age: it was

preserved till the time of Demetrius Phalereus. No criminal was ever

put to death during the absence of the sacred ship.

NOTE 167.

_Char. (to Pamphilus.) But you are constant and

courageous._

P. Quis videor? C. Miser æque atque ego. D. Consilium quæro. C.

Fortis.

Critics have differed considerably respecting this passage. Some think

the word fortis should be understood as addressed to Davus.

I have adopted the interpretation which M. le Fevre, Madame Dacier’s

father, has given of this passage. Pamphilus, after expressing his

resolution to remain faithful to Glycera, turns to Charinus, expecting

a compliment on his behaviour. After a jest on his friend’s having

reduced himself to such a forlorn situation, by following the advice

of Davus, Charinus, by the word fortis, pays him the compliment his

handsome conduct deserved.

NOTE 168.

_Pam. (to Davus.) I know what you would attempt._

Pamphilus, in this speech, alludes to his jest upon Davus in the

previous scene, where he says, “I have no doubt, that if that wise head

of yours goes to work,” _&c._, _vide_ p. 67, l. 8. Pamphilus means, I

imagine, when he says, “I know what you would attempt,” I suppose you

are going to provide the two wives I was speaking of. He could not mean

that he really knew Davus’s plan: because he asks him afterwards, page

70, line 10, what he intended to do.

NOTE 169.

_Pam.――What are you going to do? tell me._

The Davus of M. Baron, instead of laying the child at Simo’s door,

makes a false report to Mysis, that Pamphilus intends to desert

Glycera, and to espouse Philumena: Mysis communicates this to her

mistress, who, in her distress, throws herself at Chremes’ feet, and

shews him the contract of her marriage with Pamphilus. This induces

Chremes to favour Glycera, and to break off the intended marriage.

NOTE 170.

_Hitherto, he has been to her a source of more evil

than good._

“As I never was able to make any sense of facile hic plus est quam

illic boni, I choose to give the passage a turn, though contrary to

all the readings which I have seen, which makes that proper, with

the omission of one word, which was not before intelligible. The

usual construction of the words, as they stand in all editions, is

this,――there is more ill in his sorrow, or trouble, (some read dolorem,

some laborem,) than there is good in his love: see, particularly,

Camus’s edition for the use of the Dauphin, which is not only a poor

meaning, and unworthy Terence, but inconsistent with what Mysis

had said before in the preceding scenes: I therefore choose to be

singular and intelligible, rather than to go with all the editors and

translators of our poet, and be obscure.”――COOKE.

NOTE 171.

_Davus.――Take the child from me directly, and lay

him down at our door._

Accipe à me hunc ocius,

Atque ante nostram januam appone.

Some commentators read vestram januam, appone, lay him down before

your door. But Davus tells Simo, A. III. S. II., (page 51, line 13,)

that Glycera intends to have a child laid at _his_ door. It could have

answered no purpose, moreover, to have placed Glycera’s child at her

own door. We must rather suppose that Davus wished Simo to think that

Glycera had sent the infant to Pamphilus as its father. _Vide_ Note 174.

NOTE 172.

_Davus.――You may take some of the herbs from that

altar, and strew them under him._

“Altar, Altare, Ara, a place or pile whereon to offer sacrifice to

some deity. Among the Romans, the _altar_ was a kind of pedestal,

either square, round, or triangular; adorned with sculpture, with

basso-relievos, and inscriptions, whereon were burnt the victims

sacrificed to idols. According to Servius, those _altars_ set apart

for the honour of the celestial gods, and gods of the higher class,

were placed on some pretty tall pile of building; and, for that reason,

were called _altaria_, from the word _alta_ and _ara_, a high elevated

_altar_. Those appointed for the terrestrial gods, were laid on the

surface of the earth, and called _aræ_. And, on the contrary, they

dug into the earth, and opened a pit for those of the infernal gods

which were called βοθροι λακκοι, _scrobiculi_. But this distinction is

not every-where observed: the best authors frequently use _ara_ as a

general word, under which are included the altars of the celestial and

infernal, as well as those of the terrestrial gods. Witness Virgil,

Ecl. 5.

――――_En quatuor aras_,

where _aræ_ plainly includes _altaria_; for whatever we make of

Daphnis, Phœbus was certainly a celestial god. So Cicero, pro Quint.

_Aras delubraque Hecates in Græcia vidimus._ The Greeks, also,

distinguish two sorts of _altars_; that whereon they sacrificed to

the gods was called βωμος, and was a real _altar_, different from

the other, whereon they sacrificed to the heroes, which was smaller,

and called εσχαρα. Pollux makes this distinction of _altars_ in his

Onomasticon: he adds, however, that some poets used the word εσχαρα,

for the altar whereon sacrifice was offered to the gods. The Septuagint

version does sometimes also use the word εσχαρα, for a sort of little

low _altar_, which may be expressed in Latin by _craticula_, being a

hearth, rather than an _altar_.”――CHAMBERS’ _Cyclopædia_.

Scaliger thinks that the altar mentioned by Terence was the altar

usually placed on the stage of a theatre during representation, and

consecrated to Bacchus in tragedy, and to Apollo in comedy. It is most

probable, that one of the ἐσχάραι is alluded to by our author in this

passage. The ἐσχάραι were low altars which stood before the doors in

Athens: they were dedicated to the ancient heroes.

NOTE 173.

_Davus.――That if my master should require me to swear that I did

not do it, I may take the oath with a safe conscience._

The Greeks paid very great regard to oaths. They divided them into

two classes. The first kind was the μέγας ὅρκος, or great oath, when

the swearer called the gods to witness his truth; the second was the

μικρὸς ὅρκος, when the swearer called on other creatures. They usually,

when falsely accused of any crime, took an oath to clear themselves.

This oath was sometimes administered in a very singular manner: the

oath of exculpation was written on a tablet, and hung round the neck,

and rested on the breast of the accused, who was then compelled to

wade into the sea about knee-deep: if the oath was true, the water

remained stationary; but, if false, it instantly rose up, and covered

the tablet, that so dreadful a sight as a false oath might be concealed

from the view of mankind. The Athenians were proverbial for their

sincere regard for truth. _Vide_ Velleius Paterculus, B. 1. C. 4.,

also, in B. 2. C. 23: we are told

“Adeò enim certa Atheniensum in Romanos fides fuit, ut semper et in

omni re, quicquid sincerâ fide generetur, id Romani Atticâ fieri,

prædicarent.”――MARCUS VELLEIUS PATERCULUS, B. 2. C. 23. L. 18.

The Athenians behaved with so much good faith and inviolable honour in

all their treaties with the Romans, that it became a custom at Rome,

when a person was affirmed to be just and honourable, to say, he is as

faithful as an Athenian.

NOTE 174.

_Davus. (to himself.) The father of the bride is coming this way; I

abandon my first design._

_Mysis.――I don’t understand this._

Davus’s first design was (we are to suppose) to go to Simo as soon as

Mysis had placed the child at the door, and acquaint him that Glycera

had sent him Pamphilus’s child. This would have compelled Simo to

suspend the marriage until he had ascertained the real nature of

Glycera’s claims on his son. Though Davus’s speech is not usually read

aside, we cannot suppose that Mysis heard him say, that Chremes, the

bride’s father, approached, because, in the ninth scene of the same

act, (_vide_ p. 78, l. preantepen,) he tells her, “that was the bride’s

father,” and she replies, “you should have given me notice then.”

NOTE 175.

_Mysis. (aside to Davus.)――Are you mad to ask me such a question?_

_Davus.――Whom should I ask? I can see no one else here._

This certainly seems a little over-acted on the part of Davus,

considering that he knew Chremes to be so very near him. If we conclude

that Davus acted his part with the proper gestures, and accompanied the

above words with the very natural action of looking round him, to see

if any other person was visible near Simo’s door; it appears extremely

improbable that he should not have seen Chremes, who was near enough to

hear all that passed between Davus and Mysis. Davus intended that what

passed between Mysis and himself should be overheard by Chremes, whom

he knew to be but a very few yards distant. It seems extraordinary,

therefore, that Davus should make use of an expression which compelled

him to run the risk of being obliged to recognise Chremes if he looked

round, and, if he did not, of raising a suspicion in his mind, that

Davus knew him to be there: either circumstance must effectually have

spoiled the stratagem, to deter Chremes from the match. To solve this

apparent inconsistency, we must suppose that Chremes, wishing, for

obvious reasons, to overhear what passed between Mysis and Davus,

had, at the entrance of the latter, withdrawn himself behind a row of

pillars, or into a portico, or cloister, (which were common in the

streets of Athens, and were also built upon the Roman stage,) lest his

presence, which Mysis knew of, as he had questioned her, should be a

check upon their conversation; from which he, of course, expected to

learn the truth respecting the child at Simo’s door, as he knew that

Mysis was the servant of Glycera, and Davus the servant of Pamphilus.

NOTE 176.

_Mysis.――The deuce take you, fellow, for terrifying

me in this manner._

Dii te _eradicent_, ita me miseram territas.

Literally, May the gods root you up. An ingenious French critic informs

us, that the Romans borrowed this expression from the Greeks, who say,

“_to destroy a man to the very root_:” and, that the Greeks borrowed it

from the eastern nations. We have a similar expression in English, _to

destroy root and branch_.

NOTE 177.

_Chremes. (aside.) I acted wisely in avoiding the

match._

Recte ego fugio has nuptias.

The general way of reading this line is as follows:

Recte ego _semper_ fugi has nuptias.

I acted wisely in _always_ avoiding the match.

This reading must be erroneous, because, so far from having _always_

avoided the match, Chremes himself originally proposed it to Simo,

(_vide_ p. 15, l. 18.) and afterwards renewed his consent to it.

(_Vide_ p. 58. l. 24.)

NOTE 178.

_Davus.――’Tis true, I saw old Canthara, with something

under her cloak._

There is great ingenuity displayed in the conduct of this scene. Davus

affirms this, as Donatus observes, “Hoc dicit ut leviter redarguat

Mysis, non ut vincatur,” that Mysis may easily confute him; and prove

that it is the child of Pamphilus which must terrify Chremes. He

contradicts her, that she may (in Chremes’ hearing) enter into the

proof of what she says. Instead of Cantharam, Nonnius thinks that

Terence meant cantharum, a large jug; and that he intended Davus

to say, that the child was brought to Glycera’s house in a large

cantharus. _Vide_ Nonnius’s Miscell., B. 1, and his remarks on the

whole of this scene.

NOTE 179ᴬ.

_Mysis.――Thank Heaven, that there were some free-women present when

my mistress was delivered._

No person could appear as a witness in the Athenian courts of justice,

who was not free-born, and also possessed of a fair character. Those

who were ἄτιμοι, infamous, were not permitted to give testimony. In

particular cases, strangers and freedmen were admitted as witnesses.

Every person who was appealed to as a witness, was compelled either to

state what he knew of the affair, or to swear that he was ignorant of

all the circumstances of it: if he refused to give any answer whatever,

he incurred a heavy fine.

NOTE 179ᴮ.

_Mysis.――By Pollux, fellow, you are drunk._

To accuse a person of intoxication was considered in Athens and Sparta

as one of the greatest affronts that could possibly be committed. Very

severe laws were framed in Greece for the punishment of those who were

seen in a state of intoxication. The Athenian archons suffered death,

if detected in this vice. The Greeks accused the Scythians of having

taught them habits of drunkenness. The Spartans affirm, that Cleomenes

became first drunk, and afterwards mad, by his associating and drinking

with them.

Σκυθησι, δε ὁμιλησαντά μιν ακρηποτην και εκ τουτου μανῆναι.

HERODOTUS.

NOTE 180.

_Davus.――One falsehood brings on another: I hear it

whispered about that she is a citizen of Athens._

The citizens of Athens were called γηγενεῖς, or sons of the earth,

and ἀστοὶ. They were called also τεττιγες, or τεττιγοφορους, _wearers

of grasshoppers_; this appellation, authors have derived differently.

_Tretzes_ thinks it was to designate them as fluent orators. _Lucian_

considers it merely as a distinction to divide them from the slaves:

and others say, it was because they thought that grasshoppers sprung

from the earth; and therefore chose them for the symbol of a people

who pretended to the same origin: _vide_ Note 154. The Athenians were

called also πολίται. The citizens were divided by Cecrops into four

tribes, (_vide_ Poll., B. 3. 64,) each tribe was divided into three

classes, and each class into thirty families. The names of the tribes

were, 1. Κεκροπὶς, 2. Αὐτόχθων, 3. Ἀκταία, 4. Παραλιά. These names

were afterwards changed by Cranaus, (_vide_ Plut. in Solon,) and also

by Ericthonius and Erectheus. When the number of the inhabitants

increased, new tribes were added. To obtain the Athenian citizenship

was deemed so glorious, that foreigners of the very first rank eagerly

sought this distinction; which it was extremely difficult to gain:

as the Athenians would never admit any persons but those who had

signalized themselves by their virtue and bravery.

NOTE 181.

_Davus.――And that he will be compelled to marry her._

The Athenian laws did not allow of polygamy: if Glycera, therefore, had

been proved to be a citizen, her marriage with Pamphilus would have

been valid; and Philumena, if married to him, must have been divorced.

We are to suppose, that the apprehension of this circumstance induces

Chremes to break off the marriage.

NOTE 182.

_Davus. (half aloud.)――He has heard all: what an

accident._

――――Audistin’ obsecro?

These words are usually read as addressed directly to Chremes; but it

appears more probable that Terence intended Davus to speak them as if

he meant no one to hear what he said, and yet contrive to raise his

voice loud enough for Chremes to overhear him pretend to be alarmed,

lest what Mysis had been saying should do any mischief. This feigned

consternation was calculated to strengthen Chremes’ belief of the

genuineness of the previous scene.

NOTE 183.

_This impudent wench ought to be taken hence and

punished._

――――Hanc jam oportet in cruciatum abripi.

The usual reading is cruciatum _hinc_ abripi; but _hinc_ cannot be

necessary to the sense, and spoils moreover the harmony of the line.

Neither of the two ancient manuscripts of Terence, in the royal library

at Paris, have _hinc_. There are a great many disputed readings in the

plays of Terence, which, by a reference to the various ancient MSS. of

our author now extant, might probably be determined. An edition of the

plays, regulated by the authority of these MSS., would doubtless be

highly serviceable. The most learned woman of her age, Madame Dacier,

whose translation of Terence is alone sufficient to perpetuate his name

and her own, in her preface to that inestimable work, speaks at length,

and in very high terms, of the MSS. of Terence, in the library of his

most Christian Majesty. She expresses herself as follows: “I found in

them (the MSS.) several things which gave me the greatest pleasure,

and which satisfactorily prove the correctness of the most important

alterations which I have made in the text, as to the division of the

acts, which is of great consequence.” Madame D. reckons the MSS. to

be eight or nine hundred years old. _Vide Madame Dacier’s Translation

of Terence, Edition of Rotterdam, 1717, Preface, page 38._ Among the

books which his holiness Pope Sixtus V. caused to be removed to the

_Bibliotheca Vaticana_, which he placed in the old Vatican palace, or

the _Palazzo Vecchio_, there was a very curious MS. of the comedies

of Terence, which was particularly valued for the representation

which it contained of the _personæ_, or masks, worn by the ancient

actors. It was also extremely curious in other respects. Those who

enjoy an opportunity of consulting this MS. might derive much and very

profitable amusement from a perusal of it. If it still remain in Rome,

it may be seen, on application to the chief librarian, who is generally

a member of the sacred college. A very curious MS. of Virgil, of the

fourth century, written in the _Literæ unciales_, and Henry VIII.’s

MS. de Septem Sacramentis, were formerly shewn to strangers with the

before-mentioned MS. of Terence.

NOTE 184.

_Davus.――That’s the bride’s father: I wished him to know all this;

and there was no other way to acquaint him with it._

Terence here (say the critics) obliquely praises himself, and the

art which he has displayed in this scene. The only scenes of a

similar nature, (I mean where the plot is carried on by a concerted

conversation intended to be overheard by some person who thinks it

genuine,) which are equal to this scene in the Andrian, are the ninth

scene of the second act, and the first scene of the third act of

Shakspeare’s comedy of _Much Ado about Nothing_.

The before-mentioned scene from the Andrian has been wholly omitted by

Sir R. Steele. Sealand does not renew his consent to the marriage till

the end of the fifth act.

M. Baron has introduced Crito earlier than he appears in the Latin

play, and closes the fourth act with Glycera’s appeal to Chremes; and

two subsequent scenes between Glycera, Mysis, Pamphilus, and Davus.

Glycera’s appeal to Chremes is extremely pathetic. It concludes with

the following lines:――

“Vous en qui je crois voir un protecteur, un père

Ne m’abandonnez pas à toute ma misère

En m’ôtant mon époux, vous me donnez la mort.

Vous pouvez d’un seul mot faire changer mon sort.

C’est donc entre vos mains qu’aujourd’hui je confie

Mon repos, mon honneur, ma fortune, et ma vie.”

_Andrienne_, A. IV. S. VIII.

NOTE 185.

_Davus.――Do you think that a thing of this sort can be done as well

by premeditating and studying, as by acting according to the

natural impulse of the moment?_

“It is an observation of Voltaire’s, in the Preface to his comedy

of L’Enfant Prodigue, that although there are various kinds of

pleasantry that excite mirth, yet universal bursts of laughter are

seldom produced, unless by a scene of mistake or _æquivoque_. A

thousand instances might be given to prove the truth of this judicious

observation. There is scarce any writer of comedy who has not drawn

from this source of humour. A scene, founded on a misunderstanding

between the parties, where the characters are all at cross-purposes

with each other, never fails to set the audience in a roar; nor,

indeed, can there be a happier incident in a comedy, if produced

naturally, and managed judiciously.

“The scenes in this act, occasioned by the artifice of Davus

concerning the child, do not fall directly under the observation of

Voltaire; but are, however, so much of the same colour, that, if

represented on the stage, they would, I doubt not, have the like

effect, and be the best means of confuting those infidel critics who

maintain that Terence has no humour. I do not remember a scene in

any comedy where there is such a natural complication of pleasant

circumstances. Davus’s sudden change of his intentions on seeing

Chremes, without having time to explain himself to Mysis; her confusion

and comical distress, together with the genuine simplicity of her

answers; and the conclusion drawn by Chremes from the supposed quarrel;

are all finely imagined, and directly calculated for the purposes

of exciting the highest mirth in the spectators. The words of Davus

to Mysis in this speech, “Is there then,” _&c._, have the air of an

oblique praise of this scene from the poet himself, shewing with what

art it is introduced, and how naturally it is sustained. Sir Richard

Steele had deviated so much from Terence in the original construction

of his fable, that he had no opportunity of working this scene into

it. Baron, who, I suppose, was afraid to hazard it on the French

theatre, fills up the chasm by bringing Glycerium on the stage. She,

amused by Davus with a forged tale of the falsehood of Pamphilus,

throws herself at the feet of Chremes, and prevails on him once more to

break off the intended match with Philumena. In consequence of this

alteration, the most lively part of the comedy in Terence becomes the

gravest in Baron: the artifice of Davus is carried on with the most

starch formality, and the whole incident, as conducted in the French

imitation, loses all that air of ease and pleasantry, which it wears in

the original.”――COLMAN.

NOTE 186.

A. IV. S. 10.――_Crito. (to himself.) I am told_, &c.

Crito is what Scaliger calls a _catastatic_ character, because he is

the chief personage of the catastasis, (καταστασις,) _vide_ Note 144,

and introduced for the purpose of leading the way to the catastrophe of

the piece.

NOTE 187.

_Rather than live in honest poverty in her own country._

Quæ se inhonestè optavit _parare_ hîc divitias

Potius, quàm in patriâ honestè _pauper_ vivere

Some editors (_vide Joan. Riveus_) read this passage differently,

Quæ se inhonestè optavit _parere_ hîc divitias

Potius, quàm in patriâ honestè _paupera_ vivere.

Others, instead of Quæ _se_ read Quæ _sese_: this is a very elegant

pleonasm.

NOTE 188.

_That wealth, however, now devolves to me._

The inhabitants of the island of Andros were subject to the Athenian

laws, which prohibited women from bequeathing by will more than the

value of a medimnum (μεδιμνον) of barley. The medimnum was equal to

four English pecks and a half. Therefore, as Chrysis had not the power

of bequeathing her property, Crito claimed it as heir at law. The

Athenian laws relating to wills were very numerous, and very strict

in guarding against an improper appropriation of property. Slaves,

foreigners, minors, and adopted persons, as well as those who had male

heirs, were, by the laws of Solon, rendered incapable of making a will.

Those persons who had no offspring of their own, frequently adopted the

children of others, who inherited their estates. Sometimes foreigners

were adopted, after having received the freedom of the city. A person

who succeeded to the property of another, as heir at law, was bound,

under a heavy penalty, to take care, (if on the spot,) that funeral

honours were paid to the deceased. This was reckoned a point of great

importance: the Greeks were willing to proceed to any extremity rather

than suffer their friends to want the rites of sepulture, as we see in

_Lucretius_, who describes the outrageous actions to which the people

were driven during a plague; when they committed acts of the greatest

violence, rather than permit their friends to want funeral honours.

“Multaque vis subita, et paupertas horrida suasit;

Namque suos consanguineos aliena rogorum,

Insuper instructa ingenti clamore locabant:

Subdebantque faces, multo cum sanguine sæpe

Rixantes, potiùs quam corpora deserentur.”

LUCRETIUS.

Compelled by poverty to desperate deeds,

Their rage another’s funeral pile invades:

With furious shouts they rend his corse away,

Then to the pile their own dead friends convey.

They guard the spot, until the rising flames }

Consume the load the lofty pile sustains, }

And fight, and bleed, and die, ere quit their loved remains.}

NOTE 189.

_Mysis.――Bless me! whom do I see? Is not this Crito,

the kinsman of Chrysis? It is._

Quem video? estne hic Crito, _sobrinus_ Chrysidis.

_Sobrinus_ means literally a mother’s sister’s child, or what we call

in English, a maternal cousin-german: but this particularity is not

admissible in a translation.

NOTE 190.

_Crito.――Alas! poor Chrysis is then gone._

Here is an additional instance of Terence’s infinite attention to

manners, and of his success in presenting to his readers a perfect

copy of the customs and habits of the Greeks. Crito, though he alludes

to the death of Chrysis, avoids any mention of death; and breaks off

in a manner which is infinitely more expressive than words could have

been. Some of the ancients, the Greeks in particular, studiously

avoided, as much as possible, any direct mention of death, which they

accounted to be ominous of evil; and always spoke of human mortality,

(when compelled to mention it,) in soft and gentle expressions. They

were even averse to write θανατος, death, at full length; and not

unfrequently expressed it by the first letter θ; thus, if they wished

to write down the circumstance of any person’s decease, they wrote the

name of the deceased, and affixed to it the letter θ, _vide_ Note 113,

also Isidor. Hispal. Orig. B. 1. C. 23. In breviculis, quibus militum

nomina continebantur, propria nota erat apud veteres, quæ respiceretur,

quanti ex militibus superessent, quanti in bello excidissent, τ in

capite versiculi posita superstitem designabat, θ verò ad unius

cujusque defuncti nomen adponebatur.

NOTE 191.

_And the example of others will teach me what ease, redress, and

profit, I have to expect from a suit at law: besides, I suppose

by this time, she has some lover to espouse her cause._

Madame Dacier, in a brilliant and acute critique, has explained this

passage in a most perspicuous and comprehensive manner.

――――Nunc me hospitem

Lites sequi, quam hîc mihi sit facile atque utile,

Aliorum exempla commonent.

“Présentement qu’un étranger comme moi aille entreprendre des procès,

les exemples des autres me font voir combien cela serait difficile

dans une ville comme celle-ci.”

“I have found, in a copy of Terence’s plays, a marginal note, in my

father’s hand-writing, to the following effect: Hunc locum non satis

potest intelligere qui librum Xenophontis περὶ Ἀθηναίων πολιτείας non

legerit. He who has not read the short treatise of Xenophon on the

civil government of the Athenians, can never perfectly comprehend

the full force of this passage. I profited by this information: I

have read this short treatise, and have been extremely pleased with

it: the trouble the perusal cost me has been amply repaid, as I have

ascertained by reading this treatise, that the inhabitants of those

cities and islands which were subject to the Athenian government were

obliged, when they had a suit at law pending, to plead it in Athens,

before the people: it could be decided no where else. Crito, therefore,

could not have expected impartial judgment from that tribunal,

which would certainly have favoured Glycera, the reputed sister of

Chrysis, who had settled in Athens, in preference to a stranger like

Crito. So much for the success of the affair: next the delays are

to be considered, which, to a stranger, are so doubly annoying. For

law-suits at Athens were protracted to an almost endless length: the

Athenians were such a very litigious people, and had so many law-suits

of their own, and celebrated so many festivals, that they had very

few days to spare, and the suits of strangers were so lengthened

out, and deferred from time to time, that they were almost endless.

In addition, moreover, to the uncertainty, and the delay, there was

a third inconvenience, still more disagreeable than either of the

others, which was, that in a case of that kind, it became necessary

to pay court to the people at a great expense. Crito, therefore, had

sufficient reason to feel repugnant to engage in a process which might

be so protracted and so expensive, the event of which (to say no worse)

was extremely precarious. I hope I have rendered this passage perfectly

clear.”――MADAME DACIER.

NOTE 192.

_Chremes.――Cease your entreaties, Simo; enough, and more than

enough, have I already shewn my friendship towards you: enough

have I risked for you._

Monsieur Baron, in his Andrienne, has given a literal translation of

this scene between Simo and Chremes, which, from its serious cast,

appears, perhaps, with more dignity in a poetical dress, than it would

have received from prose. A learned translator of Terence, who was also

an ingenious critic and a successful dramatist, speaks of Baron’s play

in the following terms: “Its extreme elegance, and great superiority to

the _prose_ translation of Dacier, is a strong _proof_ of the superior

excellence and propriety of a poetical translation of this author:”

(Terence.) COLMAN’S _Notes on Terence’s Plays_.

The celebrated writer, who made this remark, has himself employed

_verse_ throughout the whole of his translation of our author’s plays:

and, in the preface to that work, has delivered his opinion very

strongly in favour of the composition of comedy in verse, even in

the most comic scenes: and argues, that as Terence wrote in verse, a

translation of his plays ought to be in verse also.

I must observe that though the comedies of Terence certainly are not

prose, yet they are a species of verse so nearly approaching to prose,

that many eminent critics have denied that they were written with any

regard to measure: they are, therefore, as well calculated, perhaps,

as prose, for comic expression. But we have in English no measure

at all similar to that used by Terence, nor have we, in my opinion,

any measure of verse whatever, in which the most humorous passages

in comedy can be so forcibly expressed as they may be in prose. The

practice of modern dramatists entirely favours this opinion. Our

great Shakspeare, _even in tragedy_, changes from verse to prose,

when he introduces a _comic_ scene, as we see in _Hamlet_, A. 5. S.

1, 4., _Coriolanus_, A. 2. S. 1., _Antony and Cleopatra_, A. 2. S.

6, 7, _Othello_, A. 2. S. 11, A. 3. S. 1. Could the wit of Congreve,

Farquhar, Cibber, Sheridan, and many other eminent English dramatists

(among whom I may number Mr. Colman himself,) have been measured out

into verse without a diminution of the poignancy of its expression? If

the answer to this question be, as I think it must, _in the negative_,

it must surely be decisive against the general introduction of verse

into comedies; a species of writing, in which THE RIDICULOUS, according

to Aristotle, ought to claim a principal share.

NOTE 193.

_A citizen of Athens._

Athens, the most celebrated city of Greece, was the capital of that

part of Achaia, which, lying towards the sea-shore, (ἀκτὴ,) was called

Attica. It was called _Athens_ after Minerva, (_vide_ Note 94,)

_Cecropia_ after Cecrops, and _Ionia_ after Ion. The circumference

of this city, at the time of its greatest prosperity, is computed at

twenty-three English miles. A much greater space was enclosed within

the walls than was required by the usual inhabitants of the city,

because, in time of war, the country people were compelled to take

refuge within the walls. Aristophanes tells us, (in his Knights,)

that these country people, in time of war, dwelt in huts, resembling

bee-hives in shape, which were erected in the squares, and other open

places.

This accounts for the magnitude of the city, so disproportionate to

the _usual_ number of inhabitants in time of peace, when they did not

amount to a hundred thousand persons. Athens was governed by kings for

the space of 460 years: by magistrates, chosen for life, during about

300 years more: after that time, their rulers were allowed to hold

their offices for ten years only; and, at last, for no longer than

one. The citadel, or upper city, which was called the Ἀκρόπολις, was

ornamented with the most magnificent temples, monuments, and statues.

It contained the temples of Minerva, Neptune, Aglauros, Venus, and

Jupiter. Dicearchus tells us, that the enormous disproportion in the

size of the temples which were magnificent, and of the houses which

were low and small, considerably diminished the beauty of the city.

Athens was sometimes called the academy of the Roman empire, and the

fountain of learning: learned men, and philosophers of different

countries, resorted to this celebrated city in great numbers. The

Romans scarcely considered a liberal education as completed, without

the student received his final polish at Athens. (_Vide Horace Sat._,

B. 2. S. 7. L. 13., _Pliny_, 7. E. 56.) After a career of glory, which

must render the name of Athens immortal, that city sunk beneath the

all-conquering power of the Romans, B. C. 85; and the Athenians never

regained their importance in the scale of nations.

Athens is now called Setines; Dr. Chandler gives it the name of Athini.

It contains 15,000 inhabitants, and is the see of a Greek archbishop.

NOTE 194.

_There is a grave severity in his countenance; and

he speaks with boldness._

_Tristis severitas_ inest in voltu.

Gravity, among the ancient philosophers, was recommended as one of the

greatest ornaments of old age.

“Lætitia juvenem, _frons_ decet _tristis senem_.”

SENECA. _Hip._, A. II. S. II.

Graceful is gaiety in youth: in age

Gravity most becomes us.

Old men, among the Greeks, sometimes affected the manners and exercises

of youth: a species of weakness which the literary men of their age

reprobated with very poignant ridicule. Theophrastus admirably exposes

people of this sort in his portraiture of those who begin to learn in

old age. (_Vide Theoph. Moral Characters._)

NOTE 195.

_Simo.――Seize this rascal directly, and take him away._

――――_Sublimem_ hunc intrò rape quantum potes.

There is a sort of pun here upon the word _sublimem_. Terence alludes

to the prisons where slaves were confined, which, in Athens, were

usually in the loftiest part of the house: so that Simo says, take him

_up_, and also take him _up to the top of the house_: this is the force

of the word _sublimem_ in this passage.

Slaves, in Greece, were treated with great indulgence, and never

chained but for some heinous fault, or when they were brought into

the slave-market, (_vide Plautus’s Captives_, A. 1. S. 2,) and then

they were only worn for a short time. As Simo here commands that Davus

should be put into chains, we are to suppose him to be exasperated to

the utmost, which naturally leads _ad finem epitaseos_, to the end of

the epitasis. The anger of _Simo_, the distress of _Pamphilus_ and

_Glycera_, the imprisonment of _Davus_, and the anxious suspense of

_Charinus_, are what Scaliger (_Poet_, B. 1. C. 9.) calls the _negotia

exagitata_, or the confused and disturbed state of affairs, which the

_catastrophe_ is to reduce _in tranquillitatem non expectatam_, into a

sudden and unexpected tranquillity.

NOTE 196.

_Simo.――I’ll not hear a single word. I’ll ruffle you now, rascal, I

will._

_Davus.――For all that, what I say is true._

_Simo.――For all that, Dromo, take care to keep him bound._

_S._ Nihil audio. Ego jam te COMMOTUM REDDAM.

_D._ Tamen etsi hoc verum est.

_S._ Tamen. Cura adservandum vinctum.

The word _commotum_ seems to have been imperfectly understood by

Donatus and some other commentators, who have interpreted it as

signifying motion; and would translate the line thus, “I’ll make you

caper! I’ll make you dance to some tune, sirrah!” which is extremely

foreign to its true meaning. Simo uses the phrase _commotum_ reddam

instead of _commovebo_, for the sake of a pun which Terence makes with

the word _reddam_: which cannot be perfectly preserved in English.

In the seventh scene of the second act, Davus jests upon the empty

larder, and says,

_Indeed, Sir, I think you are too frugal: it is not well timed._

Simo is quite nettled at this severe joke, which leads him to think his

stratagem discovered, and he cries out _Tace: hold your tongue_; upon

which, Davus, delighted with his success in tormenting his master, says

to himself Commovi, _I’ve ruffled him now._ Simo accidentally overhears

this, and most severely retorts on him his own expression,

Ego jam te commotum reddam: _I will ruffle you now, rascal;

I will pay you back your ruffling._

The wit of the sentence depends on the word _reddam_; which allows

of a double construction, as _reddo_ taken separately, signifies _to

pay back_, _to requite_, and _to retaliate_. Simo may, therefore, be

understood to say, that he pays him back the ruffling he received. But,

for this conceit, Simo would have said, Commovebo, which is Davus’s own

word: the sense would then have been clearer, though Terence has the

same expression in another scene in this play,

Quos me ludos redderet,

where _reddo_ has the same meaning with facio: which is frequently used

by Plautus, as “_ludos facere_.”

NOTE 197.

_Can he be so weak? so totally regardless of the customs

and laws of his country?_

The Athenian laws prohibited a citizen from marrying with a woman who

was not a citizen, _vide_ Note 181. A law was passed by Pericles, that

the children of a marriage in which both parties were not citizens,

should be considered as νοθοι, illegitimate. Pericles himself violated

this law, when he had lost all his legitimate children.

As this is one of the most lively and interesting, so it is also one

of the most instructive scenes of this comedy. How noble are the

sentiments! How engaging the mutual affection of the father and son,

which, in spite of their disagreement, is visible in all they say to

each other. How amiable are the efforts of Chremes to soften the anger

of the justly-offended Simo! He forgets his own disappointment, and

the slight his daughter Philumena had received from Pamphilus, and

endeavours to reconcile him to his father. It is impossible to read

this beautiful scene, without being both affected and improved by the

perusal of it.

NOTE 198.

_Persons are suborned hither too, who say that she is a citizen of

Athens. You have conquered._

The subornation of false witness was punished in Athens with the

greatest severity. Both the suborner and the perjured were subject to

the same punishment. Upon a third conviction, the offender was branded

with infamy, and forfeited his estate. The Athenians, in general,

were so celebrated for their love of truth, that the words _an Attic

witness_ were used proverbially to designate a witness, whose truth and

honour were proof against corruption.

NOTE 199.

_If you insist on your marriage with Philumena, and compel me to

subdue my love for Glycera, I will endeavour to comply._

This speech is exceedingly artificial. Pamphilus, _in the hearing of

Chremes, the father of his intended wife_, confesses his love for

another; and owns, that it must cost him a severe struggle to conquer

his affection for her, and resolve to wed Philumena. The knowledge

of this was sufficient to deter Chremes from giving his daughter to

Pamphilus.

NOTE 200.

_I implore only, that you will cease to accuse me of suborning

hither this old man. Suffer me to bring him before you, that I

may clear myself from this degrading suspicion._

“Pamphilus had all the reason in the world to endeavour to bring Simo

and Crito together, that so he might clear himself of such a scandal as

his father very reasonably imputed to him. And this was all the young

gentleman’s design, but the poet had a far greater, which the audience

could not so much as suspect: namely, the discovery of Glycerie, which

comes in very naturally.”――ECHARD.

NOTE 201.

_Chremes.――Simo, if you knew this stranger as well as I do, you

would think better of him; he is a worthy man._

M. Baron in this and the following scenes gives almost a literal

translation from Terence: and the Andrienne concludes exactly in

the same manner with the Latin play; excepting the affranchisement

of Davus, with which M. Baron makes Pamphilus reward his faithful

services.

In the Conscious Lovers, Sir R. Steele changes Crito into Isabella, the

aunt of Indiana, whose real birth is discovered by Sealand’s making

her a visit, to inquire into the nature of her connexion with young

Bevil: the discovery is made by Sealand himself, who recognizes one of

the ornaments worn by his daughter. He gives Indiana willingly to her

preserver Bevil, jun., and Lucinda, who was intended to be the wife of

Bevil, was, upon his marriage with her sister Indiana, given to Myrtle,

the lover whom she herself had always favoured.

NOTE 202.

_Simo.――A sycophant._

The word sycophant was an epithet of peculiar opprobrium at Athens, and

of very singular derivation. In a season of great scarcity, a law was

passed at Athens, prohibiting the exportation of figs; and afterwards,

through neglect, remained unrepealed. Hence, those malicious men who

informed against those who transgressed it, were called συκοφάνται, and

this appellation was afterwards always applied to false witnesses, and

busy and malicious informers.

NOTE 203.

_Crito.――Chrysis’ father, who received him, was my relation, and,

at his house, I’ve heard that shipwrecked stranger say, that he

was an Athenian: he died in Andros._

――――Tum is mihi cognatus fuit,

Qui eum _recepit_: ibi ego audivi ex illo sese esse Atticum:

Is ibi mortuus est.

The word _recepit_, in this sentence, alludes to the Roman customs

respecting foreigners. Crito had just before used the term _applicat_,

_he applied for assistance_. When an exile or foreigner arrived at

Rome, he was said _applicare_, _to apply_ to some person to become

his patron; as every stranger at Rome was compelled to obtain the

protection of one of the citizens, who succeeded to his effects at his

death: jure applicationis. When a Roman citizen agreed to accept of a

foreigner as his client, he was said _recipere_, to receive him.

NOTE 204.

_Crito.――At least I think it was Phania: one thing I am sure of, he

said he was from Rhamnus._

Rhamnus was a small town in the north of Attica, and only a few miles

to the north-west of Marathon. It seems to have been famous for little

but a magnificent temple of Nemesis, and an exquisite statue of

that goddess, sculptured by Phidias; hence she was sometimes called

Rhamnusia, thus by Ovid,

――――Assensit precibus Rhamnusia justis.

_Metam._, B. 3. L. 406.

Rhamnusia heard the lover’s just request.

We must not understand Crito to mean, that Phania was a Rhamnusian,

because we know that he and Chremes both resided in the city of Athens.

Phania probably was prevented, by the confusion of the war, from

obtaining a vessel at the Piræus, or either of the Athenian ports; and

therefore returned to Rhamnus, and embarked for the opposite coast of

Attica. Phania might, therefore, call himself Rhamnusius from Rhamnus,

as being bound from Rhamnus to Smyrna, or any other Asian port. Some,

instead of Rhamnus and Rhamnusius, read Rhamus and Rhamusius.

NOTE 205.

_Crito.――The very name._

_Chremes.――You are right._

_Crito.――Ipsa est. Chremes.――Ea est._ Terence has shewn his usual art

in the arrangement of these two speeches. Upon hearing the true name,

one would have expected that the father would have been the first to

recognize it, but he prudently delays until Crito confirms the truth

of his testimony by agreeing to the name of the long-lost Pasibula.

This is finely imagined by the author, as Chremes might very well be

supposed to suspect that this discovery was a trick of Davus’, (who

might have heard of the loss of this infant daughter,) and taken Crito

for an accomplice in the conceived imposture. Chremes, therefore,

waited to know whether Crito recognised the name of Pasibula, which, if

the story had been false, must have been unknown to him: for the high

character of Pamphilus placed him beyond the reach of suspicion.

NOTE 206.

_Simo.――Chremes, I hope you are convinced how sincerely

we all rejoice at this discovery._

――――S. _Omnes_ nos gaudere hoc, Chreme,

Te credo credere.

In many of the old editions of our author, this passage is written

_omneis_ nos gaudere; this variation has a reference to the measure of

the verse. I have seen one edition in which the line is written _omnis_

nos gaudere.

NOTE 207.

_Pam.――Oh! that is certain._

_Simo.――I consent most joyfully._

P. Nempe.

S. Scilicet.

Some commentators interpret these words from Pamphilus and Simo,

(Nempe and Scilicet,) as a hint to Chremes, respecting the dowry which

they expected to receive with Glycera; and think that the actor who

personates Simo ought to produce a bag of money, that he may “_suit the

action to the word_.” An ingenious critic, speaking of this vague and

fanciful conjecture, observes, as follows: “This, surely, is a precious

refinement, worthy the genius of a true commentator. Madame Dacier,

who entertains a just veneration for Donatus, doubts the authenticity

of the observation, which is ascribed to him.” Certainly, if either of

the words could be wrested to such a meaning, it must be _Nempe_, but

Terence has represented Pamphilus as a character, so noble, generous,

and high-spirited, that we cannot consistently suppose that he would

suffer any mercenary considerations to delay for a single moment his

acceptance of his beloved Glycera, when offered to him by her father.

NOTE 208.

_Chremes.――Pamphilus, my daughter’s portion is ten

talents._

A TABLE OF THE MONEY CURRENT IN GREECE.

equal to worth (_sterling_)

£. _s._ _d._ _qrs._

Lepton 0 0 0 0¹¹⁄₁₁₂

Chalcus 7 Lepta 0 0 0 0¹¹⁄₁₆

Dichalcus 2 Chalci 0 0 0 1⅜

Hemiobolus 2 Dichalci 0 0 0 2¾

Obolus 2 Hemioboli 0 0 1 1½

Diobolus 2 Oboli 0 0 2 3

Triobolus 3 Oboli 0 0 4 0½

Hemidrachm 3 Oboli 0 0 4 0½

Tetrobolus 4 Oboli 0 0 5 2

Pentobolus 5 Oboli 0 0 6 3½

Drachm 6 Oboli 0 0 8

Didrachm 2 Drachms 0 1 4 2

Tetradrachm 4 Drachms 0 2 9 0

Stater of silver 4 Drachms 0 2 9 0

Pentadrachm 5 Drachms 0 3 5 1

Stater of gold 25 Drachms 0 17 2 1

Stater of Philip 28 Drachms 0 19 3 0

Stater of Alexander 28 Drachms 0 19 3 0

Stater of Cyzicus 28 Drachms 0 19 3 0

Stater of Darius 48 Drachms 1 13 0 0

Stater of Crœsus 48 Drachms 1 13 0 0

Homerical talent 75 Drachms 2 11 6 3

Mina 100 Drachms 3 8 9 0

The smaller Ptolemaic

talent 20 Minæ 68 15 0 0

The smaller Antiochan

talent 60 Minæ 206 5 0 0

The Attic talent 60 Minæ 206 5 0 0

The smaller Euboic

talent 60 Minæ 206 5 0 0

The great Attic talent 80 Minæ 275 0 0 0

The great Ptolemaic

talent of Cleopatra 86⅔ Minæ 297 18 4 0

The Eginean talent 100 Minæ 343 15 0 0

The Rhodian talent 100 Minæ 343 15 0 0

The insular talent 120 Minæ 412 10 0 0

The great Antiochan

talent 360 Minæ 1237 10 0 0

Those who wish for complete information respecting the ancient and

modern _real money, and money of account_, may be fully satisfied by

consulting the following writers on the subject.

Augustinus, Arbuthnot, Budæus, Boisard, Bircherod, Bonneville,

Bouteroue, Camden, Du Bost, De Asse, Folkes, Fleetwood, Goltzius,

Guthrie, Gerhart, Greaves, Hardouin, Joubert, Krause, Kelly, Lowndes,

Le Blanc, Locke, Lord Liverpool, Marien, Morel, Mezzabarba, Norris,

Occo, Oiselius, Patin, Pinkerton, Ricard, Richebourg, Raper, Simon,

Snelling, Souciet, Seguin, Sirmond, Spanheim, Smith, Tristran, Ursinus,

Vicus, Vaillant.

NOTE 209.

_Simo.――Why do you not immediately give orders for

her removal to our house?_

Grecian women, in the situation in which Glycera is represented to have

been, were usually well enough to go abroad in a litter in one day’s

time. This topic is introduced by the poet, in order that Davus may be

spoken of, and delivered from confinement; because his remaining in

prison would have been contrary to the rules of comedy.

NOTE 210.

_Simo.――Because he is now carrying on things of great

weight, and which touch him more nearly._

――――Quia habet aliud _magis_ ex sese et _majus_.

There is a pun in the original, which I have attempted to preserve in

the translation by a circumlocution which I trust on such an occasion

will be deemed allowable. The critics remark, that Terence, by Simo’s

pleasantry, (_vide Note 211_,) intended to shew that he was thoroughly

reconciled to his son. (_Vide Note 92._)

NOTE 211.

_Simo.――He is chained._

_Pam.――Ah! dear Sir, that was not_ well done.

_Simo.――I am sure I ordered it to be_ well done.

S. Vinctus est.

P. Pater non _rectè_ vinctus est.

S. _Haud ita jussi._

The jest in this sentence turns on the word _rectè_, which refers to

an Athenian custom of binding criminals’ hands and feet together. Simo

(A. 5. S. 3. _p._ 86.) orders Dromo to bind Davus in the manner before

mentioned: (_atque audin’? quadrupedem constringito_.) Pamphilus says,

non _rectè_ vinctus est: _rectè_ has a double meaning, it signifies

_rightly_, and also _straight_. Simo pretends to take it in the latter

sense, which makes his son’s speech run thus, _He is not bound straight

or upright_: to which Simo replies, _I ordered he should not be bound

straight, but crooked_, or neck and heels. I trust I have made the

force of this pun clear to the unlearned reader: the turn given it in

the English translation is borrowed from Echard.

NOTE 212.

_Pam. (to himself.)――Any one would think, perhaps, that I do not

believe this to be true, but I know it is because I wish it so.

I am of opinion, that the lives of the gods are eternal, because

their pleasures are secure and without end._

“Epicurus observed, that the gods could not but be immortal, since they

are exempt from all kinds of evils, cares, and dangers. But Terence

gives another more refined reason, which more forcibly expresses the

joy of Pamphilus; for he affirms that their immortality springs only

from the durability of their pleasures. This passage is very beautiful.

Pamphilus prefaces what he is going to say by the expression, “_Any

one would think, perhaps_;” this was in a manner necessary to excuse

the freedom which, arising from his joy, makes him assign another

reason for the immortality of the gods than those discovered by the

philosophers, particularly by Epicurus, whose name was still fresh

in the recollection of every person, and whose doctrines were very

generally received and adopted.” MADAME DACIER.

NOTE 213.

_Pam.――There is now no impediment to our marriage._

Nec mora ulla est, quin jam uxorem ducam.

Pamphilus does not mean by this expression, that he was not married

before, but that now that he has his father’s consent to his union,

he can ducere uxorem, _lead his wife_ publicly to his own house with

the usual ceremonies. The latter phrase _ducere uxorem_, _to marry_,

took its rise from the custom of leading the bride from her father’s

to her husband’s house, in a ceremonial procession. For an account of

the marriages of the Greeks, _vide_ Notes 116, 117, 118. Marriages,

among the Romans, were of three kinds. The first, and most binding,

by which women of rank and consideration were married, was called

_confarreatio_: when the parties were joined by the high priest, in

the presence of a great number of witnesses; and ate a cake made of

meal and salt. The second kind of marriage was _usus_, when the parties

lived together for one year. The third kind was called _coemptio_ or

mutual purchase, in which the bride and bridegroom gave each other a

piece of money, and repeated over a set form of words.

NOTE 214.

_Char. (aside.)――This man is dreaming of what he

wishes when awake._

――――Num ille somniat

Ea, quæ vigilans voluit.

The optative influence, (if I may so call it,) on the visions of the

night, here alluded to by Terence, has been described at length by a

celebrated poet, in verses which charm the ear with their melody, and

which command the approbation of the judgment as a faithful portraiture

of nature. Their author wrote verses, which, in _harmony of measure_,

excelled those of all the Roman poets, excepting _Ovid_.

Omnia quæ sensu volvuntur vota diurno,

Pectore sopito, reddit amica quies:

Venator defessa toro cum membra reponit.

Mens tamen ad sylvas, et sua lustra redit.

Judicibus lites, aurige somnia currus,

Vanaque nocturnis meta cavetur equis.

Furto gaudet amans; permutat navita merces;

Et vigil elapsas quærit avarus opes.

Vatem Musarum studium sub nocte silenti

Artibus assuetis solicitare solet.――CLAUDIAN.

NOTE 215.

_Do you, Davus, go home, and order some of our people hither, to

remove her to our house. Why do you loiter? go, don’t lose a

moment._

_Davus.――I am going. You must not expect their coming out: she will

be betrothed within_, &c.

The concluding lines of the play from “_You must not expect_,” &c.,

were not originally spoken by the actor who personated Davus, but

formed a sort of epilogue, spoken by a performer, called Cantor; who

also pronounced the word PLAUDITE, with which the _comedies_ and

tragedies of the Romans usually terminated. _Vide Note 217, also

Quintilian_, B. 6. C. 1., _and Cicero and Cato_. Horace expressly tells

us, that the Cantor said the words, vos plaudite.

“Tu quid ego, et populus mecum desideret audi.

Si plausoris eges aulæa manentis, et usque

Sessuri, DONEC CANTOR VOS PLAUDITE DICAT;

Ætatis cujusque notandi sunt tibi mores,

Mobilibusque decor naturis dandus et annis.”

_Art of Poet._, L. 153.

Attend, whilst I instruct thee how to please

Him whose experience guides thee; and the taste

That rules the present age. If thou wouldst charm

Our listening ears, until the scene be done;

And in our seats _detain us till the Cantor

Requests applause_; give to each stage of life,

Its attributes: and justly paint the changes,

Wrought by the hand of Time.

NOTE 216.

_You must not expect their coming out._

Some editors give nearly twenty lines of dialogue between Chremes and

Charinus respecting the marriage of the latter with Philumena, but

those additional lines are spurious. The critics have decided that the

play should terminate with the winding up of Pamphilus’s intrigue,

and that that of Charinus should be left to the imagination: as the

action must languish, if continued after the interest felt for the

principal characters has subsided. Davus here addresses the spectators,

as does Mysis, in A. 1. S. 4. Commentators deem this a blemish in the

composition of the piece. These addresses, in ancient comedies, were

not, I imagine, made to the spectators in general, but to those persons

who stood on the stage during the performance, as the chorus, or as

musicians.

NOTE 217.

_Farewell, and clap your hands._

“All the ancient copies have the Greek omega, Ω, placed before the

words, ‘_clap your hands_,’ and before ‘_Farewell, and clap your

hands_,’ in other plays: ‘which,’ says Eugraphius, ‘are the words of

the prompter, who, at the end of the play, lifted up the curtain,

and said to the audience, ‘_Farewell, and clap your hands_:’ thus

far Faernus. Leng, at the end of every play, subscribes these words,

Calliopius recensui, and says Calliopius was the prompter; and he

quotes the same words of Eugraphius, which I have here quoted from

Faernus. If Ω stands for any thing more than ‘_Finis_,’ (as some

imagine to be placed there by transcribers to signify the end,) it may

be designed for the first letter Ωδος, which is the Greek for Cantor:

and Horace, in his art of poetry, says,

Donec cantor vos plaudite dicat.

“Bentley supposes this Cantor to have been Flaccus the musician,

(_mentioned in the title_,) who, when the play was over, entreated the

favour of the audience: but I should rather think Calliopius to have

been the Cantor, if there was any foundation in antiquity for his name

being at the end of the plays; but the name seems fictitious to me by

the etymology thereof, and it being used in this place. It is indeed

at the end of every play, in all the _three manuscripts in Dr. Mead’s_

collection except Phormio, which is the last play in the prosaic copy;

and the only reason for Calliopius recensui not being there, is,

doubtless, because the play is imperfect, some few verses being out at

the conclusion; ω precedes the farewell in one of the doctor’s copies,

ο in another, and the largest copy has neither. What is independent of

the action of the play, as the last two lines are, may be looked upon

as an epilogue, and was probably spoken by the same person, whether

_player_, _prompter_, or _cantor_.”――COOKE.

NOTE 218.

_End of the fifth Act._

At the end of a play, the Romans closed their scenes, which, instead of

falling from the roof of the theatre downwards, as among the moderns,

were constructed something similarly to the blinds of a carriage; so

that when the stage was to be exposed to the view of the spectators,

the scene or curtain was let down, and when the piece was concluded, it

was drawn up again. The ancients originally performed their plays in

the open air, with no scenery but that furnished by nature. As they

became more refined, they erected theatres, and introduced scenes,

which they divided into three kinds: 1. tragic, 2. comic, 3. pastoral.

Some very valuable information on this subject may be gathered from M.

Perrault’s Notes on Vitruvius, who has described the various sorts of

ancient scenes. Ovid, in the following verses, describes the original

simplicity of the Roman dramatic entertainments:

“Tunc neque marmoreo pendebant vela theatro,

Nec fuerant liquido pulpita rubra croco.

Illic quas tulerant nemorosa palatia frondes

Simpliciter positæ SCENA sine arte fuit.”

FINIS.

LONDON:

Printed by W. CLOWES, Northumberland-court.

Transcriber’s Note:

Words may have multiple spelling variations or inconsistent

hyphenation in the text. These have been left unchanged unless

indicated below. Obsolete and alternative spellings were left

unchanged.

Words and phrases in italics are surrounded by underscores, _like

this_. Note 108 has two footnotes that were lettered sequentially and

were moved to the end of the Note. Missing anchor was added to Note

50. Obvious printing errors, such as backwards, upside down, reverse

order, or partially printed letters and punctuation, were corrected.

Final stops missing at the end of sentences and abbreviations were

added. Duplicate letters at line endings or page breaks were removed.

Punctuation and accent marks were normalized.

The following items were changed:

“his“ to “this,“ line 148

“praisng” changed to “praising,” line 2856

“thing” added to text where not legible in the original, Note 114