Terence

“ Simo. Well, be it so. (Pamphilus goes in.) Oh! Chremes, what would I not give, to be convinced that my son has not deceived me.
Chremes. However great may be the faults of a son, a slight punishment satisfies a father.
Scene V. Scene V.
Chremes, Simo, Crito, Pamphilus.
Crito. Say no more, Pamphilus, I would do what you wish either for your sake, or for Glycera’s, or even my regard for truth would be a sufficient inducement.
Chremes. Do I see Crito the Andrian? Yes, it is he!
Crito. Well met, Chremes.
Chremes. What brought you to Athens, who are such a stranger here? ”

“ The critics hold it impossible, that an action of months or years can be possibly believed to pass in three hours. The spectator, who knows that he saw the first act at Alexandria, cannot suppose that he sees the next at Rome; he knows that he has not changed his place, and that the place cannot change itself; that what was a house can never become a plain; that what was Thebes, can never be Persepolis. Such is the triumphant language with which a critic exults over the miseries of an irregular poet ”

“ The Romans, therefore, omitted no opportunity of improving the manners and perfecting the education of their youth, by sending them to mix with the Greeks, and to unite themselves to the disciples of those Grecian sages, who, as far as the light of reason, unassisted by divine revelation, could penetrate, dispelled the clouds of ignorance, and taught their followers that happiness and wisdom can be attained only by the virtuous. ”

“ Terence has the art of making us feel interested in the favour of almost all his characters: they insensibly gain ground in our good opinion: even this Davus, who certainly has a spice of the rogue about him, creates a warm interest in his favour by his fidelity to Pamphilus; and his generosity in risking his own safety to serve him: he braves the threats of Simo, when, by assisting him, and betraying Pamphilus, he must have secured the old man’s favour, and consequently great advantages to himself. But very few of the worst characters in Terence’s plays seem to us to be wholly unamiable. ”

“ Friend Davus, you have been my deliverer to-day.
Davus. Not at all, Sir, this does not benefit you.
Char. How so? why Chremes certainly will not give his daughter to Pamphilus.
Davus. Nonsense; as if it followed of course that he must give her to you, because he does not give her to him: if you do not take care; if you do not use all your endeavours, to gain the support of the old man’s friends, you will be no nearer your wishes than ever [121] . ”

“ Each person was thought to have a good and also an evil spirit, who never quitted its charge till death: the spirits attendant on the men were called by the Romans genii, and those belonging to the women were named junones. The Greeks considered these aërial beings as of a nature between that of gods and men: and that they communicated to the latter the will of the former by oracles, dreams, &c. Apuleius takes the genius to be the same as the lar and larva: but it is most probable, that the larvæ, lemures, and dæmones, were all used as names for what were termed the evil genii. ”

“ That Simo should provide furniture for a marriage which he had but slight hopes of negotiating at that time, is not very probable. But Athenian slaves performed all domestic offices in their masters’ houses: and Sosia, even after he became a freedman might have practised cookery, in which, perhaps, he excelled. He uses the words “mea ars,” my art, and Simo answers him with “isthac arte,” that art, by which it is clear that he means some particular art. The word art has in English both a general and particular sense; but, in Latin, “ars” is generally used only in the latter. ”

“ 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. ”

“ PROLOGUE. PROLOGUE [56] .
Our poet, when first he bent his mind to write, thought that he undertook no more than to compose Comedies which should please the people. But he finds himself not a little deceived; and is compelled to waste his time in making Prologues; not to narrate the plot of his play, but to answer the snarling malice of an older poet [57] . And now, I pray you, Sirs, observe what they object against our Author: Menander wrote the [58] Andrian and Perinthian: he who knows one of them knows both, their plots are so very similar; but they are different in dialogue, and in style. ”

“ I am not Œdipus, but Davus.
This is as much as to say, I am a plain man, I am no reader of riddles: because Œdipus, king of Thebes, was particularly celebrated for solving an enigma, which had long baffled the penetration of all the Thebans. Ancient writers relate the story thus: Europa, the sister of Cadmus, the first king of Thebes, having been carried off by Jupiter; Juno, in her jealousy, wreaked her vengeance on Europa’s family, and persecuted Cadmus and his descendants with the most inveterate hostility. ”

“ 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. ”

“ Johnson concludes this subject as follows; “He that, without diminution of any other excellence, shall preserve all the unities unbroken, deserves the like applause with the architect, who shall display all the orders of architecture in a citadel, without any deduction from its strength; but the principal beauty of a citadel is to exclude the enemy; and the greatest graces of a play are to copy nature, and instruct life.” ”

“ Besides all this, as I was returning, I met Chremes’ servant, who was carrying home some herbs, and as many little fishes for the old man’s supper, as might have cost an obolus.
What a supper for a man of fortune! as we must suppose Chremes to have been, since he could give Glycera and Philumena each a dowry of ten talents. The Athenians were remarkable, even to a proverb, for their extreme frugality. To tell a person that he lived ἀττικηρῶς or like an Athenian, was to tell him in other words that he lived penuriously. The food of the common people was very coarse ”

“ Of a wicked mind, one can expect nothing but wicked intentions.
In the Latin, mala mens, malus animus. It is not easy to discriminate with accuracy the different meanings the Romans attached to mens and animus. Some think that animus meant the heart, and mens the faculty of thinking. Grotius has, in this passage, taken those words to signify conscience and judgment: but, I think it probable, that the word animus was usually employed when they spoke of the soul, and that mens was intended to express what we understand by the word mind, when we speak of greatness of mind, or littleness of mind. ”

“ 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. ”

“ Slaves, among the Greeks, formed a very considerable portion of the population of a city, and, in some places, were more numerous than the citizens themselves. In Athens, all domestic offices were performed by slaves, who were employed also in the capacities of tutors, scribes, stewards, overseers, and husbandmen, according to their respective talents: when a slave manifested great abilities, he was taught the art or science for which he seemed most fitted. ”

“ Cecrops, the first king of Athens, seems to have been the reputed founder of marriage-ceremonies among the Greeks: the Athenians accounted it so dishonourable to grow old in a single state, that their laws peremptorily required, that all the αὐτοκράτορες, στρατηγοὶ, πολέμαρχοι, and ταξίαρχοι, who were the principal military officers, also the ἄρχοντες and ἱεροφύλακες, or chief priests, as well as the archons and other chief magistrates, should be chosen from the married men only. ”

“ Three thousand brazen statues filled up the spaces between the pillars. This theatre would contain eighty thousand persons. Independently of the ordinary representations, plays were performed on all solemn occasions: at the public feasts and games, and at the funerals of eminent citizens. No opportunity seems to have been neglected to introduce this species of amusement at Rome: no nation, ancient or modern, appears to have cultivated the drama with greater diligence than the Romans; and few have had more success. ”

“ His plays are crowded with narratives, which, however beautifully written, will never yield that attraction to an audience, which they find in busy and lively action. He cannot bring on the stage what is supposed to happen in the next street, or adjoining house, it must therefore be related. All the story of the piece must be supposed to pass in a very few hours: all those events which cannot be imagined to take place in one day, and which, when represented to the spectators in the modern drama, are often of the greatest interest, must, by the law of the unity of time be related. ”

“ Not a soul do I see before the door.
The marriage ceremonies of the Greeks were, in many respects, very similar to those of the Romans. In Athens, as at Rome, sacrifices were deemed necessary preliminaries to the celebration of a marriage: and the bride, accompanied by bride-women, whom the Latins called pronubæ, the Greeks νυμφεύτριαι, was conducted to her husband’s house with great ceremony; if the parties were of rank, the bride’s train was increased by the attendance of many of her friends and relatives, who previously assembled at her father’s house. ”

“ 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 ”

“ 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. ”

“ 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. ”

“ Though those women who were hired to follow a corpse, walked in procession, it was very usual in Greece, to attend funerals in carriages, and on horseback: but Chrysis, not being represented as a citizen, the ceremonies, in respect to the procession, must be supposed to be different. The interment of the dead was considered of such extreme importance throughout the whole of Greece, that to want the rites of sepulture, was deemed by the natives of that country, a much greater misfortune than even death itself. ”

“ She is in labour.
In the Latin, Laborat e dolore. Cooke thinks that these words mean merely she is weighed down by grief: and argues, that if Pamphilus had understood her words in any other sense, he would have urged her to more haste; as he does, when she tells him that she is going for a midwife. But laboro sometimes means to strive or struggle, as in Ovid,
“Et simul arma tuli, quæ nunc quoque ferre laboro.” ”

“ Davus. I know your affair also [115] .
Pam. A marriage is——
Davus. I know that also.
Pam. This very day too.
Davus. You stun me; I tell you I know every thing already. You, Pamphilus, fear lest you should be compelled to marry Philumena; and you, Charinus, lest you should not marry her.
Char. Exactly so.
Pam. ’Tis the very thing.
Davus. Then, Sir, in that very thing there is no danger at all; take my word for it.
Pam. For heaven’s sake, Davus, if you can do so, rid me of my fears at once.
Davus. I banish them all; Chremes does not intend to give you his daughter at present. ”

“ Charinus and Byrrhia are indeed but poor counterparts, or faint shadows of Pamphilus and Davus; and, instead of adding life and vigour to the fable, rather damp its spirit, and stop the activity of its progress. As to the tragical circumstance of Philumena’s having no husband, it seems something like the distress of Prince Prettyman [A] , who thinks it a matter of indifference, whether he shall appear to be the son of a king or a fisherman, and is only uneasy lest he should be the son of nobody at all. ”

“ 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. ”

“ Is there no honour, no sincerity in any man? I find the common proverb to be true. Every man loves himself best. I have seen Philumena, and I remember that I thought her charming; in truth, I cannot much blame Pamphilus, that he had rather wed her himself than yield her to my master. Well, I’ll carry him an account of what has passed. I suppose I shall receive an abundance of bad language in return for my bad news [131] .
[Exit.
Scene VII. Scene VII.
Davus, Simo.
Davus. [aside.] The old man thinks I have some scheme on foot, and stay here now to play it off upon him. ”

“ Crito, I fear, will not be able to maintain his ground.
Chremes. [201] Simo, if you knew this stranger as well as I do, you would think better of him: he is a worthy man.
Simo. He a worthy man? but yes, it was very good of him to be sure to come here so opportunely on the day of my son’s marriage! he! who was never at Athens before! Chremes, ought such a man to be believed? ”

“ Meanwhile a young man, named Pamphilus, is accidently introduced at her house, sees Glycera, is enamoured of her; she returns his affections, and they are privately betrothed; a short time previous to the death of Chrysis, which happens about three years after her removal to Athens. Chremes, whom we left in Asia, returned to Athens, and became the father of another daughter, who was called Philumena; he had long before formed a friendship with Simo, the father of Pamphilus. ”

“ It is said that Glycera is a citizen of Athens; [193] and that she has a son by Pamphilus: this sets us free.
Simo. I conjure you, Chremes, by the gods, not to suffer yourself to be led away by those who wish to make their advantage of my son’s follies: all those reports are invented and spread abroad, with a view to prevent the marriage: when their cause ceases, they will cease also.
Chremes. You are mistaken: I myself saw the Andrian’s maid quarrelling with Davus. ”

“ There are so many points to be considered, so many similarities to be compared with each other, so many differences to be weighed against each other, that the task is almost endless; and appears to require talents superior to those of the person whose productions are to be criticised; as the hand which holds the balance ought to possess a power more than equal to the weight of whatever is to be placed in it.
Most of those critics who have undertaken to compare Terence and Plautus with each other, have, on a general estimate of their merits, decided in favour of Terence ”

“ 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. ”