 | The Brothers |  |
PROLOGUE.
By partial criticks, and his adversaries
Misrepresenting what we're now to play,
Pleads his own cause; and you shall be the judges,
Whether he merits praise or condemnation.
By Diphilus, a Comedy which Plautus,
Having translated, call'd Commorientes.
In the beginning of the Græcian play
There is a youth, who rends a girl perforce
From a procurer: and this incident,
Untouch'd by Plautus, render'd word for word,
Has our Bard interwoven with his Brothers;
The new piece which we represent to-day.
Say then if this be theft, or honest use
Which malice tells, that certain noble persons
Assist the Bard, and write in concert with him;
That which they deem a heavy slander, He
Esteems his greatest praise: that he can please
Those who please you, who all the people please;
Those who in war, in peace, in counsel, ever
Have render'd you the dearest services,
And ever born their faculties so meekly.
Part the old men, who first appear, will open;
Part will in act be shewn.—Be favourable;
And let your candour to the poet now
Increase his future earnestness to write!
A Greek word [Συναποθνησκοντες] signifying dying together. Varro somewhere declares that Plautus was not the author of the comedy, called Commorientes, a Latin word of the like import: but he certainly speaks of some other play which bore the same title, or the opinions of men must have differed in his days concerning this matter; some giving it to Plautus, others to Aquilius. Terence however, in my opinion, is an authority most to be depended upon. The play of Plautus is lost. Dacier.
Nothing can set the Greek poets in a more exalted light, than to see them, even from the earliest days of the Romans, not only so eagerly read, but so attentively and so carefully translated, that the Latin authors seldom or ever attempted any thing of their own: Donatus, in his preface to this comedy, says of Terence, minus existimans laudis proprias scribere, quam Græcas transferre,—“thinking it less praise to invent new plays, than to translate Greek ones.” S.
| The Brothers | |