 | Phormio |  |
PROLOGUE.
To draw our Poet from the love of verse,
And bury him in indolence, attempts
By calumny to scare him from the stage;
Pretending, that in all his former plays
The characters are low, and mean the stile;
Who in his fits of phrenzy thought he saw
A Hind, the dogs in full cry after her;
Her too imploring and beseeching him
To give her aid.—But did he understand,
That when the piece was first produc'd, it ow'd,
More to the Actor, than himself, its safety,
He would not be thus bold to give offence.
—But if there's any one that says, or thinks,
“That had not the Old Bard assail'd him first,
“Our Poet could not have devis'd a Prologue,
“Having no matter for abuse;”—let such
Receive for answer, “that altho' the prize
“To all advent'rers is held out in common,
“The Veteran Poet meant to drive our Bard
“From study into want: He therefore chose
“To answer, though he would not first offend.
“And had his adversary but have prov'd
“A generous rival, he had had due praise;
“Of his own slanders 'tis the due return.
“But henceforth I shall cease to speak of him,
“Altho' he ceases not himself to rail.”
To-day I bring a new Play, which the Greeks
Call Epidicazomenos; the Latins,
From the chief character, name Phormio:
Phormio, whom you will find a Parasite,
And the chief engine of the plot.—And now,
If to our Poet you are well inclin'd,
Give ear; be favourable; and be silent!
Let us not meet the same ill fortune now,
That we before encounter'd, when our troop
Was by a tumult driven from their place;
To which the Actor's merit, seconded
By your good-will and candour, has restor'd us.
Tenui esse oratione, & scripturâ levi. The Poet here shews the want of judgement in the censures of the Critick, who objects to him as a fault, what ought to be the chief excellence of comick stile. It is true indeed that Terence was in this instance held inferior to Menander; and condemned for using less sublime language than his original: from which censure he here endeavours to vindicate himself by saying, that such a raised stile rather belonged to the province of Tragedy.
Donatus.The opinion of Donatus on this passage is pretty clear from the above note: yet this line has created much dispute among commentators. The learned author of the Notes on the Art of Poetry almost directly contradicts Donatus, and says, “The sense of this passage is not, as commentators have idly thought, that his style was low and trifling, for this could never be pretended, but that his dialogue was insipid, and his characters, and in general his whole composition, WITHOUT THAT COMICK HEIGHTENING, which their vitiated tastes required.” Whoever consults the whole context, I think, must accede to the interpretation of Donatus, rather than that of the Annotator upon Horace. The objection of Lavinius to the plays of Terence was not, that they were without that comick heightening, &c. but, that the Poet did not aspire to the Tragick Sublime. The next line puts it beyond doubt. Because he ne'er described, &c. all which circumstances, says Donatus, are tragical, and would be vicious in Comedy.
In a note to the prologue to the Andrian on the lines
Non ita dissimili sunt argumento, sed tamenDissimili oratione sunt factæ, ac stilo.
Donatus gives this explanation. Orationem in sententiis dicunt esse, stilum in verbis, argumentum in rebus.—“Oratio refers to the sentiments, stilus to the diction, and argumentum to the plot.” Agreeable to this interpretation I rendered that passage
But here the instance immediately subjoined seeming to point out the word Oratione as referring to Character, as Scriptura relates to the language, I have translated the verse according to that idea.
This verse illustrates the foregoing; for here the Poet gives us a specimen of his rival's genius and taste. He was fond of introducing characters extravagant, unnatural, and overstrained: hence the language must be of a piece, impetuous, turbulent, full of rant and affectation. No wonder, therefore, if he could not relish the compositions of our poet, whose characters are drawn from nature, and the language suitably artless and simple. Patrick.
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