University of Virginia Library

Juno Lucina was the Goddess supposed to preside over child-birth.

“In their Comedies, the Romans generally borrowed their plots from the Greek Poets; and theirs was commonly a little Girl stolen or wandered from her Parents, brought back unknown to the city, there got with child by some lewd young fellow; who, by the help of his servant, cheats his father: and when her time comes, to cry Juno Lucina, fer opem! one or other sees a little Box or Cabinet, which was carried away with her, and so discovers her to her friends; if some God do not prevent it, by coming down in a Machine, and taking the thanks of it to himself.

“By the Plot you may guess much of the characters of the Persons. An old father, who would willingly, before he dies, see his Son well married; a debauched Son, kind in his nature to his mistress, but miserably in want of money; a servant or slave, who has so much wit as to strike in with him, and help to dupe his father; a Braggadochio Captain; a Parasite; and a Lady of Pleasure.

“As for the poor honest maid, on whom the Story is built, and who ought to be one the principal Actors in the Play, she is commonly a Mute in it: She has the breeding of the old Elizabeth way, which was for maids to be seen, and not to be heard; and it is enough you know she is willing to be married when the fifth Act requires it.”

It must be remembered that Dryden's Essay is written in the form of a Dialogue, and therefore the above Extract is not to be supposed to be absolutely the very opinion of the writer, but receives a good deal of its high colouring from the character of the Speaker. It is true, indeed, that this crying out of a woman in labour behind the Scenes, which Donatus gravely remarks is the only way in which the Severity of the Comœdiæ Palliata would allow a young gentlewoman to be introduced, is perhaps the most exceptionable circumstance of all the antient Drama: and if the modern Theatre has any transcendent advantage over the antient, it is in the frequent and successful introduction of female personages.

The antients were so little sensible of the impropriety or indecorum of such an incident, that it is (as Dryden has observed) introduced into many of their plays, wherein the Lady cries out in the same, or very similar, words with Glycerium. I do not, however, remember any play where the Lady in the Straw produces so many pleasant circumstances, as in the play before us; nor is there, I think, any one of those circumstances, except the crying out, which might not be represented on our Stage. This act, and the next, which are entirely built on the delivery of Glycerium, are the most humourous of the five; and yet these very acts seem to have been the most obnoxious to the delicacy of the modern imitators of our Author. Sir Richard Steele, indeed, departed in many other circumstances from the Fable of Terence, so that it is no wonder he took the advantage of bringing our Glycerium on the Stage in the person of Indiana: but Baron, who has wrought his whole piece on the Ground of Terence, thought it necessary to new-mould these two Acts, and has introduced Glycerium merely to fill up the chasm created by the omission of the other incidents. Baron, I doubt not, judged right in thinking it unsafe to hazard them on the French Stage: but it must be obvious to every reader that the deadest and most insipid parts of Baron's play are those scenes in which he deviates from Terence.

Non sat commode divisa sunt temporibus tibi, Dave, hæc. A metaphor taken from the Theatre. Dacier.