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Donatus and Scaliger the father have written that the Altar mentioned here, was the altar usually placed on the stage. When a Tragedy was acted, the altar was dedicated to Bacchus; when a Comedy, to Apollo. But in my opinion the Stage-Altar has no connection with this passage: This adventure is not to be considered as an incident in a Comedy, but as a thing which passes in the street. Probability therefore must be preserved; which it cannot be, if one of the Stage-Altars is employed in this place. At Athens every house had an altar at the street door: [which street-altars are also often mentioned in Plautus.] These altars were covered with fresh herbs every day, and it is one of these altars, to which Terence here alludes.

It was a custom among the Romans to have an altar sacred to Vesta in the entrance of their houses, whence it was called The Vestibule.

His first intention doubtless was to go and inform Simo of the child being laid at the door. Dacier.

A nobis. Most of the Books read a VOBIS, but I am persuaded the other is the right reading. The fact is, the child really came from Glycerium's, and Davus's laughing at the impudence of Mysis in owning it, and the immediate observation of Chremes, that she was the Andrian's maid, is more agreeable to this sense. Besides the mention of the other family is reserved for the answers drawn from Mysis by Davus's asking her whose child it was.

Free-women: For in Greece as well as in Italy, slaves were not admitted to give evidence. Dacier.

Among the laws of Athens was that equitable one, which compelled the man to marry her whom he had debauched, if she was a free Woman. Cooke.

It is an observation of Volraire'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 their 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 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 orginal.