University of Virginia Library

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.