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Quadrupedem constringito. It was usual among the Athenians to tie criminals, hands and feet together, like a calf, Echard.

There was a law among the Athenians, that no citizen should marry a stranger; which law also excluded such as were not born of two citizens, from all offices of trust and honour. See Plutarch's Life of Pericles. Cooke.

Donatus is full of admiration of this speech, and tells us that it was not taken from Menander, but original in Terence.

The above scene, admirable as it is, had not, it seems, sufficient temptations for Sir Richard Steele to induce him to include it in his plan of the Conscious Lovers. Bevil and his Father are never brought to an open rupture, like Simo and Pamphilus, but rather industriously kept from coming to any explanation, which is one reason of the insipidity and want of spirit in their characters. It must be obvious to every reader, how naturally this scene brings on the catastrophe: how injudiciously then has the English Poet deprived his audience of the pleasure that must have arisen from it in the representation, and contented himself with making Sir J. Bevil declare, at entering with his son, after the discovery is “over, Your good sister, Sir, has with the story of your daughter's fortune, filled us with surprize and joy! Now all exceptions are removed; my Son has now avowed his love, and turned all former jealousies and doubts to approbation, and, I am told; your goodness has consented to reward him.” How many dramatick incidents, what fine pictures of the manners, has Terence drawn from the circumstances huddled together in these few lines of Sir Richard Steele!

Ni metuam patrem, habeo pro illa re illum quod moneam probe. Madam Dacier, and several English translations, make Pamphilus say that he could give Crito a hint or two. What hints he could propose to suggest to Crito I cannot conceive. The Italian translation, printed with the Vatican Terence, seems to understand the words in the same manner that I have translated them, in which sense (the pronoun illum referring to Simo instead of Crito) they seem to be the most natural words of Pamphilus on occasion of his father's anger, and the speech immediately preceding.

Rhamnus, Piræus, &c. are to be understood as maritime towns of Attica. Donatus.

P. Nempe. Si. Id scilicet. Donatus, and some others after him, understand these words of Simo and Pamphilus, as requiring a fortune of Chremes with his daughter: and one of them says, that Simo, in order to explain his meaning in the representation, should produce a bag of money. This surely is precious refinement, worthy the genius of a true Commentator. Madam Dacier, who entertains a just veneration for Donatus, doubts the authenticity of the observation ascribed to him. The sense I have followed is, I think, the most obvious and natural interpretation of the words of Pamphilus and Simo, which refer to the preceding, not the subsequent speech, of Chemes.

All our own translators of this poet have betrayed great ignorance in their estimations of antient sums: and Madam Dacier, and the common Latin Interpreters, seem not to have given themselves much trouble on this head: but this part of antient learning ought not to be past over slightly, since the wealth and plenty of a great and famous state are to be discovered from it. The name of the Talent ought to be preserved in a translation, as should the Mina, Half-Mina, Drachma, and Obolus, for the same reason for which Terence preserved them in his Latin Translations of Greek Plays, viz. because the scene is in Athens, and these are Attick pieces of money. The common Attick Talent, which is Talent mentioned thro' Terence, contained sixty Minæ, as Gronovius, in a note to the Cistellaria of Plautus, and other accurate Enquirers have agreed. Ten Talents therefore were equal to 1937 l. 10 s. of our money, which we may reasonably suppose a tolerable good fortune, considering the price of provisions then in that part of Greece; which we may partly judge of from the passage, where the Obolus is mentioned in the second act of this play. Cooke.

Crito is, as Donatus calls him, persona in catastrophen machianata, a character formed to bring about the catastrophe. To supply his place in the fable, Sir Richard Steele has converted Phania, the brother of Chremes mentioned in the foregoing scene, into a sister, and substituted Isabella for Crito. But here, I think, and in almost every circumstance of the Discovery, the art of the English Poet is much inferior to that of his Original. Isabella does not maintain her importance in the Drama so well as Crito. Indiana indeed serves to add a degree of Pathos to the scene: but the relation of the incidents of her life, and throwing off her little ornaments in a kind of Tragedy-Rant, till Isabella appears to unravel the mystery, is surely much less natural than the minute detail of circumstances, so finely produced by our Author. It is, says Donatus, the greatest praise, when the spectator may imagine those things to happen by chance, which are produced by the utmost industry of the Poet.

Non RECTE vinctus est.-haud ita jussi. The conceit in the original is a Pun upon the word recte, impossible to be preserved exactly in the translation. Donatus observes very well on this passage, that the jocularity of the old gentleman on this occasion, is a characteristick mark of his thorough reconciliation.

He who undertakes to conduct two intrigues at a time, imposes on himself the necessity of unravelling them both at the same instant. If the principal concludes first, that which remains can support itself no longer: if, on the contrary the episode abandons the main part of the fable, there arises another inconvenience; some of the characters either disappear without reason, or shew themselves again to no end or purpose; so that the piece becomes maimed or uninteresting.

The first of the inconveniences above mentioned is that which occurs in the conclusion of this play. The discovery once made, and Glycerium given to Pamphilus, all that remains becomes cold. From the extreme brevity of this last scene, one would imagine that the Poet himself found this part of the fable languish under his hands. Some of the commentators, fond of that tediousness, which Terence was so studious to avoid, have added seventeen spurious lines of dialogue between Charinus and Chremes. But Donatus, tho' he approved of this underplot, which Terence added to the fable of Menander, yet commends his judgment in avoiding prolixity, by settling only one marriage on the stage, and dispatching the other behind the scenes. But surely the whole episode of Charinus is unnecessary, and the fable would be more clear, more compact, and more complete without it. See the first note to the second act.

The fifth act of Baron is an almost literal, though very elegant version, of this of our Author.

It is very remarkable, that though Terence is generally considered to be a grave author, as writer of Comedy, the Andrian has much more humour and pleasantry, than either the English or French imitation of it.

This whole sentence is transferred by our Poet to this play from the Eunuch of Menander: and to this practice alludes the objection mentioned in the Prologue.

That Fables should not be contaminated.

The passage in Shakespeare's Othello, from which I have borrowed this line, is a kind of contrast to this in our Author. Each of them are speeches of the highest joy and rapture, and each of them founded on the instability of human happiness; but in my mind the English Poet has the advantage.

There is a passage in Otway's Orphan, which is, I think, a palpable imitation of a speech of Pamphilus, at the conclusion of the first act of this play. As it happened to be omitted in that place, I have subjoined it to this note; and if the reader will take the pains to turn back to page 29, he may compare the two speeches together.

Plaudite. All the old Tragedies and Comedies acted at Rome concluded in this manner. Donec Cantor vos Plaudite dicat, says Horace. Who the Cantor was is matter of dispute. Mons. Dacier thinks it was the whole Chorus; others suppose it to have been a single Actor; some the Prompter, and some the Composer.

Before the word Plaudite in all the old copies is an Ω, which has also given rise to several learned conjectures. It is most probable according to the notion of Madam Dacier, that this Ω, being the last Letter of the Greek Alphabet, was nothing more than the mark of the transcriber to signify the end, like the Latin word Finis in modern books: or it might, as Cook supposes, stand for Ωδος, Cantor, denoting that the following word Plaudite, was spoken by him.

Calliopius Recensui.] After Plaudite, in all the old copies of Terence, stand these two words: which signify, “I Calliopius have revised and corrected this piece.” And this proceeds from the custom of the old criticks, who carefully revised all manuscripts: and when they had read and corrected any work, certified the same by placing their names at the end of it. Dacier.