University of Virginia Library

These characters, the Parasite and the Soldier, as the Poet himself confesses, are not in the Eunuch of Menander, but taken from the Colax.

Two actions, equally laboured and driven on by the writer, would destroy the unity of the poem; it would be no longer one play, but two: Not but that there may be many actions in a play, as Ben Jonson has observed in his Discoveries, but they must be all subservient to the great one, which our language happily expresses in the name of under-plots: Such as in Terence's Eunuch is the difference and reconcilement of Thais and Phædria, which is not the chief business of the play, but promotes the marriage of Chærea and Chremes's sister, principally intended by the poet. There ought to be but one action, says Corneille, that is, one complete action, which leaves the mind of the audience in a full repose; but this cannot be brought to pass, but by many other imperfect actions which conduce to it, and hold the audience in a delightful suspence of what will be.

Instead of the quarrels of Thais and Phædria, which were most probably in the Eunuch of Menander, it would have been better to have instanced the characters taken from the Colax; which Terence has very artfully connected with the rest of the fable, by representing the Girl, loved by Chærea, as given to Thais by Thraso, which produces the absence of Phædria, leaves room for the comical imposture of Chærea, and, although adscititious, becomes the main spring of the whole action.

This is the only scene in Terence, which I remember, that can be charged with being superfluous. Thraso has made a present to Thais of a young Girl. Gnatho is to carry her. Going along with her, he amuses himself with giving the Spectator a most agreeable eulogium on his profession. But was that the time for it? Let Gnatho pay due attention on the stage to the young woman whom he is charged with, and let him say what he will to himself, I consent to it. Diderot.

Though the Vain Man and the Flatterer were characters in great measure dependant on each other, and therefore commonly shewn together, yet it is most probable, that in the Colax of Menander, from whence Gnatho and Thraso were taken by our author, the Parasite was the chief character, as in the Αλαζων, or the Boaster, the Greek Comedy from which Plautus took his Miles Gloriosus, the Braggadochio Captain was most probably the principal. But this I think is not all: for in the present instance the Poet seems to have intended to introduce a new sort of Parasite, never seen upon the stage before; the master of a more delicate manner of adulation than ordinary flatterers, and supporting his consequence with his patron at the same time that he lives upon him, and laughs at him. Comedendo & deridendo. Gnatho's acquaintance describes the old school of Parasites, which gives him occasion to shew in his turn, the superior excellence of the new sect, of which he is himself the founder. The first of these, as Madam Dacier observes justly, was the exact definition of a Parasite, who is described on almost every occasion by Plautus, as a fellow beaten, kicked, and cuffed at pleasure.

Gnatho, on the contrary, by his artful adulation, contrives to be caressed instead of ill-treated. Had the Colax of Plautus at least remained to us, we should perhaps have seen the specifick difference between Him and other Parasites more at large. In the Eunuch Gnatho is but episodical; but if this manner of considering his character be not too refined, it accounts for the long speech, so obnoxious to Diderot, with which he introduces himself to the audience; throws a new light on all he says and does; and is a strong proof of the excellence of Menander in drawing characters. However this may be, it is certain that Gnatho is one of the most agreeable Parasites in any play, antient or modern, except the incomparable Falstaff.

Quid agitur?—Statur. A mere play upon words, which is also in the Pseudolus of Plautus. There is much the same kind of conceit with the present in the Merry Wives of Windsor.

Piræus, as well as Sunium, was a maritime town of Attica, with a port, where the Athenian youth were placed on guard, to watch against the incursions of Pirates, or other enemies. Donatus.