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Several persons of the play are concerned in this scene, and yet, by the art and excellence of the Poet, there arises no confusion of dialogue; each speech being admirably adapted to the character to which it is appropriated. Donatus.

Ex homine hunc natum dicas. There has been much dispute about the meaning of these words. The old familiar expression, which I have made use of, is, I think, agreeable to the obvious and natural meaning of them. That Dryden understood them in this sense is evident from the following passage.

“In the New Comedy of the Græcians, the Poets sought indeed to express the παθος, as in their Tragedies the παθος of mankind. But this contained only the general characters of men and manners; that is, one old man or father, one lover, one courtezan, so like another as if the first of them had begot the rest of every sort. Ex homine hunc natum dicas.

Convenire & colloqui. Military terms; used by Parmeno to sneer at Thraso. Donatus.

A Mina was equal to 3l. 4s. 7d. Cooke.

From the following passage in Twelfth Night, concerning the disguise of Viola, one might be almost tempted to imagine that Shakespeare had the Eunuch of Terence in his eye.

E flamina petere cibum. A proverb to express the lowest degree of meanness and infamy: taken from a custom among the Antients of throwing victuals into the fire, at the time of burning their dead; to eat which was looked on as an act of the greatest indignity. Cooke.

An artful preparation for the ensuing difference between her and Thraso. Donatus.

The Antients used to offer a sacrifice, before they entered on any affair of importance. Cooke.

It was usual to deposit their rings, as pledges of observing their appointment.

Proh Jupiter! Nunc est prosecto, cum interfici perpeti me possum, Ne hoc gaudium contaminet vita agritudine aliquâ. The passage from Othello, cited in a note on the last act of the Andrian, contains exactly the same sentiment, and almost in the same words with this of Terence.

In Greece the women always occupied the interior apartments, where nobody was permitted to come to them, but relations, and the slaves that waited upon them. Dacier.

A very proper piece of furniture for the house of a courtezan, giving an example of loose and mercenary love; calculated to excite wanton thoughts, and at the same time hinting to the young lover that he must make his way to the bosom of his mistress, like Jupiter to Danae, in a shower of gold. Oh the avarice of harlots! Donatus.

Qui templa cœli summa of sonitu concutit. A parody on a passage in Ennius. Donatus.

Short indeed, considering the number of incidents, which, according to Chærea's relation, are crowded into it. All the time, allowed for this adventure, is the short space between the departure of Thais with Thraso and the entrance of Chærea; so that all this variety of business of sleeping, bathing, ravishing, &c. is dispatched during the two soliloquies of Antipho and Chremes, and the short scene between Chremes and Pythias. The truth is, that a very strict and religious adherence to the Unities often drives the Poet into as great absurdities as the profest violation of them.

Preparation for the arrival of the father. Donatus.

Instead of this scene, Fontaine in his Eunuch, has substituted one between Chærea and Pamphila, whom he brings on the stage, as Baron does Glycerium in the Andrian. Chærea professes honourable love, leaves her in the house of Thais, and applies to his father, by whose consent he at last obtains her in marriage. Fontaine was most probably right in his conjecture, that the Plot of the Eunuch, exactly as it lies in Terence, was not conformable to the severity of the French, or, perhaps the English stage. It would certainly therefore have been advisable, in order to adapt it for representation before a modern audience, to change some circumstances, and the introduction of Pamphila might perhaps have been hazarded not without success: But by departing so essentially, as Fontaine has done from Menander and Terence, the very foundations of the fable are undermined, and it loses most part of that vivacity and interest so remarkable in the Play before us.