University of Virginia Library

Meaning Lavinius, the Poet censured in the Prologue to the Andrian. Donatus.

The Phantom [φασμα] was the title of a Comedy of Menander; in which a young Man looking thro' a hole in the wall, which divides his father's house from a neighbour's, beholds a virgin of extraordinary beauty, and is affected with an aweful reverence, as at the sight of a Divinity; from which the Play is called the Phantom. The Mother, (who had this child by a secret amour before her marriage with the young Man's father, and educated her privately in the house of the next door neighbour) is represented to have made the hole in the wall, and to have decked the passage with garlands, and green branches, that it might look like a consecrated place; whither she daily went to her devotions, and used to call forth her daughter to converse with her there. The Youth, coming by degrees to the knowledge of her being but a mortal, his passion for her becomes so violent, as to admit of no cure but marriage; which at last is accomplished to the great satisfaction of the Mother and Daughter, the joy of the Lover, and the consent of his Father.—This argument of the Phasma Bentley gives us; but to whom we are obliged for it says he does not know, whether to Donatus or some older scholiast. Cooke.

In the Thesaurus, or Treasure, of Lavinius, a young fellow having squandered his estate, sends a servant ten years after his father's death, according to the will of the deceased, to carry provisions to his father's monument; but he had before sold the ground, in which the monument stood, to a covetous old man; to whom the servant applied to help him to open the monument; in which they discovered a hoard of gold and a letter. The old fellow seizes the Treasure, and keeps it, under pretence of having deposited it there, for safety, during times of war: the young fellow goes to law with him; and the old man is represented as opening the cause thus, “Athenians, why should I relate the war “with the Rhodians? &c.” which Terence ridicules, because the young man who was the Plaintiff, should first shew his own title to it.— Thus far Bentley from the same scholiast. This note is a clear explanation of the passage to which it belongs. Hare concurs with Madam Dacier in her opinion, that this story of the Treasure was only an incident foisted by Lavinius into the Phantom of Menander, and not a distinct play: but was I not determined by the more learned Bentley, the Text itself would not permit me to concur in their opinion, as the words atque in Thesauro scripsit, seem plainly to be a transition to another play.

Menander, and his Cotemporary Philemon, each of them wrote a Comedy under this title. We have in the above note the story of Menander's; and we know that of Philemon's from the Trinummus of Plautus, which was a translation of it.

Perfecit, sibi ut inspiciundi esset copia. The word inspiciundi certainly carries a stronger sense than merely to be present at the representation. The meaning of the whole passage I take to be this. That having obtained leave to peruse the M. S. he furnished himself with objections against the piece, which he threw out when it came to be represented before the Magistrates.

This is a remarkable passage, for it informs us that when the Magistrates had bought a piece, they had it represented at their own house, before it was played in publick. Dacier.

Colax is a Greek word [Κολαξ] signifying a flatterer, which was the reason the Greeks gave that name to their Parasites. Dacier.

If Plautus wrote a play under the title of Colax, I should think it very unlikely for Terence not to have seen it, considering how soon he flourished after Plautus, his being engaged in the same studies, and his having such access to the libraries of the Great. Among the fragments of Plautus is one verse said to be a line of the Colax: yet I am inclined to believe Plautus never translated Menander's Colax. The character of the Vain-Glorious Soldier here mentioned I am apt to think the same with that which is the Hero of Plautus's Comedy now extant, and called Miles Gloriosus; from which Terence could not take his Thraso. Pyrgopolinices and Thraso are both full of themselves, both boast of their valour, and their intimacy with princes, and both fancy themselves beloved by all the women, who see them; and they are both played off by their Parasites; but they differ in their manners and their speech. Plautus's Pyrgopolinices is always in the clouds, and talking big, and of blood and wounds, like our heroes commonly called Derby Captains. Terence's Thraso never says too little, nor too much, but is an easy ridiculous character, continually supplying the Audience with mirth, without the wild extravagant bluster of Pyrgopolinices. Plautus and Terence both took their Soldiers and Parasites from Menander, but gave them different dresses.

Though there is much good criticism in the above note, it is certain that Plautus did not take his Miles Gloriosus from the Colax of Menander, as he himself informs us it was translated from a Greek Play called Αλαζων, the Boaster, and the Parasite is but a trifling character in that play, never appearing after the first scene.