NOTES TO THE SELF-TORMENTOR. 1 | Juventius and Sempronius, Consuls.] That is, in the year of Rome 590, and 163 years before Christ. 2 Sustain'd of old by young performers.] It appears from this passage, that the prologue was usually spoken by young men.-DACIER. 3 That I'll first explain : then say what brings me here.] Terence has been accused by some criticks of being worse than his word here: for, say they, he does not first explain why he has chosen an old performer. But this accusation is unjust, for it is the first thing which he does; what he says before is merely to make the piece known, which business he dispatches in two words, and that too in a parenthesis.-DA CIER. This passage is also vindicated by Scaliger in his Poeticks, chap. 3. book 6.co The Self-Tormentor.] The Latin title of this play, Heautontimorumenos, is of Greek derivation, being a compound of two words in that language, tavlor Tagesvos, literally signifying a self-tormentor. τιμωρεμενος, 5 Wrought from a single to a double plot.] Duplex quæ ex argumento facta est simplici. This passage has greatly perplexed the Commentators. Julius Scaliger was of opinion that Terence called this comedy duplex, double; because it was acted at two different times: the two first? acts at the close of the evening, and the remaining three on the following morning; and that it therefore served as two distinct pieces, But this conjecture is not admissible: Terence only meant to say that he had doubled the characters; Hh 2 instead instead of one old man, one young gallant, one mistress, as in Menander, he had two old men, &c. : he therefore adds very properly, novam esse ostendi,-That our comedy is NEW ;—which certainly could not have been implied, had the characters been the same in the Greek poet.-DACIER. That our comedy is new, &c.] Ter ence pretends, that having doubled the subject of the Self-Tormentor,' his piece is new. I allow it: but whether it is better on that ac. count, is quite another question.-DIDEROT. It is impossible not to regret that there are not above tenlines of the Self-Tormentor' preserved among the Fragments of Menander. We are so deeply interested by what we see of that character in Terence, that one cannot but be curious to enquire in what manner the Greek poet sustained it through five acts. The Roman author, though he has adopted the title of the Greek play, has so altered the fable, that Menede. mus is soon thrown into the back-ground, and Chremes is brought forward as the principal object: or, to vary the al lusion a little, the Menedemus of Terence seems to be a drawing in miniature copied from a full-length, as large as the life, by Menander. 7 Most of you know already.] This is a remarkable proof how careful the Romans were in the study of the Greek poets.-S. His arch-enemy.] Luscius Lavinius, the same poet who is mentioned in the prologues to the Andrian' and Eunuch.' 9 To musick.] The antients called that musick, which we now term the belles lettres. Aristophanes more than once calls the art of dramatic writing, Musick.-Dacier. 10 Who lately introduc'd a breathless slave, &c.] It must have been a wretched piece, if this was the most beau. tiful passage in it. Yet such an incident is often necessary, as may be seen in the Amphitryon' of Plautus, where Mercury runs in, crying, Concedite atque abscedite, omnes de viâ decedite. Terence therefore only blames those authors, who, like Luscius, made it the capital circumstance in their plays.-DA CIER. મ Had Madam Dacier quoted the whole passage in the 'Amphitryon,' I think it would have been evident that Plautus also meant to ridicule the like practice. Concedite atque abscedite, omnes de viá decedite, Nec Nec quisquam tam audax fuat homo, qui obviam insis tat mihi! Nam mihi quidem, hercle, qui minus liceat Deo mini tarier Populo, ni decedat mihi, quam servulo in Comediis? For shall not I, who am a Deity, Menace the crowd, unless they yield to me, "Act an easy part.] Statariam agere. The word sta. tariam has not been thoroughly understood; in order more fully to explain it, we must have recourse to its original meaning. The Greek poets divided their choruses into two different sorts of verse, the saga μɛλn, statarios versus, so called, because the actor who repeated them, never moved from his place; and into the apodina peλn, motorios versus, because the performer skipped and danced about while he was repeating his part. This has been perfectly well explained by the scholiasts upon Eschylus and Aristophanes. The Romans made the same distinctions, and called those pieces stataria, which were grave and composed, and required little or no action. The motorie, on the contrary, were lively and full of business and action.-This play is of the former kind. -Some commentators imagine Terence means one character only by statariam, as if personam were to be understood: but though the antients did call the actors statarios et moto. rios, according to the different parts they were engaged in, I am convinced that it is not in this place at all applicable to them, but to the whole comedy: how else are we to explain the 45th verse? Sin levis est, ad alium mox defertur gregem. To apply it to any one of the other actors of the company, would be overstraining the sense of the text.-DACIER. Being entirely of a different opinion from Madam Dacier, concerning the sense of the words statariam agere, I have translated them as referring merely to the character, which the prologue-speaker was to play, (which I apprehend to have been Menedemus,) and not to the whole comedy: and the lines immediately subsequent, I think, confirm this interpreta tion, as they contain a description of the laborious characters he usually represented; clamore summo, cum labore maxumo; which he urges as a plea for his being allowed to act act an easier part at present. date potestatem, mihi Statariam agere, ut liceat per silentium. As to the difficulty started by Madam Dacier concerning the line, Sin levis est, ad alium mox defertur gregem, it is a difficulty, which I must own I cannot very well comprehend; nor do I see the least necessity of applying that verse to any one of the other actors of the company, in order to warrant this interpretation. 12 The style is pure.] Terence with great propriety commends this play for the purity of its style; he knew it to be very deficient in point of action, and therefore determined to repair that defect by the vivacity and purity of the language; and he has perfectly succeeded.-DACIER. With all due deference to Madam Dacier, the play is, in my mind, far from being destitute of action: the plot being as artfully constructed, and containing as many unexpected turns and variety of incidents, as any of our author's pieces, as may perhaps appear in the course of these notes. 13 The Self-Tormentor.] There is, perhaps, no play of Te rence, wherein the author has pointed out the place and time of action with more exactness than in the present: and yet the settling those two points has occasioned a most furious controversy between two learned Frenchmen, Hedelin and Menage. Madam Dacier, in her remarks, has endeavoured to moderate between them, sometimes inclining to one side, and sometimes to the other. I, perhaps, in my turn, shall occasionally differ from all three, not doubting but I shall become equally liable to the reprehensions of future criticks. I shall, however, endeavour to found my remarks on an accurate examination of the piece itself, and to draw my arguments from within, rather than from without. The principal cause of the different errors of Hedelin and Menage, seems to me to have been an idle parade of learning, foreign to the purpose; together with an obstinate adherence to their several systems, which having once adopted, they were resolved to square all their arguments to the support of their opinions, rather than to direct them towards the investigation of truth. The matters in dispute between them, though drawn out to a great length of controversy, lie in a very narrow compass. But there being in both an apparent jealousy of their characters, as scholars, both were induced to multiply quotations and illus. trations from other authors, instead of turning their attention sufficiently sufficiently to the text, and making the poet a comment on himself; which every writer, especially those who attempt the drama, ought to be. Each were in some instances wrong; and even when they were in the right, having condescended to maintain their opinion with false arguments, each in their turn afforded the opponent an opportunity of cavilling with some appearance of justice. Many examples of this will, I think, appear in the course of these notes, from which it may be concluded, that there is no point whatever, that lies so plain and level to the understanding, but it may be rendered obscure and intricate by learned and ingenious disputants, who choose it as a subject for the exercise of their talents and a display of their erudition. "Digging, ploughing, or carrying some burthen.] Fo. dere, aut arare, aut aliquid ferre. This passage is of much greater consequence than is generally imagined, towards the understanding the true intent and management of this play; for it is material to know what Menedemus is about when Chremes first accosts him; whether he is at work in the field, or is returning home loaded with his tools. Two very learn.. ed men engaged in a very elaborate disputation upon this subject. If Menedemus is still at work when Chremes first meets him, Terence would certainly have been guilty of a very gross impropriety in the conduct of his comedy; for, as the scene never changes, Menedemus must necessarily be ever present. Terence could never be so absurd as not to guard against falling into so gross an error. takes care to acquaint us with the situation of Menedemus, He not only but also with the hour of the day, at which the piece commences; which is plainly marked out by these words, aut aliquid ferre, which decides the whole point in question. Menedemus having been at work all day, and being unable to see any longer, takes his tools on his back, and is making the best of his way home; Chremes at that very instant meets him near his own door, where the scene lies: the beginning of this play therefore is evidently towards the close of the day, when Menedemus had quitted his work.-DACIER. There is certainly a great want of accuracy in this way of reasoning, with which Madam Dacier espouses Hedelin's argument for why, as Menage justly says, should the words aut aliquid ferre refer to the manner in which Menedemus was then actually employed, more than the other words, fodere, aut arare? or if they were so interpreted, still they must be applied to his carrying burthens in the course of his laborious |