above-cited, while he gives us so just an account of the diction used in the old comedies of our own theatre, should yet speak so unadvisedly of the style of the Greek and Roman drama, as to say, that even the sub"limest sentiments of Terence, when his Comedy raises "its voice to the greatest dignity, are still not clothed in " poetic diction."-And again," that the Greeks apCC propriated the spirit and nerves of poetry to Tragedy "only, and though they did not wholly deprive Co medy of metre, they left it not the shadow of poetic "diction." That learned and elegant critick, Mr. Joseph Warton, who was the first that gave in English any of the fragments of Menander, when he apologizes for the translation," remembering always how much "his elegance is injured by a plain prosaïc transla"tion," was, it is evident, of a very different opinion: and Gravina mentions it as a wonderful quality of the measure in the antient Tragedy and Comedy, that while it possesses all the dignity of verse, it has all the ease and familiarity of prose. 9 But not only the opinion of many ingenious men among the moderns, as well as the living testimony of the plays themselves, but also the express authority of the antient criticks absolutely contradicts the assertion of Mr. Seward. We are told by Quintilian 10, that Menander, though he cultivated a different province of the Drama, Drama, was a great admirer and imitator of Euripides, which accounts for the sentiments of that tragic poet, still to be met with in the Comedies of Terence. The same critick also speaks of the force and grandeur, as well as elegance," of the style in the Old Comedy; and Horace, even in the passage where he doubts whether a comedy is to be esteemed a poem, on account of the familiarity of the style, immediately subjoins, At pater ardens savit, &c. And in another place he has directly delivered his opinion, how far the Tragic and Comic Muse may reciprocally assume each other's tone. "Versibus exponi tragicis res comica non vult; To these lines I shall subjoin Oldham's unpolished imitation, because it brings them home to our own stage; and I would recommend it to the reader, who is curious to see any thing further on this subject, to peruse Dacier's notes on this passage in the original. Volpone Volpone and Morose will not adinit In the low dress which comic persons wear: OLDHAM. I shall conclude what I have to say, on the propriety of translating the Roman comic poets into English blank-verse, by observing to what advantage many of the sentiments of Terence and Plautus have already appeared in that dress in the plays of our old writers. Jonson, according to the just and elegant observation of Dryden, may often be tracked in their snow; and in the notes to this Translation the reader will meet with many passages similar to those in our author, from Shakspeare. A most learned and acute critick "3 has observed, that "we seldom are able to fasten an imitation, with cer 16 tainty, on such a writer as Shakspeare;" because 1 "he takes nothing but the sentiment; the expression "comes of itself, and is purely English." I have there fore fore given the passages in question merely as resemblances, leaving the reader to make his own comment on them. Besides the resemblance of particular passages, scatand down in different plays, it is well known tered up that the whole founded on the Comedy of Errors' is in great measure Menæchmi' of Plautus; but I do not recollect ever to have seen it observed that the disguise of the pedant in the Taming of the Shrew,' his assu character of Vincentio, together ming the name and with his encountering the real Vincentio, seem to be evidently taken from the disguise of the sycophanta in the Trinummus' of the same author; and there is a quotation from the Eunuch' of Terence also, so familiarly introduced into the dialogue of the Taming of the Shrew,' that I think it puts the question of Shakspeare's having read the Roman comic poets in the original language out of all doubt. Tranio. Master, it is no time to chide you now; Affection is not rated from the heart. If love hath touch'd you, nought remains but so, Taming of the Shrew, Act I. I do not think it incumbent on me in this place, according to the custom of most editors and translators, to write a panegyrick on my author; much less shall I attempt to draw a comparison in his favour between him and Plautus; though I cannot help observing, that the common-place of modern criticism on these writers is, in general, very different from that of the antients. We now extol Plautus for his humour, and Terence for his style; and on this foundation is raised the comparison between them, so injurious to our author, in the sixth book of the Poeticks of Scaliger. Varro, on the contrary, gives the preference to the style of Plautus, which he considers as the language of the Muses themselves; and assigns the just delineation of characters as the peculiar excellence of Terence; who, in the time of Augustus, was equally admired for the artful contexture and judicious conduct of his plots. Cæsar and Tully, and Quintilian, have indeed spoken with justice of the elegance and purity of his style; but the excellencies of the fable and the manners are prior to those of the diction; and as they are the chief beauties of Comedy, so are they the distinguishing characteristicks of Terence. In my opinion, the justest objection ever made to his plays is the similarity of the plots, which necessarily produces a similarity of style and characters 16; nor can it be sufficiently lamented that a writer, who was so accurate a painter of the manners, and so judicious a conductor of the fable, as well as so exquisite in his language, C |