The following lines from the _Vopisc.u.m_ have also been frequently quoted:
"Si possent homines delinimentis capi, Omnes haberent nunc amatores a.n.u.s.
aetas, et corpus tenerum, et morigeratio, Haec sunt venena formosarum mulierum(293)."
LUSCIUS LAVINIUS,
also a follower of Menander, was the contemporary and enemy of Terence, who, in his prologues, has satirized his injudicious translations from the Greek-
"Qui bene, vertendo et eas describendo male, Ex Graecis bonis, Latinas fecit non bonas(294)."
In particular, we learn from the prologue to the _Phormio_, that he was fond of bringing on the stage frantic youths, committing all those excesses of folly and distraction which are supposed to be produced by violent love. Donatus has afforded us an account of the plot of his _Phasma_, which was taken from Menander. A lady, who, before marriage, had a daughter, the fruit of a secret amour with a person now living in a house adjacent to her husband"s, made an opening in the wall of her own dwelling, in order to communicate with that in which her former paramour and daughter resided. That this entrance might appear a consecrated spot to her husband"s family, she decked it with garlands, and shaded it with branches of trees. To this pa.s.sage she daily repaired as if to pay her devotions, but in fact, to procure interviews with her illegitimate daughter. Her husband also had, by a former wife, a son, who dwelt in his father"s house, and who, having one day accidentally peeped through the aperture, beheld the girl; and, as she was possessed of almost supernatural beauty, he was struck with awe, as at the sight of a Spirit or divinity, whence the play received the name of _Phasma_. The young man, discovering at length that she is a mortal, conceives for her a violent pa.s.sion, and is finally united to her, with the consent of his father, and to the great satisfaction of the mother. There is another play of Menander, which has also been closely imitated by Luscius Lavinius.
Plautus, we have seen, borrowed his _Trinummus_ from the _Thesaurus_ of Philemon. But Menander also wrote a _Thesaurus_, which has been copied by Lavinius. An old man, by his last will, had commanded, that, ten years after his death, his son should carry libations to the monument under which he was to be interred. The youth, having squandered his fortune, sold the ground on which this monument stood to an old miser. At the end of ten years, the prodigal sent a servant to the tomb with due offerings, according to the injunctions of his deceased father. The servant applied to the new proprietor to a.s.sist him in opening the monument, in which they discovered a h.o.a.rd of gold. The miserly owner of the soil seized the treasure, and retained it on pretence of having deposited it there for safety during a period of public commotion. It is claimed, however, by the young man, who goes to law with him; and the plot of the comedy chiefly consists in the progress of the suit(295)-the dramatic management of which has been ridiculed by Terence, in the prologue to the _Eunuchus_, since, contrary to the custom and rules of all courts of justice, the author had introduced the defendant pleading his t.i.tle to the treasure before the plaintiff had explained his pretensions, and entered on the grounds of his demand. Part of the old Scotch ballad, The Heir of Linne, has a curious resemblance to the plot of this play of Luscius Lavinius.
Turpilius, Trabea, and Attilius, were the names of comic writers who lived towards the end of the sixth and beginning of the seventh century, from the building of Rome. Of these, and other contemporary dramatists, it would now be difficult to say more than that their works have perished, and to repeat a few scattered incidental criticisms delivered by Varro or Cicero. To them probably may be attributed the _Baccharia_, _Caecus_, _Cornicularia_, _Parasitus_, and innumerable other comedies, of which the names have been preserved by grammarians. Of such works, once the favourites of the Roman stage, few memorials survive, and these only to be found separate and imperfect in the quotations of scholiasts. Sometimes from a single play numerous pa.s.sages have been preserved; but they are so detached, that they neither give us any insight into the fable to which they appertain, nor enable us to p.r.o.nounce on the excellence of the dramatic characters. In general, they comprise so small a portion of uninterrupted dialogue, that we can scarcely form a judgment even of the style and manner of the poet, or of the beauty of his versification. All that is now valuable in these fragments is a few brief moral maxims, and some examples of that _vis comica_, which consists in an ingenious and forcible turn of expression in the original language.
It is not difficult to account for the vast number of dramatic productions which we thus see were brought forward at Rome in the early ages of the Republic. There are two ways in which literature may be supported,-By the patronage of distinguished individuals, as it was in the time of Maecenas and the age of Lorenzo de Medici; or, By the encouragement of a great literary public, as it is now rewarded in modern Europe. But, in Rome, literature as yet had not obtained the protection of an emperor or a favourite minister; and previous to the invention of printing, which alone could give extensive circulation to his productions, a poet could hardly gain a livelihood by any means, except by supplying popular entertainments for the stage. These were always liberally paid for by the aediles, or other directors of the public amus.e.m.e.nts. To this species of composition, accordingly, the poet directed his almost undivided attention; and a prodigious facility was afforded to his exertions by the inexhaustible dramatic stores which he found prepared for him in Greece.
TRABEA.
The plays of Quintus Trabea, supposed to belong chiefly to the cla.s.s called _Togatae_, are frequently cited by the grammarians, and are mentioned with approbation by Cicero. He in particular commends the lines where this poet so agreeably describes the credulity and overweening satisfaction of a lover-
"Tanta laet.i.tia auctus sum ut mihi non constem: Nunc demum mihi animus ardet.
Lena, delinita argento, nutum observabit meum- Quid velim quid studeam: adveniens digito impellam januam: Fores patebunt-de improviso Chrysis, ubi me aspexit, Alacris obviam mihi veniet, complexum exoptans meum; Mihi se dedet.-Fortunam ipsam anteibo fortunis meis(296)."
The name of Trabea was made use of in a well known deception practised on Joseph Scaliger by Muretus. Scaliger piqued himself on his faculty of distinguishing the characteristic styles of ancient writers. In order to entrap him, Muretus showed him some verses, pretending that he had received them from Germany, where they had been transcribed from an ancient MS. attributed to Q. Trabea-
"Here, si querelis, ejulatu, fletibus, Medicina fieret miseriis mortalium, Auro parandae lachrymae contra forent: Nunc haec ad minuenda mala non magis valent Quam Naenia praeficae ad excitandos mortuos: Res turbidae consilium, non fletum, expetunt(297)."
Scaliger was so completely deceived, that he afterwards cited these verses, as lines from the play of _Harpace_, by Q. Trabea, in the first edition of his Commentary on Varro"s Dialogues _De Re Rustica_, in order to ill.u.s.trate some obscure expression of his author-"Quis enim," says he, "tam aversus a Musis, tamque humanitatis expers, qui horum publicatione offendatur." Muretus, not content with this malicious trick, afterwards sent him some other verses, to which he affixed the name of Attius, expressing, but more diffusely, the same idea. Scaliger, in his next edition of Varro, published them, along with the former lines, as fragments from the _nomaus_, a tragedy by Attius, and a plagiarism from Trabea-observing, at the end of his note, "Forta.s.se de hoc nimis." Muretus said nothing for two years; but, at the end of that period, he published a volume of his own Latin poems, and, along with them, under the t.i.tle _Afficta Trabeae_, both sets of verses which he had thus palmed on Scaliger for undoubted remnants of antiquity. The whole history of the imposture was fully disclosed in a note: Both poems, it was acknowledged, were versions of a fragment, attributed by some to Menander, and by others to Philemon, beginning,-?? ta da???a ???, ?.t.?. They have been also translated into Latin by Naugerius(298).
The progress of time, the ravages of war, and the intervention of a period of barbarism, which have deprived us of so many dramatic works of the Romans, have fortunately spared six plays of
TERENCE,
which are perhaps the most valuable remains that have descended to us among the works of antiquity. This celebrated dramatist, the delight and ornament of the Roman stage, was born at Carthage, about the 560th year of Rome. In what manner he came or was brought thither is uncertain. He was, in early youth, the freedman of one Terentius Luca.n.u.s in that city, whose name has been perpetuated only by the glory of his slave. After he had obtained his freedom, he became the friend of Laelius, and of the younger Scipio Africa.n.u.s(299). His _Andria_ was not acted till the year 587-two years, according to the Eusebian Chronicle, after the death of Caecilius; which unfortunately throws some doubt on the agreeable anecdote recorded by Donatus, of his introduction, in a wretched garb, into the house of Caecilius, in order to read his comedy to that poet, by whom, as a mean person, he was seated on a low stool, till he astonished him with the matchless grace and elegance of the _Andria_, when he was placed on the couch, and invited to partake the supper of the veteran dramatist. Several writers have conjectured, it might be to another than to Caecilius that Terence read his comedy(300); or, as the _Andria_ is not indisputably his first comedy, that it might be one of the others which he read to Caecilius(301). Supposing the Eusebian Chronicle to be accurate in the date which it fixes for the death of Caecilius, it is just possible, that Terence may have written and read to him his _Andria_ two years previous to its representation. After he had given six comedies to the stage, Terence left Rome for Greece, whence he never returned. The manner of his death, however, is altogether uncertain. According to one report, he perished at sea, while on his voyage from Greece to Italy, bringing with him an hundred and eight comedies, which he had translated from Menander: according to other accounts, he died in Arcadia for grief at the loss of those comedies, which he had sent before him by sea to Rome. In whatever way it was occasioned, his death happened when he was at the early age of thirty-four, and in the year 594 from the building of the city.
_Andria_,-acted in 587, is the first in point of time, and is usually accounted the first in merit, of the productions of Terence. Like most of his other comedies, it has a double plot. It is compounded of the _Andrian_ and _Perinthian_ of Menander; but it does not appear, that Terence took his princ.i.p.al plot from one of those Greek plays, and the under-plot from the other. He employed both to form his chief fable; and added the characters, on which the under plot is founded, from his own invention, or from some third play now unknown to us.
At the commencement of the play, Simo, the father of Pamphilus, informs Sosia of his son"s love for Glycerium. In consequence of a report of this attachment spreading abroad, Chremes refuses his daughter, who had previously been promised to Pamphilus in marriage: Simo, however, still pretends to make preparations for the nuptials, in order more accurately to ascertain the state of his son"s affections. Charinus, the lover of Chremes" daughter, is in despair at the prospect of this union; but he is comforted by the a.s.surances of Pamphilus, that he would do every thing in his power to r.e.t.a.r.d it. By this time, Davus, the slave of Pamphilus, discovers, that it is not intended his master"s marriage should in reality proceed; and, perceiving it is a pretext, he advises Pamphilus to declare that he is ready to obey his father"s commands. Glycerium, meanwhile, gives birth to a child; but Simo believes, that her reported delivery was a stratagem of Davus, to deter Chremes from acceding to his daughter"s marriage with Pamphilus. Simo, however, at length prevails on him to give his consent. Pamphilus is thus placed in a most perplexing dilemma with all parties. His mistress, Glycerium, and her attendants, believe him to be false; while Charinus thinks that he had deceived him; and, as he had given his consent to the marriage, he can form no excuse to his father or Chremes for not concluding it. Hence his rage against Davus, and new stratagems on the part of the slave to prevent the nuptials. He contrives that Chremes should overhear a conversation between him and Mysis, Glycerium"s attendant, concerning the child which her mistress bore to Pamphilus, and Chremes in consequence instantly breaks off from his engagement. In this situation, Crito arrives to claim heirship to Chrysis, the reputed sister of Glycerium. He discloses, that Glycerium having been shipwrecked in infancy, had been preserved by his kinsman, the father of Chrysis; and, from his detail, it is discovered, that she is the daughter of Chremes. There is thus no farther obstacle to her marriage with Pamphilus; and the other daughter of Chremes is of course united to Charinus.
The long narrative with which the _Andria_, like several other plays of Terence, commences, and which is a component part of the drama itself, is beautiful in point of style, and does not fail to excite our interest concerning the characters. We perceive the compa.s.sion and even admiration of Simo for Glycerium, and we feel that, if convinced of her respectable birth and character, he would have preferred her to all others, even to the daughter of Chremes. Glycerium, indeed, does not appear on the stage; but her actual appearance could scarcely have added to the interest which her hapless situation inspires. Simo is the model of an excellent father.
He is not so easily duped by his slaves as most of the old men in Plautus; and his temper does not degenerate, like that of many other characters in the plays of Terence, either into excessive harshness, or criminal indulgence. His observations are strikingly just, and are the natural language of age and experience. Chremes, the other old man, does not divide our interest with Simo; yet we see just enough of his good disposition, to make us sympathize with his happiness in the discovery of a daughter. Pamphilus is rendered interesting by his tenderness for Glycerium, and respect for his father. Davus supports the character of a shrewd, cunning, penetrating slave; he is wholly devoted to the interests of Pamphilus, but is often comically deterred from executing his stratagems by dread of the lash of his old master. The part of Crito, too, is happily imagined: His apprehension lest he be suspected of seeking an inheritance to which he has no just t.i.tle, and his awkward feelings on coming to claim the wealth of a kinswoman of suspicious character, are artfully unfolded. Even the gossip and absurd flattery of the midwife, Lesbia, is excellent. The poet has also shewn considerable address in portraying the character of Chrysis, who was supposed to be the sister of Glycerium, but had died previous to the commencement of the action. In the first scene, he represents her as having for a long while virtuously struggled with adverse fortune, and having finally been precipitated into vice rather by pressure of poverty than depravity of will; and afterwards, in the pathetic account which Pamphilus gives of his last conference with her, we insensibly receive a pleasing impression of her character, and forget her errors for the sake of her amiable qualities. All this was necessary, in order to prevent our forming a disadvantageous idea of Glycerium, who had resided with Chrysis, but was afterwards to become the wife of Pamphilus, and to be acknowledged as the daughter of Chremes.
This play has been imitated in the _Andrienne_ of Baron, the celebrated French actor. The Latin names are preserved in the _dramatis personae_, and the first, second, and fifth acts, have been nearly translated from Terence. In the fourth, however, instead of the marriage being interrupted by Davus"s stratagem, Glycerium, hearing a report of the falsehood of her lover, rushes on the stage, throws herself at the feet of Chremes, and prevails on him to break off the intended match between his daughter and Pamphilus. But, though the incidents are nearly the same, the dialogue is ill written, and is very remote from the graceful ease and simplicity of Terence.
Steele"s _Conscious Lovers_ is the best imitation of the _Andria_. The English play, it will be remembered, commences in a similar manner with the Latin comedy, by Sir John Bevil relating to an old servant, that he had discovered the love of his son for Indiana, an unknown and stranger girl, by his behaviour at a masquerade. The report of this attachment nearly breaks off an intended marriage between young Bevil and Lucinda, Sealand"s daughter. Young Bevil relieves the mind of Myrtle, the lover of Lucinda, by a.s.suring him that he is utterly averse to the match. Still, however, he pretends to his father, that he is ready to comply with his wishes; and, meanwhile, writes to Lucinda, requesting that she would refuse the offer of his hand. Myrtle, hearing of this correspondence having taken place, without knowing its import, is so fired with jealousy that he sends Bevil a challenge. Sealand, being still pressed by Sir John to bestow his daughter in marriage, waits on Indiana, in order to discover the precise nature of her relations with Bevil. She details to him her story; and, on his alluding to the probability of the projected nuptials being soon concluded, she tears off, in a transport of pa.s.sion, a bracelet, by which Sealand discovers, that she is a daughter whom he had lost, and who, while proceeding to join him in the East Indies, had been carried into a French harbour, where she first met with young Bevil.
An English translator of Terence remarks, "That Steele has unfolded his plot with more art than his predecessor, but is greatly his inferior in delineation of character. Simo is the most finished character in the Latin piece, but Sir John Bevil, who corresponds to him, is quite insignificant.
Young Bevil is the most laboured character in the _Conscious Lovers_, but he is inferior to Pamphilus. His deceit is better managed by Terence than Steele. Bevil"s supposed consent to marry is followed by no consequence; and his honest dissimulation, as he calls it, is less reconcilable to the philosophic turn of his character, than to the natural sensibility of Pamphilus. Besides, the conduct of the latter is palliated, by being driven to it by the artful instigations of Davus, who executes the lower part of the stratagems, whereas Bevil is left entirely to his own resources." Bevil, indeed, in spite of his refinement and formality, his admiration of the moral writers, and, "the charming vision of Mirza consulted in a morning," is a good deal of a _Plato-Scapin_. Indiana, who corresponds to Glycerium, is introduced with more effect than the ladies in the French plays imitated from Terence. Her tearing off her ornaments, however, in a fit of despair, at the conclusion, is too violent. It is inconsistent with the rest of her character; and we feel that she would not have done so, had not the author found that the bracelet was necessary for her recognition as the daughter of Sealand. The under plot is perhaps better managed in the English than in the Latin play. Myrtle sustains a part more essential to the princ.i.p.al fable than Charinus; and his character is better discriminated from that of Bevil than those of the two lovers in the _Andria_. The part of Cimberton, the other lover of Lucinda, favoured by Mrs Sealand, is of Steele"s own contrivance; and of course, also, the stratagem devised by Bevil, in which Myrtle and Tom pretend to be lawyers, and Myrtle afterwards personates Sir Geoffry Cimberton, the uncle of his rival.
The _Andria_ has also suggested those scenes of Moore"s _Foundling_, which relate to the love of young Belmont, and the recognition of Fidelia as the daughter of Sir Charles Raymond.
_Eunuchus_.-Though, in modern times, the _Andria_ has been the most admired play of Terence, in Rome the _Eunuchus_ was by much the most popular of all his performances, and he received for it 8000 sesterces, the greatest reward which poet had ever yet obtained(302). In the _Andria_, indeed, there is much grace and delicacy, and some tenderness; but the _Eunuchus_ is so full of vivacity and fire, as almost to redeem its author from the well-known censure of Caesar, that there was no _vis comica_ in his dramas.
The chief part of the _Eunuchus_ is taken from a play of the same t.i.tle by Menander; but the characters of the parasite and captain have been transferred into it from another play of Menander, called _Kolax_. There was an old play, too, by Naevius, founded on the _Kolax_; but Terence, in his prologue, denies having been indebted to this performance.
The scenes of the _Eunuchus_ are so arranged, that the main plot is introduced by that which is secondary, and which at first has the appearance of being the princ.i.p.al one. Phaedria is brought on the stage venting his indignation at being excluded from the house of the courtezan Thais, for the sake of Thraso, who is the sole braggart captain exhibited in the plays of our author. Thais, however, succeeds in persuading Phaedria that she would admit Thraso only for two days, in order to obtain from him the gift of a damsel who had originally belonged to the mother of Thais, but after her death had been sold to the captain. Phaedria, vying in gifts with Thraso, presents his mistress with an Ethiopian eunuch. The younger brother of Phaedria, who is called Chaerea, having accidentally seen the maid presented to Thais by Thraso, falls in love with her, and, by a stratagem of his father"s slave Parmeno, he is introduced as the eunuch to the house of Thais, where he does not in all respects consistently support the character he had a.s.sumed. After Chaerea had gone off, his adventure was discovered; and Pythias, the waiting maid of Thais, in revenge for Parmeno"s fraud, tells him that Chaerea, having been detected, was about to be made precisely what he had pretended to be. Parmeno, believing this report, informs the father of Chaerea, who instantly rushes into the house of Thais, (to which, by this time, his son had ventured to return,) and being there relieved from his sudden apprehension, he consents the more readily to the marriage of Chaerea with the girl whom he had deluded, and who is now discovered to be an Athenian citizen, and the sister of Chremes. In this paroxysm of good humour, he also agrees that Phaedria should retain Thais as his mistress. Thraso and his parasite, Gnatho, having been foiled in an attack on the house of Thais, enter into terms, and, at the persuasion of Gnatho, Thraso is admitted into the society of Phaedria, and is allowed to share with him the favours of Thais.
There are thus, strictly speaking, three plots in the _Eunu__chus_, but they are blended with inimitable art. The quarrel and reconciliation of Thais and Phaedria promote the marriage of Chaerea with Pamphila, the girl presented by Thraso to Thais. This gift again produces the dispute between Phaedria and Thais, and gives room for the imposture of Chaerea. It is unfortunate that the regard in which the ancient dramatists held the unity of place, interposed between the spectators and the representation of what would have been highly comical-the father discovering his son in the eunuch"s habit in the house of Thais, the account of which has been thrown into narrative. At the conclusion Thraso is permitted, with consent of Phaedria, to share the good graces of Thais; but, as has been remarked by La Harpe(303) and Colman(304), and as indeed must be felt by every one who reads the play, this termination is scarcely consistent with the manners of gentlemen, and it implies the utmost meanness in Phaedria to admit him into his society, or to allow him a share in the favours of his mistress, merely that he may defray part of the expense of her establishment.
The drama, however, is full of vivacity and intrigue. Through the whole piece the author amuses us with his pleasantries, and in no scene discovers that his fund of entertainment is exhausted. Most of the characters, too, are happily sketched. Under Thais, Menander is supposed to have given a representation of his own mistress Glycerium. On the general nature of the parts of the parasite and braggart captain, something has been said while treating of the dramas of Plautus; but Terence has greatly refined and improved on these favourite characters of his predecessor. Gnatho is master of a much more delicate and artful mode of adulation than former flatterers, and supports his consequence with his patron, at the same time that he laughs at him and lives on him. He boasts, in the second scene of the second act, that he is the founder of a new cla.s.s of parasites, who ingratiated themselves with men of fortune and shallow understandings, solely by humouring their fancies and admiring what they said, instead of earning a livelihood by submitting to blows, the ridicule of the company, and all manner of indignities, like the antiquated race of parasites whom Plautus describes as beaten, kicked, and abused at pleasure:-
"Et hic quidem, hercle, nisi qui colaphos perpeti Potis parasitus, frangique aulas in caput, Vel ire extra portam trigeminam ad sacc.u.m libet."
The new parasite, of whom Gnatho may be considered as the representative, had been delineated in the characters of Theophrastus, and has more resemblance to Shakspeare"s Osrick, or to the cla.s.s of parasites described by Juvenal as infesting the families of the Great in the latter ages of Rome(305). Thraso, the braggart captain, in the _Eunuchus_, is ridiculous enough to supply the audience with mirth, without indulging in the extravagant bl.u.s.ter of Pyrgopolinices. A scene in the fourth act gives the most lively representation of the conceit and ridiculous vanity of this soldier, who, calling together a few slaves, pretends to marshal and draw them up as if they formed a numerous army, and a.s.sumes all the airs of a general. This part is so contrived, that nothing could have more happily tended to make him appear ridiculous though he says nothing extravagant, or beyond what might naturally be expected from the mouth of a c.o.xcomb.
One new feature in Thraso"s character is his fondness for repeating his jests, and pa.s.sion for being admired as a wit no less than a warrior.
There is, perhaps, nowhere to be found a truer picture of the fond and froward pa.s.sion of love, than that which is given us in the character of Phaedria. Horace and Persius, when they purposely set themselves to expose and exaggerate its follies, could imagine nothing beyond it. The former, indeed, in the third satire of his second book, where he has given a picture of the irresolution of lovers, has copied part of the dialogue introduced near the commencement of the _Eunuchus_.
The love, however, both of Phaedria and Chaerea is more that of temperament than sentiment: Of consequence, the _Eunuchus_ is inferior to the _Andria_ in delicacy and tenderness; but there are not wanting pa.s.sages which excel in these higher qualities. Addison has remarked(306), that Phaedria"s request to his mistress, on leaving her for a few days, is inimitably beautiful and natural-
"Egone quid velim?
c.u.m Milite isto praesens, absens ut sies; Dies noctesque me ames: me desideres: Me somnies: me expectes: de me cogites: Me speres: me te oblectes: mec.u.m tota sis: Meus fac sis postremo animus, quando ego sum tuus."
This demand was rather exorbitant, and Thais had some reason to reply-_Me miseram!_
There is an Italian imitation of the _Eunuchus_ in _La Talanta_, a comedy by Aretine, in which the courtezan who gives the name to the play corresponds with Thais, and her lover Orfinio to Phaedria,-the characteristic dispositions of both the originals being closely followed in the copy. A youth, from his disguise supposed to be a girl, is presented to La Talanta by Tinca, the Thraso of the piece, who, being exasperated at the treatment he had received from the courtezan, meditates, like Thraso, a military attack on her dwelling-house; and, though easily repulsed, he is permitted at the conclusion, in respect of his wealth and bounty, to continue to share with Orfinio the favours of La Talanta.
There is more _lubricity_ in the _Eunuchus_ of Terence, than in any of his other performances; and hence, perhaps, it has been selected by Fontaine as the most suitable drama for his imitation. His _Eunuque_, as he very justly remarks in his advertis.e.m.e.nt prefixed, "n"est qu"une mediocre copie d"un excellent original." Fontaine, instead of adapting the incidents to Parisian manners, like Moliere and Regnard, in their delightful imitations of Plautus, has retained the ancient names, and scene of action. The earlier part is a mere translation from the Latin, except that the character of Thais is softened down from a courtezan to a coquette. The next deviation from the original is the omission of the recital by Chaerea, of the success of his audacious enterprize-instead of which, Fontaine has introduced his Chaerea professing honourable and respectful love to Pamphile. In the unravelling of the dramatic plot, the French author has departed widely from Terence. There is nothing of the alarm concerning Chaerea given by Thais" maid to Parmeno, and by him communicated to the father: The old man merely solicits Parmeno to prevail on his sons to marry:-
"Il se veut desormais tenir clos et couvert, Caresser, les pieds chauds, quelque Bru qui lui plaise, Conter son jeune temps, et banqueter a son aise."
This wish is doubly accomplished, by the discovery that Pamphile is of reputable birth, and by Phaedria"s reconciliation with Thais. While making such changes on the conclusion, and accommodating it in some measure to the feelings of the age, I am surprised that the French author retained that part of the compact with Thraso, by which he is to remain in the society of Phaedria merely to be fleeced and ridiculed.
The _Eunuchus_ is also the origin of _Le Muet_ by Bruyes and Palaprat, who laboured in conjunction, like our Beaumont and Fletcher, and who have made such alterations on the Latin drama as they thought advisable in their age and country. In this play, which was first acted in 1691, a young man, who feigns to be dumb, is introduced as a page in a house where his mistress resided. But although an Ethiopian eunuch, which was an article of state among the ancients, may have attracted the fancy of Thais, it is not probable that the French countess should have been so desirous to receive a present of a dumb page. Those scenes in which the credulous father is made to believe that his son had lost the power of speech, from the effects of love and sorcery, and is persuaded, by a valet disguised as a doctor, that the only remedy for his dumbness is an immediate union with the object of his pa.s.sion, are improbable and overcharged. The character of the parasite is omitted, and instead of Thraso we have a rough blunt sea captain, who had protected Zayde when lost by her parents.