I have observed, to the Master of Trinity. It is, however, to be regretted that TERENCE should present so much temptation to correctors; for the more plausible and acute the latest 'reading,' the greater the likelihood that a yet later editor will disturb the text still further. NOTICE OF THE LIFE OF TERENCE. THE Life of Terence, usually ascribed to Suetonius, has by some been attributed to Donatus. Terence was a native of Carthage; and having been captured, it is said, in a foray by Numidians, was eventually sold to a Roman senator, P. Terentius Lucanus, whose discernment and humanity, in carefully educating his young slave, and afterwards manumitting him, have perpetuated his memory and name. His freedman took, as was customary, his patron's praenomen and nomen, Publius Terentius, with the cognomen of Afer, indicating the country of his birth, rather than the barbarous and perhaps unpronounceable name which he had borne there. As he was believed to have died-lost at sea according to some-in the consulship of Cn. Cornelius Dolabella and M. Fulvius Nobilior, or B.c. 159, and when he left Rome some time before was in his thirty-fifth year, we may place his birth about or before 194 B.C. (the year in which died Eratosthenes the grammarian). The Spanish historian Orosius, misunderstanding a passage of Livy, says that Terence, afterwards the comic writer, one of the noble Carthaginian prisoners, followed the triumph of Africanus an impossibility, as a consideration of dates will show; the triumph of the elder Africanus preceding the birth of the poet, that of the younger being many years subsequent to his death. Terence lived in close intimacy with the elder Africanus and Lælius, with whom, according to Nepos, he was nearly equal in age. It has been asserted that these distinguished men assisted him in his compositions, and Terence himself increased the suspicion by the little pains which he took to refute it. But howsoever it might appear below the dignity of Scipio, warrior and statesman, to avow frankly his part in such prolusions, it seems little likely that even the modest Lælius would conceal his share in these famous plays, for one of which the poet received no inconsiderable sum as an immediate reward. Lælius was no stranger to literature; and a Roman literary man would not be influenced by the scruples which in some ages have deterred men of genius from writing for the stage, however much, the penalty apart, he would have disdained the actor's place on it. That Terence was not eager to vindicate his sole authorship is comprehensible enough. Scipio might not possess the wit and humour necessary for such composition (and these illustrious Cornelii seem to have been somewhat deficient in those lighter qualities), but he might be not unwilling to take credit for the capacity; and the poet, who had probed so many of the foibles of human nature, would be careful how he risked offending his powerful patron. He was, says the author of the life, more likely to have had recourse to C. Sulpicius Galba, a man of learning, who first introduced plays at the Consular Games, or to M. Popilius Læna, or Qu. Fabius Labeo, both consulars and good poets. Terence has left us six plays. By one account he was lost, returning from Greece, with a hundred and eight others translated from Menander. We may be sure his fame has not suffered by the loss, if the tale is true. This, however, is inconsistent with the statement that he visited Greece to delineate the national manners from personal inspection, and to wipe away the just charge of wholesale plagiarism. To say nothing of the difficulties presented by the number of plays mentioned, the mere sketch of so many plots would be the work of years, even to a Lope de Vega. The Andria was his first play; exhibited when its author was twenty-seven. There is a story, -doubtful from the chronology, as Cæcilius died two years before the representation of the Andria,-that when he offered it to the Ediles, he was ordered to read it to Statius Cæcilius, whose comedies are praised by Horace for dignity of style, as those of Terence for skill in construction-(Vincere Caecilius gravitate, Terentius arte). The modest freedman, being meanly dressed, was made to sit on a stool, while the fashionable author supped; but had read only a few lines when he was warmly invited to a place on the couch: a pleasant picture, and a rare acknowledgment of genius on the part of a distinguished writer.' Of Terence's other plays, the Eunuch was acted twice in one day, and the author received for it the sum of 8,000 sesterces,-less, however, than 70%. sterling. The full list is, Andria, Eunuch, Heautontimorumenos or Self-Tormentor, Adelphi or the Brothers, Hecyra or Stepmother, and Phormio. Tradition described Terence as of middle stature, swarthy complexion, and agreeable and engaging manners. He left a daughter; afterwards married to a Roman knight. At the time of his death he was possessed of a house, and a garden of some acres on the Appian Road, close to the Villa Martia. The lines of Porcius, declaring that his great friends left him without means even to pay for a hired house, appear therefore to be unwarranted by facts, though the poet might be far from rich. The purity of Terence's Latin would be remarkable in any one; in a man of foreign origin it is extraordinary. His style is free from barbarisms, and nothing corresponding to the 'Patavinity' of Livy is to be found in his writings. It is noticeable that a similar correctness prevails in the productions of Phædrus, who was also a slave, and a Thracian to boot. I conclude this notice with the criticisms ascribed to Cicero and Cæsar. Those of the soldier, it will be observed, begin in the same spirit as the orator's; but he is said to have written his atque utinam, &c. to contradict and vex the latter. Tu quoque, qui solus, lecto sermone, Terenti, Quidquid come loquens ac omnia dulcia dicens. |