Plautus's comedies ... made English, with critical remarks upon each play.

Scene the Third.

Pag. 89. l. 1, &c. Thus I've told ye the whole Story, Cheribulus; and given ye a full account o' my Troubles and Love.] It is to be supposed that Stratippocles had told his Friend Cheribulus, all what Thesprion had told Epidi∣cus in the first Scene. Thus the Poet ingeniously con∣trives to make Stratippocles go on just where Thesprion had left off; for if he had told the whole Story upon the Stage, the Spectators wou'd have been pall'd and tyred out with Repetitions.

Ibid. l. 9. Tho truly, to her Chastity, I ne'r offer'd the least Violence or Incivility.] This is an extraordinary ma∣terial Passage, which ought not to be forgot by the Spectators, especially when they come to know this Woman, he talks of, to be his Sister. What is still more remarkable, is, the Poet's finding such an ingeni∣ous Pretext for bringing it in.

Ibid. l. 23. I'de sooner see such Friends starve in a Prison than live in a Palace.] Malim hujusmodi mihi amicos furno mersos, quam foro. This Passage is a little diffi∣cult. Stratippocles's saying, He had rather see such Friends as Cheribulus, in an Oven rather than the Mar∣ket, was as much as to say, he had rather have him dead than alive; or at least, he wou'd have him in a miserable confin'd Condition, rather than in a happy and free State; so that the Liberty I have taken here, is a nigher Imitation of the Latin, than a close Translation cou'd have been.