Publii Terentii Carthaginiensis Afris poëtae lepidissimi comoediae sex Anglo-Latinae in usum ludi-discipulorum, quo Feliciùs venustatem linguae Latinae ad sermonem quotidianum exercendum assequantur / a Carolo Hoole ... = Six comedies of that excellent poet Publius Terentius, an African of Carthage, in English and Latine : for the use of young scholars, that they may the more readily attain the purity of the Latine tongue for common discourse / by Charles Hoole ...

The Prologue.

IF there be any that setteth himself to please All good men and to be offensive to few: This Poet professeth himself to be one of them. Again if there be any that thinketh he is too sharply Spoken against, let him thus think, That an Apologie, and not an Invection is made, because he did the first wrong, Who by translating well, but ordering them badly. Hath made bad Latine Comedies of good Greek ones. The same man hath now lately set out Menanders Phasma, And in his Thesaurus he hath set down that the defendant pleaded, Of whom it was demanded why the gold should be his, Before the Plaintiff who demandeth it, declared how the treasure came to be his, And how it came into his fathers monument. From henceforth let him not deceive himself, or think thus, I have now given over, he hath nothing to say to me. I advise him not to mistake himself, and to leave off provoking me. I have many other things, which shall now be forgiven, Which shall be produced afterwards, if he go on to offend me, So as he hath begun to do. As for this Menanders Eunuchus Which we are now to act, he obtained, after the Aediles Had bought it, that he might have liberty to see it; It began to be acted when the Magistrate was there. He cry••th out that a thief, not a Poet had set out a Comedie, And yet bad added no words of his own to it; That Colax was an old Comedie of Naevius and Plautus, That the Parasites and Souldiers part were taken thence. If that be an off nee, it is an offence committed through the Poets ig∣norance Who did not purpose to play the thief: That it is so you may now judge: Colax is a Comedie of Menanders, in it is Colax the Parasite; And the braggadocian Souldier he doth not deny That he hath translated those parts into his Eunuchus,

Out of the Greek Comedy; but that he knew that those Comedies Were translated before into Latine, he utterly denieth it. But if it be not lawfull for diverse men to use the same parts, How is it more lawfull to introduce running servants To feign grave matrons, naughty drabs, A greedy parasite, a b••aggadocian soldier, A child to be suborned, an old man to be cousened by his servant, And that folks love, hate, or suspect? To conclude, There is nothing now said, which hath not been said heretofore. Wherefore it is fitting that you should understand, and pass it by, If new Comedians do, what the old have used to do. Do you endeavour, and give silent attention, That you may fully know what Eunuchus meaneth.

Prologus.

SI quisquam est qui placere se studeat bonis Quamplurimis, & minimè multos laedere, In his Poeta hic nomen profitetur suum. Tum si quis est qui dictum in se inclementiùs Existimavit esse, sic existimet, Responsum, non dictum esse, quia laesit priùs, Qui bene vertendo, & eas describendo malè Ex Graecis bonis, Latinas fecit non bonas. Idem Menandri Phasma nunc nuper dedit, At{que} in Thesauris scripsit causam dicere, Priùs unde petitur aurum quare sit suum, Quàm illum qui petit, unde is Thesaurus sit sibi; Aut unde in patrium monimentum pervenerit. Dehinc ne fraudetur ipse se, aut sic cogitet, Defunctus jam sum, nihil est quod dicat mihi, Is ne erret moneo, & desinat lacessere. Habeo alia multa nunc quae condonabuntur; Quae proferentur pòst, si pergat laedere, Ita ut facere instituit. Quam nunc sumus acturi Menandri Eunuchum, postquam aediles emerunt, Perfecit, sibi ut inspiciund•• esset cop••a. Magistratus cùm ibi adesset, occoepta est agi. Exclamat furem, non Poetam, fabulam Dedisse, & nihil dedisse verborum tamen; Colacem esse Naevi, & Plauti veterem fabulam, Parasiti personam inde ablatam & militis. Si id peccatum est, peccatum imprudentiâ est Poetae, qui non furtum facere studuerit. Id ita esse vos jam judicare poteritis. Colax Menandri est, in ea est parasitus colax, Et miles gloriosus, eas se non negat Personas transtulisse in Eunuchum suam

Ex Graecâ: sed eas fabulas factas priùs Latinas scisse se, id verò pernegat. Quod si personis iisdem uti aliis non licet, Quî magis licet currentes servos scribere, Bonas matronas facere, meretrices malas, Parasitum edacem, gloriosum militem, Puerum supponi, falli per servum senem, Amare, odisse, suspicari? Denique Nullum est jam dictum, quod non dictum sit priús, Quare aequum est vos cognoscere, atque ignoscere, Quae veteres factitârunt, si faciunt novi. Date operam, & cum silentio animadvertite, Ut pernoscatis quid sibi Eunuchus velit.