A Dictionary of Greek and Roman biography and mythology. By various writers. Ed. by William Smith. Illustrated by numerous engravings on wood.

TERENTIUS. TERENTIUS. 999
lated, it appears that the Andria circulated in ters, for humour, and elegance of diction, the Conmanuscript nearly two years before it was acted. scions Lovers will bear no comparison with the
For the prologue refers to critical objections to the Andrian.
play, and says that the carpings of a malignant 2. HECYRA, "the Step-Mother," was produced
hacknied writer -malevolus vetus poeta —com- at the Megalesian Games, in B. c. 165. It was a
pelled the author to bring forward matters personal version of a play, bearing the same name, by Apolto himself, instead of confining himself to the ar- lodorus (Meineke, Comic. Graec. Hist. vol. i. p.
gument of his piece The Andria is made up of 464), and is an ancient specimen of the comedie
two of Menander's comedies, the Andria and Pe- larmoya nte. The Hecyra was twice rejected: the
rinthia, and Luscius Lavinius said that Terence first time the spectators hurried out of the theatre
had marred two good plays to make one bad one. to see a boxing match and rope-dancers; the seTerence replies that if he were a compiler, so were cond time, when it was played at the funeral games
Naevius, Plautus, and Ennius before him, and that of Aemilius Paullus, B. c. 160, it was interrupted
he would rather err with them than be right with by a combat of gladiators. It owed its success, on
Lavinius. He ends by warning his assailant not a third trial, to the intercessions of Ambivius
to moot the question of piracy again, since his own Turpio, the manager, with the audience. The
offences in that way were notorious, and he begs Prologue to the Hecyra throws some light on the
the audience to give his play a patient hearing, Roman theatrical system. It appears that the
for upon its reception would depend whether he managers of the grex or company, in accepting a
wrote others. new piece, incurred no slight responsibility. Their
The Roman theatre was ill suited to the repre- judgment on the MSS. determined the aediles to
sentation of the Comoedia Palliata. The bustle purchase or refuse it. But if the public, after all,
and buffoons of Plautus required no better appoint- rejected it, the aediles looked to the manager to
ment than the wooden booths which that age afforded. indemnify them for the outlay. Ambivius, by
The masks and the unities encumbered Menander his appeals to the spectators, had more than once
as well as Terence; but the Roman play-writer rescued the plays of Caecilius from rejection, and
had to contend with worse obstacles than the Terence, in his Prologue to the Phormio, acknowcommon conventionalities of his art. The manners ledges his exertions on the third representation of
he pourtrayed were exotic: his audience was gross the Hecyra. The comedy, however, never was a
and noisy (Prol. in Hecyr., comp. Prol. to B. Jon- favourite. It was acted quinto loco, fifth on the
son's " The Case is altered");and if Valerius Antias list, and Volcatius Sedigitus (Gell. xv. 24) probe correct in dating the introduction of the Ludi nounces it the worst of the author's plays. The
Sceniciin B. C. 193 or 191, the Comoedia Palliata, or plot, which is single, and which Hurd (Dial. ii.)
Genteel Comedy, was hardly a quarter of a century somewhat magisterially calls "' the true Greek
old at Rome. We find Terence, in his prologues, plot," was too simple for Roman taste, and the
continually supplicating the spectators to sit still and long narrations and general paucity of action in
be silent, and their rudeness and apathy must have this comedy will alone account for its bad recepformed a singular contrast to his subtle humour tion. " ToNs les genres," says Voltaire, " sont bons,
and refined pictures of life. Four of his six come- hors le genre ennuyeZx." The Hecyra has never
dies, indeed, were played at the Megalesia, which been modernised.
were more decorous and orderly than the games of 3. HEAUTON-TIMOROIUMENOS, " the Self-Torthe circus, and are therefore described by Cicero mentor," was performed at the Megalesian Games,
(Irarusp. Resp. 12) as maxiome casti, sollenznes, reli-. C. 163. It was borrowed from Menander, and,
giosi. But at best the comedy of Terence was like the Hecyra, belongs to the Comedie larieoycaviare to the Romans - an Italian opera performed ante. (Comp. Spectator, No. 502.) Its plot is
at Bartholomew fair. twofold, and the parts are not better connected
The Andrian has been often translated and imi- than the two stories in Vanbragh's and Cibber's
tated. The earliest English version was made in Provoked Husband. From the Prologue it apthe reign of Edward VI. It is in rhymed stanzas pears that the critics had opened a new battery on
of seven lines each, was probably performed as an Terence; they charged him with being a late
exercise at one of the universities, and is in some learner of his art, and hinted what they afterwards
degree adapted to the manners of the times. Baron, expressed openly (comp. Prol. in Heaut. with Prol.
the celebrated French actor, imitated Terence in Adelph.) that his friends helped him in compoclosely in his Andrienne. Even the Latin names sition. He retorts upon them the grossness and
of the Dramnatis Personae are retained, and in the impropriety of their scenes. Ambivius again
third and fourth acts alone has he deviated, and pleaded the author's cause, and complained of the
then not for the better, from his original. The spectator's preference for such parts as exhausted
Andria has also suggested a portion of Moore's the actor-the servus currens, the boisterous old
Foundling. But the most elaborate copy of this man, and the parasite. The observation or neglect
play is Sir Richard Steele's Conscious Lovers. of the unities in the Heauton-timoroumenos was
The Latin names of the characters, indeed, are not the subject of a fierce controversy among the French
preserved, but their English representatives, as the critics between 1640 and 1655. The principal
following list shows, exhibit a close parallelism. combatants were M6nage and Hedelin (l'AbbM
Sir John Bevil=Simo; young Bevil=Pamphilus; d'Aubignac); and Madam Dacier acted as moIndiana- Glyceriumn; Sealand==Chremes; Myrtle derator. Of the Terentian diction the Self-tor=Charinus; Humphrey==Sosia; Phillis=Mysis; mentor is the most perfect example, and the poet
and Tom -Davus, the " currens servus qui fallit seems anxious to veil the anomalies of his plot
senem," the prototype of Molire's Scapin. Steele's beneath the dignity of his apophthegms and the
underplot is, on the whole, conducted more skil- splendour of his language. The part of Menedefully than Terence's; but for the management of mus, the self-tormentor, rises to almost tragic
the principal story, for consistency in the charac- earnestness, and reminds the reader occasionally
3s 4