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

1000 TERENTIUS. TEREN TIUS.
of Shakspeare's Timon. But as none of Terence's 6. ADELPHI, "' the Brothers," was acted for thE
plays are so remote from modern manners, the first time at the funeral games of L. Aemilius PaulHeauton-timoroumenos has not retained its ancient Inus, B. c. 160. The Greek stage possessed no less
reputation. Chapman's All Fools, printed in 1605, than seven dramas with this title. (Meineke, Comic.
owes a portion of its plot to the Self-tormentor. Graec. IIist.) But Terence took the greater part
(Collier, Annals of the Stage, iii. 95.) Colman of his plot from Menander's'AaeXAoi. One scene,
(Terence, p. 160) notices the resemblance between however (Prol.), was borrowed from the ZvvaroMenedemus and Laertes in the Odyssey (xv. 354, OV1oSIKOYTES of Diphilus, which Plautus had already
xvi. 139.) Some of the lines of Menander's reproduced under the title of Commorientes. A
Heauton-timoroumenos are preserved. (Meinek. full and lively analysis of this play, to the modern
Hist. Graec. Cons.) reader the most delightful of all Terence's come4. EUNUCHvS, "the Eunuch," was at the time dies, is given by Mr. Dunlop (Hist. of Rozm. Lit.
the most popular of Terence's comedies. It was I. pp. 302-317). In its Prologue the charge,
played at the Megalesian Games, B. c. 162, and so implied before (Prol. in lceautont.), is expressed of
highly applauded that it was repeated at the same the poet's being not merely helped in composition
festival, and the poet received from the aediles the by his friends, but that the plays themselves were
unusual sum of 8000 sesterces, a fact so memorable really written by Scipio or Laelius. We'have
as to be recorded in the Didascalia. It is an adap- already examined the validity of this accusation.
tation of Menander's Ei'yoDXos, but Thraso and The Prologue shows that the hostility of the critics
Gnatho, the swaggering captain and the parasite, increased with the success of Terence.
are taken from that author's K6iAaS,'" the Flat- The modern imitations of this comedy are very
terer." There was also a " Colax" by Naevius, numerous. Baron copied it in his Ecole des Peres,
which Terence's enemies accused him of appro- and it furnished Moliere with more than hints for
priating, but which he denies having ever seen. his Ecole des Maris. It is the original of Fagan's
Lavinius (Prol. in Eunuch.) managed to get sight La Pupile, and of Garrick's Farce of the Guas —
of the Eunuch before it was acted, and told the dian. Diderot in his comedie larmoyante Le
aediles they had bought stolen goods. Terence Pere de Famnille, in his characters of M. d'Orbesreplied, that if stock-characters - culrrentes servos, son and Le Commandeur had evidently Micio and
bonas matronas, meretrices malas, parasitum eda- Demea before him, and Shadwell's Squire of Alcem, gloriosum militem —were to be prohibited, satia is from the same source. Manlove and
there was an end of play-writing. He bids his Nightshade in Cumberland's Chioleric AlLan are
censor mind the blunders in his own " Thesaurus," repetitions of Micio and Demea, and Know'ell in
and remember that his Phasma was all Menan- Every Man in his HIunmour is Micio. Even so reder's, except the faults. As the manners of the cently as 1826-7 the "Brothers of Terence" in
Self-tormentor are obsolete, so the subject of the its essential parts of contrast, was brought upon the
Eunuch is unsuitable to modern feelings, yet of all English stage as the Rose-Feast.
Terence's plays it is the most varied in action and The comedies of Terence have been translated
the most vivacious in dialogue, and makes the into most of the languages of modern Europe, and
received censure of his being deficient in vis comica in conjunction with Plautus were, on the revival
scarcely intelligible. of the drama, the models of the most refined, if
Baif, a poet in the reign of Charles IX., trans- not the most genial play-writers. In Italy the
lated the Eunuch into French verse. The modern Terentian Comedy was opposed in the 15th and
imitations of it are Aretine's La Talanta, La- 16th centuries to the Commedie dell' Arte, aind
Fontaine's L'Eunzuque, which is in fact a trans- Ariosto, Aretine, Lodovico Dolce, anid Battista
lation, retaining the names, scenes, and manners of Porta drew deeply from " this well of" Latin
the original; and Sir Charles Sedley's Bellamnira "undefiled." The Pedante was substituted for
1687. It is also the source of Le Muet, by Bruyds the Currenes Servus, but the swaggering captain
and Palaprat, first acted in 1691. and the parasite were retained with little altera.
5. PHORMIO, was performed in the same year tion. In Spain Pedro Simon de Abril, about the
with the preceding, at the Roman Games on the middle of the 16th century, published a complete
1st of October. (Comp. Drakenborch. ad Liv. xlv. translation of Terence, which is still much esteemed.
1, 6.) This year (1.61) may therefore be regarded (Bouterwek, Spanish Lit. p. 198, Eng. trans. Bogue.)
as the " annus mirabilis" of his reputation. It is The English versions of Bernard, IHoole, and
borrowed from the'Ezsrm3Ka(S1Uevoe, " Plaintiff" or Echard (see Tytler's Essay oz thze Principles of
" Heir-at-Law" of Apollodorus, and is named Translat. p. 244,&c.) have been long superseded by
" Phormio" from the parasite whose devices con- that of Colman, one of the most faithful and spinect the double-plot. Phormio, however, is not a rited translations of an ancient writer. Besides
parasite of the Gnatho stamp, but an accommo- Baif's Eznucehus Menage mentions a very old
dating gentleman who reconciles all parties, some- French version of the whole of Terence, partly in
what after the fashion of Mr. Harmony in Mrs. prose; but the most accurate and useful of the French
Inchbald's Every One hzas his Fault. It would translations is theprose versionby the Daciers. Poliseem from the Prologue, that Terence wearied out, tian was the first to divide the scenes into metrical
if not convinced, by his censors iterating that his lines, but Erasmus greatly improved upon his arplays were G" tenui oratione et scripture levi," at- rangement.
tempted in the present a loftier style, and, as Do- The Didascalia preserve the names of the prinnatius says, dealt with passions too earnest for cipal actors of Terence's plays, when originally promirth. It is therefore the more strange that this duced. They were Ambivius Turpio, L. Atilius
comedy should have suggested to Moiidre one of Praenestinus, and Minutius Prothimus; and Flachis most extravagant farces, Les Fourberies de cus, son of Claudius, furnished the musical acco;nScapin. Mohlidre, however, borrowed from other paniments to all six comedies. The Periochae
sources as well. or summaries in Iamibic verse of the plot of each