of Terence; and goes far beyond him in the intrigue, the character, the catastrophe, and humour.

VOLTAIRE'S Contes de Guillaume Vadé.

It is impossible for any reader, who is come fresh from the perusal of the Brothers' of Terence, and the 'Ecole des Maris' of Moliere, to acquiesce in the above decision; and I would venture to appeal from Voltaire to any member of the French academy for a reversal of it. The reputation of Moliere has taken too deep root to be rendered more flourishing by blasting that of Terence; nor can such an attempt ever be made with a worse grace than when the imitation is blindly preferred to the original. Moliere, so far from having taken only the idea of his piece from the Brothers', has translated some passages almost literally, and the latter part of the second scene of the Ecole des Maris' is a very close imitation of one in the fourth act of the Brothers.'

In point of fable, I make no scruple to prefer the piece of Terence to that of Moliere. The intrigue of the four first acts of the Brothers' is more artfully conducted than that of any other of Terence's pieces. In the Andrian', were all the episode of Charinus to be omitted, the play would be the better for it. In the Eunuch', as has been before observed, there is a lameness in the catastrophe, and the conclusion of Thraso's business in the last scene becomes episodical. In the Self-Tormentor,' the intrigue in a man. ner ends with the third act. In the Phormio', the loves of Antipho and Phædria have no further relation to each other, than that Phormio is used as an engine in both. But in the play before us, the interest which Eschinus takes in Ctesipho's affairs, combines their several amours so naturally, that they reciprocally put each other in motion.

6

I cannot think the fable of the Ecole des Maris' quite so happy. In Terence, we see a good-humoured uncle adopting one of his nephews, while the other lad remains under the tuition of the severe father. This is natural enough; but in Moliere we have two young women left, by their father's will, as the intended wives of their antiquated guardians. Is there not some absurdity in such an idea? Micio and Demea are confessedly the archetypes of Ariste and Sganarelle; but in my mind, infinitely superior, and exhibited in a greater variety of situations; nor do the two sisters, Isabelle and Leonor, play into each other's hands, like Eschinus and

The plot of the Step-Mother', so admired by the moderns for its simplicity, shall be examined in another place.

Ctesipho.

Ctesipho. In the Brothers,' the business and the play open together; in Moliere, the first scene is a mere conversation-piece. In Moliere, the plot is thin, seems to have been calculated for the intrigue of a petite piece, and the circumstance of Isabelle's embracing Sganarelle, and giving her hand to Eraste, is purely farcical. In Terence, the fable is more important, and the incidents naturally unfold themselves one after another; and the manner in which Demea gradually arrives at the knowledge of them, is extremely artful and comic. What then is intrigue? If it be the dramatic narration of a story, so laid out as to produce pleasant situations, I will not scruple to pronounce, that there is more intrigue in the Brothers' than in the Ecole des Maris.' The reader has already seen several strictures on the fifth act, but the particular objection, made by Voltaire to the catastrophe, is founded on a mistake: the complai sance, gaiety, and liberality of Demea being merely assumed; and his awkwardness in affecting those qualities, full as comic as the admired catastrophe of the Ecole des Maris'; which being produced in a forced manner by the disguise of Isabelle, and the broad cheat put upon Sganarelle before his face, is certainly deficient in the probability, necessary to the incidents of legitimate comedy.-It is not without reluctance that I have been drawn into an examination of the comparative merits of these two excellent pieces: nor do I think there is in general a more invidious method of extolling one writer, than by depreciating the productions of another.

Baron, the author of the Andrienne,' has also written a comedy called 'L'Ecole des Pères' [the School for Fa thers built on this play of Terence. The piece opens with a very elegant, though pretty close, version of the first act of the Brothers'; but on the whole I think this attempt less happy than his first. The bringing Clarice and Pamphile on the stage has no better effect, than his introduction of Glicerie in the Andrian'. Telamon and Alcée are drawn with neither the strength nor delicacy of Micio and Demea; and the old man's change of character in the fifth act is neither rejected nor retained, but rather mangled and deformed. On the whole, it were to be wished, that Baron had adhered still more closely to Terence, or, like Moliere, deviated still further from him: for, as the play now stands, his attention to the Roman poet seems to have thrown a constraint on his genius, and taken off the air of an original; while his alterations have rendered the Ecole des Pères' LI but

but a lame imitation, and imperfect image of the Brothers' of Terence.

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In our own language, the Squire of Alsatia' of Shadwell is also founded on this play: but the Muse of White Friars has but little right to the praises due to that of Athens and Rome. Shadwell's play, though drawn from so pure a source, is rather a farce of five acts than a comedy; nor has it the least comparative merit either in the plan or execution, except in the intention to give the character of Ctesipho more at large, than it is drawn in the original.

NOTES

NOTES

TO THE

STEP-MOTHER.

* Exhibited at, &c.] The title to this play varies extremely in different editions. That given here is taken chiefly from Westerhovius.

2 From the Greek of Apollodorus.] Criticks differ about the name of the Greek poet from whom this play was taken. It is generally said to be Apollodorus; and most agree that this comedy was not taken, like the four first of our author, from Menander.

3 Octavius and Manlius, Consuls.] That is, in the year of Rome 588, and 165 years before Christ, the year after the representation of the Andrian.'

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4 Hurricane.] Calamitas. This word is used in the same sense in the first scene of the Eunuch.'-Nothing can be more evident than that this was the prologue to the second attempt to exhibit this comedy.

5 That he might profit by a second sale.] See note 11, in the next page.

6

Others, his plays, you have already known.] According to Vossius, the Step- Mother' was not attempted to be revived till after the representation of the Brothers.' If s they had already seen all the rest of Terence's pieces.-DAf so,

CIER.

7 Another prologue.] These two prologues are by some blended together, but most learned and judicious editors make two of them. Faernus says, that in some copies the name of L. Ambivius is over them, in great letters; thus, L. AMBIVIUS PROLOGUS: and the same distinction is L12 made

made in the Basilican copy. Eugraphius says positively that the prologue was spoken by Ambivius Turpio.-COOKE.

8

I come a pleader, &c.] Orator ad vos venio. Ma. dam Dacier, and some who follow her, translate orator by the word ambassador. Her explanation of the original (though in this instance, as well as many others, she does not acknowledge it) is taken from Donatus. But what is very extraordinary, Donatus, in his comment on the very next line, gives the word a quite different signification; and tells us, that orator signifies a person entrusted with the defence of a cause; in one word, a pleader: and that exorator signifies him who has gained the cause. The word is undoubtedly used in this latter sense in the prologue to the 'Self-Tormentor:'-Oratorem voluit esse me, non prologum ;-and it seems to be the best and easiest construction in this place also.

Cæcilius.] A famous comic poet among the Romans. His chief excellencies are said to have been, the gravity of his style, and the choice of his subjects. The first quality was at tributed to him by Horace, Tully, &c. and the last by Varro. In argumentis Cæcilius poscit palmam, in ethesi Terentius. "In the choice of subjects Cæcilius demands the preference, in the manners Terence."-Madam Dacier indeed renders in argumentis, " in the disposition of his subjects:" but the words will not bear that construction. Ar. gumentum, I believe, is uniformly used for the argument itself, never implies the conduct of it-as in the prologue to the Andrian;' non tam dissimili argumento—“ in argument less different."-Besides, the disposition of the subject was the very art attributed by the criticks of those days to Terence, and which Horace mentions in the very same line with the gravity of Cæcilius, distinguishing them as the several characteristicks of each writer:

Vincere Cæcilius gravitate, Terentius arte.

See HURD's notes to the Epistle to Augustus. 10 Tis your's to give these games their proper grace.] There is great force and eloquence in the actor's affecting a concern for the sacred festivals, which were in danger of being deprived of their chief ornaments, if by too great a severity they discouraged the poets, who undertook to furnish the plays during the celebrity.-DACIER.

Bought at my expence.] Pretio emtas meo. These words I have rendered literally, though there is a great dis