Chapter XII: Act V: Scene I. page 82,) and, therefore, that Simo may not suspect (2)

Monsieur Baron, in his Andrienne, has given a literal translation of this scene between Simo and Chremes, which, from its serious cast, appears, perhaps, with more dignity in a poetical dress, than it would have received from prose. A learned translator of Terence, who was also an ingenious critic and a successful dramatist, speaks of Baron’s play in the following terms: “Its extreme elegance, and great superiority to the _prose_ translation of Dacier, is a strong _proof_ of the superior excellence and propriety of a poetical translation of this author:” (Terence.) COLMAN’S _Notes on Terence’s Plays_.

The celebrated writer, who made this remark, has himself employed _verse_ throughout the whole of his translation of our author’s plays: and, in the preface to that work, has delivered his opinion very strongly in favour of the composition of comedy in verse, even in the most comic scenes: and argues, that as Terence wrote in verse, a translation of his plays ought to be in verse also.

I must observe that though the comedies of Terence certainly are not prose, yet they are a species of verse so nearly approaching to prose, that many eminent critics have denied that they were written with any regard to measure: they are, therefore, as well calculated, perhaps, as prose, for comic expression. But we have in English no measure at all similar to that used by Terence, nor have we, in my opinion, any measure of verse whatever, in which the most humorous passages in comedy can be so forcibly expressed as they may be in prose. The practice of modern dramatists entirely favours this opinion. Our great Shakspeare, _even in tragedy_, changes from verse to prose, when he introduces a _comic_ scene, as we see in _Hamlet_, A. 5. S. 1, 4., _Coriolanus_, A. 2. S. 1., _Antony and Cleopatra_, A. 2. S. 6, 7, _Othello_, A. 2. S. 11, A. 3. S. 1. Could the wit of Congreve, Farquhar, Cibber, Sheridan, and many other eminent English dramatists (among whom I may number Mr. Colman himself,) have been measured out into verse without a diminution of the poignancy of its expression? If the answer to this question be, as I think it must, _in the negative_, it must surely be decisive against the general introduction of verse into comedies; a species of writing, in which THE RIDICULOUS, according to Aristotle, ought to claim a principal share.

NOTE 193.

_A citizen of Athens._

Athens, the most celebrated city of Greece, was the capital of that part of Achaia, which, lying towards the sea-shore, (ἀκτὴ,) was called Attica. It was called _Athens_ after Minerva, (_vide_ Note 94,) _Cecropia_ after Cecrops, and _Ionia_ after Ion. The circumference of this city, at the time of its greatest prosperity, is computed at twenty-three English miles. A much greater space was enclosed within the walls than was required by the usual inhabitants of the city, because, in time of war, the country people were compelled to take refuge within the walls. Aristophanes tells us, (in his Knights,) that these country people, in time of war, dwelt in huts, resembling bee-hives in shape, which were erected in the squares, and other open places.

This accounts for the magnitude of the city, so disproportionate to the _usual_ number of inhabitants in time of peace, when they did not amount to a hundred thousand persons. Athens was governed by kings for the space of 460 years: by magistrates, chosen for life, during about 300 years more: after that time, their rulers were allowed to hold their offices for ten years only; and, at last, for no longer than one. The citadel, or upper city, which was called the Ἀκρόπολις, was ornamented with the most magnificent temples, monuments, and statues. It contained the temples of Minerva, Neptune, Aglauros, Venus, and Jupiter. Dicearchus tells us, that the enormous disproportion in the size of the temples which were magnificent, and of the houses which were low and small, considerably diminished the beauty of the city. Athens was sometimes called the academy of the Roman empire, and the fountain of learning: learned men, and philosophers of different countries, resorted to this celebrated city in great numbers. The Romans scarcely considered a liberal education as completed, without the student received his final polish at Athens. (_Vide Horace Sat._, B. 2. S. 7. L. 13., _Pliny_, 7. E. 56.) After a career of glory, which must render the name of Athens immortal, that city sunk beneath the all-conquering power of the Romans, B. C. 85; and the Athenians never regained their importance in the scale of nations.

Athens is now called Setines; Dr. Chandler gives it the name of Athini. It contains 15,000 inhabitants, and is the see of a Greek archbishop.

NOTE 194.

_There is a grave severity in his countenance; and
he speaks with boldness._

_Tristis severitas_ inest in voltu.

Gravity, among the ancient philosophers, was recommended as one of the greatest ornaments of old age.

“Lætitia juvenem, _frons_ decet _tristis senem_.”
SENECA. _Hip._, A. II. S. II.

Graceful is gaiety in youth: in age
Gravity most becomes us.

Old men, among the Greeks, sometimes affected the manners and exercises of youth: a species of weakness which the literary men of their age reprobated with very poignant ridicule. Theophrastus admirably exposes people of this sort in his portraiture of those who begin to learn in old age. (_Vide Theoph. Moral Characters._)

NOTE 195.

_Simo.――Seize this rascal directly, and take him away._

――――_Sublimem_ hunc intrò rape quantum potes.

There is a sort of pun here upon the word _sublimem_. Terence alludes to the prisons where slaves were confined, which, in Athens, were usually in the loftiest part of the house: so that Simo says, take him _up_, and also take him _up to the top of the house_: this is the force of the word _sublimem_ in this passage.

Slaves, in Greece, were treated with great indulgence, and never chained but for some heinous fault, or when they were brought into the slave-market, (_vide Plautus’s Captives_, A. 1. S. 2,) and then they were only worn for a short time. As Simo here commands that Davus should be put into chains, we are to suppose him to be exasperated to the utmost, which naturally leads _ad finem epitaseos_, to the end of the epitasis. The anger of _Simo_, the distress of _Pamphilus_ and _Glycera_, the imprisonment of _Davus_, and the anxious suspense of _Charinus_, are what Scaliger (_Poet_, B. 1. C. 9.) calls the _negotia exagitata_, or the confused and disturbed state of affairs, which the _catastrophe_ is to reduce _in tranquillitatem non expectatam_, into a sudden and unexpected tranquillity.

NOTE 196.

_Simo.――I’ll not hear a single word. I’ll ruffle you now, rascal, I
will._

_Davus.――For all that, what I say is true._

_Simo.――For all that, Dromo, take care to keep him bound._

_S._ Nihil audio. Ego jam te COMMOTUM REDDAM.

_D._ Tamen etsi hoc verum est.

_S._ Tamen. Cura adservandum vinctum.

The word _commotum_ seems to have been imperfectly understood by Donatus and some other commentators, who have interpreted it as signifying motion; and would translate the line thus, “I’ll make you caper! I’ll make you dance to some tune, sirrah!” which is extremely foreign to its true meaning. Simo uses the phrase _commotum_ reddam instead of _commovebo_, for the sake of a pun which Terence makes with the word _reddam_: which cannot be perfectly preserved in English.

In the seventh scene of the second act, Davus jests upon the empty larder, and says,

_Indeed, Sir, I think you are too frugal: it is not well timed._

Simo is quite nettled at this severe joke, which leads him to think his stratagem discovered, and he cries out _Tace: hold your tongue_; upon which, Davus, delighted with his success in tormenting his master, says to himself Commovi, _I’ve ruffled him now._ Simo accidentally overhears this, and most severely retorts on him his own expression,

Ego jam te commotum reddam: _I will ruffle you now, rascal;
I will pay you back your ruffling._

The wit of the sentence depends on the word _reddam_; which allows of a double construction, as _reddo_ taken separately, signifies _to pay back_, _to requite_, and _to retaliate_. Simo may, therefore, be understood to say, that he pays him back the ruffling he received. But, for this conceit, Simo would have said, Commovebo, which is Davus’s own word: the sense would then have been clearer, though Terence has the same expression in another scene in this play,

Quos me ludos redderet,

where _reddo_ has the same meaning with facio: which is frequently used by Plautus, as “_ludos facere_.”

NOTE 197.

_Can he be so weak? so totally regardless of the customs
and laws of his country?_

The Athenian laws prohibited a citizen from marrying with a woman who was not a citizen, _vide_ Note 181. A law was passed by Pericles, that the children of a marriage in which both parties were not citizens, should be considered as νοθοι, illegitimate. Pericles himself violated this law, when he had lost all his legitimate children.

As this is one of the most lively and interesting, so it is also one of the most instructive scenes of this comedy. How noble are the sentiments! How engaging the mutual affection of the father and son, which, in spite of their disagreement, is visible in all they say to each other. How amiable are the efforts of Chremes to soften the anger of the justly-offended Simo! He forgets his own disappointment, and the slight his daughter Philumena had received from Pamphilus, and endeavours to reconcile him to his father. It is impossible to read this beautiful scene, without being both affected and improved by the perusal of it.

NOTE 198.

_Persons are suborned hither too, who say that she is a citizen of
Athens. You have conquered._

The subornation of false witness was punished in Athens with the greatest severity. Both the suborner and the perjured were subject to the same punishment. Upon a third conviction, the offender was branded with infamy, and forfeited his estate. The Athenians, in general, were so celebrated for their love of truth, that the words _an Attic witness_ were used proverbially to designate a witness, whose truth and honour were proof against corruption.

NOTE 199.

_If you insist on your marriage with Philumena, and compel me to
subdue my love for Glycera, I will endeavour to comply._

This speech is exceedingly artificial. Pamphilus, _in the hearing of Chremes, the father of his intended wife_, confesses his love for another; and owns, that it must cost him a severe struggle to conquer his affection for her, and resolve to wed Philumena. The knowledge of this was sufficient to deter Chremes from giving his daughter to Pamphilus.

NOTE 200.

_I implore only, that you will cease to accuse me of suborning
hither this old man. Suffer me to bring him before you, that I
may clear myself from this degrading suspicion._

“Pamphilus had all the reason in the world to endeavour to bring Simo and Crito together, that so he might clear himself of such a scandal as his father very reasonably imputed to him. And this was all the young gentleman’s design, but the poet had a far greater, which the audience could not so much as suspect: namely, the discovery of Glycerie, which comes in very naturally.”――ECHARD.

NOTE 201.

_Chremes.――Simo, if you knew this stranger as well as I do, you
would think better of him; he is a worthy man._

M. Baron in this and the following scenes gives almost a literal translation from Terence: and the Andrienne concludes exactly in the same manner with the Latin play; excepting the affranchisement of Davus, with which M. Baron makes Pamphilus reward his faithful services.

In the Conscious Lovers, Sir R. Steele changes Crito into Isabella, the aunt of Indiana, whose real birth is discovered by Sealand’s making her a visit, to inquire into the nature of her connexion with young Bevil: the discovery is made by Sealand himself, who recognizes one of the ornaments worn by his daughter. He gives Indiana willingly to her preserver Bevil, jun., and Lucinda, who was intended to be the wife of Bevil, was, upon his marriage with her sister Indiana, given to Myrtle, the lover whom she herself had always favoured.

NOTE 202.

_Simo.――A sycophant._

The word sycophant was an epithet of peculiar opprobrium at Athens, and of very singular derivation. In a season of great scarcity, a law was passed at Athens, prohibiting the exportation of figs; and afterwards, through neglect, remained unrepealed. Hence, those malicious men who informed against those who transgressed it, were called συκοφάνται, and this appellation was afterwards always applied to false witnesses, and busy and malicious informers.

NOTE 203.

_Crito.――Chrysis’ father, who received him, was my relation, and,
at his house, I’ve heard that shipwrecked stranger say, that he
was an Athenian: he died in Andros._

――――Tum is mihi cognatus fuit,
Qui eum _recepit_: ibi ego audivi ex illo sese esse Atticum:
Is ibi mortuus est.

The word _recepit_, in this sentence, alludes to the Roman customs respecting foreigners. Crito had just before used the term _applicat_, _he applied for assistance_. When an exile or foreigner arrived at Rome, he was said _applicare_, _to apply_ to some person to become his patron; as every stranger at Rome was compelled to obtain the protection of one of the citizens, who succeeded to his effects at his death: jure applicationis. When a Roman citizen agreed to accept of a foreigner as his client, he was said _recipere_, to receive him.

NOTE 204.

_Crito.――At least I think it was Phania: one thing I am sure of, he
said he was from Rhamnus._

Rhamnus was a small town in the north of Attica, and only a few miles to the north-west of Marathon. It seems to have been famous for little but a magnificent temple of Nemesis, and an exquisite statue of that goddess, sculptured by Phidias; hence she was sometimes called Rhamnusia, thus by Ovid,

――――Assensit precibus Rhamnusia justis.
_Metam._, B. 3. L. 406.

Rhamnusia heard the lover’s just request.

We must not understand Crito to mean, that Phania was a Rhamnusian, because we know that he and Chremes both resided in the city of Athens. Phania probably was prevented, by the confusion of the war, from obtaining a vessel at the Piræus, or either of the Athenian ports; and therefore returned to Rhamnus, and embarked for the opposite coast of Attica. Phania might, therefore, call himself Rhamnusius from Rhamnus, as being bound from Rhamnus to Smyrna, or any other Asian port. Some, instead of Rhamnus and Rhamnusius, read Rhamus and Rhamusius.

NOTE 205.

_Crito.――The very name._

_Chremes.――You are right._

_Crito.――Ipsa est. Chremes.――Ea est._ Terence has shewn his usual art in the arrangement of these two speeches. Upon hearing the true name, one would have expected that the father would have been the first to recognize it, but he prudently delays until Crito confirms the truth of his testimony by agreeing to the name of the long-lost Pasibula. This is finely imagined by the author, as Chremes might very well be supposed to suspect that this discovery was a trick of Davus’, (who might have heard of the loss of this infant daughter,) and taken Crito for an accomplice in the conceived imposture. Chremes, therefore, waited to know whether Crito recognised the name of Pasibula, which, if the story had been false, must have been unknown to him: for the high character of Pamphilus placed him beyond the reach of suspicion.

NOTE 206.

_Simo.――Chremes, I hope you are convinced how sincerely
we all rejoice at this discovery._

――――S. _Omnes_ nos gaudere hoc, Chreme,
Te credo credere.

In many of the old editions of our author, this passage is written _omneis_ nos gaudere; this variation has a reference to the measure of the verse. I have seen one edition in which the line is written _omnis_ nos gaudere.

NOTE 207.

_Pam.――Oh! that is certain._

_Simo.――I consent most joyfully._

P. Nempe.

S. Scilicet.

Some commentators interpret these words from Pamphilus and Simo, (Nempe and Scilicet,) as a hint to Chremes, respecting the dowry which they expected to receive with Glycera; and think that the actor who personates Simo ought to produce a bag of money, that he may “_suit the action to the word_.” An ingenious critic, speaking of this vague and fanciful conjecture, observes, as follows: “This, surely, is a precious refinement, worthy the genius of a true commentator. Madame Dacier, who entertains a just veneration for Donatus, doubts the authenticity of the observation, which is ascribed to him.” Certainly, if either of the words could be wrested to such a meaning, it must be _Nempe_, but Terence has represented Pamphilus as a character, so noble, generous, and high-spirited, that we cannot consistently suppose that he would suffer any mercenary considerations to delay for a single moment his acceptance of his beloved Glycera, when offered to him by her father.

NOTE 208.

_Chremes.――Pamphilus, my daughter’s portion is ten
talents._

A TABLE OF THE MONEY CURRENT IN GREECE.

equal to worth (_sterling_)
£. _s._ _d._ _qrs._

Lepton 0 0 0 0¹¹⁄₁₁₂
Chalcus 7 Lepta 0 0 0 0¹¹⁄₁₆
Dichalcus 2 Chalci 0 0 0 1⅜
Hemiobolus 2 Dichalci 0 0 0 2¾
Obolus 2 Hemioboli 0 0 1 1½
Diobolus 2 Oboli 0 0 2 3
Triobolus 3 Oboli 0 0 4 0½
Hemidrachm 3 Oboli 0 0 4 0½
Tetrobolus 4 Oboli 0 0 5 2
Pentobolus 5 Oboli 0 0 6 3½
Drachm 6 Oboli 0 0 8
Didrachm 2 Drachms 0 1 4 2
Tetradrachm 4 Drachms 0 2 9 0
Stater of silver 4 Drachms 0 2 9 0
Pentadrachm 5 Drachms 0 3 5 1
Stater of gold 25 Drachms 0 17 2 1
Stater of Philip 28 Drachms 0 19 3 0
Stater of Alexander 28 Drachms 0 19 3 0
Stater of Cyzicus 28 Drachms 0 19 3 0
Stater of Darius 48 Drachms 1 13 0 0
Stater of Crœsus 48 Drachms 1 13 0 0
Homerical talent 75 Drachms 2 11 6 3
Mina 100 Drachms 3 8 9 0
The smaller Ptolemaic
talent 20 Minæ 68 15 0 0
The smaller Antiochan
talent 60 Minæ 206 5 0 0
The Attic talent 60 Minæ 206 5 0 0
The smaller Euboic
talent 60 Minæ 206 5 0 0
The great Attic talent 80 Minæ 275 0 0 0
The great Ptolemaic
talent of Cleopatra 86⅔ Minæ 297 18 4 0
The Eginean talent 100 Minæ 343 15 0 0
The Rhodian talent 100 Minæ 343 15 0 0
The insular talent 120 Minæ 412 10 0 0
The great Antiochan
talent 360 Minæ 1237 10 0 0

Those who wish for complete information respecting the ancient and modern _real money, and money of account_, may be fully satisfied by consulting the following writers on the subject.

Augustinus, Arbuthnot, Budæus, Boisard, Bircherod, Bonneville, Bouteroue, Camden, Du Bost, De Asse, Folkes, Fleetwood, Goltzius, Guthrie, Gerhart, Greaves, Hardouin, Joubert, Krause, Kelly, Lowndes, Le Blanc, Locke, Lord Liverpool, Marien, Morel, Mezzabarba, Norris, Occo, Oiselius, Patin, Pinkerton, Ricard, Richebourg, Raper, Simon, Snelling, Souciet, Seguin, Sirmond, Spanheim, Smith, Tristran, Ursinus, Vicus, Vaillant.

NOTE 209.

_Simo.――Why do you not immediately give orders for
her removal to our house?_

Grecian women, in the situation in which Glycera is represented to have been, were usually well enough to go abroad in a litter in one day’s time. This topic is introduced by the poet, in order that Davus may be spoken of, and delivered from confinement; because his remaining in prison would have been contrary to the rules of comedy.

NOTE 210.

_Simo.――Because he is now carrying on things of great
weight, and which touch him more nearly._

――――Quia habet aliud _magis_ ex sese et _majus_.

There is a pun in the original, which I have attempted to preserve in the translation by a circumlocution which I trust on such an occasion will be deemed allowable. The critics remark, that Terence, by Simo’s pleasantry, (_vide Note 211_,) intended to shew that he was thoroughly reconciled to his son. (_Vide Note 92._)

NOTE 211.

_Simo.――He is chained._

_Pam.――Ah! dear Sir, that was not_ well done.

_Simo.――I am sure I ordered it to be_ well done.

S. Vinctus est.

P. Pater non _rectè_ vinctus est.

S. _Haud ita jussi._

The jest in this sentence turns on the word _rectè_, which refers to an Athenian custom of binding criminals’ hands and feet together. Simo (A. 5. S. 3. _p._ 86.) orders Dromo to bind Davus in the manner before mentioned: (_atque audin’? quadrupedem constringito_.) Pamphilus says, non _rectè_ vinctus est: _rectè_ has a double meaning, it signifies _rightly_, and also _straight_. Simo pretends to take it in the latter sense, which makes his son’s speech run thus, _He is not bound straight or upright_: to which Simo replies, _I ordered he should not be bound straight, but crooked_, or neck and heels. I trust I have made the force of this pun clear to the unlearned reader: the turn given it in the English translation is borrowed from Echard.

NOTE 212.

_Pam. (to himself.)――Any one would think, perhaps, that I do not
believe this to be true, but I know it is because I wish it so.
I am of opinion, that the lives of the gods are eternal, because
their pleasures are secure and without end._

“Epicurus observed, that the gods could not but be immortal, since they are exempt from all kinds of evils, cares, and dangers. But Terence gives another more refined reason, which more forcibly expresses the joy of Pamphilus; for he affirms that their immortality springs only from the durability of their pleasures. This passage is very beautiful. Pamphilus prefaces what he is going to say by the expression, “_Any one would think, perhaps_;” this was in a manner necessary to excuse the freedom which, arising from his joy, makes him assign another reason for the immortality of the gods than those discovered by the philosophers, particularly by Epicurus, whose name was still fresh in the recollection of every person, and whose doctrines were very generally received and adopted.” MADAME DACIER.

NOTE 213.

_Pam.――There is now no impediment to our marriage._

Nec mora ulla est, quin jam uxorem ducam.

Pamphilus does not mean by this expression, that he was not married before, but that now that he has his father’s consent to his union, he can ducere uxorem, _lead his wife_ publicly to his own house with the usual ceremonies. The latter phrase _ducere uxorem_, _to marry_, took its rise from the custom of leading the bride from her father’s to her husband’s house, in a ceremonial procession. For an account of the marriages of the Greeks, _vide_ Notes 116, 117, 118. Marriages, among the Romans, were of three kinds. The first, and most binding, by which women of rank and consideration were married, was called _confarreatio_: when the parties were joined by the high priest, in the presence of a great number of witnesses; and ate a cake made of meal and salt. The second kind of marriage was _usus_, when the parties lived together for one year. The third kind was called _coemptio_ or mutual purchase, in which the bride and bridegroom gave each other a piece of money, and repeated over a set form of words.

NOTE 214.

_Char. (aside.)――This man is dreaming of what he
wishes when awake._

――――Num ille somniat
Ea, quæ vigilans voluit.

The optative influence, (if I may so call it,) on the visions of the night, here alluded to by Terence, has been described at length by a celebrated poet, in verses which charm the ear with their melody, and which command the approbation of the judgment as a faithful portraiture of nature. Their author wrote verses, which, in _harmony of measure_, excelled those of all the Roman poets, excepting _Ovid_.

Omnia quæ sensu volvuntur vota diurno,
Pectore sopito, reddit amica quies:
Venator defessa toro cum membra reponit.
Mens tamen ad sylvas, et sua lustra redit.
Judicibus lites, aurige somnia currus,
Vanaque nocturnis meta cavetur equis.
Furto gaudet amans; permutat navita merces;
Et vigil elapsas quærit avarus opes.
Vatem Musarum studium sub nocte silenti
Artibus assuetis solicitare solet.――CLAUDIAN.

NOTE 215.

_Do you, Davus, go home, and order some of our people hither, to
remove her to our house. Why do you loiter? go, don’t lose a
moment._

_Davus.――I am going. You must not expect their coming out: she will
be betrothed within_, &c.

The concluding lines of the play from “_You must not expect_,” &c., were not originally spoken by the actor who personated Davus, but formed a sort of epilogue, spoken by a performer, called Cantor; who also pronounced the word PLAUDITE, with which the _comedies_ and tragedies of the Romans usually terminated. _Vide Note 217, also Quintilian_, B. 6. C. 1., _and Cicero and Cato_. Horace expressly tells us, that the Cantor said the words, vos plaudite.

“Tu quid ego, et populus mecum desideret audi.
Si plausoris eges aulæa manentis, et usque
Sessuri, DONEC CANTOR VOS PLAUDITE DICAT;
Ætatis cujusque notandi sunt tibi mores,
Mobilibusque decor naturis dandus et annis.”
_Art of Poet._, L. 153.

Attend, whilst I instruct thee how to please
Him whose experience guides thee; and the taste
That rules the present age. If thou wouldst charm
Our listening ears, until the scene be done;
And in our seats _detain us till the Cantor
Requests applause_; give to each stage of life,
Its attributes: and justly paint the changes,
Wrought by the hand of Time.

NOTE 216.

_You must not expect their coming out._

Some editors give nearly twenty lines of dialogue between Chremes and Charinus respecting the marriage of the latter with Philumena, but those additional lines are spurious. The critics have decided that the play should terminate with the winding up of Pamphilus’s intrigue, and that that of Charinus should be left to the imagination: as the action must languish, if continued after the interest felt for the principal characters has subsided. Davus here addresses the spectators, as does Mysis, in A. 1. S. 4. Commentators deem this a blemish in the composition of the piece. These addresses, in ancient comedies, were not, I imagine, made to the spectators in general, but to those persons who stood on the stage during the performance, as the chorus, or as musicians.

NOTE 217.

_Farewell, and clap your hands._

“All the ancient copies have the Greek omega, Ω, placed before the words, ‘_clap your hands_,’ and before ‘_Farewell, and clap your hands_,’ in other plays: ‘which,’ says Eugraphius, ‘are the words of the prompter, who, at the end of the play, lifted up the curtain, and said to the audience, ‘_Farewell, and clap your hands_:’ thus far Faernus. Leng, at the end of every play, subscribes these words, Calliopius recensui, and says Calliopius was the prompter; and he quotes the same words of Eugraphius, which I have here quoted from Faernus. If Ω stands for any thing more than ‘_Finis_,’ (as some imagine to be placed there by transcribers to signify the end,) it may be designed for the first letter Ωδος, which is the Greek for Cantor: and Horace, in his art of poetry, says,

Donec cantor vos plaudite dicat.

“Bentley supposes this Cantor to have been Flaccus the musician, (_mentioned in the title_,) who, when the play was over, entreated the favour of the audience: but I should rather think Calliopius to have been the Cantor, if there was any foundation in antiquity for his name being at the end of the plays; but the name seems fictitious to me by the etymology thereof, and it being used in this place. It is indeed at the end of every play, in all the _three manuscripts in Dr. Mead’s_ collection except Phormio, which is the last play in the prosaic copy; and the only reason for Calliopius recensui not being there, is, doubtless, because the play is imperfect, some few verses being out at the conclusion; ω precedes the farewell in one of the doctor’s copies, ο in another, and the largest copy has neither. What is independent of the action of the play, as the last two lines are, may be looked upon as an epilogue, and was probably spoken by the same person, whether _player_, _prompter_, or _cantor_.”――COOKE.

NOTE 218.

_End of the fifth Act._

At the end of a play, the Romans closed their scenes, which, instead of falling from the roof of the theatre downwards, as among the moderns, were constructed something similarly to the blinds of a carriage; so that when the stage was to be exposed to the view of the spectators, the scene or curtain was let down, and when the piece was concluded, it was drawn up again. The ancients originally performed their plays in the open air, with no scenery but that furnished by nature. As they became more refined, they erected theatres, and introduced scenes, which they divided into three kinds: 1. tragic, 2. comic, 3. pastoral. Some very valuable information on this subject may be gathered from M. Perrault’s Notes on Vitruvius, who has described the various sorts of ancient scenes. Ovid, in the following verses, describes the original simplicity of the Roman dramatic entertainments:

“Tunc neque marmoreo pendebant vela theatro,
Nec fuerant liquido pulpita rubra croco.
Illic quas tulerant nemorosa palatia frondes
Simpliciter positæ SCENA sine arte fuit.”

FINIS.

LONDON:
Printed by W. CLOWES, Northumberland-court.

Transcriber’s Note:

Words may have multiple spelling variations or inconsistent hyphenation in the text. These have been left unchanged unless indicated below. Obsolete and alternative spellings were left unchanged.

Words and phrases in italics are surrounded by underscores, _like this_. Note 108 has two footnotes that were lettered sequentially and were moved to the end of the Note. Missing anchor was added to Note 50. Obvious printing errors, such as backwards, upside down, reverse order, or partially printed letters and punctuation, were corrected. Final stops missing at the end of sentences and abbreviations were added. Duplicate letters at line endings or page breaks were removed. Punctuation and accent marks were normalized.

The following items were changed:
“his“ to “this,“ line 148
“praisng” changed to “praising,” line 2856
“thing” added to text where not legible in the original, Note 114