Prefaces to Terence's Comedies and Plautus's Comedies (1694)

Pyr. By Hercules, ’twas nothing.

Art. No, faith, Sir, nothing at all to what I can relate, – [Aside] but the Devil a bit of Truth’s in’t. If any Man can shew me a greater Lyer, or a more bragging Coxcomb than this Blunderbuss, he shall take me, make me his Slave, and starve me with Whey and Butter-milk – Well, Sir?

Pyr. Where are you?

Art. Here, Sir: – Wonderful! how you broke the great Indian Elephants Arm with your single Fist?

Pyr. What Arm?

Art. I wou’d ha’ said Thigh.

Pyr. Pshaw, I did that with ease.

Art. By Jove, Sir, had you us’d your full Strength, you’d ha’ flead, gutted, and bon’d the huge Beast at once.

Pyr. I wou’d not ha’ ye relate all my Acts at this time.

Art. Really, Sir, ’tis impossible to innumerate all your noble Acts that I have been Spectator of. – [Aside.] ’Tis this Belly of mine creates me all this Plagues. My Ears must bear this Burden, for fear my Teeth shou’d want Work; and to every Lye he tells, I must swear to.

Pyr. What was I going to say? —

Art. O, Sir, I know your meaning. – ’Twas a noble Exploit; I remember’t very well.

Pyr. What was’t?

Art. Whatever you perform’d, was so.

Pyr. Ha’ ye a Table-Book here?

Art. D’ye want one, Sir? – Here’s a Pencil too.

Pyr. Thou’st ingeniously accommodated thy Sentiments to mine.

Art. O, ’tis my Duty to adapt my Manners to your Nod, and always keep ’em within the compass of your Commands.

Pyr. Well, how many can you remember?

Art. I remember a hundred and fifty Cilicians, a hundred Sycolatronideans, thirty Sardeans, and threescore Macedonians, you slew in one day.

Pyr. And how many are there in all?

Art. Seven thousand.

Pyr. That’s right. You’re an excellent Arithmetician.

Art. I have ’em in capite, tho’ not in black and white.

Pyr. Truly, a prodigious Memory!

Art. That’s owing to your Table.

Pyr. As long as you proclaim my Honour, you shall never want eating: my Table shall be always free to receive ye.

Art. Then in Cappadocia, Sir, where you wou’d ha’ certainly cut off five hundred Men, had not your Sword been a little blunt; and those but the Relicts of the Infantry you had just defeated, – [Aside] if there were any such in being. – But why shou’d I mention these things, when the whole World knows how much the mighty Pyrgopolinices excels the rest of Mortals in Valour, Beauty, and Renown’d Exploits. All the Ladies in Town are ready to run mad for ye; troth, and all the reason i’the World for’t, since you’ve so charming a Countenance. As yesterday, some of ’em catch’d me by the Cloak, and —

Pyr. Prithee, what did they say o’ me? Smiling.

Art. They fell to questioning: Prithee, says one, is n’t this the stout Achillis? His Brother indeed, quoth I. Let me dye, says another, if he be n’t a wonderful handsome Man, how nobly he looks, and how gracefully he wears his Hair! What a prodigious Happiness ’tis to be his Bed-fellow!

Pyr. Said she so, i’ faith? Laughing.

Art. And more than that, begg’d of me, for God’s sake, to get ye to pass that way, that they might see how triumphantly you march’d along.

Pyr. This same extraordinary Beauty brings a Man to extraordinary Inconveniencies.

Art. Well, strangely importunate they were, they nothing but begg’d, pray’d, and conjur’d me to bless ’em with a sight of ye; nay, they sent for me so often, that I was sometimes forc’d to neglect your Business.

Pyr. I think ’tis high time to be marching to the Piazza, and pay off the Soldiers I listed yesterday; for the King was very earnest with me to do him the favour of raising him some new Levies. This day have I appointed to pay him a Visit.

Art. Let’s be marching then.

Pyr. Guards, follow your Leader.

Exeunt omnes

I need not make many Reflections upon this Scene; but for the clearer perceiving of it, let us bring it to the Touch-stone of Nature, that is, compare it with Terence, and shew how modestly he has manag’d the same Subject and Characters, to wit, his Thraso and Gnatho, in the beginning of the third Act of his Eunuch.

Thraso and Gnatho

Thra. Was the Lady so extremely thankful?

Gna. O, vastly, Sir.

Thra. And wonderfully pleas’d, say ye?

Gna. Really, Sir, not so much for the present as the honorable Person who bestow’d it; and for that, Sir, she triumphs above measure.

Thra. Truly, ’tis my peculiar Fortune, to have every thing I do most gratefully receiv’d.

Gna. Faith, Sir, I’ve observ’d as much.

Thra. Why the King of Persia, whenever I did him a Kindness, was extremely sensible of it: He was n’t so to others.

Gna. A smart Tongue so well hung as yours, Sir, can obtain that Glory with Ease which cost others so much Toil and Labour.

Thra. Right.

Gna. The Monarch has you in his Eye then?

Thra. Right again.

Gna. And wears you next his heart?

Thra. Very true: And trusts all his Army and Secrets to my Discretion.

Gna. Prodigious!

Thra. Then if he happen’d to be tir’d with Company, or fateagu’d with Business, and was desirous of Ease, – as tho’, – you know what I mean.

Gna. Yes, Sir: – As tho, when he had a mind to clear his Stomach, as a Man may say, of all Concerns, —

Thra. Right: Then was I his only Companion hand to fist.

Gna. Ay marry Sir! This is a Monarch indeed.

Thra. Oh! he’s a Man of a thousand.

Gna. Yes, one of a million, if he chose you for his Companion.

Thra. All the Officers envy’d me, and grumbl’d at me behind my back; but I valued it not: They envy’d me intolerably: But above all, one who had the Charge o’ the vast Indian Elephants. One day, this Fellow being more turbulent than the rest, I snap’d him up; Prithee Strato, said I, why art thou so fierce? Is’t because you’re Lord o’ the wild beasts?

Gna. Neatly said, as I hope to live; and shrewdly. Bless me! you overthrow Man and Beast. – What said he, Sir?

Thra. Not a word.

Gna. Nay, I can’t tell how he shou’d.

Thra. But, Gnatho, did I never tell you how sharp I was upon a young Rhodian Spark at a Feast?

Gna. Never, Sir; let’s hear’t, by all means. – He has told it me a thousand times. Aside.

Thra. Why this Rhodian Spark I told ye of, was with me at a Feast, where I happen’d to have a small Girl: This Stripling began to be sweet upon her, and waggish upon me too. How now, you impudent Saucebox, said I; you’re Man’s meat your self, and yet have a mind to a Tid-bit.

Gna. Ha, ha, he.

Thra. What’s the matter, hah?

Gna. Very fine, sharp, and delicate; that cou’d not be mended. But pray, Sir, was this your own? I took it for an old Jest.

Thra. Did you ever hear’t before?

Gna. Often, Sir; and it takes to a miracle.

Thra. They’re oblig’d to me for’t.

Gna. I’m sorry tho’, you were so sharp upon the foolish young Gentleman. But pray, Sir, what did he say then?

Thra. He was quite dash’d out of Countenance; and the whole Company ready to dye with laughing. After that, every body stood in great awe of me.

Gna. And truly they had reason.

Here may be seen Bragging and Wheadling sufficiently, but still Nature closely observ’d, and all its due proportions; whereas the other has too much out-gone Probability, and strain’d his Characters to an extravagant pitch. I shall not criticise upon the Particulars, but leave the Reader to judge their Differences; but only I may observe, that when Characters are carry’d too high, as many of ours are, they may probably make an Audience laugh very heartily, but can give ’em but small Pleasure; whereas others will give ’em great Delight, tho’ less Laughter.

I am afraid I have dwelt too long upon this Subject, therefore I pass on to our Author’s Plots. In that respect, he had not often that Art and Management that Terence had, nor in all his Plays was so regular as he; tho’ in several he was, particularly in those I have chosen. But then his Scenes were commonly less languishing, his Incidents more surprizing, and his Surprizes more admirable; undoubtedly he had more of the Vis comica, which I may translate Liveliness of Intreague, than Terence. His Subjects were all more Simple than the other’s, but I am apt to believe, that will be reckon’d but a very small Commendation in our Nation, who are but little Lovers of such thin Dyet, as they call it. His Narrations are more lively and sharp than those of Terence’s, and, I think, every whit as natural and as well brought in: I’m sure in some of ’em he can never be out-done as to his way of bringing of ’em in. As for the General Rules of the Stage, I refer the Reader to the Preface to Terence.

Our Author’s principal Fault was, his mixing the Representation with the Theatral Action in many places, where he often makes his Actors speak immediately and directly to the Spectators; a Fault that Terence was not wholly free from. This our modern Plays, I think, are never guilty of; only in our Monologues and Asides, our Actors have got a custom of looking so full upon the Spectators, that it seems but one degree better. But our Author is not guilty of this in these three Plays, except in Amphitryon, and that by way of Prologue, or of any other Faults but what, I believe, I have shewn in my Remarks. And these that I have here chosen, are no ways inferior to Terence’s in matters of Plot and Intreague, but in some respects superior, tho’ not so elaborately wrought up, or always with that Niceness; so that these may undoubtedly prove excellent Models for our Poets Imitation, provided they observe Differences of Tastes, Humours, Ages, and Persons, and keep to those principal Beauties they already possess, some of which are undoubtedly above the Ancients. Only Terence will teach ’em one thing that Plautus does not, to wit, the great Cunning of working in Under-Plots, and still preserving the Unity of Action; for Plautus has none of them. As for the Necessity of Rules, the Objections against ’em, and the wonderful Perfection our Plays might arrive to by a more close Observance of ’em, I must once more refer my Reader to the Preface to Terence. It was principally upon the Poets Account, and for all such as are desirous of understanding and judging the Excellencies of Dramatick Poetry, that I translated these Plays. If it be objected, that the Poets, Criticks, and Lovers, as well as Judges of Dramatick Poetry, do most of ’em understand the Original; I must deny the Truth of it, tho’ several of ’em do: But if they did, these will be much more proper for their Design, especially by means of the Notes and Remarks; and the Reasons I urg’d for the translation of Terence, bear a greater force in this Author, for here is a greater Obscurity, by reason of corrupted Copies, wrong Points, false Divisions of whole Acts as well as Scenes, besides a greater number of knotty and obscure Passages, than in Terence.

Tho’ this was my principal, it was not my only Design of translating this Author, for I had all the way an Eye to School boys, and Learners of the Latin Tongue: Therefore, upon that account, I have not only kept perfectly close to his Sence, but almost always to his Words too; a thing not only extream difficult in an Author so frequently verbose, but oftentimes dangerous too: And for an Instance, I need not go any further than the very first Sentence of the Prologue to Amphitryon, which if I had made shorter, I cou’d have made better. I can’t forbear mentioning a Passage in the third Act of the same Play, which just now comes to my remembrance:

Nam certo si sis sanus, aut sapias satis,Quam tu impudicam esse arbitrare, & prædicas,Cum ea tu sermonem nec joco, nec serioTibi habeas, nisi sis stultior stultissimo.

Which I have translated, perhaps, too closely thus; I’m sure, had ye either Wit, or Discretion, or weren’t the greatest Fool in Nature, you’d ne’er hold Discourse, either in Mirth or Earnest, with the Woman you believe and declare a Strumpet. I’m confident many other Translators wou’d not have been so scrupulously nice, but have made shorter work of it. But I have not only been so scrupulous in this Case, but I have likewise imitated all his Faults and Imperfections, whenever I cou’d do it without extream Injury to the Translation; I speak of his Puns, Quibbles, Rhimes, Gingles, and his several ways of playing upon words; which indeed were the Faults of his Age, as it was of ours in Shakespear’s and Johnson’s days, and of which Terence, as correct as he is, is not perfectly clear. Our Author’s playing upon words are of that various nature, and so frequent too, I need not go far for a single Instance, which shall be in the fore part of the Prologue to Amphitryon:

Justam rem & facilem esse oratum à vobis volo.Nam juste ab justis sum orator datus.Nam injusta ab justis impetrare non decet:Justa autem ab injustis petere, insipientia ’st:Quippe illi iniqui jus ignorant, neque tenent.

Which I have translated thus: I desire nothing but what’s reasonable, and feasible; for ’tis a reasonable God requires Reason from a reasonable People; but to require Roguery from reasonable People, is base; and to expect Reason from Rascals, is nonsence; since such People neither know Reason nor observe it. Our Author’s Wit did many times consist in his playing upon Words; a great pity indeed, for a person who was so well able to writ after a more substantial way, of which we have many remarkable Instances. Besides his Quibbling, partly from his Carelesness and Necessities, he hath sometimes a vein of Trifling, which was but very indifferent; and on those places the Reader must make some allowance for the translation, and not expect more than the Matter will well bear. As for our Author’s Jests and Repartees, for what we know of ’em, I took a particular care in preserving their Force; and for the most part, I presume, I have done it in a great measure, sometimes by a lucky hit; or a peculiar happiness of our Tongue, other times by a little Liberty taken, and when all have fail’d, the Remarks have generally supply’d the Defect, a way I was forc’d to content my self withal in many places; the worse they were, they were frequently more difficult to preserve, therefore I thought it as well to slur over some few of the meaner sort. Several of his Jests and bits of Satyr are undoubtedly lost to us, not only in respect of our Language, but also our Knowledge, and this sometimes makes his Sence a little obscure. And as the Sence of an Author ought to be his Translator’s chiefest Care, so it has been mine; and tho’ I cannot affirm, that I have kept to it in every passage, yet I believe I have often done it where a common Reader will think I have not; and I think it no commendation to my self to say I have hit it on many places where the Common Interpreters have missed.

After all, I dare not pretend to say, that this Translation equals the Original, for there is such a peculiar Air in this Author as well as Terence, that our Tongue seems uncapable of, or at least it does so to me. Yet still if ’twere always read with the Original, it wou’d make far more for me than otherwise. In short, the Reader ought to look upon this as a Translation of an Author who had several Faults, and such places, as the English must of necessity appear mean, being little better in the Original; and likewise as an Author of Antiquity, some of whose Customs and Manners will appear a little uncouth and unsightly, in spight of all a Translator’s Care. I endeavour’d to be as like my Author as I cou’d, especially in that which I reckon his distinguishing Character, to wit, the natural and unaffected easiness of his Stile, and as this seems the most capable of imitation, so I believe I have been more successful in this Particular than in any other: and that is the main Reason I have had so many Abbreviations, to make it appear still more like common Discourse, and the usual way of speaking. Perhaps I may be thought to have been too bold in that point, because I have had some that are not usual in Prose; therefore I don’t set this way as a Copy for any one to follow me in, nor shall I use it myself in any other Piece. I have all the way divided the Acts and Scenes according to the true Rules of the Stage, which are extreamly false in all the Editions of this Author, especially the Scenes.

To make this Translation the most useful that I cou’d, I have made Remarks upon each Play, and those are of two sorts, tho’ equally intermix’d: The first, to shew the Author’s chief Excellencies as to his Contrivance and Management of his Plots and Incidents; the second, to discover several Beauties of Stile and Wit, principally such as are not very clear, or cannot well be preserv’d in our Tongue; and those are likewise to vindicate my Translation. Several of these I must own my self oblig’d to Madam Dacier for, or at least the hint, tho’ some of ’em I cou’d not have miss’d of in the prosecution of those Designs I aim’d at. I have borrow’d little or nothing from any other, for her’s are far the best Notes I ever met with, tho’ many of ’em were done more to shew her Parts and Reading than for any real use, a thing which I shall never aim at. I have been forc’d in most of ’em to be extream nice and curious in penetrating into the bottom of the Author, for I find it far more difficult to discover a Beauty than a Fault. I might have enlarg’d upon ’em, and have made several more, with good grounds, but I thought it dangerous to say all that cou’d be said; but instead of that I was forc’d, much against my will, to dash out several of those upon Amphitryon upon the account of the Printer, but the rest are more full and compleat.

If business wou’d have permitted me, I shou’d have ventur’d upon three more of our Authors Plays; and upon that Account, I have taken somewhat less time than was necessary for the translating such an extraordinary difficult Author; for this requires more than double the time of a Historian or the like, which was as much as I cou’d allow my self. I made choice of these three Plays as well for their Modesty as Regularity, for above all things I wou’d by no means give the least Encouragement to Lewdness or Obscenity, which grow too fast of themselves; and therefore I thought I cou’d not chuse better than after a Lady. Amphitryon had the Name, and never fail’d of a general Approbation; Epidicus was our Author’s Favourite, and truly there is much Art in it, tho’ it is a little heavy; and Rudens is in several respects a better Play than any of Plautus’s or Terence’s. I’m afraid Amphitryon will bear the worse in our Tongue, upon the Account of Mr. Dryden’s, whose Improvements are very extraordinary; but considering Mr. Dryden’s Management is of such a different Nature, this will still be as useful and as proper for my Design, or at least to School-boys and Learners. I must do that great Man the Justice in saying, that he has not only much improved the Humour, Wit, and Design in many places, but likewise the Thoughts. I’ll mention one, which just now comes into my mind. Alcmena in the Second Act complains thus: How poor and short are this Life’s Pleasures, if once compar’d with the Sorrows we endure? ’Tis Man’s Destiny, and Heaven’s Pleasure, to mix our Joys with bitter Potions; and for some few Hours of Satisfaction, we meet with Ages of Ills and Troubles. Mr. Dryden, by the help of Blank Verse, and a little more room, has better’d it extreamly.

Ye niggard Gods! you make our Lives too long:You fill ’em with Diseases, Wants, and Woes,And only dash ’em with a little Love;Sprinkled by Fits, and with a sparing Hand.Count all our Joys, from Childhood ev’n to Age,They wou’d but make a Day of ev’ry Year:

And to carry it on further yet, and to make it appear more fine and clear, he says,

Take back your Sev’nty Years, (the stint of Life)Or else be kind, and cram the QuintessenceOf Sev’nty Years into sweet Sev’nty Days:For all the rest is flat, insipid Being.

I mention this the rather, because it may serve for one Instance of what Improvements our Modern Poets have made on the Ancients, when they built upon their Foundations. For we find that many of the fine things of the Ancients are like Seeds, that, when planted on English Ground by a Skilful Poet’s Hand, thrive, and produce excellent Fruit.

But I’m afraid this Preface has been too long and tedious for this small Piece; but the Press stays, and the hast I’m in will not permit me to make it shorter, or so much as review it; yet before I conclude, I must inform the Reader, that I had the Advantage of another’s doing their Plays before me; from whose Translation I had very considerable Helps, especially in the Jests and Quibbles.

1

The Comedies of Terence: Echard’s Translations Edited with a Foreword by Robert Graves (London, 1963), pp. viii-ix. Graves (p. ix) says that Echard’s translation of Terence was made in 1689, when he was only nineteen. I have been unable to find any evidence in support of this statement.

2

No copy of the Duke of Savoy’s Dominions appears to be extant. It is not recorded in Wing, but appears in The Term Catalogues, 1688-1709., ed. Edward Arber (1903-1906), II, 380. This must have been much smaller than Echard’s other publications in this year: it cost only 3d. against the first two’s 1s. 6d.

3

A General Ecclesiastical History.. (London, 1702), sig. b1.

4

The Letters of Joseph Addison, ed. Walter Graham (Oxford, 1941), p. 504.

5

Recently republished with an introduction by Peter Ure as No. XIV (1958) in the University of Liverpool Reprints.

6

“Dryden, Tonson, and Subscriptions for the 1697 Virgil,” PBSA, LVII (1963), 147-48. Raymond Havens makes a rather different emphasis in his “Changing Taste in the Eighteenth Century,” PMLA, XLIV (1929), 501-18.

7

Items 450 and 595 in The Library of William Congreve, ed. John C. Hodges (New York, 1955). Project Gutenberg e-text 27606

8

Les comédies de Plaute, ed. and trans. Anne Dacier (Paris, 1683). For a further statement of her views, see Les comédies de Térence (Paris, 1688).

9

In particular, see his discussion of the liaisons which is derived from François Hédelin, Abbé D’Aubignac, La practique du théâtre.. (Paris, 1669), pp. 117-19, 315-20. D’Aubignac’s work was translated into English as The Whole Art of the Stage.. (1684).

10

Plautus’s Comedies, sig. a8v; Terence’s Comedies, p. xiii.