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 serio
Tibi 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: