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