Mr. Raper makes the Attic drachm worth 9d. 286⁄1000. Greaves reckons it equal to 67 grains, which, supposing silver to be sold at 5s. per ounce, fixes the drachm at 8d. 1½qr. Dr. Arbuthnot computes it 6d. 3qr. 1368⁄4704. Others fix the Attic talent at 187l. 10s., and the drachm at 7d. 2qrs., or the eighth part of an ounce of silver. If we take the mean of these computations, we may suppose the Attic drachm to have been equal to 8d.; the Eginean to 13d. 3 qrs.; the insular to 16d.; and the drachm of Antioch, to 48d. The learned Madame Dacier speaks of the Attic drachm thus: “la drachme Attique valait à peu près cinq sols.” No person, I think I may venture to assert, was ever more habitually correct than Madame D.
[NOTE 137.]
Indeed, Sir, I think you are too frugal; it is not well timed.
Tu quoque perparce nimium. Non laudo.
Donatus thinks, that the force of quoque in this line is as follows: He (Pamphilus) is much to blame for his childish petulance in taking offence at so trifling a circumstance: and you (Simo) ALSO are to blame for having made so sparing a provision for your son’s wedding supper. Terence has managed the whole circumstance very artfully: Simo intending to deceive Pamphilus and Davus, had provided to the amount of ten drachms, which was sixty times more than the expense of Chremes’ supper, which cost but an obolus, (vide [Note 120],) and accounts for what he said to Sosia, Act I. Scene I. (vide [Note 60].) But we are meant to suppose, that his frugality would not allow him to support the deceit by purchasing a plentiful wedding supper, which, among the Athenian citizens of rank, was a most expensive entertainment. (Vide Herodot. B. 1. C. 133. Arrian, B. 7. C. 26.)
[NOTE 138.]
Davus. (aside.) I’ve ruffled him now.
Simo is supposed to overhear this speech of Davus. Vide [Note 210].
The whole of the second act (as well as the first) has been preserved in Baron’s Andrienne, without alteration.
In the Conscious Lovers, the second act varies considerably. Instead of the scene between Davus and his master, Indiana and Isabella are introduced, and afterwards Indiana and Bevil: but both these scenes are entirely barren of incident. Bevil protects Indiana, as Pamphilus protects Glycera; but the former is on the footing of a protector only, and remains an undeclared lover until the fifth act.
Terence has wrought up the second act of this play with the utmost art and caution: a particular beauty in the pieces written by this great poet appears in the judicious disposition of his incidents, and in his so industriously concealing his catastrophe until the proper time for its appearance. This is a circumstance of great importance in dramatic writing, to which some authors pay too little attention. An ingenious critic of the last age has pointed out a very extraordinary instance of a total deficiency of art in this respect, where both the plot and the catastrophe are completely revealed in the very title. This piece is Venice Preserved, or the Plot Discovered, which is, in other respects, a very fine production. How much such a title as this must deaden the interest that an audience would otherwise feel from their suspense! This is a point which admits of no argument.
“Vestibulum ante ipsum, primoque in limine FINIS
Scribitur.”——
[NOTE 139.]
Lesbia.