The usual reading is cruciatum hinc abripi; but hinc cannot be necessary to the sense, and spoils moreover the harmony of the line. Neither of the two ancient manuscripts of Terence, in the royal library at Paris, have hinc. There are a great many disputed readings in the plays of Terence, which, by a reference to the various ancient MSS. of our author now extant, might probably be determined. An edition of the plays, regulated by the authority of these MSS., would doubtless be highly serviceable. The most learned woman of her age, Madame Dacier, whose translation of Terence is alone sufficient to perpetuate his name and her own, in her preface to that inestimable work, speaks at length, and in very high terms, of the MSS. of Terence, in the library of his most Christian Majesty. She expresses herself as follows: “I found in them (the MSS.) several things which gave me the greatest pleasure, and which satisfactorily prove the correctness of the most important alterations which I have made in the text, as to the division of the acts, which is of great consequence.” Madame D. reckons the MSS. to be eight or nine hundred years old. Vide Madame Dacier’s Translation of Terence, Edition of Rotterdam, 1717, Preface, page 38. Among the books which his holiness Pope Sixtus V. caused to be removed to the Bibliotheca Vaticana, which he placed in the old Vatican palace, or the Palazzo Vecchio, there was a very curious MS. of the comedies of Terence, which was particularly valued for the representation which it contained of the personæ, or masks, worn by the ancient actors. It was also extremely curious in other respects. Those who enjoy an opportunity of consulting this MS. might derive much and very profitable amusement from a perusal of it. If it still remain in Rome, it may be seen, on application to the chief librarian, who is generally a member of the sacred college. A very curious MS. of Virgil, of the fourth century, written in the Literæ unciales, and Henry VIII.’s MS. de Septem Sacramentis, were formerly shewn to strangers with the before-mentioned MS. of Terence.
Davus.—That’s the bride’s father: I wished him to know all this; and there was no other way to acquaint him with it.
Terence here (say the critics) obliquely praises himself, and the art which he has displayed in this scene. The only scenes of a similar nature, (I mean where the plot is carried on by a concerted conversation intended to be overheard by some person who thinks it genuine,) which are equal to this scene in the Andrian, are the ninth scene of the second act, and the first scene of the third act of Shakspeare’s comedy of Much Ado about Nothing.
The before-mentioned scene from the Andrian has been wholly omitted by Sir R. Steele. Sealand does not renew his consent to the marriage till the end of the fifth act.
M. Baron has introduced Crito earlier than he appears in the Latin play, and closes the fourth act with Glycera’s appeal to Chremes; and two subsequent scenes between Glycera, Mysis, Pamphilus, and Davus. Glycera’s appeal to Chremes is extremely pathetic. It concludes with the following lines:—
“Vous en qui je crois voir un protecteur, un père
Ne m’abandonnez pas à toute ma misère
En m’ôtant mon époux, vous me donnez la mort.
Vous pouvez d’un seul mot faire changer mon sort.