was the second and the last of the Roman comic poets, of whose works more than fragments are preserved. The few particulars of his life were collected long after his decease, and are of very doubtful authority. It would therefore be to little purpose to repeat them without scrutiny or comment. We shall, in the first place, inquire who were the biographers of Terence, what they relate of him, and the consistency and credibility of their several accounts. We shall next briefly survey the comedies themselves, their reception at the time, their influence on dramatic literature, their translators and imitators, their commentators and bibliography.
Our knowledge of Terence himself is derived principally from the life ascribed to Donatus or
Suetonius, and from two scanty memoirs, or collections of Scholia, the one published in the
seventeenth century, by Abraham Gronovius, from an Oxford MS., and the other by Angelo Mai,
from a MS. in the Vatican. The life of Terence, printed in the Milan edition of Petrarch's
works 1476, is merely a comment on Donatus. Of these, the first mentioned is the longest and
most particular. It is nevertheless a meagre and incongruous medley, which, for its
barrenness, may be ascribed to Donatus, and for its scandal to Suetonius. But it cites still
earlier writers,--C. Nepos, Fenestella, Porcius, Santra, Volcatius, and Q. Cosconius. Of these
Nepos is the best known, and perhaps the most trustworthy. His contemporaries deemed him a
sound antiquarian (Catull. 1.1), and his historical studies had trained him to examine facts
and dates. (L. L. 6.36, 89), Porcius, the Porcius
Licinius, a satirical and seemingly libellous versifier, mentioned by Gellius (Vit. Script. Eccles.) among the Latin compilers of Memoirs; he wrote also a
treatise De Antiquitate Verborum, cited frequently by Festus. Such
writers are but indifferent vouchers for either facts or dates, whether from their living so
long after the poet's age, or from the character of their testimony. In the following account
we interweave our comment with their text.
P. Terentius Afer was born at Carthage After rests on as good authority as
any other circumstance related of him. Yet it is not conclusive. It may have been merely an
inference from a popular rumour of his Punic origin; and it was a cognomen of the Gens Domitia
at Rome, where it certainly does not imply African descent. Terence is said to have been of an
olive complexion, thin person, and middle height. (Donat.) These are not the physical
characteristics of the Punic race, but they accord with those of the Liby-phoenician or
Celtiberian perioeci, who were planted as colonists in various parts of the Carthaginian
territory ; and it is more likely that a perioecus, or the son of a perioecus, should have
been enslaved, than that a native Carthaginian should have become the property of a Roman
senator, so long as their respective commonwealths were at peace. It is remarkable also that
Plautus, an Umbrian, in his comedy of the " Poenulus" should have introduced a Carthaginian
among his dramatis personae, and an entire scene in the Punic language, while neither
Carthaginian words, names, or allusions, are to be met with in Terence.
We know not at what time Terence came to Rome; but from his proficiency in the language of
his masters we infer that he fell early into the hands of Terentius Lucanus, even if he were
not a verna, or slave born in the house. A handsome person and promising
talents recommended Terence to his patron, who afforded him the best education of the age and
finally manumitted him. The condition of slaves was not always unfavourable to intellectual
development. More than one eminent writer was born in a servile station Praef: in Terent. Cantabr. 1726) remarks " Hi tres
(Terentius, P. Syrus, Phaedrus) pari conditione liberti et peregrini, in
non ita dissimili argumento, comoediis mimis et apologis, omnia Italorum ingenia facile
superaverunt." For the intellectual opportunities of slaves, see also Nepos (Att. 13, 14). Before his manumission, Terence was probably anagnostes and librarius to Lucanus.CAECILIUS
STATIUS.] Unknown and meanly clad, Terence began to read from a low
stool his opening scene, so often cited by Cicero as a model of narration. (Invent. 1.23, de Orat. 2.40, &c., &c.) A few verses showed
the elder poet that no ordinary writer was before him, and the young aspirant, then in his
27th year, was invited to share the couch and supper of his judge. This reading of the
Andrian, however, must have preceded its performance nearly two years, for Caecilius died in
Pral. in Terent. Corn. ;
in Genes.), began his
unwearied and unrelenting attacks on the dramatic and personal character of the author. The "
Andrian" was successful, and, aided by the accomplishments and good address of Terence
himself, was the means of introducing him to the most refined and intellectual circles of
Rome. In the interval between Plautus and Terence, the great Roman families had more and more
assumed the state and character of princely houses. In their town and country seats, the
Scipios, the Laelii, the Metelli and the Mucii, formed each a petty court around themselves.
Among the patrons or associates of Terence we find the names of L. Furius Philus, of C.
Sulpicius Gallus, of Q. Fabius Labeo, and M. Popilius Laenas. But from the comparative youth
of the parties, his intercourse with Laelius and the younger Scipio had in it less of
dependence on the one side, and more of friendship on the other. Nepos, indeed (Fr. Chron. 1.6), calls them aequales. Both Scipio and Laelius, however, were
probably about nine years younger than their protégé. Both treated him as an
equal, and this intimacy would open to him, as it formerly opened to Ennius, and subsequently
to Lucilius, the houses of the Aemilii, Metelli, and Scaevolae. (Cic. Arch. 7
; Vet. Schol. in Hor. Serm. 2.1. 71.) Nor is it rash to conjecture
that Terence may have conversed with Polybius at Alba or Liternum, or made one of the group
immortalised by Horace. (Serm. 2.1. 71, foll.; vet. Schol.)
Calumny did not fail to misrepresent their intercourse. His patrons, it was said, assisted
Terence in the composition, nay, were the real authors of his plays, made him their playmate
and butt, and let him starve. (Porcius, apud Donat.) C. Memmius [No. 5]
mentioned the rumour as notorious, in his speech " Pro Se ;" Valgius
wrote in his Actaeon (Bothe, Poet. Lat. Scen. v. p. 201), probably in the
Prologue,
" Hae quae vocantur fabulae cujae sunt?
Non has, qui jura populis end'ibus (endo-tribs
?) dabat
Honore summo affectus, fecit fabulas ;"
Cicero gave it credence (ad Att. 7.3), and Nepos (Fr. Incert. 6), in the following story, ascribes at least one comedy to Laelius. It was, he
says, the 1st of March, the festival of the Matronalia, on which, if on no other day of the
year, the Roman ladies were absolute in their households. Laelius was spending the holiday at
Puteoli; supper was announced, but he begged not to be interrupted, as
" Satis, pol, proterve me Syri promissa huc induxerunt," &c.
The belief that Terence was aided by his friends in composition, if properly limited, has in
it nothing improbable. He was a foreigner, and of a race, to which, whether Libyan or Iberian,
the Greek and Latin idioms presented no ordinary difficulties. Of the English, who speak and
write French, few attain to precision or purity, and the Punic or Basque dialects diverged
more from the languages of Athens and Rome than the speech of London from the speech of Paris.
From the purity of Terence's diction we might, without these anecdotes, infer his intimacy
with the best society in Rome. Of that society, in that age, the Scipios were the leaders; and
the Laelii, both male and female, the models of forensic and conversational eloquence. [LAELIA, No. 1.] Nor did Terence deny the charge. He gloried in it, as
the test of his proficiency as an artist. (Prol. in Adelph.) Our own
dramatic literature furnishes parallel cases. Garrick added a scene to the " West Indian," and
revised the " Clandestine Marriage." Pope retouched the songs in the " Beggar's Opera," and
the " Medea" was submitted to the critics of Leicester House. Yet no one doubts that
Cumberland, Colman, Gay, and Glover, were respectively the authors of those productions. The
story of Terence's poverty is less easy to refute, but we disbelieve it equally. He owned an
estate of a few acres, contiguous to the Appian road, and, after his decease, his daughter
married a man of equestrian rank. Neither of these facts accords with the assertion of Porcius
Licinius (Donat.), that he was too poor to hire a house or keep a slave. An eques would
scarcely wed a portionless maiden, the daughter of a freedman; and even in that age, land
lying near the great highway of Italy must have been valuable as pasture, arable, or building
ground. Avarice, on the other hand. was not the vice of the Scipios. (Chron. Ol. 135),
did not starve under their roof, and was buried in their tomb; Polybius and Panaetius
lightened the privations of exile in their camp and their villas, and Lucilins, who succeeded
Terence in the friendship of Scipio and Laelius, could afford to make literature his
profession. But. if by poverty be meant indigence, the tenour of Terence's history contradicts
the rumour of his poverty. After the representation of his six comedies, for one of which,
l., he travelled in Greece. Now a journey in Greece could not
be performed in those days any more than in our own without cost, even if his patrons
lightened his charges by their tesserae hospitals (Plant. Poen. 5.1. 25), to their various clients and friends. And Terence resided, as well as
travelled in Greece, since while there he translated 108 of Menander's comedies nor as an
alien could he hold a libera legatio, or commission to live at the public
expense while transacting his private business. These facts, gleaned from his biographers
themselves, render the neglect of the patrons and the indigence of the client very doubtful.
The hostility to Terence was perhaps owing partly to professional causes, and partly to his
popularity with the great. Terence was a foreigner, a freedman, and the adherent of a party.
Even Horace was taunted with being libertino patre natus ; and in
Horace's days the long civil wars and the influx of strangers into the senate and the tribes
had melted down many of the old Italian prejudices. In Terence's age there were two strongly
opposed parties in literature, as well as in politics,--the Latin party, of which Cato and the
Fabii were the representatives, and the Greek, or movement-party, of which the Scipios were
the leaders and Terence the favourite. Here was plentiful matter for libel. Whether the
attacks of Lavinius drove him from Italy, or whether he went to Greece as to a university, is
uncertain. Before his departure his detractors had affirmed that from his ignorance of Attic
manners and idiom his versions of Menander and Apollodorus were caricatures. (Prol. in Andr. Hcautont. Phorm.) He never returned, and the accounts of his death are
as various as the records of his life. According to one story, after embarking at Brundisium,
he was never heard of more; according to others, he died at Stymphalus, in Arcadia (Auson. Epist. xviii.), in Letucadia, or at Patrae, in Achaia. One of his
biographers said he was drowned, with all the fruits of his sojourn in Greece, on his
home-passage. But the prevailing report was, that his translations of Menander were lost at
sea, and that grief for their loss caused his death. He died in the 36th year of his age, in
Chron.
Ol. 155, 3), in the year following. He left a daughter, but nothing is known of his
family.
Six comedies, all belonging to the deperdita. For Terence's exemption from the neglect or ravages of time various causes
may be assigned. His works were few in number, and small in bulk. From their purity of
diction, they became the text-books of the grammatical and rhetorical schools; they found
favour with St. Jerome, and escaped the censures of the church. They were brought forward at
the following seasons and under the following circumstances.
de Ord. Com. P. Ter.), but seems
warranted by the poet's age -- 27 -- at his interview with Caecilius (suprà), and by the original title, play foremost, if by an author hitherto unknown; whereas new piece by a known writer. From the anecdote of Caecilius above related,
malevolus vetus poeta --
compelled the author to bring forward matters personal to himself, instead of confining
himself to the argument of his piece The Andria is made up of two of Menander's comedies,
the Perinthia, and Luscius Lavinius said that Terence had marred two good plays to make
one bad one. Terence replies that if he were a compiler, so were Naevius, Plautus, and
Ennius before him, and that he would rather err with them than be right with Lavinius. He
ends by warning his assailant not to moot the question of piracy again, since his own
offences in that way were notorious, and he begs the audience to give his play a patient
hearing, for upon its reception would depend whether he wrote others.
The Roman theatre was ill suited to the representation of the Comoedia Palliata. The
bustle and buffoons of Plautus required no better appointment than the wooden booths which
that age afforded. The masks and the unities encumbered Menander as well as Terence; but the
Roman play-writer had to contend with worse obstacles than the common conventionalities of
his art. The manners he pourtrayed were exotic: his audience was gross and noisy (Prol. in Hecyr., comp. Prol. to B. Jonson's " The Case is
altered"); and if Valerius Antias be correct in dating the introduction of the Ludi Scenici in Harusp. Resp. 12) as maxime casti,
sollemnes, religiosi. But at best the comedy of Terence was caviare to the Romans -- an Italian opera performed at Bartholomew fair.
The Andrian has been often translated and imitated. The earliest English version was made
in the reign of Edward VI. It is in rhymed stanzas of seven lines each, was probably
performed as an exercise at one of the universities, and is in some degree adapted to the
manners of the times. Baron, the celebrated French actor, imitated Terence closely in his
Dramatis Personae are retained, and in the third and fourth acts alone has
he deviated, and then not for the better, from his original. The Andria has also suggested a
portion of Moore's Foundling. But the most elaborate copy of this play
is Sir Richard Steele's Conscious Lovers. The Latin names of the
characters, indeed, are not preserved, but their English representatives, as the following
list shows, exhibit a close parallelism. Sir John Bevil=Simo; young Bevil = Pamphilus ;
Indiana =Glycerium; Sealand=Chremes; Myrtle = Charinus; Humphrey = Sosia; Phillis = Mysis ;
and Tom = Davus, the " currens servus qui fallit senem," the prototype of Molière's
Scapin. Steele's underplot is, on the whole, conducted more skilfully than Terence's; but
for the management of the principal story, for consistency in the characters, for humour,
and elegance of diction, the
Comic.
Graec. Hist. vol. i. p. 464), and is an ancient specimen of the comédie larmoyante. The Hecyra was twice rejected: the first time the
spectators hurried out of the theatre to see a boxing match and rope-dancers; the second
time, when it was played at the funeral games of Aemilius Paullus, grex or company, in accepting a new piece, incurred no slight
responsibility. Their judgment on the MSS. determined the aediles to purchase or refuse it.
But if the public, after all, rejected it, the aediles looked to the manager to indemnify
them for the outlay. Ambivius, by his appeals to the spectators, had more than once rescued
the plays of Caecilius from rejection, and Terence, in his Prologue to the Phormio,
acknow-ledges his exertions on the third representation of the Hecyra. The comedy, however,
never was a favourite. It was acted quinto loco, fifth on the list, and
Volcatius Sedigitus (Dial. ii.)
somewhat magisterially calls " the true Greek plot," was too simple for Roman taste, and the
long narrations and general paucity of action in this comedy will alone account for its bad
recep tion. " Tous les genres," says Voltaire, " sent
bons, hors le genre ennuyeux." The Hecyra has never been modernised.
Prol. in Eunuch.) managed to get sight of the Eunuch before it was acted,
and told the aediles they had bought stolen goods. Terence replied, that if stock-characters
-- currentes servos, bonas matronas, meretrices malas, parasitum edacem, gloriosum militem
-- were to be prohibited, there was an end of play-writing. He bids his censor mind the
blunders in his own " Thesaurus," and remember that his Phasma was all Menander's, except
the faults. As the manners of the Self-tormentor are obsolete, so the subject of the Eunuch
is unsuitable to modern feelings, yet of all Terence's plays it is the most varied in action
and the most vivacious in dialogue, and makes the received censure of his being deficient in
vis comica scarcely intelligible.
Baif, a poet in the reign of Charles IX., translated the Eunuch into French verse. The
modern imitations of it are Aretine's La Talanta, La-Fontaine's L'Eunuque, which is in fact a translation, retaining the names, scenes,
and manners of the original; and Sir Charles Sedley's Bellamira 1687.
It is also the source of Le Muet, by Bruyés and Palaprat, first
acted in 1691.
ad Liv. 45.1, 6.) This year (161) may therefore be
regarded as the " annus mirabilis" of his reputation. It is borrowed from the Every One has his Fault. It would seem from the Prologue,
that Terence wearied out, if not convinced, by his censors iterating that his plays were "
tenui oratione et scripture levi," attempted in the present a loftier style, and, as
Donatius says, dealt with passions too earnest for mirth. It is therefore the more strange
that this comedy should have suggested to Molière one of his most extravagant farces,
Les Fourberies de Scapin. Molière, however, borrowed from other
sources as well.
Comic. Graec. Hist.) But Terence took the greater part of his
plot from Menander's Prol.), was borrowed from the
The modern imitations of this comedy are very numerous. Baron copied it in his
The comedies of Terence have been translated into most of the languages of modern Europe,
and in conjunction with Plautus were, on the revival of the drama, the models of the most
refined, if not the most genial play-writers. In Italy the Terentian Comedy was opposed in
the 15th and 16th centuries to the Commédie dell' Arte, and Ariosto, Aretine,
Lodovico Dolce, and Battista Porta drew deeply from " this well of" Lutin " undefiled." The Pedante was substituted for the Currens Servus, but the swaggering captain and the parasite were retained
with little alteration. In Spain Pedro Simon de Abril, about the middle of the 16th century,
published a complete translation of Terence, which is still much esteemed. (Bouterwek, Spanish Lit. p. 198, Eng. trans. Bogue.) The English versions of Bernard,
Hoole, and Echard (see Tytler's Essay on the Principles of Translate.
p. 244, &c.) have been long superseded by that of Colman, one of the most faithful and
spirited translations of an ancient writer. Besides Baif's
The Didascalia preserve the names of the principal actors of Terence's plays, when
originally produced. They were Ambivius Turpio, L. Atilius Praenestinus, and Minutius
Prothimus; and Flaccus, son of Claudius, furnished the musical accompaniments to all six
comedies. The Periochae or summaries in Iambic verse of the plot of each
In closing this summary of Terence's comedies, we may remark that Terence added no new
characters to the repertoire of the Attic drama (comp. Prol. in Heautont. with Hor. A. P. 114), and that, even in
Horace's time, in spite of the passion for spectacle and melodrama, his plays attracted
crowded audiences, and were as familiarly known to the Roman populace, as the stanzas of
Tasso's " Gierusalemme" to the Venetian gondoliers. (
An account of the principal ancient commentators on Terence will be found under the names
Calliopius, Donatus, Eugraphius, and Evanthius. The earliest treatise on the Terentian metres is
that of Rufinus of Antioch. Bentley, in his edition of the poet (Cambridge, 1726, 4to.), was
the first to arrange them on a scientific principle: since that time no material improvement
has been made either in the text or the metrical system of these comedies. For an account of
Bentley's edition, see his Life by Monk (ii. pp. 225-231, 8vo. ed). Mr. Hallam (Mid. Ages, ii. p. 342, 8th ed.) has some very ingenious and instructive
remarks on the versification of Terence, and there is a satisfactory article on the same
subject in the Penny Cyclopaedia (Terentian Metres). A selection of Prolegomena to Terence is prefixed to the edition of Terence by Mr. Giles,
London, 8vo. 1837.
The ancient critics on Terence were very numerous. We cite the principal of them chronologically before offering any remarks of our own.
Nearest in time, afranius wrote in his
" Terenti non similem dices quempiam."
Varro (Parmenio, Nonius, s. v. Poscere) says he
was surpassing in the portraiture of character, " in ethesin Terentius poscit palmam." Cicero
(Opt. Gen. Or. 1. § 3) said that he differed from his
brother-artists in genere, " unum vero est genus perfecti, a quo qui
absunt, genere differunt, ut ab Attio Terentius," and in a fragment of
his
" Quicquid come loquens, ac omnia dulcia dicens."
Volcatius Sedigitus (de Poet. Corn. ap. Gell. 15.24) assigns Terence
only the sixth place among the Roman comic poets, an opinion deeply resented by many modern
scholars. (Rutger's Var. Lect. 4.19; Francis. Asulanus, Ep. &c.) Horace awards him the palm of art (Ep. 2.1. 59, "
sincere Caecilius gravitate, Terentius arte "), and Ovid distinguishes
his festive humour (Trist. 2.357),
" Nec liber est judicium animi; sed honesta voluntas,
Plurima mulcendis auribus apta
refert.
Accius esset atrox, conviva Terentius esset."
Quintilian (10.1) depreciates Roman comedy generally, " in comoedia maxime
claudicamus," and thinks that Terence erred in not adhering to the Senarian measure of
his Greek originals; and Servius (solam proprietatem, omnibus
comicis esse praepositum; quibus est, quantum ad caetera spectat, inferior." We cite Caesar's
famous epigram last, both on account of its author and of the verdict he delivers.
" Tu quoque tu in summis, O dimidiate Menander,
Poneris, et merito, puri sermonis
amator,
Lenibus atque utinam scriptis adjunct foret vis
Comica, ut aequato virtus
polleret honore
Cum Graecis, neque in hac despectus parte jaceres.
Unum hoc maceror
et doleo tibi deesse, Terenti."
The preceding extracts show the ancient critics unanimous in ascribing to Terence
immaculate purity and elegance of language, and nearly so in denying him vis
comica. Their opinion is entitled to the more respect from their having had the entire
Menander before them, and from its confirmation by modern censors from Erasmus to Colman. Yet
we are not inclined to let their verdict pass unquestioned. In the first place, four of
Terence's six plays are more or less comédies larmoyantes --
sentimental comedies -- in which vis comica is not a primary element. In
the next, Terence is generally contrasted with Plautus, with whom he had so little in common
that we might as justly compare Addison with Moliére. Granting to the elder poet the
highest genius for exciting laughter, and the eloquence which Aelius Stilo ascribed to him
(Varr. ap. Quinct. 10.1.99), and a natural force -- " virtus " -- which his rival wanted, there will remain to Terence greater consistency
of plot and character, closer observation of generic and individual distinctions, deeper
pathos, subtler wit, more skill and variety in metre, and in rhythm, and a wider command of
the middle region between sport and earnest. It may be objected that Terence's superiority in
these points arises from his copying his Greek originals more servilely. But no servile copy
is an animated copy, and we have corresponding fragments enough of Menander to prove that
Terence retouched and sometimes improved his model. (Zimmerman, Terenz. u.
Menand. 1842.) He cannot, indeed, be ranked with the dramatic poets who exert a deep or
permanent influence on the passions of men or the art of representation -- with Sophocles and
Aristophanes, with Shakspere or Lope de Vega, with Moliére or Schiller. But we incline
to class him with Massinger, Racine, and Alfieri -- writers in whom the form is more
perfectly elaborated than the matter is genially conceived. Nor in summing up his merits
should we omit the praise which has been universally accorded him -- that, although a
foreigner and a freedman, he divides with Cicero and Caesar the palm of pure Latinity.
The principal editions of
The principal Codices of Terence are, the Vatican Bembinus, written about the fifth
century, A.D., and the Cambridge. A second Vatican Codex dates from the ninth century, A.D.,
and contains drawings of the masks worn by the actors. (Boettig. Spec. ed.
Terent. Lips. 1795.)
Besides the authorities already cited, see Crinit. de Poet. 100.8 ;
Hist. Rom. Lit. vol. i. p. 110, foll.; Dryden's
" Essay on Dramatic Poesie " (works, vol. xv. p. 263. Scott. ed.); Hurd's (Bp.) Dialogues on " Poetical
Imitation," " Provinces of the Drama," &c.; Diderot, " Essai sur la Poesie Dramatique " (oeuvres); Spectator, No. 502; Colman's "
Terence," &c.