Terence's Andrian, a comedy, in five acts
Terencework itself, it would be to little purpose to insert it in the Preface. I
have attempted to present to the public the most celebrated dramatist
of ancient Rome, in such a dress as may enable the English reader,
learned and unlearned equally, to relish, in his own language, the
beauties of this great poet. Though the original is composed in verse,
I have employed prose in this translation, because the verse of
Terence approaches so very nearly to prose, that in prose only is it
possible to adhere faithfully to the words, and particularly to the style
of our author; as we have in our language no measure of verse at all
corresponding with that used by Terence.
To the learned reader, the number of the subjoined Notes may,
perhaps, seem excessive; and the minuteness of description which
characterizes many of them, may appear unnecessary; but, though
this work was not written professedly for the schools, yet the Notes
were not composed entirely without a view to the instruction of the
young student; and, as translations are supposed to be made chiefly
for the use of the unlearned, who cannot be expected to be much
acquainted with the manners and customs of the ancients; I thought it
better, if I erred at all, to err on the safe side, and to repeat to some of
my readers something that they knew before, rather than run the risk
of permitting any one of them to remain unacquainted with it
altogether. A French translator of Terence, the learned and
indefatigable Madame Dacier, has judged a still greater number of
Notes than I have subjoined in this work, necessary to elucidate
various passages in her translation of the play of the Andrian, and of Suetonius’s Life of our author. One remark may be added on this
subject; it must be considered that many of the explanatory Notes
affixed to the play of the Andrian, tend to the general elucidation of
the various passages in the remaining five plays of Terence; and
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