“Quelle belle famille! un vieillard insensé! Une fille maitresse et coquette suprême! Des valets impudents! Non, la Sagesse même N’en viendroit pas à bout, perdroit sens et raison, A vouloir corriger une telle maison(313).” Indeed, were it not for the minute resemblance of particular passages, I would think it as likely, that Moliere had been indebted for the leading idea of his comedy to the second tale of the eighth night of Straparola, an Italian novelist of the sixteenth century, from whom he unquestionably borrowed the plot of his admirable comedy, _L’Ecole des Femmes_. The principal amusement, however, in the _Ecole des Maris_, which consists of Isabelle complaining to her guardian, Sganarelle, of her lover, Valere, has been suggested by the third novel, in the third day of Boccaccio’s _Decameron_. A much closer imitation of the _Adelphi_ than the _Ecole des Maris_ of Moliere may be found in the _Ecole des Peres_, by Baron, author of the _Andrienne_. The genius of this celebrated actor seems to have been constrained by copying from Terence, which has deprived his drama of all air of originality, while, at the same time, his alterations are such as to render it but an imperfect image of the _Adelphi_. It were, therefore, to be wished, that he had adhered more closely to the Roman poet, or, like Moliere, deviated from him still farther. His exhibition of Clarice and Pamphile, the mistresses of the two young men, on the stage, has no better effect than the introduction of Glycerium in his _Andrienne_. The characters of Telamon and Alcée are so altered, as to preserve neither the strength nor delicacy of those of Micio and Demea; while the change of disposition, which the severe father undergoes in the fifth act, has been neither rejected nor retained: He accedes to the proposals for his children’s happiness, but his complaisance is evidently forced and sarcastic; and he ultimately, in a fit of bad humour, breaks off all connection with his family: “J’abandonne les Brus, les Enfans, et le Frere; Je ne saurois deja les souffrir sans horreur, Et je les donne tous au diable de bon cœur.” Diderot had evidently his eye on the characters of Micio and Demea in drawing those of M. d’Orbesson and Le Commandeur, in his _Comedie Larmoyante_, entitled _Le Pere de Famille_. The scenes between the Pere de Famille and his son, St Albin, who had long secretly visited Sophie, an unknown girl in indigent circumstances, seem formed on the beautiful dialogue, already mentioned, which passes between Micio and his adopted child.