CHREMES.—Is she here, do you ask? Oh! yes, she’s here. There’s no doubt as to that. I know it to my cost. They’ve had one dinner, She and her party. If I give another Such as last night, why—I’m a ruined man. She’s very curious, mind you, as to her wines; Knows the best brands—and drinks them.‘Ha!’ she’d say, ‘This wine’s not dry enough, old gentleman— Get us some better, there’s a dear old soul!’ I had to tap my oldest casks. My servants Are driven almost wild. And this, remember, Was but one evening. What’s your son to do, And you, my friend, that will have to keep her always? MENEDEMUS.—Let him do what he will: let him take all, Spend, squander it upon her; I’m content, So I may keep my son.”—COLLINS. The play is full of amusing incidents,—the intrusions of the eager Clitipho on the pretended love-making of his adored Bacchis and Clinia—the indignation of Chremes at his son’s seeming want of politeness—the cozening of Chremes by the clever slave out of a large sum for his young master to give to Bacchis. The discovery that Antiphila is Chremes’ own daughter, whom, at her birth, his wife had given to a Corinthian woman to expose, adds fresh interest to the plot. The marriage takes place to the delight of all parties. Chremes is persuaded to forgive his son, who promises to abandon Bacchis for a more modest wife. The “Self-Tormentor” is happy at last, and can afford to indulge in a hearty laugh at the misfortunes of his neighbor. “I don’t profess myself to be a genius— I’m not so sharp as some folk—that I know; But this same Chremes—this my monitor, My would-be guide, philosopher, and friend, He beats me hollow. Blockhead, donkey, dolt, Fool, leaden-brains, and all those pretty names— They might suit _me_; to him they don’t apply: His monstrous folly wants a name to itself.” The extant comedies of Terence are, THE ANDRIAN MAID (_Andria_). THE MOTHER-IN-LAW (_Hecyra_). THE SELF-TORMENTOR (_Heautontimoroumenos_). THE EUNUCH (_Eunuchus_). PHORMIO (_taken wholly from a Greek comedy of Apollodorus_). THE BROTHERS (_Adelphi_). =Decline of the Drama.=—While the comedies of Terence were drawing crowded houses, tragedy, which Ennius attempted to popularize, that the heroic examples of early times might be emulated by his countrymen, was successfully cultivated by his nephew PACUVIUS “the Learned” (220-132 B.C.). The thirteen tragedies of Pacuvius (an accomplished painter as well as poet) were long favorites, particularly with the educated classes. The finest of them, “Orestes in Slavery,” contained the famous scene between the bosom friends Py’lades and Orestes, in which each offers his life for the other. At its representation, the audience leaped to their feet and shouted their applause.