_Byrrhia. Well, I’ll carry him an account of what has passed. I suppose I shall receive an abundance of bad language in return for my bad news._ Renunciabo, ut pro hoc malo mihi det malum. There is a jest in the Latin, which it is impossible to preserve in a translation: it turns on the word _malum_, which was used at Rome to signify the punishment inflicted on a slave, who played his part badly on the stage: as the inferior characters in a Roman play were personated by slaves. Thus, Byrrhia means to say, I shall rehearse my part so little to my master’s satisfaction, that I am sure to be punished. The writings of Terence abound with allusions of different kinds. It is not improbable that Terence acquired a taste for dramatic writing, by frequenting the stage in his youth, before he obtained his liberty: as slaves were employed in the theatres in considerable numbers. It is remarkable that several very eminent Latin and Greek writers were originally slaves; Terence, Cæcilius, Æsop, Diocles, Rhianus, Epictetus, Tyrannion, and (_as some say_) Plautus, were all elevated from a servile station. A celebrated writer remarks on this subject as follows:―― “Of the politest and best writers of antiquity, several were slaves, or the immediate descendants of slaves. But all the difficulties occasioned by their low birth, mean fortune, want of friends, and defective education, were surmounted by their _love of letters_, and that generous spirit, which incites, Ἀὲν ἀριστεύειν καὶ ὑπείροχον ἔμμεναι ἄλλων. Still to be first, and rise above the rest. Stimulos dedit æmula virtus: Nec quemquam jam ferre potest Cæsarve priorem Pompeiusve parem.――LUCAN. ’Twas emulative virtue spurred them on; Cæsar no longer a superior brooks, And Pompey scorns an equal.”――KNOX. Byrrhia’s whole speech, from which the before-mentioned line was taken, has been thus altered by the learned French writer mentioned in Notes 72 and 112. _Vide_ Note 133. “Ego illam vidi virginem: formâ bonâ Memini videre, quo æquior sum Pamphilo, Si se illam uxorem quam illum habere maluit. Renunciabo, ut pro hoc malo mihi det malum.” The original lines are as follows, “Ego illam vidi virginem: formâ bonâ Memini videre; quo æquior sum Pamphilo, Si se illam in somnis, quàm illum, amplecti maluit. Renunciabo, ut pro hoc malo mihi det malum.” NOTE 132. _Davus. (aside.) He has missed his aim! I see this nettles him to the quick._ M. Baron has lengthened this scene considerably: and makes a trial of repartee between Simo and Davus: one passage in which I think the ancient is surpassed by the modern, particularly deserves to be recorded. “Puis-je espérer qu’aujourd’hui sans contrainte La vérité pourra, sans recevoir d’atteinte, Une fois seulement de ta bouche sortir.” _Andrienne_, A. II. S. VII.