The celebrated writer, who made this remark, has himself employed _verse_ throughout the whole of his translation of our author’s plays: and, in the preface to that work, has delivered his opinion very strongly in favour of the composition of comedy in verse, even in the most comic scenes: and argues, that as Terence wrote in verse, a translation of his plays ought to be in verse also. I must observe that though the comedies of Terence certainly are not prose, yet they are a species of verse so nearly approaching to prose, that many eminent critics have denied that they were written with any regard to measure: they are, therefore, as well calculated, perhaps, as prose, for comic expression. But we have in English no measure at all similar to that used by Terence, nor have we, in my opinion, any measure of verse whatever, in which the most humorous passages in comedy can be so forcibly expressed as they may be in prose. The practice of modern dramatists entirely favours this opinion. Our great Shakspeare, _even in tragedy_, changes from verse to prose, when he introduces a _comic_ scene, as we see in _Hamlet_, A. 5. S. 1, 4., _Coriolanus_, A. 2. S. 1., _Antony and Cleopatra_, A. 2. S. 6, 7, _Othello_, A. 2. S. 11, A. 3. S. 1. Could the wit of Congreve, Farquhar, Cibber, Sheridan, and many other eminent English dramatists (among whom I may number Mr. Colman himself,) have been measured out into verse without a diminution of the poignancy of its expression? If the answer to this question be, as I think it must, _in the negative_, it must surely be decisive against the general introduction of verse into comedies; a species of writing, in which THE RIDICULOUS, according to Aristotle, ought to claim a principal share. NOTE 193. _A citizen of Athens._ Athens, the most celebrated city of Greece, was the capital of that part of Achaia, which, lying towards the sea-shore, (ἀκτὴ,) was called Attica. It was called _Athens_ after Minerva, (_vide_ Note 94,) _Cecropia_ after Cecrops, and _Ionia_ after Ion. The circumference of this city, at the time of its greatest prosperity, is computed at twenty-three English miles. A much greater space was enclosed within the walls than was required by the usual inhabitants of the city, because, in time of war, the country people were compelled to take refuge within the walls. Aristophanes tells us, (in his Knights,) that these country people, in time of war, dwelt in huts, resembling bee-hives in shape, which were erected in the squares, and other open places.