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 I think I may venture to hope, that the Notes in general, will, in many instances, be found useful in the exposition of many passages in the Latin and Greek classics. I am induced to publish this play singly, with a view of ascertaining whether a translation of Terence’s comedies on this plan may meet with sufficient approbation to encourage the appearance of the remaining five plays: as I propose to give a complete translation of the works of this celebrated author, if the present attempt should be honoured with a favourable reception. I may say, in the words of Terence himself, “Favete, adeste æquo animo, et rem cognoscite, Ut pernoscatis, ecquid spei sit reliquum, Posthac quas faciet de integro comœdias, Spectandæ, an exigendæ sint vobis priùs.” And now deign to favour the play with your attention, and give it an impartial hearing, that you may know what is in future to be expected from the poet, and whether the comedies that he may write hereafter, will be worthy to be accepted, or to be rejected by you.――_Prologue to the Andrian._ These lines contain very strong presumptive proof that the Andrian was Terence’s first production; and, for that reason, it has been selected for this essay, and not on account of its being supposed to be superior to his other plays: for so great, so steady was the equality of this poet’s genius, that no critic of eminence, ancient or modern, could ever yet venture to assign to any one of his plays a claim of superiority to the rest. The celebrated Scaliger has asserted that there were not more than _three_ faults in the _six_ plays of Terence.