Terence's Andrian, a comedy, in five acts : $b Translated into English prose, with critical and explanatory notes.Terence
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Terence's Andrian, a comedy, in five acts : $b Translated into English prose, with critical and explanatory notes.
Terence
Latin drama (Comedy) -- Translations into English; Terence -- Translations into English
NOTE 100.
_Well, may Diana grant my poor mistress_, &c.
The common reading of this passage is, DI _date facultatem_, _May the_
GODS _grant_, &c., but I should rather imagine that Terence wrote, DIANA
_da facultatem_, _May_ DIANA _grant_, &c., because, on these occasions,
the Greeks never invoked the assistance of all the gods, but usually
requested the help of Diana, as Glycera does afterwards, when she calls
upon her by the name of Juno Lucina, (_vide_ Note 143). Diana was
supposed to preside over women in childbirth, and was called Εἰλείθυια.
NOTE 101.
_A._ I. _S._ V. _Pamphilus, Mysis._
This scene contains the third and last part of the narration, which is
entirely pathetic, and its length is very artificially and successfully
relieved by the figure called by the Greeks προσωποποια, which is
introduced with so many moving and pathetic graces, as afford ample
proof that Terence was as great a master of the passions, as even
Trabea, Attilius, and Cæcilius themselves, who were so highly extolled
by the ancients for their excellence in compositions of that nature.
Terence has admirably relieved the necessary length of his narration in
this play, by his judicious method of dividing it: the first part is
serious, (_vide_ Note 65,) and raises our curiosity: the second part is
comic, (_vide_ Note 89,) and excites our laughter; the third part is
pathetic, and moves our pity. The lines in which Pamphilus describes
the death of Chrysis are so extremely moving, that some of the most
eminent critics have considered them at least equal, if not superior,
to all attempts in the pathetic both ancient and modern. The finest
passage in M. Baron’s Andrienne is, (in my opinion,) his imitation of
the before-mentioned speech of Pamphilus: and the inimitable beauty
which so much strikes us in the _French copy_ ought to impress us with
a just idea of the splendid merit of the _Latin original_.
The whole speech is too long to be inserted here, the following are
extracts:
“Si je m’en souviendrai! Qui? moi? Toute ma vie.
Ce que me dit Chrysis parlant de Glicérie,
Elle me dit, (Misis j’en verse encore des pleurs.)
Elle est jeune, elle est belle, elle est sage, et je meurs.
Je vous conjure donc par sa main que je tiens;
Par la foi, par l’honneur, par mes pleurs, par les siens;
Par ce dernier moment qui va finir, ma vie,
De ne vous séparer jamais de Glicérie.
Elle prit nos deux mains, et les mit dans la sienne:
Que dans cette union l’amour vous entretienne;
C’est tout.――Elle expira dans le même moment.
Je l’ai promis, Misis, je tiendrai mon serment.”
_Andrienne_, A. I. S. VII.
NOTE 102.
_And why has Chremes changed his mind._
“Id mutavit, quoniam me IMMUTATUM videt.”
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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