The Comedies of Terence: Literally Translated into English Prose, with NotesTerence
General
The Comedies of Terence: Literally Translated into English Prose, with Notes
Terence
Latin drama (Comedy) -- Translations into English; Terence -- Translations into English
[Footnote 35: _Great way from here_)--Ver. 239. That is, from the
place where they are, in the country, to Athens.]
[Footnote 36: _Troop of female attendants_)--Ver. 245. The train
and expenses of a courtesan of high station are admirably depicted
in the speech of Lysiteles, in the Trinummus of Plautus, l. 252.]
[Footnote 37: _In a mourning dress_)--Ver. 286. Among the Greeks,
in general, mourning for the dead seems to have lasted till the
thirtieth day after the funeral, and during that period black
dresses were worn. The Romans also wore mourning for the dead,
which seems, in the time of the Republic, to have been black or
dark blue for either sex. Under the Empire the men continued to
wear black, but the women wore white. No jewels or ornaments were
worn upon these occasions.]
[Footnote 38: _With no worthless woman’s trumpery_)--Ver. 289. By
“nullâ malâ re muliebri” he clearly means that they did not find
her painted up with the cosmetics which some women were in the
habit of using. Such preparations for the face as white-lead, wax,
antimony, or vermilion, well deserve the name of “mala res.”
A host of these cosmetics will be found described in Ovid’s
Fragment “On the Care of the Complexion,” and much information
upon this subject is given in various passages in the Art of Love.
In the Remedy of Love, l. 351, Ovid speaks of these practices in
the following terms: “At the moment, too, when she shall be
smearing her face with the cosmetics laid up on it, you may come
into the presence of your mistress, and don’t let shame prevent
you. You will find there boxes, and a thousand colors of objects;
and you will see ‘oesypum,’ the ointment of the fleece, trickling
down and flowing upon her heated bosom. These drugs, Phineus,
smell like thy tables; not once alone has sickness been caused by
this to my stomach.” Lucretius also, in his Fourth Book, l. 1168,
speaks of a female who “covers herself with noxious odors, and
whom her female attendants fly from to a distance, and chuckle by
stealth.” See also the Mostellaria of Plautus, Act I., Scene 3,
l. 135, where Philematium is introduced making her toilet on the
stage.]
[Footnote 39: _Do hold your peace_)--Ver. 291. “Pax,” literally
“peace!” in the sense of “Hush!” “Be quiet!” See the Notes to the
Trinummus of Plautus, ll. 889-891, in Bohn’s Translation.]
[Footnote 40: _The woof_)--Ver. 293. See an interesting passage on
the ancient weaving, in the Metamorphoses of Ovid, B. vi., l. 54,
_et seq._ See also the Epistle of Penelope to Ulysses, in the
Heroides of Ovid, l. 10, and the Note in Bohn’s English
Translation.]
[Footnote 41: _She was weaving_)--Ver. 294. This line and part of
the next are supposed to have been translated almost literally
from some lines, the composition of Menander, which are still
extant.]
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