1832.] [ 147 ] 



SPECIMENS OF LATIN COMEDY THE CAPTIVES, OF PLAUTUS. 



NO. I. 



COMEDY, which might be etymologically interpreted " village-song,"* 

 cannot be better defined than in the words of the great Roman orator, 

 who calls it " the imitation of life, the mirror of custom, the image of 

 truth." The primary object of comedy is the amusement of the people ; 

 and, therefore, all compositions which accomplish this end may lay 

 claim to the title. But the Greek and Roman comedians took such 

 different courses for the attainment of their common end, that their 

 dramas can hardly be considered as belonging to the same class of 

 writing. The comic writers of Greece took for their subjects the politi- 

 cal measures of their most distinguished statesmen, and withheld the 

 poignancy of their satire from no member of their councils or their 

 senate, when they thought they could employ it to the gratification of 

 the people. Thus the comedy of Greece acted as one of the mightiest 

 engines for the conservation of the public liberty. Such unsparing 

 attacks, however, on the character and the integrity of her legislators 

 could never consist with the grave and aristocratic spirit of Rome. 

 Her comedians were not suffered to imitate those of Greece, by exer- 

 cising that political surveillance over the conduct and the proceedings of 

 her statesmen ; and were thus compelled to seek, in private life, for 

 suitable subjects for their pen. The Latin comedy was more adapted 

 to the bacchanalian festivals of half-civilized Rome, than to the fasti- 

 dious ear of refined and philosophic Athens. But, though the construc- 

 tion and design of the Latin comedy differed so essentially from that of 

 the Greek, Plautus did every thing in his power to give his plays a 

 Grecian air, by using Greek names, and frequently copying even whole 

 scenes from the Grecian comedies. 



But our object is not to try the patience of our readers with a regular 

 and consecutive history of comedy, or to risk a tedious and uninteresting 

 comparison of the Greek, the Latin, the English, and the French; but 

 to present them with a few well-selected specimens of the best por- 

 tions of the comic writers of ancient Rome : we shall imitate the John 

 Bull custom of Horace, and rush at once in medias res. 



The most ancient author, of whom any entire comedies are extant, is 

 Plautus. The first of his plays, from which we shall take our extract, 

 is entitled Capteivei the Captives ; we have been induced to begin 

 with this in preference to any other, not only because it is one of the 

 best of his comedies, and was pronounced by that celebrated scholar 

 and critic, Gotthold Lessing,f to be the most perfect comedy that had 

 ever, up to his time, been acted on the stage, and was particularly 

 recommended by M. LemercierJ to the study of young poets, but 

 because it differs greatly from his other plays, and may be considered 

 as the first of that class of dramas, called Comedies Larmoyantes, which 

 at one time obtained such popularity in France. 



We must first give a short account of the plot, that our extracts may 

 lose none of their interest from being deprived of their connection. 

 Hegio, the chief character in the play, is a gentleman of Aetolia, the 



xwpjj wj. 



t See his Beytrage zur Historie und Aufrahme des Theatres. 



: Cours de litter, tome II. 



L2 



