The Nature of his Plots was for the most part grave and solid and sometimes possionate a little , resembling our Modern Tragy-Comedies ; only the Comical parts were seldom so merry ; the Thinness and clearness of 'em somewhat resembling our Modern Tragedies , only more perfect in the latter , and not crouded with too many Incidents . They were all double except the Hecyra , or Mother-in-Law , yet so contrived that one was always an Under . Plot to the other : So that he still kept perfectly to the first great Rule of the Stage , the Unity of Action As for the second great Rule , the Unity of Time ( that is for the whole Action to be performed in the compass of a day ) he was as exact in that as possible , for the longest Action of any of his Plays reaches not Eleven Hours . He was no less careful in the third Rule , The Unity of Place , for it 's plain be never shifts his Scene in any one of his Plays , but keeps constantly to the same place from the beginning to the end . Then for the Continuance in the Actions , he never fails in any one place , but every Instrument is perpetually at work in carrying on their several Designs , and in them the design of the whole ; so that the stage never grows cold till all is finished : And to do this the more handsomely and dextrously , he scarce ever brings an Actor upon the Stage , but you presently know his Name and Quality , what part of the Intreague he is to promote , why he came there , from whence he came , why just at that time , why he goes off , where he is a going , and also what he is or ought to be doing or contriving all the time he is away . His Scenes are always unbroken , so that the Stage is never perfectly clear but between the Acts ; but are continually joined by one of the four Unions . Which according to Mon. Hedelin are these ; Presence , Seeking , Noise , or Time ; and when the Action ceaseth that is , upon the Stage ) and the Stage is cleared , an Act is then finished . Then for Incidents , and the due Preparation of them , Terence was admirable : And the true and exact Management of these is one of the most difficult parts of Dramatick Poetry . He contrives every thing in such a manner so as to fall out most probably and naturally , and when they are over they seem almost necessary ; yet by his excellent Skill he so cunningly conceals the Events of things from his Audience , till due time that they can never foresee 'em ; by this means they are so amused with the Actors Designs , that the Poet 's is unknown to them , till at last , being all along in the dark , they are surprized most agreeably by some . thing they never looked for : And this is the most taking and the most delightful part of a Play . We might insist much more largely upon each of these Particulars : and upon several others , but at present we shall content our selves with saying that these Plots are all so very clear , and natural , that they might very well go for a Representation of a thing that had really happened ; and not the meer Invention of the Poet.

There are two or three remarkable Objections against our Author , which we cannot but take notice of . First , it 's said , That he has not kept to the Unity of Time in his Heautontimoreumenos , or Self-Tormenter ; which contains the space of two days . Then , between the second and third Acts , there 's an absolute failure of the Continuance of the Action . These are generally believed by several Men , and such as are famous too ; and some to vindicate Terence the better , have added another Mistake , that the Play was always acted two several times , the two first Acts one , and the three last another . But it is plain from all Circumstances , that the Action began very late in the Evening , and ended betimes in the Morning ( of which we have said something in our Remarks at the end ) so that the whole could not contain about Eleven hours ; but as for that of the Cessation of the Action , it 's answered two ways , either by the necessity of Sleep at that Interval , and consequently no Cessation , or ( which is more probable ) by the Persons being busie at the Treat at Chremess House , that being a necessary part of the main Action The two following are Mr. Dryden's Exceptions ; where first he lays an Error to our Authors Charge in matter of Time . In the Eunuch ( say he ) when Laches enters Thais's House by mistake , between his Exit and the Entrance of Pythias , who comes to give ample Relation of the Disorder he has raised within , Parmeno , who is left upon the Stage , has not above five Lines to speak . In answer to this , Pythias makes no such amp Relation , but rather tells him what Disorders such a foolish Act of his was like to raise ; and in truth it is not probable she should stay above five or six Lines speaking , since after she saw her Cheat had taken , she could not keep her Countenance within Doors , and was so eager to revenge her self by laughing at the Fool without ; besides here is an excellent Artifice of the Poets , for had she tarried longer , Parmeno might have been gone , and her Mirth qualified when she saw the good Fortune Chaerea had met withal . His other Exception is , that our Authors Scenes are several times broken . He instances in the same Play , That Antipho enters singly in the midst of the third Act , after Chremes and Pythias were gone off . As for this , it is to be considered that Scenes are united by Time as well as Presence ; and this is a perfect Union of Time , apparent to all who understand the Art of the Stage . A little farther he says , That Dorias begins the fourth Act alone ; — She quits the Stage , and Phedria enters next . Here Dorias does not quit the Stage till three Scenes after , as appears by Pythias , bidding her carry in such things as she had brought with her from the Captains Entertainment ; but if she did , there would be an Union of Time nevertheless , as there is in all other places , where the Scenes seem broken . Some make this Objection ; that in the beginning of many Scenes , two Actors enter upon the Stage , and talk to themselves a considerable time before they see or know one another ; Which ( they say ) is neither probable nor natural . Those that object this don't consider the great Difference between our little scanty Stage , and the large magnificent Roman Theatres . Their Stage was sixty Yards wide in the Front , their Scenes so many Streets meeting together , with all By Lanes , Rows and Alleys ; so two Actors coming down two different Streets or Lanes , cou'dn't be seen by each other , tho' the Spectators might see both , and sometimes if they did see each other they cou'dn't well distinguish Faces at sixty Yards distance . Besides upon several accounts it might well be supposed when an Actor enters upon the Stage out of some House , he might take a turn or two under the Portico's , Cloysters , or the like ( that were usual at that time ) about his Door , and take no notice of an Actors being on the other side of the Stage .

But since we propose our Master as the best Model for Dramatick Poets to follow , we ought in Justice to mention such things wherein he was any ways faulty , or at least where he ought not to be imitated . The first is , He makes his Actors in some places speak directly , and immediately to the Audience ( of which that Monologue of Mysis in the first Act of the first Play is an instance ) which is contrary to the rules of Dramatick Poetry , or rather indeed of Nature ; and this is the only real Fault that Terence was guilty of as his want of Vis Comica was the only real Defect . His Plots were not always the best for Story , the for Contrivance , and wanted somewhat of Length and Variety , fully and compleatly to satisfie an Aud●●● Take 'em all together , they were too much 〈◊〉 have always their deserv'd Effect of surprizing ; which also gave a mighty Limitation to the Variety of his Characters ; a great pity for a Man that had such an admirable Knack of drawing them to the Life . It were also to be wish'd that his Monologues or Discourses by single Persons were less frequent , and sometimes shorter 100 ; for tho they are all of 'em full of excellent Sense , sound Reasoning , ingenious Deliberations , and serv'd truly to carry on the main Design ; yet several parts of em , especially all Narrations , wou'd ha been more natural as well as Artificial , if told by Persons of the Drama to one another . Then his Aparts or Asides ( that is when one Actor speaks something which another that is present is supposed not to hear , tho the Audience do ) are sometimes too long to be perfectly natural . Whether he has not sometimes too much Elevation of Passion , or Borders too nigh upon Tragedy for such inferior Persons , we leave to others . These are the main things to be taken notice of by all that make use of him for a Model , besides all such as belong purely to the various Customs of Countries , and to the difference of Theatres ; but those are obvious enough to all .

But there 's still one great Objection against these Plays in general ; that is , If Terence's Plays are so good as is pretended , why doesn't some Poet or other translate one or more of 'em for the Stage , so save himself the trouble of racking his Brain for new Matter . We own they wou'dn't take upon our Stage ; but to clear all , we shall give these two Reasons : First , The Difference between the Romans and our selves in Customs , Humours , Manners and Theatres is such , that it is impossible to adapt their Plays to our Stages . The Roman Plots were often founded upon the exposing of Children , and their unexpected Delivery , of buying of Misses and Musick-Girls ; they were chiefly pleased to see a covetous old Father neatly bubbled by his Slave of a round Sum of Money , to find the young Spark his Son ( miserably in want of Cash ) joyn with the Slave in the Intrigue , that he may get somewhat to stop his Mistress's Mouth , whom he keeps unknown to his Father ; to see a bragging Coxcomb wheadled and abus'd by some cunning Parasite ; to hear a Glutton to talk of nothing but his Belly , and the like . Our Plots go chiefly upon variety of Love Intrigues , Ladies Cuckolding their Husbands most dextrously , Gallants danger upon the same account , with their escape either by witty Fetches , or hiding themselves in dark Holes , Closets , Beds , &c. We are all for Humour , Gallantry , Conversation , and Courtship , and shou'dn't endure the chief Lady in the Play a Mute , or to say very little , as 't was agreeable to them : Our amorous Sparks love to hear the pretty Rogues prate , snap up their Gallants , and Repartee upon 'em on all sides . We shou'dn't like to have a Lady marry'd without knowing whether she gives her consent or no , ( a Custem among the Romans ) but wou'd be for hearing all the Courtship , all the rare and fine things that Lovers can say to each other . The second reason of their not taking upon our Stage is this , tho Terence's Plays are for more exact , natutal , regular , and clear than ours , and his Persons speak more like themselves than generally ours do ; yet ( to speak impartially ) our Plays do plainly excel his in some Particulars . 〈…〉 the great Variety of the 〈◊〉 and 〈…〉 our Plots ; the Intrigues thicker and finer ; the Stories better , longer , and 〈◊〉 curicus 〈◊〉 most part than his : And tho there s 〈…〉 buddle and precipitation in the generality of 〈◊〉 ; yet the great variety and number of Incidents . tho ill manag'd 〈◊〉 have several Charms , and be mighty diverting especially to a vulgar Audience , like the Sight of a large City at a distance , where there is little of Regularity or Uniformity to be discern'd just by . Next , we do much excel Terence in that which we call Humour , that is in our Comical Characters in which we have shewn and expos'd the several Humours , Dispositions Natures , Inclinations , Fancies , Irregularities , Maggots , Passions , Whims , Follies Extravagancies , &c. of Men under all sorts of Circumstances , of all sorts of Ranks and Qualities , of all Professions and Trades , and of all Nations and Countries , so admirably , and so lively , that in this no Nation among the Ancients or Moderns were ever comparable to us . Lastly , our Comedies excel his in some Delicacies of Conversation ; particularly in the Refinedness of our Railery and Satyr , and above 〈◊〉 Repartee . Some of these things ( especially when mix'd with Humour ) have made many an ordinary Plot take and come off well , and without a pretty quantity of some of 'em , our Plays wou'd go downvery heavily .

Since we are accidentally fall'n into the Excellencies of our Comedies , we hope it may be pardonable if we mention also some principal Faults in 'em , which ●●●m to need a Regulation . And first , our Poets seldom or never observe any of the three great Unities of Action ; Time and Place , which are great Errors , for what breeds more Confusion than to have five or six main Plots in a Play , when the Audience can never attend to 'em ? What more extravagant than to fancy the Actions of Weeks , Months , and Years represented in the Space of three or four Hours ? Or what more unnatural than for the Spectators to suppose themselves now in a Street , then a Garden , by and by in a Chamber , immediately in the Fields , then in a Street again , and never move out of their place ; Wou'dn't one swear there was Conjuration in the Case ; that the Theatres were a sort of Fairy Land where all is Inchantment , Juggle and Delusion ? Next , our Plays are too often over-powered with Incidents and Under-Plots , and our Stage as much crowded with such Actors , as there 's little or no occasion for ; especially at one time . Then the Matter , and Discourse of our Plays is very often incoherent and impertinent as to the main Design : nothing being more common than to meet with two or three whole Scenes in a Play , which wou'd have fitted any other part of the Play even as well as that ; and perhaps any Play else . Thus some appear to swear out a Scene or two , others to talk Bawdy a little , without any manner of dependance upon the rest of the Action . But besides this ( which is another great Error ) when the Matter and Discourse do serve to carry on the main Design , commonly Persons are brought on to the Stage without any sort of Art , Probability , Reason or Necessity for their coming there ; and when they have no such Business as one that comes to give you a Song or a Jigg . They come there to serve the Poets Design a little , then off they go with as little Reason as they came on ; and that only to make way for other Actors , who ( as they did ) come only to tell the Audience something the Poet has a mind to have 'em know ; and that 's all their business : And truly that 's little enough . This we see frequently in the chief Actor of the Play , who comes on and goes off , and the Spectaters all the time stand staring and wondring at they know not what . Another great Fault common to many of our Plays is , that an Actor's Name , Quality , or Business is scarce ever known till a good while after his appearance ; which must needs make the Audience at a great Loss , and the Play hard to be understood , forcing 'em to carry Books with 'em to the Play house , to know who comes in , and who goes out .

The Ancients were guilty of none of these Absurdities , and more especially our Author ; and indeed the Non observance of Rules has occasioned the great Miscarriages of many excellent Genius's of ours , particulary that of the immortal Shakespear . Since these are such apparent Faults and Absurdities , and still our Beauties are so admirable as to cover , and almost to out-weigh our Errors ( else our Plays were not to be endur'd ) undoubtedly our Dramatick Poets , by the Observance of this Author's Ways and Rules , might out do all the Ancients and Moderns too , both at Tragedy and at Comedy ; for no Nation ever had greater Genius's than ours for Dramatick Poetry . These ha' been but little observed as yet , so that all our sine Imitations of Nature may often be called Lucky hits , and more by Accident than by Art . We very much need a Reformation in this Case , and our Plays can never arrive to any great Perfection without it ; therefore the nigher they come up to this Standard , the more they will be admir'd and loved by all Judicious Persons , provided they still keep to those Excellencies before mentioned Besides , these are as easily practicable upon ours as upon the Greek and Roman Theatres ; and by a strict Observance of the Unity of Place , the Stage may be made far more handsome and magnificent with less Charge ; and by that of the Unity of Action ( especially by the help of an Underplot or so ) the Story may be made far more fine and clear with less trouble .

But our Nation by long Custom , and the Success of Irregular Pieces , seems naturally averse to all Rules ; and take it very ill to have their Thoughts confined and shackled , and tied to the Observance of such Niceties : Therefore in the first place they tell us , That Poets of all Men in the World are perfectly freely , and by no means ought to confine their Noble Fancies to dull pedantick Rules : For this ( say they ) is like taking of Bees , cutting off their Wings , and laying such Flowers before 'em to make Honey of as they please . A Poet indeed shou'd be free , and unconfined as Air , as to his Thought , Fancy and Contrivance , but then his Poetica Licentia shou'dn't transport him to Madness and Extravagancy , making him phrensically trangress the Rules of Reason and Nature , as well as Poetry . These that we mention are not any Mans Arbitary Rules , but pure Nature only Methodiz'd : They never hamper a Poet's Fancy or clip his Wings , but adorn their Thoughts , and regulate their Flights , so as to give 'em a clearer insight into Nature , Probability and Decency , without something of which it is impossible to please . And these are no more a Confinement to a Poet's Fancy , than the true Proportion of Pillars , the Regularity and Uniformity of Windows are to an Architect ; or the exact Imitation of Nature to a Painter : As if there could be half so much Beauty in Grotesque and irregular Whims , as in the due Observation of the Rules of Prospect , Shadows and Proportion .

Another Objection is , That , our Nation will never bear Rules , but are much better pleas'd with the ways now in practice . 'T is true several of our most irregular Plays have come off with a great deal of Applaule , but certainly never the more for their Irregularity ; but because most of the Audience knew no better , being often dazzled by the Greatness of the Author's Genius , and the Actors Performances ; and those that did , were willing topardon the Faults for the sake of some choice Master-stroaks they had ; and upon the same account a couple of good Scenes have many times carryed off a very indifferent Play : 'T is plain that want of Use and Knowledge have been the only Cause of these ways seeming so unpracticable ; and if the middle sort of Persons were once truly brought to a Sight of the Excellencies of this , and the Deformities of the other way , ( as the well reading of these Plays wou'd in a great measure do , being chiefly design'd for them ) they woud esteem of it far more than now ; and certainly they coud never pardon those many Indecencies , Improbabilities , Absurdities that are so frequent in our Plays . 'T is true , there has been a considerable Regulation among many of 'em since the Days of Shakespear , but not to bring things half to perfection . And thus Regulation has made hope for a further , as the Age will be brought to bear it .

The last Objection is more particular : They say , That the Unities of Action , Time and Place must needs take off from the great Variety of the Plot , and a fine Story by this means will be quite murdered . 'T is true , all Stories whatsoever are not fit for a Dramatick Poem ; yet there may be an excellent Plot without crowaing together Intrigues ( little depending upon one another ) of half a dozen couple , suppose , in one Play ; without hurrying over the business of three Months in three Hours time , or perhaps without skipping from Gardens to Mountains , from thence to Groves , and then to Town in an Act or two : But our prying curious Sparks can't rest here , but must be for peeping into Chambers , Closets , and Withdrawing-Rooms , ay , and into Beds too ( sometimes with the Ladies in 'em ) and have all things brought openly upon the Stage . tho never so improper , and indecent . But this Objection may yet better be answered by Instances ; and first for the Unity of Time , we may mention the Play call'd , The Adventures of Five Hours , the whole Action lasting no longer ( much less a day , the extent allowed for a Dramatick Poem ) yet this is one of the pleasantest Stories that ever appeared upon our Stage , and has as much Variety of Plots and Intrigues , without any thing being precipitated , improbable or unnatural as to the main Action ; so by this it appears that this Rule is no Spoiler or Murderer of a finer Story . Then for the Unity of Time and Action too , Ben. Johnson's Silent Woman is a remarkable Instance : an excellent Comedy indeed , where the Action is perfectly single , and the utmost extent of the Time exceeds not three Hours and a half , ( the shortest we ever find ) yet still the Plot , Intrigues , and above all the Incidents are very fine ; and no ways unnatural . Lastly , For all three Unities , Mr. Dryden's All for Love ( tho a Tragedy , and somewhat foreign to our business ) is worthy to be taken notice of , that being perfectly Regular according to the Rules of the Stage , the Scenes unbroken , the Incidents exactly and duly prepared , and all things noble and beautiful , just and proportionable . This we reckon one of the best Tragedies of our Nation . Now can any Man justly think that these Plays we new mentioned were ever the worse for that Regularity they had ; or indeed have we many better in the Nation for Plot ; or many that have better pleas'd the generality of Persons that these ; If so , this sufficiently shows the Truth of what we offered ; and withal commends our Master's great Judgment in this Point : Who in our Opinion ( besides the Excellency of his Characters ) plainly deserves a greater Name for his Plots , than he does for his Language .

Come we next then to our own Vindication , in which we shall briefly shew the Reasons why we did it , and likewise what our Performances have been in this Version .

The main Reasons why we undertook it were these . First , For the Excellency and Usefulness of this Author in general : And consequently for the benefit ( as we shall shew by and by ) of most sorts of People , but especially for the Service it may do our Dramatick Poets . Next , for the Honour of own Language , into which all good Bocks ought to be Translated , since 't is now become so Elegant , Sweet and Copious : And indeed nothing refines , or gives Foreigners a greater Opinion of any Language than its number of good Translations ; of which the French is a great Instance . Thirdly , Because most of our Neighbours have got it into their Language , particularly the French , who have done it with good Success ; and we have no reason for being outdone by any of our Neighbours , since we have a Language we dare set against any in the World . Lastly , Since the Author is so excellent , we undertook it because no other Persons wou'd . 'T is strange that none of our great Wits wou'd undertake it before , but let us Persons of Obscurity , take their Works out of their Hands ; when we can perceive by our liitle Performances that our Language will do it to a very high degree , undoubtedly better than the French .

The most considerable Objections that have been made against our Translation are these . First , What real Use or Advantage can this Translation be to the Publick ? As for School-Boys and Learners , Bernard's and Hool's Translations , the great number of Notes , a School-Master , or their own Industry will well enough teach 'em to construe it . Men of Sense and Learning , they read it wholly for the Latin sake ; therefore a Translation is of no use to them . Lastly , they won't fit our Stage ; and consequently they are impertinent at best . To these we answer ; First , As to School-Boys and Learners ! Bernard's and Hool's Translations are very often false , mostly so obsolete , flat and unpleasant , that a Man can scarce read half a Page without sleeping ; the latter is full of Latinisms , and both are often more obscure than the Original . The Notes sometimes don't express the Author ; Sense ; and often very obscurely : In some things they are too short , in others too long and tedious : And most of them have the slight of running very nimbly over those Places which they are afraid they shou'd stick in . School-Masters often want Time , and now then and Judgment and Learning to explain things as they ought ; then to leave Boys by themselves to pick out the Sense of such a difficult Author as this , is very inconvenient which , besides the Discouragement sometimes of not being able to do it , will often lead 'em into such Errors and Mistakes , as perhaps they 'll never get clear of . So that this will be of great use even ●o School-Boys and Learners : Beside the great Advantage of teaching 'em , perhaps not the worst English ; and something of the Idiom of our Tongue .

As for the second part of the Objection , That Men of Sense and Learning read it only for the Latin sake ; This is or ought to be look'd upon as a great Mistake : Since Terence has other and greater Excellencies than his Style , as we have before shewn . But however ingenious Persons must needs receive some pleasure in seeing such excellent fine Latin now speak tolerable good English : and likewise in seeing somewhat of the Conversation , Humour and Customs of the old Greeks and Romans put into a modern Dress ; and perhaps not quite out of the Fashion . Besides , since many of these do sometimes upon an occasion make use of Notes , 't will be of equal use ( in that respect ) to them as to all Learners . And that they have often need of such , will appear from the several difficult places ( especially as to the Plot ) and some obscure dubious Passages in this Author , which the utmost Skill in the Latin Tongue will not teach to explain ; since there is as great a necessity for the understanding of the Roman Customs and Theatres in this Case , and of the Art of the Stage , as of the Latin Tongue . How extraordinary useful a Translation can be in perfectly clearing an Author , Roscommon's Translation of Horace's Art of Poetry is an apparent Instance ; which shews the Sense , Meaning , Design , &c. of Horace better and easier than all the Paraphrases and Notes in the World .

Thirdly , Tho our Translation will never fit our Stage , yet it may be of considerable use to some of the Dramatick Poets ; which we had some respect to when we did it ; they will serve 'em ( as was said before ) for Models ; and tho many of our Poets do very well understand the Original , yet 't is plain that some of 'em do not understand it over-much . But however , it may not be wholly useless to those that do , and more proper for their business , being ready explained to their hands : And upon some accounts to be read with less trouble than the Original : For that is in many places very-obscure by reason of corrupted Copies , wrong Points , false Division of whole Acts as well as Scenes , and the like : Further , if these Plays come to be frequently read by the more ordinary sort of People , they will by little and little grow more in love with , and more clearly see the true Excellencies of these Rules , and these lively Imitations of Nature , which will be the greatest Encouragement our Poets can have to follow 'em . And besides , the common People by these Plays may plainly perceive that Obscenities , and Debaucheries are no ways necessary to make a good Comedy ; and the Poets themselves will be the more ready to blush when they see Heathens so plainly out-ao us Christians in their Morals ; for their principal Vices in their Plays were chiefly from the Ignorance of the Times , but we have no such pretence . This alone might ha' been a sufficient reason for our undertaking this Design .

But to come now to what we have done ; 't is not to be expected we shou'd wholly reach the Air of the Original ; that being so peculiar , and the Language so different ; We have imitated our Author as well and as nigh as the English Tongue as our small Abilities wou'd permit ; each of us joining and consulting about every Line , not only for the doing of it better , but also for the making of it all of a piece . We followed no one Latin Copy by it self , because of the great disagreements among 'em , but have taken any that seem'd truest . We lookld over all the Notes , sometimes they wou'd help us a little , and often not ; some hints we had from the French , but not very many ; besides we had considerable helps from other Persons far above our selves , for whose Care and Pains we shall ever acknowledge our Gratitude . A meer Verbal Translation is not to be expected , that wou'd sound so horribly , and be more obscure than the Original ; but we have been faithful Observers of his Sense , and even of his Words too , not slipping any of consequence without something to answer it ; nay further , where two Words seem to be much the same , and perhaps not intended to be very different by the Author , we were commonly so nice as to do them too ; such as Segnitia and Socordia , Scire and Noscere , and the like , which is more exact than most , if not all , our modern Versions . We cou'dn't have kept closer ( especially in this Author , which several ingenious Persons told us , Is the hardest in the World to translate ) without too much treading upon the Authors Heels , and destroying our Design of giving it an easie , Comick Stile , most agreeable to our present Times . If we have been guilty of any Fault of this nature , it seems to be that of keeping too close .