No writer seems to have been born
with a more forcible or more fertile genius for comedy. He has drawn
some characters with incomparable spirit: we are indebted to him for
the first good miser, and for that worn-out character among the
Romans, a boastful Thraso. But his love degenerates into lewdness; and
his jests are insupportably low and illiberal, and fit only for "the
dregs of Romulus" to use and to hear; he has furnished examples of
every species of true and false wit, even down to a quibble and a pun.
Plautus lived in an age when the Romans were but just emerging into
politeness; and I cannot forbear thinking, that if he had been
reserved for the age of Augustus, he would have produced more perfect
plays than even the elegant disciple of Menander.
Delicacy, sweetness, and correctness, are the characteristics of
Terence. His polite images are all represented in the most clear and
perspicuous expression; but his characters are too general and
uniform, nor are they marked with those discriminating peculiarities
that distinguish one man from another; there is a tedious and
disgusting sameness of incidents in his plots, which, as hath been
observed in a former paper, are too complicated and intricate. It may
be added, that he superabounds in soliloquies; and that nothing can be
more inartificial or improper, than the manner in which he hath
introduced them.
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