[Born at Carthage, B.C. 195. Died (place uncertain), B.C. 159. Aged
36.]
The second and last of the Latin comic poets--Plautus being the
first--whose plays have descended to our time. He was the slave of a
Roman senator, who, having regard to his talents and handsome person,
gave him his liberty: on which occasion the freedman assumed his
patron’s name--Terentius. In person, he was thin and of the middle
height, with an olive complexion. Terence is the one Latin writer in
whom the stateliness and the lofty strength, seemingly inherent in the
language of Rome, at once ceases: and the tongue which we had deemed fit
only to be spoken by the Kings of the world,---by the Fathers convened
in the temple of Capitoline Jove,--gently condescends to the hearts and
the hearths of men. In the six preserved comedies of his--both by the
delineation of the characters, and by the strain of their speaking--we
feel ourselves in the familiar presence of known humanity. Not but that
the manner implies delicate choice and thoughtful art; but its easy,
natural air deceives the belief in the actual study. The words rise up
from the heart, to drop from the lip. In the dialogue of Terence, the
barrier that hitherto has stood inflexibly between the modern and the
antique world has fallen. We are at home in the Roman theatre. To great
purity, grace, tenderness, the style adds, even in description, or
narrative, or continuous argument, that utter simplicity and obviousness
of the sense, which is found in the most trivial uses of speech.
[From the marble in the Stanza dei Filosofi of the Capitol, at Rome.
On the right shoulder is sculptured the histrionic mask, a curious
fancy of the artist, which may have been suggested by the custom in
Egyptian portraiture, of carving the name in a small “cartouche” on
the shoulder, a practice alluded to in the scriptures.]