Born: Publius Terentius Afer, probably in North Africa, c. 190 BC. Family: Had a daughter. Career: Possibly a freed slave in household of Terentius Lucanus; his plays were produced in the 160s bc, and came to be admired by Cicero and Horace. Died: c. 159 BC.
Publications
Collections
Terence in English: Fabulae (bilingual edition), translated by Richard Bernard. 1598.
[Plays], edited by S.G. Ashmore (as Comedies). 1908; also edited by J. Marouzeau, 2 vols., 1947-56; as Comoediae, edited by Robert Kauer and Wallace M. Lindsay, revised by O. Skutsch, 1958, and R. Ranzato and R. Cantarella, 1971-; as Comedies (bilingual edition), translated by Charles Hode, 1633; also translated by Laurence Echard and others, 1694, edited by Robert Graves as The Comedies of Terence, 1962; also translated by Thomas Cooke (bilingual edition), 1734; S. Patrick (prose), 2 vols., 1745; ”Mr.” Gordon (prose), 1752; George Colman the Elder (verse), 1765; John Benson Rose, 1870; Henry Thomas Riley (prose), 1883; William Ritchie, 1927; F. Perry, 1929; Frank O. Copley, 1967; Betty Radice, 1976; as Terence [Loeb Edition], translated by John Sargeaunt, 2 vols., 1912; translations in Complete Roman Drama (translations), edited by George Duckworth, 1942; as Complete Comedies, edited by Smith Palmer Boyle and translated by Bovie, Constance Carrier, and Douglass Parker, 1974.
Plays
Andria (produced 166 bc). Edited (with commentary) by G.P. Shipp, 1960; translated as Andria, c. 1520, reprinted as That Girl from Andros: An Early Sixteenth-Century Translation, edited by Meg Twycross, 1987; also translated by Maurice Kyffin, 1588; T.Newman (verse), with Eunuch, 1627, reprinted 1931; William Gardiner, 1821; St. George and R.A. Stock, 1891; translated as The Andrian, 1777; also translated by Henry C. Englefield, 1814; W.R. Goodluck (prose), 1820; J.A. Phillips, 1836; as The Lady of Andros, translated by John Sargeaunt, in Terence [Loeb Edition], 1912; as The Woman from Andros, translated by Alexander Harvey, 1925; as The Woman of Andros, translated by Frank O. Copley, 1949; as The Girl from Andros, translated by Smith Palmer Bovie, in Complete Comedies, 1974.
Eunuchus (produced 161 bc). Edited by P. Fabia, 1895; as Eunuchus, translated in Terence in English, 1598; also translated by Dr. Webbe (bilingual edition), 1629; William Gardiner, 1821; as The Eunuch, translated by T. Newman (verse), with Andria, 1627; also translated by John Sargeaunt, in Terence [Loeb Edition], 1912; Betty Radice, in The Brothers and Other Plays, 1965; Frank O. Copley, 1967; Douglass Parker, 1970; commentary by John Barsby, with Phormio and The Brothers, 1991.
Heauton timorumenos (produced 163 bc). Edited by K.I. Lietzmann, 2 vols., 1974; as Heauton timorumenos, translated in Terence in English, 1598; as Heautontimorumenos, translated by ”a member of the University of Oxford” (prose), with Adelphi, 1777; also translated by J.A. Phillips, 1836; as Heauton timorumenos, translated by W.H. Girdlestone, 1869; also translated by St. George and R.A. Stock, 1891; as The Self-Tormentor, translated by E.S. Shuckburgh, 1878; also translated by Frederick William Ricord, 1883; John Sargeaunt, in Terence [Loeb Edition], 1912; Alexander Harvey, 1925; A.J. Brothers (bilingual edition), 1988.
Hecyra (produced 165 bc). Edited by T.F. Carney (with commentary), 1968; edited and translated by Stanley Ireland (bilingual edition), 1989; as Hecyra, translated by Richard Bernard, in Terence in English, 1598; also translated by J.A. Phillips, 1836; as The Mother-in-Law, translated by John Sargeaunt, in Terence [Loeb Edition], 1912; as Her Husband’s Mother, translated by Constance Carrier, in Complete Comedies, 1974.
Phormio (produced 161 bc). Edited by Ronald H. Martin, 1959, C. Coury, 1982; as Phormio, translated in Terence in English, 1598; also translated by John Henry Newman, 1864; Aubrey Stewart, 1879; St. George and R.A. Stock, 1891; M.H. Morgan (prose), 1894; Barrett H. Clark, 1909; John Sargeaunt, in Terence [Loeb Edition], 1912; Betty Radice, in Phormio and Other Plays, 1967; Frank O. Copley, 1967; Douglass Parker, 1970; commentary by John Barsby, with The Eunuch and The Brothers, 1991.
Adelphoe also known as Adelphi (produced 160 bc). Edited by P. Fabia, 1892, K. Dziatzko and R. Kauer, 1903, Ronald H. Martin, 1976; as Adelphoe, translated in Terence in English, 1598; as Adelphi, translated (verse), 1774; also translated by ”a member of the University of Oxford” (prose), with Heautontimorumenos, 1777; Dr. Giles (bilingual edition), 1858; St. George and R.A. Stock, 1891; as The Brothers, translated by Alexander Harvey, 1925; also translated by Betty Radice, in The Brothers and Other Plays, 1965; Frank O. Copley, 1967; Constance Carrier, in Complete Comedies, 1974; A.S. Gratwick (bilingual edition), 1987; commentary by John Barsby, with The Eunuch and Phormio, 1991.
Flowers For Latin Speaking (selection), edited and translated by Nicholas Udall. 1533.
Andria; Heauton timorumenos; Phormio; Adelphi, translated by St. George and R.A. Stock. 1891.
The Brothers and Other Plays, translated by Betty Radice. 1965.
Phormio and Other Plays, translated by Betty Radice. 1967.
Critical Studies:
The Art of Terence, 1923, and Plautus and Terence, 1965, both by G. Norwood; The Syntax of Terence by J.T. Allardice, 1929; The Prosody of Terence by W.A. Laidlaw, 1938; The Nature of Roman Comedy by George Duckworth, 1952; Menander, Plautus, and Terence by W.G. Arnott, 1968; Roman Comedy by Kenneth McLeish, 1976; Roman Comedy by David Konstan, 1983; Terence by W.E. Forehand, 1985; The New Comedy of Greece and Rome by R.L. Hunter, 1985; The Comic Theatre of Greece and Rome by F.H. Sandbach, 1985; Understanding Terence by Sander M. Goldberg, 1986; Studies in the Textual Tradition of Terence by John N. Grant, 1986; The Roman Theatre and Its Audience by Richard C. Beacham, 1991; Ancient Comedy: The War of the Generations by Dana F. Sutton, 1993; Shakespeare and Classical Comedy: The Influence of Plautus and Terence by Robert S. Miola, 1994; Anglo-Saxon Gestures and the Roman Stage by C.R. Dodwell, 2000.
The plays of Terence read like close adaptations of Greek New Comedy, an effect both innovative and deceptive. The innovation lies in Terence’s rebellion against the popular aesthetic standards of his time. Where traditional Roman comedy, well represented to us in the plays of Plautus, delighted in the broad effects of stock characterizations and situations, elaborate songs, and extravagant, highly stylized diction, Terence sought instead to reproduce the more subtle effects of the later Greek comedy. He based four of his six plays upon works of Menander, the most literary of the Greek dramatists, and two upon Apollodorus of Carystos, himself said to have been one of Menander’s greatest admirers. The result was a set of Latin plays with more sophisticated characterizations, a more sedate and elegant diction, and a more refined humour than Roman audiences had previously witnessed. The plays are also deceptive, however, because they are not in fact faithful copies of Greek models. Terence made many changes which affect both the structure and the meaning of his plays. He avoided, for example, the expository divine prologues of Greek drama, which meant that his audiences lack the foreknowledge that would enable them to feel superior to his characters. Not only does the dramatic action then depend entirely on human agents and human motives, but the audience tends to see the action that unfolds as the characters see it. Terence also borrowed elements freely from one Greek play to enrich the action of another, a process modern scholars call contaminatio. His Eunuchus (The Eunuch), for example, which is based on a play of that name by Menander, nevertheless features a slave and parasite borrowed from a second play called The Flatterer. In Adelphoe (The Brothers), a slapstick scene from Diphilus is woven into a Menandrean plot. A second set of lovers enters Andria (The Girl from Andros) by way of Menander’s Perinthian Girl. While these additions certainly enliven (and sometimes complicate) the stage action, their contributions to meaning are equally significant.
Terence’s need to change the significance of his dramatic actions is rooted in the most striking difference between him and Menander, which is a change in their moral vision. Menander treats human frailties with great sympathy. His characters learn from their mistakes, and we are meant to share in that process of growth. Terence is the consummate ironist. In his plays, a correct course of action is not always easy to see, a character’s virtue is not easily defined, and suitable rewards for them are thus more difficult to imagine. He is as likely to deny knowledge to characters at the end of a play as to share it among them, and the process of recognition does not necessarily lead to moral improvement. All the characters in The Eunuch, for example, are shown to be as self-serving as the imported soldier and parasite; the slapstick scene in The Brothers helps balance the absurdity of the country brothers with the equally absurd arrogance of the city dwellers. The characters who win our sympathy in Hecyra (The Mother-in-Law) are excluded from the play’s conclusion, and their legitimate concerns are simply ignored. In retrospect, we can see that Terence’s wry view of human capabilities has more in common with the later Roman genres of satire and elegy than with his Greek dramatic predecessors.
The Romans themselves, however, were slow to appreciate Terence, and they never fully recognized his comic genius. The stage life of his plays was much briefer than that of Plautus’ plays. Four of the six are theatrically brilliant—The Eunuch in fact commanded an unusual encore performance and a record fee—but none went on to achieve the status of stage classic that many Plautine plays attained. Two attempts to perform The Mother-in-Law failed in Terence’s own lifetime, and after his death successors reverted to the broader, more traditional style of Plautus. Enduring fame came to him only later, and it came through reading rather than seeing his plays. In the 1st century BC, by which time original stage comedy at Rome was all but dead, Terence took on a new life. Both Cicero and Caesar praise his style; Cicero quotes him often to illustrate moral arguments in his forensic speeches and cites him in rhetorical works as an example of correct Latin usage. By the 4th century AD grammarians had produced copiously annotated editions of his plays, and Terence acquired a fame second only to Virgil’s. The 10th-century nun Hrotswitha of Gandersheim claimed him as the stylistic model for her own martyr plays, and the Latin comedies themselves were never forgotten. Many manuscripts, some with beautiful illustrations, survive. During the 15th and 16th centuries the plays were widely studied and translated and became a seminal influence on Renaissance, and thus modern, comedy.
