therefore, became necessary to make the voice more sounding,* whilst the largeness of the features was reduced by the distance of the actors. This seeming extravagance, then, was not intended to make the performers look ridiculous; they were but natural expedients, well adapted to the place.

Terence's plays being all founded on Grecian manners, copied, or imitated at least from Menander, the actors dresses in this MS. are made conformable to the costume of the Greeks. The slaves appear in short wide jackets, the other characters wear the flowing robe, the Greek pallium. The person speaking the prologue has a branch in his right hand: this is most probably intended for the Cypress; for as dramatic exhibitions were first made, in the time of a pestilence, to avert the divine anger, so did they continue to be acted in their more advanced state in the funeral games.+ All wear the sock or light-heeled buskin, assigned to. Comedy, as the high-heeled buskin the cothurnus was to tragedy. And the mask, the dress, and the whole manner are made aptly to express the character and the passion of the person speaking. Madame Dacier has, in her preface, pointed out several passages in her author, which are illustrated by the designs in her manuscript.

In a former paper I said, that I understood Colman had copied the masks in his translation: this I took from hearsay, and I had not the translation by me at the time: on turning to Colman, I perceive he has only the head of Terence between two masked actors, which he evidently copied from Madame Dacier's frontispiece. He does not, I think, appear to have seen this manuscript. These observations, though trifling, are necessary, in order to preserve an air of correct

ness.

With respect to the learned Madame Dacier, she does not appear, by her own account, to have been much conversant in ancient manuscripts: and had not curiosity enough to examine the MSS. in the King's library till she had finished her translation; when she was informed she ought to see them. But she speaks highly of the MS. alluded to above; and I conclude, from what she says, that the masks and other designs in the Bodleian MS. were copied, either entirely or in part, from that in the King's library at Paris, examined by that lady.

Our plan admits not of particular critiques, and I shall not, therefore, so far attempt to play the critic, as to make a comparison of the readings in the Bodleian MS. with those in Dr. Bentley's edition: and in regard to that sagacious critic himself, one general remark shall suffice:

*Post hunc persona pallæg: repertor honestæ,
Es docuit magnumq: loqui.

Hor. Ars Poet. 280.

It need surprize nobody to find, that some of Terence's plays were written Ludis funebribus (in the funeral games), when it is recollected that stageplays (ludi scenici) were first introduced among the Romans, in a time of pesti lence; and that even in their funeral processions players and buffoons were introduced, who supported the character of the deceased, and delivered pertinent passages from dramatic writers. See the Roman Antiquities, a very judicious work, by Dr. Alexander Adams, Rector of the High School, in Edinburgh,

:

suffice and it is this-that he adapts his readings, perhaps, too often, to his favourite system of Terentian metres.

This system I do not undertake to controvert; it is ingenious, and certainly very liberal; it makes, I mean, certain allowances for the variety of measures introduced in these plays. This liberty seems to have offended Horace, and might, perhaps, have offended Aristotle still more. But Bentley pronounces it both convenient and necessary, as better adapted to colloquial discourse, to the language and manners both of ordinary citizens and slaves.*

Terence, perhaps, might, and I think did, carry this liberty where Dr. Bentley's system will not follow him. It is well known how much he humours and plays with his characters. He might be said, most emphatically,

Descriptas servare vices, operumq: colores.
Each scene of many coloured life he drew.

Hor. Ars. Poet. v. 86.
Dr. Johnson.t

and it is probable, where a blundering farcical slave, a dreaming old man, a lisping boy, or a simpering coquetting madam, are made to speak, or any thing quaint is meant to be expressed, that he would sometimes study character rather than quantity, and that, provided he could make his hearers smile, he would not mind, with all his elegance, breaking Priscian's head. Here, too, he was assisted by the music, which, as in our Opera, always accompanied the Comedy. Indeed this humourous and colloquial accommodation are so conspicuous, that some have supposed these plays to be almost, if not altogether, in prose;

Ne sint sonora verba consuetudinis

There are MSS. formerly in our King's library (now in the British Museum) written as though all the plays were composed in prose. There are, indeed, MSS. of Terence, very ancient, of nearly eleven hundred years, according to what Bentley admits himself, which exhibit Terence, like Cicero or Livy, without the distinctions of verse. Shakespeare has adopted verse as the ground-work of his comedies, but frequently, in playing with his characters, or while indulging his humours, or in consulting variety, he uses mere prose: nor do I doubt, that with the latitude which the Terentian metres allows (according to Bentley) and with such liberties as this great critic thought himself

Melius verò ac citius de comicis est sentiendum. Profecto Terentius noster, si quisquam alius, in artis leges arte peccavit, studio, non ignorantia ; necessitate vel saltem commoditate inductus; & qualecunque illud delicti est, magnis virtutibus redempturus. Sermo enim ea de causâ propius apud Nostrum ad consuetudinem accedit, quam apud Menandrum: Oratio apud unum de medio sumpta, deque vita honestiorum civium: versus minime cavi sed verbis sensibusque spissi: apud alterum, dum metro servire coactus est, stilus paulo elatior et sententiæ dilutiores. De Metris Terentianis.

+ This line is placed here as an apt translation, and because, probably, Johnson, in this fine verse, had Horace's in view.

himself authorized to take, it might be all made to fall into the ranks, as Iambic, or Trochaic, Cretic, Bacchic, or Choriambic verse. A critic going contrary to the authority of all MSS. and printed books (as Dr. B. often confesses he does) may be like a rash surgeon, who cuts deeper than the wound lies. And as Bentley has so often failed in Milton, we may easily believe he has not always succeeded in Terence. But these remarks are made amidst much admiration of what Bentley says, de Terentianis Metris.

But to return to our manuscript-for this is all general, and not intended to apply to the above readings, nor, indeed, exclusively, to any readings contained in that volume.

I had proceeded thus far in my reflections, when I was informed by a learned gentleman, distinguished in the university of Oxford for his acquaintance with classical literature, that Westerhovius had mentioned this MS, in his edition of 1726. On turning to Westerhovius I perceive, that Gronovius examined this MS. for him, and copied so much of the introductory part as relates to Terence's Life, which Westerhovius has inserted in his preface.+ But as I do not find there is any further account of it given by him, nor by any other writer, this slight description of it may, perhaps, be acceptable to some of your readers: for though this curious and beautiful MS. is not very ancient, yet, from the care and elegance with which it is written, it should seem that it was copied from one that was deemed both ancient and valuable. It is defective from Act v. Scen. vi. 13. Phormio to the end: hominum homo honoratissime; in Dr. Bentley, Ornatissime, But I collated no more than is copied in this paper; and the reader will please to observe, that I have passed unnoticed the mere differences of letters, common in MSS. of that age, such as the single e for the æ diphthong, michi for inihi, nichil for nihil, and the node of stopping.

WORCESTER.

Worcester Cathedral Library has a very valuable collection of printed books, many of the latter end of the 15th and of the beginning of the 16th century. It has several old printed Chronicles, particularly the Nuremberg Chronicale of 1493, cum figuris et imaginibus ab initio mundi. It has also a very complete set of the Fathers; and two or three of those beautiful Missals, with most admirable engravings, printed at Antwerp, at the press of Plantin, 1677, in a blank leaf of which, if it were of any consequence, is added, E Sacello regalis Jacobi 2di, qui hoc Missali illic inter orandum quotidie usus est.

Many

See a Review of the Text of Milton's Paradise Lost, in which the chief of Dr. Bentley's emendations are considered, without a name, but by Bishop Pearce, and Mr. Lofft's edition of the two first books of the first edition of the Paradise Lost.

+ Publii Terentii Vita quam a Codice MS. Oxoniensi descripsit Abr. Gronovius. Westerhovii prefat. ad Terentium, p. 32.

Many and some valuable MSS. are also in this Library, to the amount of between two and three hundred, all different articles, but not so many different volumes, as Jerome's Bibles, MSS. of different Services, writings of the Fathers, Roll of the property of the Cathedral and College, 1390; a most beautiful and complete Psalterium, with an English Version and Commentary, written, probably, by Wickliffe, or one of his disciples. There are also several MSS. of Classics; Claudian de raptu Proserpinæ, Horace's Odes, Lucan, Juvenal and Persius, Virgil's Eclogues, Macrobius, Seneca, Cicero de Amicitia, and Quintilian's Declamations. But I must confine my attention now to a particular New Testament, as most proper to this place, and as more particularly descriptive of the religious sentiments of the Lollards, in the 14th century.

This was Wickliffe's own Testament, who was prebendary of the collegiate church of Westbury, in the diocese of Worcester, and county of Gloucester. It is translated from the Latin Vulgate, and literally. There is a very fine MS. copy of Jerome's Bible in this Library, and, if I am rightly informed (and it seeins most probably to be the case), this is the very copy from which Wickliffe translated. The Vulgate was considered as a most authentic copy of the scriptures at this time, and with the originals, probably, Wickliff was not acquainted himself. It should seem from Wickliff's translation of Paul's Epistles, that he held the doctrine of absolute predestination, as it is more at large unfolded in CALVIN'S INSTITUTES: and from his Translation of the Account of John's Baptism in Matthew, that his idea of the mode of baptism was the same as that expressed in the Salisbury Service-Book; though it is well known that his opinion on the saving effect of baptism was deemed heretical, at least he maintained, that infants, dying unbaptized, might yet be saved. Matth. iii. 6. is translated, "and thei weren waischen of him in Jordan. Ver. 11. "I waische you in water in to penaunce."-His translation of Matth. iii. 4. is singular, and his mete was hony soukis and hony of the wode." Jerome reads it, Locustæ et mél Sylvestre.

The order of this translation goes thus: "Matthew, Mark, Luke, John, 12 Epistles of Poule, 7 small Epistles, the Dedes of the Apostles, and the Apocalyps, which ben fulli of autoriti of byleve." In St. John's College Library, at Oxford, there is the translation of the whole Bible, Old and New Testament, said to be written by Wickliff, given by Archbishop Laud to that College: and Laud was as likely to have such a book as any man in England: though it being written in so beautiful a manner, in the best manner of the 14th century, one might be led to think, that the writing part is rather to be referred to a scribe of that age. But these are points not to be enquired into G. DYER.

now.

Cambridge.

P. S. In the former number, speaking of D'Orville's Euclid in the Bodleian, I observed, that the prepositions adhered to the cases, and

it

it happens often enough, to authorize what is there said: but D'Orville himself was hasty in saying, that all the prepositions (omnes prepositiones) were so placed; the fact being, that they are as often, or rather oftener separated from their cases. This peculiarity of joining the prepositions to the cases is not uncommon, at least in MSS. of the 9th and 10th centuries, as well Latin as Greek.

I omitted noticing in its proper place, in my last, that for the hint relative to the mistake concerning Sancti Albani I was indebted to the gentleman who for many years has so ably filled the office of Librarian to the Bodleian Library.

ERRATA in the former number, p. 134, for quam read quem; for totulum read titulum. p. 137, for Frontis read Fontis; for incepit read incipit. p. 138, at the end of the Salisbury Service, dele Salisbury. In the 19th number also of the Athenæum, p. 44, 9th line from the bottom, for vocation read location. In the 18th number, p. 552, 1. 30, transverse Alexandrine and Cambridge. p. 556, 1. 2, for the first o read ☺.

MEMOIRS OF DISTINGUISHED PERSONS.

BIOGRAPHIC NOTICE OF THE ABRE CORDARA.

JULIUS CESAR CORDARA, one of the learned Jesuits who survived the extinction of their society, was born in Alexandria de la Paglia, in 1704. He was the second son of the Count of Calamandrana, in the Upper Monferrat, descended from a noble and ancient family, originally from Nice.

Having, in his very infancy, evinced a quick and lively conception, a calm and sweet temper, and a great fondness for study, he was, by his sagacious father, soon brought to Rome; and, in that metropolis, under the immediate inspection of an uncle, a dignitary of the church, he was placed in the Roman college, governed by the Jesuits, and then in the zenith of its literary fame.

Either from the influence of his friends, or, what is more probable, from his own inclination, in 1718, being not more than 14 years old, he entered the society; and so rapid was his farther progress in the career of learning, that in the 20th year of his age he was employed as a teacher in the college of Viterbo, and then gradually preferred to those of Fermo and of Ancona, and, lastly, to that of Rome.

Although regularly instituted in universal literature, he then evinced a peculiar predilection for those three branches for which he was ever after so justly celebrated-oratory, poetry, and history.

At the age of 23, he first appeared before the public in an elegant discourse on the political and literary merit of the founder of the Roman college, Pope Gregory XIII., which was soon followed by an

equally