Editing Terence (section)

==Cultural legacy==
[[File:Roman school.jpg|thumb|upright=1.8|Roman relief of a teacher with three students, c. 180–185 AD]]

At a relatively early date, Terence's play texts began to circulate as literary works for a reading public, as opposed to scripts for the use of actors. By the end of the 2nd century BC, Terence had been established as a literary "classic" and a standard school text.<ref name="Cain_p382">{{harvnb|Cain|2013|p=382}}</ref> [[Cicero]] (born 106 BC) recalls that when he was a boy, his education in rhetoric included an assignment to recount Simo's narrative from the first scene of the ''Andria'' in his own words.<ref>{{harvnb|Bonner|1977|p=261}}</ref> Throughout the [[Roman Empire|imperial]] period, Terence was second only to [[Vergil]] as the most widely known and read of Latin poets, and he remained a core school author while other Republican authors were displaced from the curriculum by Vergil and other Augustan poets.<ref name="Cain_p382"/> By the late 4th century AD, Terence had become one of the four main canonical school authors (the others being [[Cicero]], [[Sallust]], and [[Vergil]]), canonised in a celebrated work by [[Arusianus Messius]], and later referred to by [[Cassiodorus]] as "Messius' [[quadriga]]."<ref name="Cain_p382"/><ref>{{cite book |editor-last=O'Donnell |editor-first=James J. |title=Confessions |volume=II: Commentary on Books 1–7 |location=Oxford |publisher=Clarendon Press |year=1992 |isbn=0-19-814074-6 |page=89}}</ref> St [[Jerome]], St [[Augustine of Hippo]], and the pupils of a "grammarian" friend of St [[Sidonius Apollinaris]] were all set to read the ''Eunuchus'' in school,<ref>{{harvnb|Bonner|1977|p=216}}</ref> and in another of his letters, Sidonius describes reading the ''Hecyra'' together with his son at home.<ref>{{harvnb|Cain|2013|p=384}}</ref>

Terence was one of the few canonical classical authors to maintain a continuous presence in medieval literacy, and the large number of surviving manuscripts bears witness to his great popularity.<ref name="Miola_p930">{{harvnb|Miola|2010|p=930}}</ref> [[Adolphus Ward]] said that Terence led "a charmed life in the darkest ages of learning",<ref>{{cite book |last=Ward |first=Adolphus William |title=A History of English Dramatic Literature to the Death of Queen Anne |edition=2nd |volume=I |location=London |publisher=Macmillan and Co. |year=1899 |page=7}}</ref> a remark approved by [[E. K. Chambers]],<ref>{{cite book |last=Chambers |first=E. K. |title=The Mediaeval Stage |volume=II |location=Oxford |publisher=The Clarendon Press |year=1903 |page=207}}</ref> but Paul Theiner takes issue with this, suggesting that it is more appropriate to attribute "a charmed life" to authors who survived the Middle Ages by chance in a few manuscripts found in isolated libraries, whereas the broad and constant popularity of Terence "rendered elfin administrations quite unnecessary."<ref>{{harvnb|Theiner|1974|p=232}}</ref>

Roman students learning to write would regularly be assigned to copy edifying ''sententiae'', or "maxims", a practice adopted from Greek paedagogy, and Terence was a rich source of such ''sententiae''.<ref>{{harvnb|Bonner|1977|pp=172–5}}</ref> Scores of Terentian maxims enjoyed such currency in late antiquity that they often lost nominal association with their author, with those who quoted Terence qualifying his words as a common proverb.<ref>{{harvnb|Cain|2013|p=387–8}}</ref> Through the Middle Ages, Terence was frequently quoted as an authority on human nature and the mores of men, without regard for which character spoke the line or the original dramatic context, as long as the quotation was sententious in itself when separated from the rest of the play.<ref>{{harvnb|Theiner|1974|p=244}}</ref>

Augustine was a lifelong admirer of Terence's observations on the human condition, and 38 quotations from 28 distinct passages of Terence have been identified in Augustine's works.<ref>{{harvnb|Cain|2013|pp=390–1}}</ref> Notwithstanding his respect for Terence's moralising, when Augustine writes in the ''[[Confessions (Augustine)|Confessions]]'' about his school days, he quotes the scene from the ''Eunuchus'' where Chaerea recounts how he and Pamphila looked together at a painting of [[Zeus]] intruding in the home of [[Danaë]], after which Chaerea, emboldened by the example of the pagan god, took the opportunity to rape Pamphila. Augustine argues that it is not necessary for students to be exposed to such "vileness" (''turpitudo'') merely to learn vocabulary and eloquence.<ref>{{harvnb|Cain|2013|pp=391–2}}</ref><ref>Aug., ''Conf.'' I.16.26.</ref><ref>{{cite book |editor-last=O'Donnell |editor-first=James J. |title=Confessions |volume=I: Text and Introduction |location=Oxford |publisher=Clarendon Press |year=1992 |isbn=0-19-814378-8 |page=13}}</ref><ref>{{cite book |translator-last=Boulding |translator-first=Maria |title=The Confessions |series=The Works of Saint Augustine: A Translation for the 21st Century I/1 |location=Hyde Park, NY |publisher=New City Press |year=1997 |isbn=1-56548-083-X |pages=56–7}}</ref>

In the 10th century, [[Hrotsvit of Gandersheim]] wrote six plays based on the lives of [[Christianity|Christian]] saints, on the model of the six comedies of Terence. In a preface explaining her purpose in writing, Hrotsvit takes up Augustine's critique of the moral influence of the comedies, saying that many Christians attracted by Terence's style find themselves corrupted by his subject matter, and she has undertaken to write works in the same genre so that the literary form once used "to describe the shameless acts of licentious women" might be repurposed to glorify the chastity of holy virgins.<ref>{{harvnb|Augoustakis|2013|pp=399–401}}</ref><ref name="Miola_p931">{{harvnb|Miola|2010|p=931}}</ref> As Terence's subject matter is trivial while Hrotsvit's is important, his plays are in verse while hers are in prose, her plays are written in the same style as other medieval literature and lack verbal reminiscences of Terence apart from some oaths and interjections, and she does not respect the [[classical unities|unity of time]] or other ancient dramatic conventions, it has been argued that Terence's influence on Hrotsvit is superficial, and the only similarity between them is that they each wrote six plays.<ref>{{cite journal |last=Roberts |first=Arthur J. |title=Did Hrotswitha Imitate Terence? |journal=Modern Language Notes |volume=16 |issue=8 |date=December 1901 |pages=239–241 |doi=10.2307/2917196 |jstor=2917196}}</ref><ref>"Clearly there is little in these six plays which, from our point of view, can be called Terentian." {{harvnb|Coulter|1929|p=526}}</ref>

Hrotsvit's indebtedness to Terence lies rather in situations and subject matter, transposed to invert the Terentian plot and its values; the place of the Terentian hero who successfully pursues a woman is taken by the girl who triumphs by resisting all advances (or a prostitute who abandons her former life), and a happy ending lies not in the consummation of the young couple's marriage, but in a figurative marriage to Christ.<ref>{{harvnb|Kretschmer|2019|p=303}}</ref> Whereas in the ''Eunuchus'', Chaerea entered a courtesan's home disguised as a eunuch to gain access to his beloved, two of Hrotsvit's plays (''Abraham'' and ''Paphnutius'') feature a man entering a brothel disguised as a lover in order to win a woman to repentance and a life of continence.<ref name="Miola_p931"/><ref>{{harvnb|Coulter|1929|pp=524–6}}</ref> Robert Talbot reads Hrotsvit's plays as a Christian allegorisation of Terence designed to rehabilitate the comedies themselves, as Hrotsvit's reconfiguration of the genre to demonstrate the superiority of heavenly love to earthly love will enable readers to read Terence in a new way, with their minds directed from the sinful content to a higher Christian meaning.<ref>{{cite book |last=Talbot |first=Robert |editor-first1=Phyllis |editor-first2=Linda A. |editor-first3=Katharina |editor-last1=Brown |editor-last2=McMillin |editor-last3=Wilson |chapter=Hrotsvit's Dramas: Is There a Roman in These Texts? |title=Hrotsvit of Gandersheim: Contexts, Identities, Affinities, and Performances |location=Toronto |publisher=University of Toronto Press |year=2004 |pages=147–159 |doi=10.3138/9781442675902-009|isbn=978-1-4426-7590-2 }}</ref> Hrotsvit did not exercise a significant influence on European literature before her works were rediscovered and printed in 1501.<ref>{{harvnb|Kretschmer|2019|p=297}}</ref>

[[File:Bodleian Libraries, Comedies of Terence 55v.jpg|thumb|upright=1.35|right|Mid-12th-century illustrated Latin manuscript of Terence's ''Comedies'' from [[St Albans Abbey]], now held at the [[Bodleian Library]], Oxford]]

In the ''[[Divine Comedy]]'', [[Dante Alighieri|Dante]]'s guide Vergil tells him that Terence is in [[Limbo]] among the virtuous pagans (''Purg.'' XXII, 94–105), and shows him Thais, the character from the ''Eunuchus,'' in the eighth circle of hell where flatterers are punished. (''Inf.'' XVIII, 133–5) It has been claimed that Dante did not know Terence directly, and his references to Terence are derived from citations in Cicero or medieval florilegia. However, Terence was one of the most commonly read authors in the 14th century, and Joseph Russo argues that considering the access Dante would have had to manuscripts of Terence and the desire he would have had to read Terence, the logical conclusion is that "Dante must have known Terence."<ref>{{cite journal |last=Russo |first=Joseph A. |title=Did Dante Know Terence? |journal=Italica |volume=24 |issue=3 |date=September 1947 |pages=212–218 |doi=10.2307/476358 |jstor=476358}}</ref>

[[Renaissance humanism|Renaissance humanists]] delighted in Terence.<ref name="Miola_p930"/> [[Giovanni Boccaccio]] copied out in his own hand all of Terence's comedies in a manuscript that is now in the [[Laurentian Library]].<ref>[https://tecabml.contentdm.oclc.org/digital/collection/plutei/id/579131/ Plut.38.17]</ref><ref>{{cite journal |last=Hauvette |first=M. H. |title=Notes sur des manuscrits autographe de Boccace à la Bibliothèque Laurentienne |journal=Mélange de l'école française de Rome |year=1894 |volume=14 |pages=87–145 |url=https://www.persee.fr/doc/mefr_0223-4874_1894_num_14_1_6782}}</ref>

The [[list of editiones principes in Latin|first printed edition]] of Terence appeared in [[Strasbourg]] in 1470, while the first certain post-antique performance of one of Terence's plays, ''[[Andria (comedy)|Andria]]'', took place in [[Florence]] in 1476. There is evidence, however, that Terence was performed much earlier. The short dialogue ''[[Terentius et delusor]]'' was probably written to be performed as an introduction to a Terentian performance in the 9th century (possibly earlier).

[[Beatus Rhenanus]] writes that [[Erasmus]], gifted in his youth with a tenacious memory, held Terence's comedies as closely as his fingers and toes.<ref>{{cite book |editor-last=Allen |editor-first=P. S. |title=Opus epistolarum Des. Erasmi Roterodami |volume=I: 1484–1514 |location=Oxford |publisher=Clarendon Press |year=1906 |page=[https://books.google.com/books?id=q8kvAQAAMAAJ&pg=PA55 55]}}</ref> In the ''De ratione studii'' (1511), a central text for European curricula, Erasmus wrote, "among Latin authors, who is more useful for learning to speak than Terence? He is pure, concise, and near to everyday conversation, and pleasant to youth as well for his genre of plot."<ref name="Miola_p930"/><ref>''"Rursum inter latinos quis vtilior loquendi auctor quam Terentius? Purus, tersus et quotidiano sermoni proximus, tum ipso quoque argumenti genere iucundus adolescentiae."'' Margolin, Jean-Claude, ed. ''De ratione studii.'' In [https://library.oapen.org/handle/20.500.12657/34820 ''Opera omnia Desiderii Erasmi Roterodami'' I/2] (Amsterdam: North-Holland Publishing Company, 1971), pp. 79–152. pp. 115–6.</ref> [[Martin Luther]] wrote that "I love Terence" and considered his comedies useful not only to help schoolboys improve their language skills, but also to teach them about society, because Terence "saw how it goes with people"; even if there were some "obscene" passages in the comedies, Luther insisted that they were no less appropriate for young people to read without censorship than the Bible, which "contains amatory things everywhere."<ref>{{cite book |last=Springer |first=Carl P. E. |title=Luther's Rome, Rome's Luther: How the City Shaped the Reformer |location=Minneapolis |publisher=Fortress Press |year=2021 |isbn=978-1506472027 |pages=76–7}}</ref> The indexes of the [[Weimar edition of Martin Luther's works]] note nearly 200 references to Terence and his plays.<ref>{{cite journal |last=Springer |first=Carl P. E. |title=Martin's Martial: Reconsidering Luther's Relationship with the Classics |journal=International Journal of the Classical Tradition |volume=14 |issue=1/2 |date=Summer 2007 |pages=23–50 |doi=10.1007/s12138-008-0003-4 |jstor=25691145}} p. 32</ref>

The preservation of Terence through the church enabled his work to influence much of later Western drama.<ref>{{cite book|last1=Holloway|first1=Julia Bolton|title=Sweet New Style: Brunetto Latino, Dante Alighieri, Geoffrey Chaucer, Essays, 1981-2005|date=1993|url=http://www.umilta.net/GodsPlenty.html|access-date=22 October 2014}}</ref> Two of the earliest English comedies, the 16th-century ''[[Ralph Roister Doister]]'' and ''[[John Still#Gammer Gurton's Needle|Gammer Gurton's Needle]]'', are thought to parody Terence's plays. [[Montaigne]] and [[Molière]] cite and imitate him.

[[File:Rolfe Shakespeare Armado and Moth.png|thumb|Engraving of Shakespeare's "thrasonical" soldier Armado.]]

Based on what is known about a typical curriculum at a grammar school such as [[William Shakespeare]] went to, it may be considered certain that Shakespeare must have studied Terence as a boy.<ref>{{cite book| last=Anders |first=H. R. D. |title=Shakespeare's Books: A Dissertation on Shakespeare's Reading and the Immediate Sources of His Works |location=Berlin |publisher=Georg Reimer |year=1904 |pages=10–11}}</ref><ref>{{cite book |last=Baldwin |first=T. W. |title=William Shakspere's Small Latine & Lesse Greeke |volume=I |location=Urbana |publisher=University of Illinois Press |year=1944 |pages=641–2}}</ref> In Shakespeare's day, a typical schoolboy at the age of 9 would begin to memorise a great part, if not all, of Terence.<ref>{{harvnb|Baldwin|1947|p=544}}</ref> A quote from the ''Eunuchus'' in Shakespeare's ''[[The Taming of the Shrew]]'' is not taken direct from the play, but quoted in a form in which it is found in [[William Lily (grammarian)|William Lily]]'s Latin Grammar and [[Nicholas Udall]]'s ''Floures for Latine spekynge,'' with the syntax adapted to form an independent sentence.<ref>{{cite book| last=Anders |first=H. R. D. |title=Shakespeare's Books: A Dissertation on Shakespeare's Reading and the Immediate Sources of His Works |location=Berlin |publisher=Georg Reimer |year=1904 |pages=15–16}}</ref> However, the indebtedness of the character of Armado in ''[[Love's Labour's Lost]]'' to Thraso in the ''Eunuchus'' points to Shakespeare's familiarity with the play as a whole.<ref>{{harvnb|Baldwin|1947|pages=547–54}}</ref> Chaerea's exultation upon coming out of Thais' house after the rape, declaring himself content to die in that blissful moment, also seems to be echoed in ''[[Othello]]'' II.1 and ''[[The Merry Wives of Windsor]]'' III.3.<ref>{{harvnb|Baldwin|1947|pp=556–9}}</ref> Shakespeare's encounter with Terence in grammar school introduced him to comedy and scenic structure, laying the foundations for his art.<ref>{{cite book |last=Bate |first=Jonathan |title=How the Classics Made Shakespeare |location=Princeton and Oxford |publisher=Princeton University Press |year=2019 |isbn=9780691161600 |page=8}}</ref>

Terence's plays were a standard part of the Latin curriculum of the [[Neoclassicism|neoclassical]] period. In a letter prescribing a course of education for his nephew [[Peter Carr (Virginia politician)|Peter Carr]], [[Thomas Jefferson]] listed Terence among classical poets Carr already had read or would read at school.<ref>{{cite letter |first=Thomas |last=Jefferson |recipient=Peter Carr |subject=Letter |date=19 August 1785 |url=https://founders.archives.gov/documents/Jefferson/01-08-02-0319}}</ref> Jefferson copied four extracts from the ''Andria'' into his literary [[commonplace book]], seemingly in the late 1760s and 1770s, and the presence of three different editions of Terence in the carefully selected second [[Monticello]] library is a clear indication that Terence formed a part of Jefferson's retirement reading.<ref>{{cite book |editor-last=Wilson |editor-first=Douglas L. |title=Jefferson's Literary Commonplace Book |location=Princeton |publisher=Princeton University Press |year=1989 |isbn=0-691-04720-0 |page=184}}</ref>

In 1781, [[John Adams]] offered his son [[John Quincy Adams]] a copy of [[Anne Dacier]]'s edition of Terence with a parallel French translation, writing, "Terence is remarkable, for good Morals, good Taste and good Latin—his Language has a Simplicity and an elegance, that makes him proper to be accurately studied, as A Model."<ref>{{cite letter |first=John |last=Adams |recipient=John Quincy Adams |subject = Letter |date=12 February 1781 |url=https://founders.archives.gov/documents/Adams/04-04-02-0054}}</ref> This was declined, as John Quincy believed his teacher would not like him to have a translation "because when I shall translate him he would desire that I might do it without help."<ref>{{cite letter |first=John Quincy |last=Adams |recipient=John Adams |subject=Letter |date=18 February 1781 |url=https://founders.archives.gov/documents/Adams/04-04-02-0055}}</ref> John Quincy eventually read the ''Andria'' over three evenings in February 1786, and was not impressed with the pace of his [[Harvard University|Harvard]] class, which finished the play three months later.<ref>{{cite book |editor1-last=Taylor |editor1-first=Robert J. |editor2-last=Friedlaender |editor2-first=Marc |chapter=10 May 1786 |chapter-url=https://founders.archives.gov/documents/Adams/03-02-02-0001-0003-0010 |title=Diary of John Quincy Adams |volume=2: March 1786–December 1788 |location=Cambridge, MA |publisher=Harvard University Press |year=1981 |page=30}}</ref> He recorded in his diary that "The Play is interesting, and many of the Sentiments are fine", and though he found the plot highly improbable, "the Critic can never find Perfection, and the person that is willing to be pleased with what he reads, is happier than he who is always looking for faults."<ref>{{cite book |editor1-last=Taylor |editor1-first=Robert J. |editor2-last=Friedlaender |editor2-first=Marc |chapter=15 February 1786 |chapter-url=https://founders.archives.gov/documents/Adams/03-01-02-0008-0002-0015 |title=Diary of John Quincy Adams |volume=1: November 1779–March 1786 |location=Cambridge, MA |publisher=Harvard University Press |year=1981 |page=405}}</ref>

In 1816, John Quincy's son [[George Washington Adams]] performed in a school production of ''Andria'' in the role of the old man Crito, to the relief of the family, who had worried he might be given a less "respectable" part.<ref>{{harvnb|Rous|2020|pages=313–5}}</ref> George's grandmother [[Abigail Adams]], having read the play, took exception to "the manners and morals".<ref>{{harvnb|Rous|2020|p=315}}</ref> Grandfather John, after rereading all six of Terence's comedies, also expressed apprehension about whether they were fit to be taught or exhibited to impressionable youths,<ref>{{cite letter |first=John |last=Adams |recipient=George Washington Adams |subject=Letter |date=27 August 1816 |url=https://founders.archives.gov/documents/Adams/99-03-02-3171}}</ref> who lacked sufficient life experience to recognise certain characters and their deeds as morally repugnant and react appropriately.<ref>{{harvnb|Rous|2020|p=316}}</ref> Accordingly, Adams undertook a month-long project to go through the plays excerpting approximately 140 passages that he considered illustrative of human nature as it is the same in all ages and countries, adding translations and comments explaining the moral lessons his grandsons should draw from the texts.<ref>{{harvnb|Rous|2020|pp=315–7}}</ref><ref>{{cite book |last=Richard |first=Carl J. |title=The Golden Age of the Classics in America |location=Cambridge, MA |publisher=Harvard University Press |year=2009 |isbn=978-0-674-03264-4 |page=28}}</ref> John Quincy believed the manners and plots of Terence's plays were too remote from modern life for there to be a danger of a detrimental influence on students' morals, but praised his father's project, writing, "You have indeed skimmed the cream of Terence and sent it to my boys—I trust they will preserve it and that it will aid them in drawing all the solid benefit from the amanuensis of Laelius and Scipio, which he can afford to their future lives."<ref>{{cite letter |first=John Quincy |last=Adams |recipient=John Adams |subject=Letter |date=29 October 1816 |url=https://founders.archives.gov/documents/Adams/99-03-02-3199}}</ref> When Adams sent his grandson [[Charles Francis Adams Sr.|Charles Francis Adams]] his excerpts from the ''Phormio,'' he remarked, "in these Plays of Terence ... Are not the Slaves Superior Beings to the Citizens? Every Smart Expression; every brilliant Image, every Moral Sentiment is in the Mouth of a Slave."<ref>{{cite letter |first=John |last=Adams |recipient=Charles Francis Adams |subject=Letter |date=10 August 1816 |url=https://founders.archives.gov/documents/Adams/99-03-02-3162}}</ref> In 1834, when Charles read the works of Terence, copying in his grandfather's comments and making other notes, he responded, "In returning to answer these questions, I must disagree with the sentiment. I cannot overlook the characters of Menedemus and Chremes, of Micio and Demea which contain more moral sentiment than all the Slaves in the six Plays."<ref>{{harvnb|Rous|2020|p=330}}</ref>

American playwright [[Thornton Wilder]] based his novel ''[[The Woman of Andros]]'' on Terence's ''[[Andria (comedy)|Andria]]''.

Due to his cognomen Afer, Terence has long been identified with Africa and heralded as the first poet of the African diaspora by generations of writers, including [[Juan Latino]], [[Alexandre Dumas]], [[Langston Hughes]] and [[Maya Angelou]]. [[Phyllis Wheatley]], the first published African-American poet, asked why the [[Muses]] had inspired "one alone of Afric's sable race."<ref>{{cite book |last=Wheatley |first=Phyllis |title=Poems on Various Subjects, Religious and Moral |location=London |year=1773 |page=11 |url=https://archive.org/details/poemsonvarioussu1773whea/page/10/mode/2up}}</ref> [[Thomas Jefferson]], on the other hand, in an attempt to prove that African-Americans were naturally incapable of poetry, claimed that Terence had been "of the race of whites."<ref>{{cite book |last=Jefferson |first=Thomas |editor-last=Forbes |editor-first=Robert Pierce |title=Notes on the State of Virginia: An Annotated Edition |location=New Haven |publisher=Yale University Press |year=2022 |orig-year=1785 |isbn=978-0-300-22687-4 |page=220}}</ref> Two of his plays were produced in [[Denver]] with black actors.{{when|date=March 2024}}

Questions as to whether Terence received assistance in writing or was not the actual author have been debated over the ages, as described in the 1911 edition of the ''[[Encyclopædia Britannica]]:''
<blockquote>[In a prologue to one of his plays, Terence] meets the charge of receiving assistance in the composition of his plays by claiming as a great honour the favour which he enjoyed with those who were the favorites of the Roman people. But the gossip, not discouraged by Terence, lived and throve; it crops up in [[Cicero]] and [[Quintilian]], and the ascription of the plays to Scipio had the honour to be accepted by [[Montaigne]] and rejected by [[Diderot]].<ref>{{EB1911 |inline=1|first=William Young |last=Sellar |first2=Ernest |last2=Harrison |wstitle=Terence |volume=26 |page=640}}</ref></blockquote>