ntly verbose, but oftentimes dangerous too: And for an
Instance, I need not go any further than the very first Sentence of
the +Prologue+ to +Amphitryon+, which if I had made shorter, I cou'd
have made better. I can't forbear mentioning a Passage in the third
Act of the same Play, which just now comes to my remembrance:

Nam certo si sis sanus, aut sapias satis,
Quam tu impudicam esse arbitrare, & praedicas,
Cum ea tu sermonem nec joco, nec serio
Tibi habeas, nisi sis stultior stultissimo.

Which I have translated, perhaps, too closely thus; +I'm sure, had
ye either Wit, or Discretion, or weren't the greatest Fool in
Nature, you'd ne'er hold Discourse, either in Mirth or Earnest, with
the Woman you believe and declare a Strumpet.+ I'm confident many
other Translators wou'd not have been so scrupulously nice, but have
made shorter work of it. But I have not only been so scrupulous in
this Case, but I have likewise imitated all his Faults and
Imperfections, whenever I cou'd do it without extream Injury to the
Translation; I speak of his +Puns+, +Quibbles+, +Rhimes+, +Gingles+,
and his several ways of playing upon words; which indeed were the
Faults of his Age, as it was of ours in +Shakespear+'s and
+Johnson+'s days, and of which +Terence+, as correct as he is, is
not perfectly clear. Our Author's playing upon words are of that
various nature, and so frequent too, I need not go far for a single
Instance, which shall be in the fore part of the Prologue to
+Amphitryon+:

Justam rem & facilem esse oratum a vobis volo.
Nam juste ab justis sum orator datus.
Nam injusta ab justis impetrare non decet:
Justa autem ab injustis petere, insipientia 'st:
Quippe illi iniqui jus ignorant, neque tenent.

Which I have translated thus: +I desire nothing but what's
reasonable, and feasible; for 'tis a reasonable God requires Reason
from a reasonable People; but to require Roguery from reasonable
People, is base; and to expect Reason from Rascals, is nonsence;
since such People neither know Reason nor observe it.+ Our Author's
Wit did many times consist in his playing upon Words; a great pity
indeed, for a person who was so well able to writ after a more
substantial way, of which we have many remarkable Instances. Besides
his Quibbling, partly from his Carelesness and Necessities, he hath
sometimes a vein of +Trifling+, which was but very indifferent; and
on those places the Reader must make some allowance for the