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Andria (comedy)

Latin comic play by Terence

Andria ('The Woman from Andros' or 'The Lady of Andros') is a Roman comedy adapted by Terence from two Greek plays by Menander, the first being Samia and the other being Perinthia. It was the first play by Terence to be presented publicly, and was performed in 166 BC during the Ludi Megalenses. It became the first of Terence's plays to be performed post-antiquity, in Florence in 1476. It was adapted by Machiavelli, whose Andria was likewise the author's first venture into playwriting and was the first of Terence's plays to be translated into English, c. 1520. The second English translation was by the Welshman Morris Kyffin in 1588.

Prologue

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  • Faciuntne intellegendo ut nil intellegant?
    • Does not this use of their critical faculty show that they are no critics?
    • 17 (tr. John Sargeaunt)
    • Variant translation: "Do not they bring it to pass by knowing that they know nothing at all?" (Henry Thomas Riley)

Act I

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  • Hoc tempore
    Obsequium amicos, Veritas odium parit.
    • Nowadays it's complaisance that makes friends and truthfulness is the mother of unpopularity.
      • 67 (tr. Sargeaunt)
  • Egregia forma atque aetate integra.
    • A beauty and in the prime of life.
    • 72 (tr. Sargeaunt)
    • Variant translations: "Of excellent beautie, and in the flowre of age" (Kyffin); "Of surpassing beauty and in the bloom of youth." (Riley)
    • Cp. Eunuchus, 319
  • Hinc illae lacrimae.
    • That's the source of his tears.
    • 126 (tr. Sargeaunt)
    • Variant translations: "Hence these tears." (Riley); "Hence all those tears shed" (Oxford Dictionary of Quotations, 3rd ed.)
  • Davos sum, non Oedipus.
    • I'm Davus, not Oedipus.
    • 194 (tr. Sargeaunt)
    • Qtd. in the plural number by Peter Martyr, De Orbe Novo, IX: Davi sunt, non Oedipi.

Act II

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  • Facile omnes quom valemus recta consilia aegrotis damus.
    • When you're well it's easy to give sound advice to a sick man.
    • 309 (tr. Sargeaunt)
  • Verum illud verbum est, vulgo quod dici solet,
    Omnes sibi malle melius esse quam alteri.
    • It's a true saying you hear everywhere that every one sets his own good before his neighbour's.
    • 426 (tr. Sargeaunt)
    • Variant translation: "That is a true proverb which is wont to be commonly quoted, that 'all had rather it to be well for themselves than for another.'" (Riley)

Act III

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  • Amantium irae amoris integratiost.
    • Lovers' quarrels are love's renewal.
    • 555 (tr. Sargeaunt)
    • Variant translations: "The falling out of Louers, is a Renewing of Loue" (Kyffin); "The quarrels of lovers are the renewal of love" (Riley); "Lovers’ rows make love whole again" (ODQ, 3rd ed.)
    • Cp. Publius Syrus, Maxim 24: "The anger of lovers renews the strength of love"; Richard Edwardes, The Paradise of Dainty Devices (1576): "The fallyng out of faithfull frends, is the renuyng of loue"; John Lyly, Euphues (1578): "Let the falling out of friends be a renewing of affection"; Robert Burton, Anatomy of Melancholy (1621), part iii, sec. 2: "The falling out of lovers is the renewing of love"

Act IV

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  • Heus, proxumus sum egomet mihi.
    • Look you, I am the most concerned in my own interests.
    • 636 (tr. Riley)
    • Variant translation: "Heare you me, I loue you well, but my selfe better" (Kyffin), with which cp. Shakespeare, Tempest, I, i, 20: "None that I more loue then my selfe"
    • Equivalent to English sayings, "Charity begins at home"; "Take care of Number One"

Act V

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About

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  • Scripsit comoedias sex, ex quibus primam "Andriam" cum aedilibus daret, iussus ante Caecilio​ recitare, ad cenantem cum venisset, dictus est initium quidem fabulae, quod erat contemptiore vestitu, subsellio iuxta lectulum residens legisse, post paucos vero versus invitatus ut accumberet cenasse una, dein cetera percucurrisse non sine magna Caecilii​ admiratione.
    • He wrote six comedies, and when he offered the first of these, the "Andria," to the aediles, they bade him first read it to Caecilius. Having come to the poet's house when he was dining, and being meanly clad, Terence is said to have read the beginning of his play sitting on a bench near the great man's couch. But after a few lines he was invited to take his place at table, and after dining with Caecilius, he ran through the rest to his host's great admiration.
    • Suetonius, Vita Terenti, 2 (tr. John C. Rolfe)
  • Sororem falso creditam meretriculae
    genere Andriae, Glycerium, vitiat Pamphilus
    gravidaque facta dat fidem uxorem sibi
    fore hance; namque aliam pater ei desponderat,
    gnatam Chremetis, atque ut amorem comperit,
    simulat futuras nuptias, cupiens suos
    quid haberet animi filius cognoscere.
    Davi persuasu non repugnat Pamphilus.
    sed ex Glycerio natum ut vidit puerulum
    Chremes, recusat nuptias, generum abdicat.
    mox filiam Glycerium insperato adgnitam
    hanc Pamphilo, aliam dat Charino coniugem.
    • Glycerium, erroneously supposed to be the sister of a courtesan from Andros, was seduced by Pamphilus and being with child received his promise to marry her. His father had already arranged a match for him with a daughter of Chremes, and on discovering his intrigue made as if the marriage were still to take place, hoping in this way to discover his son’s real sentiments. Acting on the advice of Davus, Pamphilus raised no objection. When, however, Chremes found that Glycerium had given birth toa child, he broke off the match between his daughter and Pamphilus. Afterwards he discovers to his surprise that Glycerium is a daughter of his own and marries her to Pamphilus. His other daughter he gives in marriage to Charinus.

Translations

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