Terence’s Comedies: Made English With His Life; And Some Remarks At The End..
Bound in original calf, boards with blind stamped panels; spine in compartments with raised bands. Extremities worn, hinges and joints starting to weaken. Marginal lower edge worming confined to H signature. Darkening of pages throughout and some water staining in lower margins.
£450.00
Publisher
Printed for Abel Swalle at the Unicorn in Pater-noster-Row.,
Place
London
Date
1699
Synopsis
By several hands. the second edition corrected.
Item Description
12mo. 4 x 6.5 inches. [1] + xxxii + [2] + 359 pp. + [1]. Lacks L12. Each of the six plays has a divisional title page,
Notes
The six comedies of Terence rendered into the robust English of the late seventeenth century drama. The divisional title of each play purports to give the occasion, company and date, etc. of the first performances. Publius Terentius Afer (195/185-159 BC) was a playwright of the Roman Republic, of North African slave origin. His entire output of the six comedies (which he derived from the Greek late Attic plays) has survived in numerous manuscript copies, a testimony to his popularity in the middle ages and Renaissance. In the sixteenth century his works influenced some of the earliest English comedies, while the simplicity and elegance of his Latin prose style has long been admired by scholars. Terence's Comedies was first published in 1694 and an earlier corrected second edition first appeared in 1698. This 1699 reprint, by another publisher, is very scarce; ESTC records only three copies in UK libraries (Oxford and Cambridge) and four in the US.
[Stock No. 21089]
Subjects
17th Century • Ancient • Art / Literature • Classics • Drama • Latin • Lit. Fiction • Plays