... Tentamen strictuarum in quasdam M. Accii Plauti comoedias

§. VII.

PSEUDOL. Pseudolus. Act. II. Sc. II. v. 71.

Jube sis te opperiri, beatus eris, si consudaveris. The meaning turns on the ambiguity of "opperiri" (to wait) versus "operiri" (to be covered/wrapped up).

Thus the renowned men Taubmann and Gronovius have edited it: but the renowned Operarius, the author of the edition for the use of the Dauphin, more correctly expressed it as operiri. The sense is: Take care to cover yourself properly with blankets, so that you may sleep peacefully and for a long time. What could be more fitting, to be said by someone who was setting a trap for a person about to sleep?

§. VIII.

POENUL. Poenulus (The Little Carthaginian). Act. V. Sc. I.

The Punic language of Plautus has been attempted to be interpreted, long ago by the celebrated S. Bochart, and recently, as the famous Mr. Küttner reports in his letters, by the distinguished Mr. Vallancey, one from Hebraism, the other from the language of the Irish people. It is not my place to discuss the Irish language, which according to Mr. Küttner is derived from the Celtic. It is not entirely alien to the purpose of this specimen to add something ἐν παρέργῳ as an aside/secondary matter to the observations of the celebrated Bochart. Act. V. Sc. I. v. 3.

Bochart rendered it into Hebrew:

translating it into Latin:

For the liberation of my son from the hand of the spoiler and of my daughters.

What if it were read with a sense not very different:

That I may go to redeem the son of my brother, beloved to me, and my daughters.

The celebrated Bochart’s et yad adi from the hand of the spoiler is not pleasing, as the particle et is dragged in against the usage of the Hebrew language to serve as the power of the preposition "from." My interpretation of these same words dares nothing against the character of the language and the oikonomia dramatic structure of the play; I believe it will answer just as well.

§. IX.

Act. ejusd. Sc. IV. v. 33.

AN. The vices of women are many, but this is the greatest of many, etc.

He wrongly assigns this verse to the role of the younger sister.