Prefaces to Terence's Comedies and Plautus's Comedies (1694)

aces we have had somewhat more of Humour than the Original, to make it still more agreeable to our Age . . . ." (ibid., p. xxii). When speaking for himself alone in the Preface to the Plautus, Echard's claims were less grandiose. Here the translation seems much more specifically aimed at schoolboys, and Echard made firm claims for his literalness (sig. b1-2v). On the other hand, he went out of his way to praise Dryden's Amphitryon (1690) for the freedom it had taken with the original, which, said Echard, "may serve for one Instance of what Improvements our Modern Poets have made on the Ancients, when they built upon their Foundations" (sig. b3v-4).

The praise of Dryden is to some extent double-edged since it is an implicit assertion of the point made in both Prefaces, that English writers had much to learn from the Roman dramatists. Echard uses the Prefaces to assess and compare Plautus and Terence, but he also uses them as a springboard for a cri