more than three of the comedies, remarking, ". . . I have
taken somewhat less time than was necessary for the translating such an
extraordinary difficult Author; for this requires more than double the
time of an _Historian_ or the like, which was as much as I cou'd allow
my self" (sig. b3).

In all of his work Echard sought and acknowledged the help of a whole
series of unnamed encouragers and authorities. For the _Plautus_ he "had
the Advantage of another's doing their [i.e., "these"?] Plays before me;
from whose Translation I had very considerable Helps . . ." (sig. b4).
Apart from that aid, the _Plautus_, on the evidence offered by the
title-page and the Preface, was all Echard's own. This is not the case
with the _Terence_, which was translated by a symposium, with the
Preface being written by Echard on the group's behalf. As a result, its
Preface uses "we" throughout where the _Plautus_ uses "I." When the
first edition of the _Terence_ appeared it gave the authorship as "By
Several Hands," but later editions are more detailed, and specify that
the work was done "By Mr. Laurence Echard, and others. Revis'd and
Corrected by Dr. Echard and Sir R. L'Estrange." The fourth edition also
stated firmly in 1716, "The PREFACE, Written by Mr. _Laurence Echard_"
(p. i).

The only discrepancy which might seem to deny Echard's authorship of the
Preface to the _Terence_ is the fact that the two Prefaces contradict
one another over the way in which scenes should be marked. The Preface
to the _Terence_ simply says that exits and entrances within the acts
are a sufficient indication that the scene has changed without numbering
them, "for the _Ancients_ never had any other [method] that we know of"
(p. xxii). The _Plautus_ on the other hand, numbers the scenes, and the
Preface comments, "I have all the way divided the _Acts_ and _Scenes_
according to the true Rules of the Stage . . ." (sig. b2v). Since this
was an open question, however, in neoclassical dramatic theory, the
simplest explanation is that Echard was free to do as he believed in the
_Plautus_, which was all his own, but was, in the Preface to the
_Terence_, expressing the views of the whole group of translators.

The two volumes are a testimony to Echard's remarkable industry and
abilities. They were published the year before he took his M.A., when he
was only twenty-four. In the years between coming up to Cambridge in
1687 and 1695, he found time not only to satisfy hi