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

In 1694, England was locked in a cultural struggle with France over the future of European drama. Lawrence Echard enters the fray with these prefaces, arguing that the Roman comic masters Terence and Plautus hold secrets the French have missed. He positions Terence as the supreme model of structural elegance and moral refinement, while celebrating Plautus for his livelier, more vigorous wit even if less polished. These prefaces function as a spirited defense of classical learning for contemporary English playwrights, urging them to mine the ancients while adapting to modern tastes. Echard writes not as a dusty antiquarian but as a partisan in a living debate about what drama should be and do. For anyone curious about how the early modern period reinterpreted antiquity, or how national literary identities formed through rivalry with neighboring cultures, this collection illuminates a pivotal moment when English letters asserted its independence from French dominance.