In the Harvard Graduates' Magazine for March is an article by Professor M. H. Morgan on the Latin Play which is to be produced in April.

In his article Professor Morgan says that since the production of the "Oedipus Tyrannus," in Sanders Theatre nearly thirteen years ago, the Latin Department has often thought of bringing out a Latin comedy. Not until last summer, however, did its plans reach maturity. Before the end of the last academic year the play was chosen and the parts were assigned. Rehearsals began soon after the autumn term opened and it is expected that on the nineteenth of April and the two following days the Phormio of Terence will be acted in Sanders Theatre by a company of students. This particular comedy was chosen as being the most likely of all the Terentian plays to suit modern taste.

The actors in this play will not wear masks, as was the custom on the Roman stage, but by a skilful use of greased paints their faces will be "made up" so as to suggest the outlines of the mask without really being covered by it.

The most difficult problem is the acting and the delivery of the lines. A little more than half the play is written in verse, and this is difficult enough for a modern to deliver if he keeps strictly to the metre and the rhythm. But when the music comes in, the task becomes harder still. Music to accompany all the parts other than the senarii has been composed for the occasion by Professor F. D. Allen, and these accompaniments follow the rhythm of the Latin verses and are in the main confined to two clarinets. If the ancient usage was followed exactly, a few of the passages should be sung outright. But there will be no singing, and in such parts the only difference will be a greater richness of accompaniment. One of the melodies has been composed to conform to the scale of an ancient pipe now preserved in the British Museum, but with this exception no attempt has been made to reproduce the peculiarities of ancient music. The actual pipers (an oboe, two clarinets and a bassoon) will be stationed behind the scenes, while upon the stage will stand a dummy flute-player with a double pipe made from ancient models, pretending to accompany the actors. Between the acts there will be interludes for the four reed instruments mentioned.

In the cast of the play are fourteen actors, including the spearker of the prologue, and as many students in the college and Graduate School have been found willing to undertake the heavy labor of study and rehearsal requisite to insure a worthy performance. The nineteenth of April, the anniversary of the Concord fight, has been chosen for the first performance in conformity with the Roman custom of producing plays only upon festivals. A libretto containing the Latin text and a new prose translation is in the press and will be for sale about the middle of March.