The half dozen pages upon Terence, which he threw off while the printer's boy waited in the passage (1762), are one of the most easy, flowing, and delightful of his fragments; there is such appreciation of Terence's suavity and tact, of his just and fine judgment, of his discrimination and character.

He admits that Terence had no verve; for that he commends the young poet to Moliere or Aristophanes, but as verve was exactly the quality most wanting to Diderot himself, he easily forgave its absence in Terence, and thought it amply replaced by his moderation, his truth, and his fine taste.

Colman is praised for translating Terence, for here, says Diderot, is the lesson of which Colman's countrymen stand most in need.
The English comic writers have more verve than taste.

"Vanbrugh, Wycherley, Congreve, and some others have painted vices and foibles with vigour; it is not either invention or warmth or gaiety or force that is wanting to their pencil, but rather that unity in the drawing, that precision in the stroke, that truth in colouring, which distinguish portrait from caricature.

Especially are they wanting in the art of discerning and seizing those _naif_, simple, and yet singular movements of character, which always please and astonish, and render the imitation at once true and piquant."[270] Criticism has really nothing to add to these few lines, and if Diderot in his last years read _The School for Scandal_, or _The Rivals_, he would have found no reason to alter his judgment.
One English play had the honour of being translated by Diderot; this was _The Gamester_, not _The Gamester_ of Shirley nor of Garrick, but of Edward Moore (1753).