reover, on casting my eyes up to the gallery, I perceived that there
were overseers there armed with long canes, and that the small youths
did not indulge in plaudations and hilarity except when threatened by
these.

And thereupon I took heart, seeing that the proceedings were clearly
veiled in an obsolete and cryptic language, and it was simply matter of
rite and custom to applaud at fixed intervals, so I did at Rome as the
Romans did, and was laughter holding both his sides as often as I beheld
the canes in a state of agitation.

I am not unaware that it is to bring a coal from Newcastle to pronounce
any critical opinion upon the ludibrious qualities of so antiquated a
comedy as this, but, while I am wishful to make every allowance for its
having been composed in a period of prehistoric barbarity, I would still
hazard the criticism that it does not excite the simpering guffaw with
the frequency of such modern standard works as _exempli gratia_, _Miss
Brown_, or _The Aunt of Charley_, to either of which I would award the
palm for pure whimsicality and gawkiness.

Candour compels me to admit, however, that the conclusion of the
Adelphi, in which a certain magician summoned a black-robed,
steeple-hatted demon from the nether world, who, after commanding a
minion to give a pickle-back to sundry grotesque personages, did
castigate their ulterior portions severely with a large switch, was a
striking amelioration and betterment upon the preceding scenes, and
evinced that TERENCE possessed no deficiency of up-to-date facetiousness
and genuine humour; though I could not but reflect--"_O, si sic omnia!_"
and lament that he should have hidden his _vis comica_ for so long under
the stifling disguise of a _serviette_.

I am a beggar at describing the hurly-burly and most admired disorder
amidst which I performed the descent of the staircase in a savage
perspiration, my elbows and heels unmercifully jostled by a dense,
unruly horde, and going with nose in pocket, from trepidation due to
national cowardice, while the seething mob clamoured and contended for
overcoats and hats around very exiguous aperture, through which
bewildered custodians handed out bundles of sticks and umbrellas, in
vain hope to appease such impatience. Nor did I succeed to the recovery
of my hat and paraphernalia until after twenty-four and a half minutes
(Greenwich time), and with the labours of Hercules for the golden
fleece!

[Illustration: "A GOLDEN-