: _Wine-bibbing_)--Ver. 229. The nurses and midwives
of antiquity seem to have been famed for their tippling
propensities. In some of the Plays of Plautus we do not find them
spared.]

[Footnote 45: _Rearing some monster_)--Ver. 250. "Aliquid monstri
alunt." Madame Dacier and some other Commentators give these words
the rather far-fetched meaning of "They are hatching some plot."
Donatus, with much more probability, supposes him to refer to the
daughter of Chremes, whom, as the young women among the Greeks
were brought up in great seclusion, we may suppose Pamphilus never
to have seen.]

[Footnote 46: _She is oppressed with grief_)--Ver. 268. "Laborat a
dolore." Colman has the following remark upon this passage:
"Though the word 'laborat' has tempted Donatus and the rest of the
Commentators to suppose that this sentence signifies Glycerium
being in labor, I can not help concurring with Cooke, that it
means simply that she is weighed down with grief. The words
immediately subsequent corroborate this interpretation; and at the
conclusion of the Scene, when Mysis tells him that she is going
for a midwife, Pamphilus hurries her away, as he would naturally
have done here had he understood by these words that her mistress
was in labor."]

[Footnote 47: _By your good Genius_)--Ver. 289. "Per Genium tuum."
This was a common expression with the Romans, and is used by
Horace, Epistles, B. i., Ep. 7:--

"Quod te per Genium dextramque Deosque Penates,
Obsecro, et obtestor--"

The word "Genius" signified the tutelary God who was supposed to
attend every person from the period of his birth. The
signification of the word will be found further referred to in the
Notes to the Translation of Plautus.]

[Footnote 48: _To fetch the midwife_)--Ver. 299. Cooke has the
following remark here: "Methinks Mysis has loitered a little too
much, considering the business which she was sent about; but
perhaps Terence knew that some women were of such a temper as to
gossip on the way, though an affair of life or death requires
their haste." Colman thus takes him to task for this observation:
"This two-edged reflection, glancing at once on Terence and the
ladies, is, I think, very ill-founded. The delay of Mysis, on
seeing the emotion of Pamphilus, is very natural; and her artful
endeavors to interest Pamphilus on behalf of her mistress, are
rather marks of h