le_)--Ver. 538. This was a
proverbial expression, tantamount to our saying, "Talk of the
devil, he's sure to appear." Servius, in his Commentary on the
Ninth Eclogue of Virgil, says that the saying arose from the
common belief that the person whom a wolf sets his eyes upon is
deprived of his voice, and thence came to be applied to a person
who, coming upon others in the act of talking about him,
necessarily put a stop to their conversation. Cooke says, in
reference to this passage, "This certainly alludes to a Fable of
AEsop's, of the Wolf, the Fox, and the Ape: which is translated by
Phaedrus, and is the tenth of his First Book." It is much more
certain that Cooke is mistaken here, and that the fable of the
arbitration of the Ape between the Wolf and the Fox has nothing to
do with this passage. If it alludes to any fable (which from the
expression itself is not at all unlikely), it is more likely to be
that where the Nurse threatens that the wolf shall take the
naughty Child, on which he makes his appearance, but is
disappointed in his expectations, or else that of the Shepherd-boy
and the Wolf. See the Stichus of Plautus, l. 57, where the same
expression occurs.]

[Footnote 65: _Met a day-laborer_)--Ver. 542. Donatus remarks that
the Poet artfully contrives to detain Demea in town, his presence
being necessary in the latter part of the Play.]

[Footnote 66: _With her in some cupboard_)--Ver. 553. Donatus
observes that the young man was silly in this, for if discovered
to be there he would be sure to be caught. His object, however,
for going there would be that he might not be discovered.]

[Footnote 67: _Take me to be in my senses_)--Ver. 580. "Censen
hominem me esse?" literally, "Do you take me to be a human being?"
meaning, "Do you take me to be a person in my common senses?"]

[Footnote 68: _Street on the left hand_)--Ver. 583. Theobald, in
his edition of Shakspeare, observes that the direction given by
Lancelot in the Merchant of Venice seems to be copied from that
given here by Syrus: "Turn up on your right hand at the next
turning, but at the next turning of all on your left; marry, at
the very next turning of no hand, but turn down indirectly to the
Jew's house."]

[Footnote 69: _Come to the city gate_)--Ver. 584. From this we
discover that Demea is being sent to the very extremity of the
town, as Donatus informs us that ponds