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[ Warm the bosom of another.—Ver. 5. As each guest while reclining on the couch at the entertainment, mostly leaned on his left elbow during the meal, and as two or more persons lay on the same couch, the head of one person reached to the breast of him who lay above him, and the lower person was said to lie on the bosom of the other. Among the Romans, the usual number of persons occupying each couch was three. Sometimes, however, four occupied one couch; while, among the Greeks, only two reclined upon it. In this instance, he describes the lady as occupying the place below her husband, and consequently warming his breast with her head. For a considerable time after the fashion of reclining at meals had been introduced into Rome, the Roman ladies sat at meals while the other sex was recumbent. Indeed, it was generally considered more becoming for females to be seated, especially if it was a party where many persons were present. Juvenal, however, represents a bride as reclining at the marriage supper on the bosom of her husband. On the present occasion, it is not very likely that the ladies were particular about the more rigid rules of etiquette. It must be remembered that before lying down, the shoes or sandals were taken off.]
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[ Damsel of Atrax.—Ver. 8. He alludes to the marriage of Hippodamia to Pirithous, and the battle between the Centaurs and the Lapithæ, described in the Twelfth-. Book of the Metamorphoses.]
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[ Do come first.—Ver. 14. He hardly knows why he asks her to do so, but still she must come before her husband; perhaps, that he may have the pleasure of gazing upon her without the chance of detection; the more especially as she would not recline till her husband had arrived, and would, till then, probably be seated.]