Do you, Davus, go home, and order some of our people hither, to remove her to our house. Why do you loiter? go, don’t lose a moment.
Davus.—I am going. You must not expect their coming out: she will be betrothed within, &c.
The concluding lines of the play from “You must not expect,” &c., were not originally spoken by the actor who personated Davus, but formed a sort of epilogue, spoken by a performer, called Cantor; who also pronounced the word Plaudite, with which the comedies and tragedies of the Romans usually terminated. Vide [Note 217], also Quintilian, B. 6. C. 1., and Cicero and Cato. Horace expressly tells us, that the Cantor said the words, vos plaudite.
“Tu quid ego, et populus mecum desideret audi.
Si plausoris eges aulæa manentis, et usque
Sessuri, donec Cantor vos plaudite dicat;
Ætatis cujusque notandi sunt tibi mores,
Mobilibusque decor naturis dandus et annis.”
Art of Poet., L. 153.