[74.] Had been offering a sacrifice)—Ver. 513. It was the custom to sacrifice before entering on affairs of importance. Thus, too, Jupiter, in the Amphitryon of Plautus, l. 938, speaks of offering sacrifice on his safe return.
[75.] Our rings were given)—Ver. 541. It was the custom of parties who agreed to join in a “symbola,” or “club” or “picnic” entertainment, to give their rings as pledges to the “rex convivii,” or “getter up the feast.” Stakes were also deposited on making bets at races. See Ovid’s Art of Love, B. i., l. 168.
[76.] To meet my death)—Ver. 550. There is a passage in the Othello of Shakspeare extremely similar to this:
——“If I were now to die,
I were now to be most happy; for, I fear,
My soul hath her content so absolute,
That not another comfort, like to this,
Succeeds in unknown fate.”
[77.] In the inner apartments)—Ver. 579. The “Gynecæa,” or women’s apartments, among the Greeks, always occupied the interior part of the house, which was most distant from the street, and there they were kept in great seclusion.
[78.] A few novices of girls)—Ver. 582. These “noviciæ” were young slaves recently bought, and intended to be trained to the calling of a Courtesan.