[31] Sugar is one of the chief products of the Canary Islands. These islands are supposed to be identical with those known to the ancients as the Fortunate Islands.
[32] The remark of Tacitus means that Seneca took profitable places of trust in such numbers that it was as if he had gathered them in with a net.
[33] The meaning is that Severus passed his youth, not only in errors, but that his youth was so full of them as to have been almost one of madness.
[34] Hermogenes, a native of Tarsus, lived in the second century a.d.
[35] Hortensius was a Roman orator of Cicero's time and an early rival of his. The remark here quoted from Tully (Cicero) means that Hortensius continued a line of action until it was not becoming.
[36] Livy's remark means that Scipio in old age was not equal to himself in his youth in the things he performed.
[37] Now written Cosmo, or Cosimo. He became duke in 1537.
[38] Pertinax, the Roman emperor, was murdered by the Pretorian Guards in 193 a.d. The guards were put to death by order of Septimius Severus, his successor.
[39] Henry was murdered by a monk named Clement, who was put to death for the crime.
[40] This refers to the refusal of Ulysses to wed a goddess, preferring his own wife, who was no longer young.