[256] 'Hear me, ye bolts, ye bolts, gladly I greet you, I love you, I am fond of you; I beg you, I beseech you, most amiably now comply with the desire of me a lover. For my sake become like foreign dancers; spring up, I beseech you, and send her forth, who now is drinking up the life-blood of me her lover. Mark how these vilest bolts are still asleep, and do not stir one whit on my account.'—Curculio, 147-154.
[257] Pseud. 132-238.
[258] 'See that when I return from the Forum, I find everything ready, the floor swept, sprinkled, polished, the couches covered; the plate all clean and arranged: for this is my birthday: this you must all join in keeping: I want to entertain some great people sumptuously, that they may think I am well to do.'—Pseud. 159-62.
[259] 'A red-haired fellow, pot-bellied, with thick legs, darkish, with a big head, keen eyes, a red face, and enormous feet.'
[260] 'By Pollux he is of the mushroom sort: he hides himself with his head: he looks like an Illyrian: he is got up like one;'—
'I should be surprised if he be not either some dreaming fellow (? al. housebreaker) or a cut purse: he takes a good look of the ground, gazes about him, takes note of the house.'—Trinum. 850-862.
[261] Bacchid. 289.
[262] Curculio, 337, etc.
[263] Cp. the proverbial 'taking the breeches off a Highlander,' and the lines in one of Burns' earliest songs—
'And then there's something in her gait