What “_those things_” were, though a subject of no great importance, has been discussed with extreme diligence by various learned commentators, who have not a little differed in opinion. The idea of a French commentator, who supposed Simo to allude to furniture bought by him for his son’s wedding, is ridiculed by the learned Madame Dacier, who has herself suffered the same treatment under the hands of some of our English critics, for interpreting them in the sense I have adopted. That Simo should provide furniture for a marriage which he had but slight hopes of negotiating at that time, is not very probable. But Athenian slaves performed all domestic offices in their masters’ houses: and Sosia, even after he became a freedman might have practised cookery, in which, perhaps, he excelled. He uses the words “_mea ars_,” _my art_, and Simo answers him with “_isthac arte_,” _that art_, by which it is clear that he means some particular art. The word art has in English both a general and particular sense; but, in Latin, “_ars_” is generally used only in the latter. “Rara quidem facie, sed rarior _arte_ canendi.”――OVID. _Her beauty charms us; and oh! how much more Her matchless skill in_ arts _of melody._ Again, “Hac _arte_ Pollux, et vagus Hercules Innixus, arces attigit igneas.”――HORACE. _Supported by this_ art, _Pollux and Hercules were raised to heaven._ Sosia speaks in this character also at the end of the scene, “Sat est _curabo_,” curo, meaning to cook; he uses also more than once the word _rectè_, which is peculiarly a term of cookery, thus “_rectiùs cœnare_,” PLAUTUS; and, at Rome, when patrons invited their clients or followers to supper, where a very plentiful banquet was always served up: the supper was particularly designated CŒNA RECTA. The art of cookery, in Greece, was, in the earlier ages, far from being accounted degrading, and was, indeed, frequently practised by men very far above a servile station. I mention this, lest those who are unacquainted with these customs, might object against our author, that _Simo_ was guilty of an inconsistent condescension, in making a confidant of one who held an office of this nature. NOTE 61. _When I first bought you as my slave._