CHAPTER 78. _When you dance in those characters._ Tragedy proper had been replaced on the Roman stage by the _saltica fabula_, in which the _pantomimus_ executed a mimetic dance illustrating a libretto sung by a chorus. CHAPTER 81. _Palamedes_ was famous for having detected the pretended madness of Ulysses, by which he sought to avoid going upon the expedition to Troy. Ulysses was ploughing and Palamedes placed the infant Telemachus in front of the ploughshare. Ulysses revealed his sanity by stopping the plough. _Sisyphus_, King of Corinth, was famous as a master of all manner of deceit, outwitting even the arch-thief Autolycus. He was finally cast into Tartarus for having discovered the amour of Zeus with the nymph Aegina. _Eurybates_ (or Eurybatus) coupled with Phrynondas by Plato (Protagoras 327). He was an Ephesian sent by Croesus to Greece with a large sum of money to hire mercenaries. He betrayed his trust and went over to Cyrus. _Phrynondas_, a stranger (probably a Boeotian) who lived at Athens during the Peloponnesian war and became proverbial as a scoundrel. _clowns and pantaloons._ _Maccus_ and _Bucco_ were stock characters in the Atellan farce. CHAPTER 85. _The viper._ This superstition arises from the fact that the viper does not lay eggs, but is viviparous. _a well-known line._ The author is unknown. CHAPTER 87. _Quite at home in Greek._ See note on chap. 4. CHAPTER 88. _The line so well known in comedy._ The reading nearest to the MSS. would be [Greek: paidon ep' apoto, gnesion epi spora] (Van der Vliet). Unless, however, the phrase [Greek: paidon ep' apoto gnesion] is a stock phrase which occurred in more than one comedy, which might perhaps be argued from the plural _comoediis_, there can be no doubt that the words [Greek: epi spora] are interpolated, inasmuch as the line occurs in the fragment of the [Greek: perikeiromene] of Menander, discovered at Oxyrhynchus by Drs. Greenfell and Hunt (Ox. Pap. ii, No. 211, p. 11 sqq.), and runs as follows [Greek: tauten gnesion paidon ep' apoto soi didomi. Pol. lambano]. _Serranus._ See note on chap. 10. CHAPTER 89. _Multiplying by four._ The pun in the word _quadruplator_ cannot be reproduced in English. The name was given to a public informer who sued for a fourfold penalty. _a slip in the gesture._ Bede (Op. Colon., MDCXII, vol. i, p. 132 _b_) says, 'When you say ten, you will place the nail of the forefinger against the middle joint of the thumb, when you say thirty, you will join the nails of thumb and forefinger in a gentle embrace.' Here the MSS. read _adperisse_, which suggests _aperuisse_. But _aperuisse_ does not naturally express the gesture described by Bede, and Helm's emendation _adgessisse_ seems necessary.