Book vii

. 1. 861. It was the custom for the nearest relative to catch the breath of the dying person in the mouth.]

[Footnote 1125: With your fingers.--Ver. 755.. Perhaps he means in moderato quantities at a time, and not in whole handfuls. See the Note to the First Book, 1. 577.]

[Footnote 1126: And do not first.--Ver. 757. He seems to irs two precepts here; first, they are not to eat so much at home as to take away all appetite at the banquet, as that would savour of affectation, and be an act of rudeness to the host. On the other hand, he warns them not to stuff as long as they are able, but rather to leave off with an appetite. The passage, however, is hopelessly corrupt, and is capable of other interpretations.]

[Footnote 1127: Perform their duty.--Ver. 764. 'Constent,' literally. 'Will stand together.']

[Footnote 1128: The swans.--Ver. 899. He also alludes to them in the Metamorphoses, as drawing the car of Venus, though that office was more generally assigned by the Poets to doves.]

END

End of Project Gutenberg's Ars Amatoria, or The Art Of Love, by Ovid