His eyes strike fire; there’s need of a rope, Hegio. Don’t you see how his body is spotted all over with livid spots? Black bileBlack bile: A superabundance of the bile was supposed to be productive of melancholy madness. The word melancholy is from the Greek μελαγχολιὰ, black bile. is disordering the man.ARISTOPHONTES And, by my faith, if this old gentleman is wise, black pitchBlack pitch: He alludes to a frightful punishment inflicted upon malefactors by the Romans. They were either smeared over with burning pitch, or were first covered with pitch, which was then set fire to. This punishment is supposed to have been often inflicted upon the early Christians. Juvenal alludes to it in his First Satire, l. 155:Pone Tigellinum, taedâ lucebis in illâ,Quâ stantes ardent, qui fixo gutture fumant. Describe Tigellinus [an infamous minister of Nero], and you shall give a light by those torches, in which those stand and burn who send forth smoke with a stake driven into their throat. will be disordering you with the executioner, and giving a light to your head.TYNDARUS He’s now talking in his fit of delirium; sprites are in possession of the man.HEGIO By my troth, suppose I order him to be seized?TYNDARUSYou would be acting more wisely.Part of line 599 in the Latin.