By my faith, ‘tis strange if he hasn’t got this boldness by means of his stomach. Woe to that wretched man, through whose cheer this fellow has become quite swaggering. ERGASILUS Then the bakers, that feed swine, that fatten their pigs upon refuse bran, through the stench of which no one can pass by a baker’s shop; if I see the pig of any one of them in the public way, I’ll beat the bran out of the masters’ themselves with my fists. HEGIO (to himself.) Royal and imperial edicts does he give out. The fellow is full; he certainly has his boldness from his stomach. ERGASILUS Then the fishmongers, who supply stinking fish to the public—who are carried about on a gelding, with his galloping galling pace Galling pace : Crucianti may mean either tormenting the spectator by reason of the slowness of its pace, or galling to the rider. Quadrupedanti crucianti canterio is a phrase, both in sound and meaning, much resembling what our song-books call the galloping dreary dun. — the stench of whom drives all the loungers in the Basilica In the Basilica : The Basilica was a building which served as a court of law, and a place of meeting for merchants and men of business. The name was perhaps derived from the Greek word βασιλεὺς, as the title of the second Athenian Archon, who had his tribunal or court of justice. The building was probably, in its original form, an insulated portico. The first edifice of this kind at Rome was erected B.C. 184 ; probably about the period when this Play was composed. It was situate in the Forum, and was built by Porcius Cato, from whom it was called the Porcian Basilica. Twenty others were afterwards erected at different periods in the city. The loungers here mentioned, in the present instance, were probably sauntering about under the porticos of the Basilica, when their olfactory nerves were offended by the unsavoury smell of the fishermen’s baskets. into the Forum, I’ll bang their heads with their bulrush fish-baskets, that they may understand what annoyance they cause to the noses of other people. And then the butchers, as well, who render the sheep destitute of their young—who agree with you about killing lamb About klling lamb : In these lines he seems to accuse the butchers of three faults—cruelty, knavery, and extortion. The general reading is duplam, but Rost suggests duplâ, at double the price. If duplam is retained, might it not possibly mean that the butchers agree to kill lamb for you, and bring to you duplam agninam, double lamb, or, in other words, lamb twice as old as it ought to be? No doubt there was some particular age at which lamb, in the estimation of Ergasilus and his brother-epicures, was considered to be in its greatest perfection. , and then offer you lamb at double the price—