): Come, drink, ye portals of pleasure, quaff and deign
to be propitious unto me.
PALINURUS SER. (_Addressing the door with mimicry of Phaedromus' airs._)
Do you want some olives or sweetmeats or capers?
PH. (_Continuing._) Arouse your portress; hither send her unto me.
(_Lavishes the wine._)
PAL. (_In great alarm, grasping his arm._) You're spilling the wine!
What's got hold of you?
PH. Unhand me! (_Gently shakes himself loose._) Lo! The temple of joys
untold is opening. Did not the hinge creak? 'Tis charming!
PAL. (_Turning aside in disgust._) Why don't you give it a kiss?"
In each case the impertinent slave provides the foil. When the lovers
succeed in meeting, they are interlocked in embrace from 172 to 192,
probably invested with no small amount of suggestive "business." This
would doubtless hardly be tolerated by the "censor" today. Another variety
of lover's extravagance is the lavishing of terms of endearment, as we
find in _Cas._ 134 ff.[117]
When this feature of "extravagance" enters the situation instead of the
dialogue, we have episodes such as the final scene of the _Ps._, where the
name character is irrelevantly introduced (1246) in a state of
intoxication which, with copious belching in Simo's face, culminates in a
rebellion of the overloaded stomach (1294). We can scarcely doubt that
such business was carried out in ultra-graphic detail and rewarded by
copious guffaws from the populace.
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