How we cite our quotes: (Line)
Quote #4
They shook, they stared as white's their shirt:
Them it was their poison hurt. (73-74)
Here Terence gives us a really vivid (almost disgusting) feel for how suffering begets more suffering. Mithridates' scheming guests shake and turn white. In trying to make him suffer, they are the ones who wind up suffering. This graphic imagery ties into all the other ideas in this poem about how brutal and hard life is. You just can't get away from suffering. Even when you try to point it toward someone else, it boomerangs back to you.