=43. QVID MANDEM QVAERIS.= Similar wording at _EP_ III i 33-34 (to his wife) '_quid facias quaeris?_ quaeras hoc scilicet ipsa [_Riese_: ipsum _codd_]: / inuenies, uere si reperire uoles'.
Ovid's pretense of not knowing what to tell Tuticanus to do was an ingenious solution to his friends' complaint that he was constantly repeating the same instructions to them (_EP_ III vii 1-6). Professor R. J. Tarrant points out the balance with the poem's start, where Ovid pretends not to know how to address Tuticanus.
=43. PEREAM NISI DICERE VIX EST.= Similar doubt expressed at _Tr_ IV iii 31-32 'quid tamen ipse precer dubito, nec dicere possum / affectum quem te mentis habere uelim'. _Peream nisi_, which Ovid plays on in the next line, is colloquial and foreign to poetic diction: instances at _OLD pereo_ 3b.
=44. SI MODO QVI PERIIT ILLE PERIRE POTEST.= Similar phrasing at _Tr_ I iv 27-28 'uos animam saeuae fessam subducite morti, / _si modo qui periit non periisse potest_'.
=45. NEC QVID NOLIMVE VELIMVE.= Compare _Met_ XI 492-93 '_nec_ se ... fatetur / scire ratis [_codd_: satis _fort scribendum_] rector ... _quid iubeatue uetetue_' and _Tr_ I ii 31-32 'rector in incerto est _nec quid fugiatue petatue_ / inuenit'.
=46. NEC SATIS VTILITAS EST MIHI NOTA MEA.= 'And I am at a loss to know what is to my advantage'. _Satis_ strengthens the sentence: compare Ter _Hec_ 877 'ego istuc sati' scio', 'I know that very well'. For _utilitas_, see at ix 48 _publica ... utilitas_ (p 300).
=48. SENSVS= here means 'judgement' or 'good sense', as at Prop II xii 3 'is primum uidit sine _sensu_ uiuere amantes' and Val Max I vi ext 1 'si quod uestigium in uecordi pectore _sensus_ fuisset'. Elsewhere in Ovid _sensus_ carries the meaning 'awareness, consciousness'.
=48. CVM RE= _codd_ CVM SPE _Heinsius_. _Cum re_, 'along with my fortune', seems somewhat out of place; but Burman pointed out that _consilium et res_ seems to have been a Latin phrase, citing Sallust _Iug_ 74 'neque illi _res neque consilium_ aut quisquam hominum satis placebat' and Ter _Eun_ 240-41 'itan parasti te ut spes nulla relicua in te siet tibi? / simul _consilium cum re_ amisti?'.
=50. QVAQVE VIA VENIAS AD MEA VOTA, VIDE.= This is a provisional restoration of the line. The manuscript reading which most closely approaches this text is that of _L_ and _F3_, QVAQVE VIAM FACIAS AD MEA VOTA, VIDE; the other manuscripts have the same text, except that QVOQVE is found in some for _quaque_, while for _uide_ there are the variants MODO, VADO, and VALE.