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Page 18
[Sidenote: _Platonius_ corrected.]
I. In that golden Fragment, which we have left of _Platonius_, upon
the three Kinds of _Greek_ Comedy, after he has told us, that when
the State of _Athens_ was alter'd from a Democracy to an Oligarchy,
and that the Poets grew cautious whom they libell'd in their
Comedies; when the People had no longer any Desire to choose the
accustom'd Officers for furnishing _Choric_ Singers, and defraying
the Expence of them, _Aristophanes_ brought on a Play in which
there was no _Chorus_. For, subjoins He, +t�n gar CHOREUT�N m�
cheirotonoumen�n, kai t�n CHOR�G�N ouk echont�n tas trophas,
hypex�reth� t�s K�m�dias ta chorika mel�, kai t�n hypothese�n ho
tropos metebl�th�+. _"The _Chorus-Singers_ being no longer chosen
by Suffrage, and the _Furnishers_ of the_ Chorus _no longer having
their Maintenance, the _Choric_ Songs were taken out of Comedies,
and the Nature of the Argument and Fable chang'd._" But there
happen to be two signal Mistakes in this short Sentence. For the
_Chorus-Singers_ were never elected by Suffrage at all, but hir'd by
the proper Officer who was at the Expence of the _Chorus_: and the
_Furnishers_ of the _Chorus_ had never either Table, or Stipend,
allowed them, towards their Charge. To what Purpose then is this
Sentence, which should be a Deduction from the Premises, and yet is
none, brought in? Or how comes the Reasoning to be founded upon what
was not the Fact? The Mistake manifestly arises from a careless
Transposition made in the Text: Let the two _Greek_ Words, which I
have distinguished by _Capitals_, only change Places, and we recover
what _Platonius_ meant to infer: "That the [A]_Furnishers_
of _Chorus_'s being no longer elected by Suffrage, and the
[B]_Chorus-Singers_ having no Provision made for them, _Chorus_'s
were abolished, and the Subjects of Comedies alter'd."
[Footnote A: Chor�g�n.]
[Footnote B: Choreut�n.]
II. There is another more egregious Error still subsisting in this
instructive Fragment, which has likewise escaped the Notice of
the Learned. The Author is saying, that, in the _old Comedy_, the
_Masks_ were made so nearly to resemble the Persons to be satirized,
that before the Actor spoke a Word, it was known whom he was to
personate. But, in the _New Comedy_, when _Athens_ was conquered
by the _Macedonians_, and the Poets were fearful lest their Masks
should be construed to resemble any of their New Governors, they
formed them so preposterously as only to move Laughter; +hor�men goun+
(says He) +tas ophrys en tois pros�pois t�s Menandrou k�m�dias hopoias
echei, kai hop�s exestrammenon to S�MA. kai oude kata anthr�p�n physin+.
"We see therefore what strange Eyebrows there are to the Masks used in_
Menander_'s Comedies; and how the _Body_ is distorted, and unlike
any human Creature alive." But the Author, 'tis evident, is speaking
abstractedly of _Masks_; and what Reference has the _Distortion_ of the
_Body_ to the Look of a _Visor_? I am satisfied, _Platonius_ wrote; +kai
hop�s exestrammenon to OMMA+, _i.e._ "and how the _Eyes_ were _goggled_
and _distorted_." This is to the Purpose of his Subject: and _Jul.
Pollux_, in describing the Comic Masques, speaks of some that had
+STREBLON to OMMA+: Others, that were +DIASTROPHOI t�n OPSIN+.
PERVERSIS _oculis_, as _Cicero_ calls them, speaking of _Roscius_.
[Sidenote: _Camerarius_ and _Keuster_, mistaken.]
III. _Suidas_, in the short Account that he has given us of
_Sophocles_, tells us, that, besides Dramatic Pieces, he wrote
Hymns and Elegies; +kai logon katalogad�n peri tou Chorou pros
Thespin kai Choirilon ag�nizomenos+. This the Learned _Camerarius_
has thus translated: _Scripsit Oratione solut� de _Choro_ contra
_Thespin_ & _Choerilum_ quempiam._ And _Keuster_ likewise
understood, and render'd, the Passage to the same Effect. He
owns, the Place is obscure, and suspected by him. "For how could
_Sophocles_ contend with _Thespis_ and _Choerilus_, who liv'd long
before his Time?" The Scholiast upon [C]_Aristophanes_, however,
expresly says, as _Keuster_ might have remember'd, that _Sophocles_
actually did contend with _Choerilus_. But that is a Point nothing
to the Passage in Question; which means, as I have shewn in another
Place, That _Sophocles_ declaimed in Prose, contending to obtain a
_Chorus_ for reviving some Pieces of _Thespis_ and _Choerilus_.
Is This contending against Them, as rival Poets?
[Footnote C: In Ranis, v. 73.]
[Sidenote: _Meursius_, and _Camerarius_ mistaken.]
IV. Some other Learned Men have likewise been mistaken in
Particulars with regard to _Sophocles_. In the Synopsis of his
Life, we find these Words; +Teleuta de meta Euripid�n et�n [st]'+.
_Meursius_, as well as _Camerarius_, have expounded This, as if
_Sophocles_ surviv'd _Euripides_ six Years. But the best Accounts
agree that they died both in the same Year, a little before the
_Frogs_ of _Aristophanes_ was play'd; _scil._ Olymp. 93, 3. The
Meaning, therefore, of the Passage is, as some of the Commentators
have rightly observ'd; _That _Sophocles_ died after _Euripides_, at
90 Years of Age._ The Mistake arose from hence, that, in Numerals,
+stigma'+ signifies as well 6 as 90.
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