1 ἀτριβεῖς Reiskius: ἀτριβέσιν libri 2 κεκρατημένως PM: κεκροτημένως V 5 συνθήκης M 10 συμμετρία M: ἐμμετρία EPV 17 ἀλλήλαις EM: ἀλλήλοις PV
2. κεκρατημένως, ‘vigorously’: cp. Sext. Empir. p. 554 (Bekker) οὐ κεκρατημένως ὑπέγραψαν οἱ δογματικοὶ τὴν ἐπίνοιαν τοῦ τε ἀγαθοῦ καὶ κακοῦ. The other reading κεκροτημένως would mean ‘with tumult of applause’; or perhaps ‘in a welded, well-wrought way.’
5. For the relation of Verse to Prose see Introduction, pp. [33]-9.
8. Other references to poetical prose occur in [208] 5, [250] 10, 16 supra.
13. μὴ συναπαρτίζοντα τοῖς στίχοις, ‘not allowing the sense of the clauses to be self-contained in separate lines,’ lit. ‘not completing the clauses together with the lines.’ Dionysius means that verse-writers must (for the sake of variety) practise enjambement, i.e. the completion of the sense in another line. It is the neglect of this principle that makes the language of French classical tragedy [with exceptions, of course; e.g. Racine Athalie i. 1 “Celui qui met un frein,” etc.] so monotonous when compared with that of the Greek or Shakespearian tragedy. Besides the examples adduced by Dionysius, compare that quoted from Callimachus in the note on [272] 4 infra and, in English, Tennyson’s Dora and Wordsworth’s Michael. Such English poems without rhyme might be written out as continuous prose, and their true character would pass unsuspected by many readers, pauses at the ends of lines being often studiously avoided; e.g. the opening of Tennyson’s Dora: “With farmer Allen at the farm abode William and Dora. William was his son, and she his niece. He often look’d at them, and often thought, ‘I’ll make them man and wife.’ Now Dora felt her uncle’s will in all, and yearn’d toward William; but the youth, because he had been always with her in the house, thought not of Dora.” Similarly Homer’s “ἀλλά μ’ ἀνήρπαξαν Τάφιοι ληίστορες ἄνδρες ἀγρόθεν ἐρχομένην, περάσαν δέ με δεῦρ’ ἀγαγόντες τοῦδ’ ἀνδρὸς πρὸς δώμαθ’· ὁ δ’ ἄξιον ὦνον ἔδωκε” (Odyss. xv. 427-9) might almost be an extract from a speech of Lysias. Some remarkable examples of enjambement (or ‘overflow’) might also be quoted from Swinburne’s recent poem, The Duke of Gandia.
17. Cp. Cic. de Orat. i. 16. 70 “est enim finitimus oratori poëta, numeris astrictor paulo, verborum autem licentia liberior, multis vero ornandi generibus socius, ac paene par.”
συντιθέντες ὅταν διαλύσωσι τοὺς στίχους τοῖς κώλοις
διαλαμβάνοντες ἄλλοτε ἄλλως, διαχέουσι καὶ ἀφανίζουσι τὴν
ἀκρίβειαν τοῦ μέτρου, καὶ ὅταν τὰς περιόδους μεγέθει τε καὶ
σχήματι ποικίλας ποιῶσιν, εἰς λήθην ἐμβάλλουσιν ἡμᾶς τοῦ
μέτρου· οἱ δὲ μελοποιοὶ πολυμέτρους τὰς στροφὰς ἐργαζόμενοι 5
καὶ τῶν κώλων ἑκάστοτε πάλιν ἀνίσων τε ὄντων καὶ ἀνομοίων
ἀλλήλοις ἀνομοίους τε καὶ ἀνίσους ποιούμενοι τὰς διαιρέσεις,
δι’ ἄμφω δὲ ταῦτα οὐκ ἐῶντες, ἡμᾶς ὁμοειδοῦς ἀντίληψιν
λαβεῖν ῥυθμοῦ πολλὴν τὴν πρὸς τοὺς λόγους ὁμοιότητα κατασκευάζουσιν
ἐν τοῖς μέλεσιν, ἔνεστί τε καὶ τροπικῶν καὶ 10
ξένων καὶ γλωττηματικῶν καὶ τῶν ἄλλων ποιητικῶν ὀνομάτων
μενόντων ἐν τοῖς ποιήμασιν μηδὲν ἧττον αὐτὰ φαίνεσθαι
λόγῳ παραπλήσια.
μηδεὶς δὲ ὑπολαμβανέτω με ἀγνοεῖν ὅτι κακία ποιήματος
ἡ καλουμένη λογοείδεια δοκεῖ τις εἶναι, μηδὲ καταγινωσκέτω 15
μου ταύτην τὴν ἀμαθίαν, ὡς ἄρα ἐγὼ κακίαν τινὰ ἐν ἀρεταῖς
τάττω ποιημάτων ἢ λόγων· ὡς δὲ ἀξιῶ διαιρεῖν κἀν τούτοις
τὰ σπουδαῖα ἀπὸ τῶν μηδενὸς ἀξίων, ἀκούσας μαθέτω. ἐγὼ
τοὺς λόγους τὸν μὲν ἰδιώτην ἐπιστάμενος ὄντα, τὸν ἀδολέσχην
τοῦτον λέγω καὶ φλύαρον, τὸν δὲ πολιτικόν, ἐν ᾧ τὸ πολὺ 20
κατεσκευασμένον ἐστὶ καὶ ἔντεχνον, ὅ τι μὲν ἂν τῶν ποιημάτων
ὅμοιον εὑρίσκω τῷ φλυάρῳ καὶ ἀδολέσχῃ, γέλωτος ἄξιον
τίθεμαι, ὅ τι δ’ ἂν τῷ κατεσκευασμένῳ καὶ ἐντέχνῳ, ζήλου
καὶ σπουδῆς ἐπιτήδειον τυχάνειν οἴομαι. εἰ μὲν οὖν
διαφόρου προσηγορίας τῶν λόγων ἑκάτερος ἐτύγχανεν, ἀκόλουθον 25
ἦν ἂν καὶ τῶν ποιημάτων ἃ τούτοις ἔοικεν διαφόροις
ὀνόμασι καλεῖν ἑκάτερον· ἐπειδὴ δὲ ὅ τε σπουδαῖος καὶ ὁ
τοῦ μηδενὸς ἄξιος ὁμοίως καλεῖται λόγος, οὐκ ἂν ἁμαρτάνοι
τις τὰ μὲν ἐοικότα τῷ καλῷ λόγῳ ποιήματα καλὰ ἡγούμενος,