the lines by distributing them into clauses now one way now another, they dissolve and efface the regularity of the metre; and when they diversify the periods in size and form, they make us forget the metre. On the other hand, the lyric poets compose their strophes in many metres; and again, from the fact that the clauses vary from time to time in length and form, they make the divisions unlike in form and size. From both these causes they hinder our apprehension of any uniform rhythm, and so they produce, as by design, in lyric poems a great likeness to prose. It is quite possible, moreover, for the poems to retain many figurative, unfamiliar, exceptional, and otherwise poetical words, and none the less to show a close resemblance to prose.
And let no one think me ignorant of the fact that the so-called “pedestrian character” is commonly regarded as a vice in poetry, or impute to me, of all persons, the folly of ranking any bad quality among the virtues of poetry or prose. Let my critic rather pay attention and learn how here once more I claim to distinguish what merits serious consideration from what is worthless. I observe that, among prose styles, there is on the one side the uncultivated style, by which I mean the prevailing frivolous gabble, and on the other side the language of public life which is, in the main, studied and artistic; and so, whenever I find any poetry which resembles the frivolous gabble I have referred to, I regard it as beneath criticism. I think that alone to be fit for serious imitation which resembles the studied and artistic kind. Now, if each sort of prose had a different appellation, it would have been only consistent to call the corresponding sorts of poetry also by different names. But since both the good and the worthless are called “prose,” it may not be wrong to regard as noble and bad “poetry” that which
1 διαλύσωσι P: διαλείπωσι M: διαλίπωσι V 3 μεγέθη P 5 τὰσ τροφὰς P 6 ἑκάστοτε Us.: ἑκάστου libri || τε ὄντων M: ὄντων PV 8 ἄμφω δὲ M: ἄμφω PV 11 τῶν ἄλλων Us.: τῶν ἄλλων τῶν libri 15 καλουμένη om. M || τις] τησ P || καταγινωσκέτω MV: καταγιγνωσκέτω P (sed cf. [278] 7 et alibi) 17 κ’ ἂν P 19 τοὺς λόγους Schaeferus: τοῦ λόγου libri || ἁδολέσχην P 20 τὸ πολὺ PM: πολὺ τὸ V 21 ποιημάτων PM: ποιητῶν V 22 ἁδολέσχηι P || ἄξιον P: ἄξιον αὐτὸ MV 28 ὁμοίως compendio P: om. MV
4. εἰς λήθην ἐμβάλλουσιν: the following Epigram of Callimachus will illustrate Dionysius’ meaning:—
ἠῷοι Μελάνιππον ἐθάπτομεν, ἠελίου δέ
δυομένου Βασιλὼ κάτθανε παρθενική
αὐτοχερί· ζώειν γὰρ ἀδελφεὸν ἐν πυρὶ θεῖσα
οὐκ ἔτλη. δίδυμον δ’ οἶκος ἐσεῖδε κακόν
πατρὸς Ἀριστίπποιο, κατήφησεν δὲ Κυρήνη
πᾶσα τὸν εὔτεκνον χῆρον ἰδοῦσα δόμον.
(The text is that of Wilamowitz-Moellendorff Callimachi Hymni et Epigrammata p. 59. Upton, who quotes the epigram, adds: “En tibi ea omnia, quae tradit Dionysius, accurate praestita: sententiae inaequales, disparia membra: ipsi adeo versus dissecti, nec sensu, nec verborum structura, nisi in sequentem usque progrediatur, absoluta. quibus factum est, ut prosaicae orationi, salva tamen dignitate, quam proxime accedatur.” Compare also the first eight lines of Mimnermus Eleg. ii.)
6. ἑκάστοτε: Upton here conjectures ἑκάστης, Schaefer ἑκάστων.
15. τις to be connected with κακία. In the next line κακίαν τινά come close together.
19. μαθέτω: supply πᾶς τις, or the like, from μηδείς in l. 14. Cp. Hor. Serm. i. 1. 1 “qui fit, Maecenas, ut nemo, quam sibi sortem | seu ratio dederit seu fors obiecerit, illa | contentus vivat, laudet diversa sequentes?”