13. λυθέντος γοῦν, κτλ. Cp. Isocr. Evag. 10 οἱ μὲν (sc. ποιηταὶ) μετὰ μέτρων καὶ ῥυθμῶν ἅπαντα ποιοῦσιν ... ἃ τοσαύτην ἔχει χάριν, ὥστ’ ἂν καὶ τῇ λέξει καὶ τοῖς ἐνθυμήμασιν ἔχῃ κακῶς, ὅμως αὐταῖς ταῖς εὐρυθμίαις καὶ ταῖς συμμετρίαις ψυχαγωγοῦσι τοὺς ἀκούοντας. γνοίη δ’ ἄν τις ἐκεῖθεν τὴν δύναμιν αὐτῶν· ἢν γάρ τις τῶν ποιημάτων τῶν εὐδοκιμούντων τὰ μὲν ὀνόματα καὶ τὰς διανοίας καταλίπῃ, τὸ δὲ μέτρον διαλύσῃ, φανήσεται πολὺ καταδεέστερα τῆς δόξης ἧς νῦν ἔχομεν περὶ αὐτῶν.
14. ἄζηλα: this adjective occurs also in the de Demosth. c. 28, and more than once in the Antiqq. Rom.
16. ὑπαλλαγαί, καταχρήσεις: see Glossary, s. vv.
17. Usener reads γλῶτται παλαιαί τινες. But (1) γλῶτται are usually παλαιαί (cp. Galen Gloss. Hipp. xix. 63 ὅσα τοίνυν τῶν ὀνομάτων ἐν μὲν τοῖς πάλαι χρόνοις ἦν συνήθη, νῦν δὲ οὐκέτι ἐστί, τὰ μὲν τοιαῦτα γλώττας καλοῦσι, κτλ.): (2) the phrase πολλοί τινες is elsewhere used by Dionysius, e.g. de Lysia c. 1 οὔτε πολλοῖς τισι κατέλιπεν ὑπερβολήν, κτλ.
18, 19. An interesting modern parallel is that passage in Coleridge’s Biographia Literaria (c. 18) which touches on the stanza (in Wordsworth’s Lyrical Ballads) beginning “In distant countries I have been.” Coleridge remarks, “The words here are doubtless such as are current in all ranks of life; and of course not less so in the hamlet and cottage than in the shop, manufactory, college, or palace. But is this the order in which the rustic would have placed the words? I am grievously deceived, if the following less compact mode of commencing the same tale be not a far more faithful copy, ‘I have been in many parts, far and near, and I don’t know that I ever saw before a man crying by himself in the public road; a grown man I mean that was neither sick nor hurt,’” etc.—In this connexion see also F. W. H. Myers’ Wordsworth, pp. 106 ff., for the music in Wordsworth’s Affliction of Margaret.
ποιητῇ μυρία, ὡς εὖ οἶδ’ ὅτι πάντες ἴσασιν· ἐμοὶ δ’ ὑπομνήσεως
ἕνεκα λέγοντι ἀρκεῖ ταῦτα μόνα εἰρῆσθαι.
φέρε δὴ μεταβῶμεν καὶ ἐπὶ τὴν πεζὴν διάλεκτον καὶ
σκοπῶμεν, εἰ κἀκείνῃ τοῦτο συμβέβηκε τὸ πάθος, ὥστε περὶ
μικρὰ καὶ φαῦλα πράγματά τε καὶ ὀνόματα συνταχθέντα 5
καλῶς μεγάλας γίνεσθαι τὰς χάριτας. ἔστι δὴ παρὰ τῷ
Ἡροδότῳ βασιλεύς τις Λυδῶν, ὃν ἐκεῖνος Κανδαύλην ‹καλεῖ,
Μυρσίλον δὲ› καλεῖσθαί φησιν ὑφ’ Ἑλλήνων, τῆς ἑαυτοῦ
γυναικὸς ἐρῶν, ἔπειτα ἀξιῶν τινα τῶν ἑταίρων αὐτοῦ γυμνὴν
τὴν ἄνθρωπον ἰδεῖν, ὁ δὲ ἀπομαχόμενος μὴ ἀναγκασθῆναι, ὡς 10
δὲ οὐκ ἔπειθεν, ὑπομένων τε καὶ θεώμενος αὐτήν—πρᾶγμα
οὐχ ὅτι σεμνὸν ἢ καλλιλογεῖσθαι ἐπιτήδειον, ἀλλὰ καὶ
ταπεινὸν καὶ ἐπικίνδυνον καὶ τοῦ αἰσχροῦ μᾶλλον ἢ τοῦ καλοῦ
ἐγγυτέρω· ἀλλ’ εἴρηται σφόδρα δεξιῶς, καὶ κρεῖττον γέγονεν
ἀκουσθῆναι λεγόμενον ἢ ὀφθῆναι γινόμενον. ἵνα δὲ μή τις 15
ὑπολάβῃ τὴν διάλεκτον εἶναι τῆς ἡδονῆς αἰτίαν τῇ λέξει,
μεταθεὶς αὐτῆς τὸν χαρακτῆρα εἰς τὴν Ἀτθίδα γλῶτταν καὶ
οὐδὲν ἄλλο περιεργασάμενος οὕτως ἐξοίσω τὸν διάλογον.
“Γύνη, οὐ γάρ σε δοκῶ πείθεσθαί μοι λέγοντι περὶ τοῦ
εἴδους τῆς γυναικός· ὦτα γὰρ τυγχάνει ἀνθρώποις ὄντα 20
ἀπιστότερα ὀφθαλμῶν· ποίει ὅπως ἐκείνην θεάσῃ γυμνήν. ὁ
passages of this kind in Homer, as everybody of course is well aware. It is enough to quote this single instance by way of reminder.