15. σχηματισθέν: grammatical form, or construction, is clearly meant here.
16. From here to the end of the chapter the general sense is: We must, in the interests of harmonious composition, make the fullest possible use of alternative forms—now a noun, now a verb; now a singular, now a plural; now a nominative, now an oblique case; now a masculine, and then a feminine or neuter; and so with voices, moods, and tenses—with forms such as τουτονί and τοῦτον, ἰδών and κατιδών, χωροφιλῆσαι and φιλοχωρῆσαι, λελύσεται and λυθήσεται,—and with elision, hiatus, and the employment of νῦ ἐφελκυστικόν. Many of these points will be found illustrated in Ep. ad Amm. II., where the subject of some of the characters is as follows: c. 5 use of noun for verb, c. 6 use of verb for noun, c. 7 substitution of passive for active voice, c. 9 interchange of singular and plural number, c. 10 interchange of the three genders, c. 11 use of cases, c. 12 use of tenses. See D.H. pp. 138-49, together with the notes added on pp. 178-81. As Ep. ad Amm. II. shows, Dionysius is fully alive to the dangers of this continual straining of language. Absolutely interchangeable expressions are not common.
18. πληθυντικῶς: cp. the use of the plural in Virg. Aen. 155 “vos arae ensesque nefandi, | quos fugi.”
21. ἐκ θηλυκῶν ἀρρενικά: cf. Quintil. Inst. Or. ix. 3. 6 “fiunt ergo et circa genus figurae in nominibus, nam et oculis capti talpae [Virg. Georg. i. 183] et timidi damae [Virg. Ecl. viii. 28, Georg. iii. 539] dicuntur a Vergilio; sed subest ratio, quia sexus uterque altero significatur, tamque mares esse talpas damasque quam feminas, certum est.” Besides the reason given by Quintilian, the desire to avoid monotony of termination (excessive ὁμοιοτέλευτον) also counts.—The present passage may further be illustrated by Dionysius’ own words in Ep. ad Amm. II. c. 10: “Examples of the interchange of masculines, feminines and neuters, in contravention of the ordinary rules of language, are such as the following. He [Thucydides] uses τάραχος in the masculine for ταραχή in the feminine, and similarly ὄχλος for ὄχλησις. In place of τὴν βούλησιν and τὴν δύναμιν he uses τὸ βουλόμενον and τὸ δυνάμενον.”
ἐκ τούτων, πῶς ἂν ἄμεινον σχηματισθείη, καὶ πάντα τὰ
τοιαῦτα· ἐπὶ δὲ τῶν ῥημάτων, πότερα κρείττω λαμβανόμενα
ἔσται, τὰ ὀρθὰ ἢ τὰ ὕπτια, καὶ κατὰ ποίας ἐγκλίσεις ἐκφερόμενα,
ἃς δή τινες πτώσεις ῥηματικὰς καλοῦσι, κρατίστην ἕδραν
λήψεται, καὶ ποίας παρεμφαίνοντα διαφορὰς χρόνων καὶ εἴ 5
τινα τοῖς ῥήμασιν ἄλλα παρακολουθεῖν πέφυκε (τὰ δ’ αὐτὰ
ταῦτα καὶ ἐπὶ τῶν ἄλλων τοῦ λόγου μερῶν φυλακτέον, ἵνα
μὴ καθ’ ἓν ἕκαστον λέγω)· ἐπὶ δὲ τούτοις τὰ ληφθέντα
διακρίνειν, εἴ τι δεῖται μετασκευῆς ὄνομα ἢ ῥῆμα, πῶς ἂν
ἐναρμονιώτερόν τε καὶ εὐεδρότερον γένοιτο· τοῦτο τὸ στοιχεῖον 10
ἐν μὲν ποιητικῇ δαψιλέστερόν ἐστιν, ἐν δὲ λόγοις πεζοῖς
σπανιώτερον· πλὴν γίνεταί γε καὶ ἐν τούτοις ἐφ’ ὅσον ἂν
ἐγχωρῇ· ὅ τε γὰρ λέγων “εἰς τουτονὶ τὸν ἀγῶνα” προστέθεικέ
τι τῇ ἀντωνυμίᾳ γράμμα τῆς συνθέσεως στοχαζόμενος· ἄρτιον
γὰρ ἦν “εἰς τοῦτον τὸν ἀγῶνα” εἰπεῖν· καὶ πάλιν ὁ λέγων 15
“κατιδὼν Νεοπτόλεμον τὸν ὑποκριτήν” τῇ προθέσει παρηύξηκεν
τοὔνομα, τὸ γὰρ ἰδὼν ἀπέχρη· καὶ ὁ γράφων “μήτ’ ἰδίας
ἔχθρας μηδεμιᾶς ἕνεχ’ ἥκειν” ταῖς συναλοιφαῖς ἠλάττωκε τὰ
or a masculine instead of a feminine, or a neuter instead of either: and so on. With reference to verbs, again: which form it will be best to adopt, the active or the passive, and in what moods (or verbal cases, as some call them) they should be presented so as to receive the best setting, as also what differences of tense should be indicated; and so with all the other natural accidents of verbs. These same methods must be followed in regard to the other parts of speech also; there is no need to go into details. Further, with respect to the words thus selected, if any noun or verb requires a modification of its form, it must be decided how it can be brought into better harmony and symmetry with its neighbours. This principle can be applied more freely in poetry than in prose. Still, in prose also, it is applied, where opportunity offers. The speaker who says “εἰς τουτονὶ τὸν ἀγῶνα”[118] has added a letter to the pronoun with an eye to the effect of the composition. The bare meaning would have been sufficiently conveyed by saying “εἰς τοῦτον τὸν ἀγῶνα”. So in the words “κατιδὼν Νεοπτόλεμον τὸν ὑποκριτήν”[119] the addition of the preposition has merely expanded the word into κατιδών, since ἰδών alone would have conveyed the meaning. So, too, in the expression “μήτ’ ἰδίας ἔχθρας μηδεμιᾶς ἕνεχ’ ἥκειν”[120] the writer has cut off some of the letters, and has condensed the
2 τε EFMV1 || κρείττω EF: κρείττονα PMV || λαβόμενα ἔσται F: ἔσται λαμβανόμενα EPMV 4 καλοῦσιν P 6 πέφυκεν P || δὲ PMV 8 ἓν om. F 9 δεῖται F: δεῖ PMV || μετὰ κα(τα)σκευ(ης) P, M || πῶς Usener: ὡς libri 12 πλὴν EF: om. PMV || τε PV: om. F1EM || ὅσο*ν F, E: ὁπόσον PMV 14 ἀντ(ω)νυμία P 17 ἀπέχρη καὶ ὁ F: ἀπέχρηκεν ὅ τε P 18 ἔχθρας] ἔχθρας ἐμὲ Demosth. || ἔνεχ’ F: ἕνεκ’ PV || εικειν P1, V || συναλειφαῖς F: συναλιφαῖς P