ત TO which has likewise escaped the Notice of the Learned. The Author is faying, that, in the old Comedy, the Masks were made fo nearly to resemble the Perfons to be satirized, that before the Actor spoke a Word, it was known whom he was to perfonate. But, in the New Comedy, when Athens was conquered by the Macedonians, and the Poets were fearful left their Masks fhould be construed to resemble any of their New Governors, they formed them fo prepofterously as only to move Laughter; ὁρῶμμ γεν (fays He) τὰς ἀφοῦς ἐν τοῖς προσώποις * Μενάνδρα κωμῳδίας ὁποίας έχει, ὅπως ἐξετραμμλίον τὸ ΣΩ͂ΜΑ, καὶ ὐδὲ καὶ αν θρώπων φύσιν. "We fee therefore what strange Eyebrows there are to the Masks used in Menander's Comedies; and how the Body is dif torted, and unlike any human Creature alive." But the Author, 'tis evident, is speaking bftractedly of Masks; and what Reference has the Distortion of the Body to the Look of a Vifor? I am fatisfied, Platonius wrote; ows ἐξετραμμρον τὸ ὌΜΜΑ, i. e. “ and how "the Eyes were goggled and distorted." This is to the Purpose of his Subject: and Jul. Pollux, in defcribing the Comic Masques, fpeaks of fame that had ΣΤΡΕΒΛΟΝ τὸ "OMMA Others, that were AIAETPOΦΟΙ * ὌΨΙΝ. PERVERSIS oculis, as Cicero calls them, fpeaking of Rofcius. । III. Suidas, in the fhort Account that. he Camerahas given us of Sophocles, tells us, that, be- rius and d Keutter, fides mistaken. fides Dramatic Pieces, he wrote Hymns and Elegies; καὶ λόγον καταλογάδων αει το Χορε πρὸς Θέασιν καὶ Χοίριλον ἀγωνιζόμμΘ. This the Learned Camerarius has thus tranflated: Scripfit Oratione folutâ de Choro contra Thefpin & Charilum quempiam. And Keufter likewise understood, and render'd, the Paffage to the fame Effect. He owns, the Place is obfcure, and fulpected by him. "For how could Sophocles contend with Thefpis and Chœrilus, "who liv'd long before his Time?" The Scho * In Ra- liaft upon Ariftophanes, however, exprefly mis, v. 73 Meurfius, and Camerarius fays, as Keufter might have remember'd, that Sophocles actually did contend with Charilus. But that is a Point nothing to the Paffage in Question; which means, as I have fhewn in another Place, That Sophocles declaim'd in Profe, contending to obtain a Chorus for reviving fome Pieces of Thefpis and Chœrilus. Is This contending against Them, as rival Poets? IV. Some other Learned Men have likewise been mistaken in Particulars with regard to mistaken. Sophocles. In the Synopfis of his Life, we find thefe Words ; Τελετα ἢ μπ' Ευριπίδων ETwrs'. Meurfius, as well as Camerarius, have expounded This, as if Sophocles surviv'd Euripides fix Years. But the beft Accounts agree that they died both in the fame Year; a little before the Frogs of Ariftophanes was play'd; fcil. Olymp. 93, 3. The Meaning, therefore, of the Paffage is, as fome of the Com Commentators have rightly obferv'd; That V. The Learned Father Brumoy too, who Father Brumoy has lately given us three Volumes upon the mistaken. Theatre of the Greeks, has flipt into an Error about Sophocles; for, fpeaking of his Antigone, he tells us, it was in fuch Requeft as to be perform'd Two and Thirty times; Elle fût reprefentée trente deux fois. The Account, on which This is grounded, we have from the Argument prefix'd to Antigone by Ariftophanes the Grammarian: and the Latin Tranflator of this Argument, probably, led Father Brumoy. into his Mistake, and he should have referr'd to the Original. The Greek Words are; λλέο λείται ἢ τὸ δράμα τότο τριακοσὸν δεύτερον. i. e. "This Play is faid to have been the Thirty Second, in Order of Time, produced by Sophocles. The Mistakes, that I have mention'd, (tho' they neceffarily lead into Error, from the Authority with which they come into the World;) yet are fuch, 'tis obvious, as have been the Effects of Inadvertence; and therefore I do not quote them to the Dishonour of their Learned Authors. I fhall point out Two or Three, which seem to have fprung from another Source: either a due Want of Sagacity, or an abfolute Neglect of literal Criticijm. Sir George corrected. VI. Sir George Wheler, who, in his JOURWheler NEY into GREECE, has traded much with Greek Antiquities and Infcriptions, and who certainly was no mean Scholar, has fhewn himself very careless in this Respect. When he was at Sardis, he met with a Medal of the Emperor Commodus feated in the Midft of the Zodiack with Celestial Signs engraven on it; and, on the other Side, a Figure with a Crown-Mure with these Letters about it, Zagδις Ασίας, ΑΥΔΙΑΣ, Ελλαδα, ο μητροπο Aus: Sardis, the first Metropolis of Afia, Greece, and Audia. But where and what Audia was, (fays He) I find not. Now is it not very strange, that this Gentleman should not remember, that Sardis was the Capital City of Lydia; and, confequently, that for AYΔΙΑΣ we fhould read ΛΥΔΙΑΣ! Thomy Correction is too obvious to want any Juftification, yet, I find, it has One from the Learned Father † Harduin; who produces another Coin of Sardis (in the French King's Cailluftrati. binet) which bears the very fame Infcription, only exhibited as it ought to be. + In his Nummi Nor was This a fingle Inaccuracy in Sir George. I'll inftance in Two pretty Infcriptions, the One an Epitaph, the other a Votive Table, which He has given Us, but in a very corrupt Condition. Tho' I have never been in Greece, nor feen the Infcriptions any where but in his Book, I think, I can restore them to their true Senfe and Numbers: And, as they they are particularly elegant, fome Readers will not be difpleas'd to see them in a State of Purity. VII. Of the Antiquities of Philadelphia (fays An Epihe) I bad but a flender Account; only I have rected and taph corthe Copy of one Infcription, being the Monument explain'd. of a Virgin, in thefe three Couplets of Verles. But he was fo far from being a Virgin, that the Epitaph fhews her to have been a Wife; that it was put up in Memory of Her by her Husband; and that she dy'd in the Flower of her Youth at the Age of twenty three. Ξανίππίῳ Ἀκύλα μνήμίω ' βία παρέδωκίων 2 · Βωμῷ ' τειμήσας σεμνω ταυτίω ἄλοχον Παρθένον ἧς ἀπέλυσε μίτρίω ΗΣΔΡΙΟΝ ἄνθο ης Ἔσκεν ἐν ἡμιτελᾶ παυσαμόρον θαλάμῳ. Τρεις γδ ἐπ ̓ εἰκοσίες τελεῶσε 3 βιον ἐνιαυτές, 4 Καὶ μα' τές δε πάνεν * τοτε λιποσαφα.. I have, for Brevity's fake, mark'd the general Corrections, which I have made, at the Side. The third Verfe is neither true in Quantity, nor Language: Η ΣΔΡΙΟΝ is a Monster of a Word, which never could be the Reading of any Marble. As I correct it, we recover a most beautiful Couplet. Παρθένον, ἧς ἀπέλυσε μίτρην ἯΣ ΗΡΙΝΟΝ άνθα Ἔσκεν ἐν ἡμιτελᾶ παυσάμενον θαλάμῳ, 1 βιότο παρέδες κεν. 2 τιμήσας σεμνολά TlW. 3 βιδσ'. 4 τότο λιο πᾶσα φάσ |