§1ὠς μὲν κοινῶς καὶ καθόλου εἰπεῖν πολλῷ προκρίνει τὸν Μένανδρον, ὡς δʼ ἐπὶ μέρους καὶ ταῦτα προστίθησι
τὸ φορτικόν
φησὶν
ἐν λόγοις καὶ θυμελικὸν καὶ βάναυσον ὥς ἐστιν Ἀριστοφάνει, Μενάνδρῳ δʼ οὐδαμῶς. καὶ γὰρ ὁ μὲν ἀπαίδευτος καὶ ἰδιώτης, οἷς ἐκεῖνος λέγει, ἁλίσκεται ὁ δὲ πεπαιδευμένος δυσχερανεῖ· λέγω δὲ τὰ ἀντίθετα καὶ ὁμοιόπτωτα καὶ παρωνυμίας.
To speak generally and on the whole, he prefers Menander by far, but in detail he also adds these points: "vulgarity," he says, "in words, theatricality, and sordidness are present in Aristophanes, but in Menander not at all." For indeed the uneducated and ordinary person is caught by the things which that man says, but the educated person will be disgusted; I mean the antitheses, homoeoptota, and paronomasiae.
τούτοις γὰρ ὁ μὲν μετὰ τοῦ προσήκοντος λόγου καὶ ὀλιγάκις χρῆται ἐπιμελείας αὐτὰ ἀξιῶν, ὁ δὲ καὶ πολλάκις καὶ οὐκ εὐκαίρως καὶ ψυχρῶς· ἐπαινεῖται γάρ
φησὶν ʼ ὅτι τοὺς ταμίας ἐβάπτισεν, οὐχὶ ταμίας ἀλλὰ Λαμίας ὄντας· καὶ
"οὗτος ἤτοι καικίας ἢ συκοφαντίας πνεῖ"
καὶ
"γάστριζε καὶ τοῖς ἐντέροις καὶ τοῖς κόλοις"
καὶ
"ὑπὸ τοῦ γέλωτος εἰς Γέλαν ἀφίξομαι"
καὶ
"τί δῆτα σοι δράσω, κακόδαιμον, ἀμφορεὺς ἑξοστρακισθείς; "
καὶ
"
ἄγρια γὰρ ἡμᾶς, ὦ γυναῖκες, δρᾷ κακά,
ἅτʼ ἐν ἀγρίοισι τοῖς λαχάνοις αὐτὸς τραφείς
"
καὶ
"ἀλλʼ ἦ τριχόβρωτες τὸν λόφον μου κατέφαγον"
καὶ
"
φέρε δεῦρο γοργόνωτον ἀσπίδος κύκλον.
For of these, the one uses them with proper reason and rarely, deeming them worthy of attention, while the other uses them both often and out of season and coldly; for he is praised, he says, because he "baptized" the treasurers, they being not treasurers but Lamias; and "this man blows either Caecias or sycophancy," and "strike his belly, both the intestines and the colons," and "because of the laughter I shall arrive at Gela," and "what then shall I do for you, wretch, an amphora ostracized?" and "for he does cruel evils to us, women, having himself been reared among wild vegetables," and "but did the hair-eaters consume my crest?" and "bring hither the Gorgon-backed circle of the shield.
κἀμοὶ πλακοῦντος τυρόνωτον δὸς κύκλον
"
καὶ πολλὰ τοιαῦτα.
And give to me a cheese-backed circle of a flat cake," and many such things.
ἔνεστι μὲν οὖν ἐν τῇ κατασκευῇ τῶν ὀνομάτων αὐτῷ τὸ τραγικὸν τὸ κωμικὸν τὸ σοβαρὸν τὸ πεζόν, ἀσάφεια κοινότης, ὄγκος καὶ δίαρμα, σπερμολογία καὶ φλυαρία ναυτιώδης.
Therefore, there is present in his composition of words the tragic, the comic, the proud, the prose-like, obscurity, commonness, pomp, and elevation, babbling, and nauseating chatter.
καὶ τοσαύτας διαφορὰς ἔχουσα καὶ ἀνομοιότητας ἡ λέξις οὐδὲ τὸ πρέπον ἑκάστῃ καὶ οἰκεῖον ἀποδίδωσιν οἷον λέγω βασιλεῖ τὸν ὄγκον ῥήτορι τὴν δεινότητα γυναικὶ τὸ ἁπλοῦν ἰδιώτῃ τὸ πεζὸν ἀγοραίῳ τὸ φορτικόν· ἀλλʼ ὥσπερ ἀπὸ κλήρου ἀπονέμει τοῖς προσώποις τὰ προστυχόντα τῶν ὀνομάτων, καὶ οὐκ ἂν διαγνοίης εἴθʼ υἱός ἐστιν εἴτε πατὴρ εἴτʼ, ἄγροικος εἴτε θεὸς εἴτε γραῦς εἴθʼ ἣρως ὁ διαλεγόμενος.
And having so many differences and dissimilarities, his diction does not even render what is fitting and proper to each; for instance, I mean pomp to a king, cleverness to an orator, simplicity to a woman, the prose-like to an ordinary person, vulgarity to a market-man; but as if by lot he assigns to the characters the first words that come along, and you could not distinguish whether it is a son, or a father, or a rustic, or a god, or an old woman, or a hero who is speaking.
§2ἡ δὲ Μενάνδρου φράσις οὕτω συνέξεσται καὶ συμπέπνευκε κεκραμένη πρὸς ἑαυτήν, ὥστε διὰ πολλῶν ἀγομένη παθῶν καὶ ἠθῶν καὶ προσώποις ἐφαρμόττουσα παντοδαποῖς μία τε φαίνεσθαι καὶ τὴν ὁμοιότητα τηρεῖν ἐν τοῖς κοινοῖς καὶ συνήθεσι καὶ ὑπὸ τὴν χρείαν ὀνόμασιν· ἐὰν δέ τινος ἄρα ν τερατείας εἰς τὸ πρᾶγμα καὶ ψόφου δεήσῃ, καθάπερ αὐλοῦ πάντρητον ἀνασπάσας ταχὺ πάλιν καὶ πιθανῶς ἐπέβαλε καὶ κατέστησε τὴν φωνὴν εἰς τὸ οἰκεῖον.
But Menander's diction is so polished and breathes together, being blended with itself, that, though being led through many passions and characters and adapting itself to all kinds of persons, it appears both one and maintains similarity in the common, familiar, and useful words; and if indeed there should be need of any exaggeration and noise for the matter, as if pulling up all the stops of a flute, he quickly and persuasively laid it on and restored his voice to its proper state.
πολλῶν δὲ γεγονότων εὐδοκίμων τεχνιτῶν, οὔθʼ ὑπόδημα δημιουργὸς οὔτε προσωπεῖον σκευοποιὸς οὔτε τις ἱμάτιον ἅμα ταὐτὸν ἀνδρὶ καὶ γυναικὶ καὶ μειρακίῳ καὶ γέροντι καὶ οἰκότριβι πρέπον ἐποίησεν· ἀλλὰ Μένανδρος; οὕτως ἔμιξε τὴν λέξιν, ὥστε πάσῃ καὶ φύσει καὶ διαθέσει καὶ ἡλικίᾳ σύμμετρον εἶναι, καὶ ταῦτα νέος μὲν ἔτι τοῦ πράγματος ἁψάμενος, ἐν ἀκμῇ δὲ τοῦ ποιεῖν καὶ διδάσκειν τελευτήσας, ὅτε μάλιστα καὶ πλείστην ἐπίδοσιν, ὡς Ἀριστοτέλης φησί, λαμβάνει τὰ περὶ τὴν λέξιν τοῖς γράφουσιν.
Though many famous craftsmen have arisen, neither has a shoemaker, nor a mask-maker, nor a tailor made a shoe, a mask, or a garment suitable at the same time for a man, a woman, a youth, an old man, and a household slave; but Menander did so; he so mixed his diction that it is proportionate to every nature, disposition, and age, and that too though having taken up the craft while still young, and having died in the prime of his writing and producing plays, when especially, as Aristotle says, the matter of diction receives the greatest advancement for writers.
εἰ οὖν πρὸς τὰ πρῶτα τῶν Μενάνδρου δραμάτων τὰ μέσα καὶ τὰ τελευταῖα παραβάλοι τις, ἐξ αὐτῶν ἐπιγνώσεται, ὅσα ἔμελλεν, εἰ ἐπεβίω, καὶ τούτοις ἕτερα προσθήσειν.
If, therefore, one should compare the first of Menander's plays with the middle and the last ones, he will recognize from them how many other things he was going to add to these, had he lived.