_" But there
happen to be two signal Mistakes in this short Sentence. For the
_Chorus-Singers_ were never elected by Suffrage at all, but hir'd by
the proper Officer who was at the Expence of the _Chorus_: and the
_Furnishers_ of the _Chorus_ had never either Table, or Stipend,
allowed them, towards their Charge. To what Purpose then is this
Sentence, which should be a Deduction from the Premises, and yet is
none, brought in? Or how comes the Reasoning to be founded upon what
was not the Fact? The Mistake manifestly arises from a careless
Transposition made in the Text: Let the two _Greek_ Words, which I
have distinguished by _Capitals_, only change Places, and we recover
what _Platonius_ meant to infer: "That the [A]_Furnishers_
of _Chorus_'s being no longer elected by Suffrage, and the
[B]_Chorus-Singers_ having no Provision made for them, _Chorus_'s
were abolished, and the Subjects of Comedies alter'd."
[Footnote A: Choregon.]
[Footnote B: Choreuton.]
II. There is another more egregious Error still subsisting in this
instructive Fragment, which has likewise escaped the Notice of
the Learned. The Author is saying, that, in the _old Comedy_, the
_Masks_ were made so nearly to resemble the Persons to be satirized,
that before the Actor spoke a Word, it was known whom he was to
personate. But, in the _New Comedy_, when _Athens_ was conquered
by the _Macedonians_, and the Poets were fearful lest their Masks
should be construed to resemble any of their New Governors, they
formed them so preposterously as only to move Laughter; +horomen goun+
(says He) +tas ophrys en tois prosopois tes Menandrou komodias hopoias
echei, kai hopos exestrammenon to SOMA.
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