But that is a Point nothing
to the Passage in Question; which means, as I have shewn in another
Place, That _Sophocles_ declaimed in Prose, contending to obtain a
_Chorus_ for reviving some Pieces of _Thespis_ and _Choerilus_.
Is This contending against Them, as rival Poets?
[Footnote C: In Ranis, v. 73.]
[Sidenote: _Meursius_, and _Camerarius_ mistaken.]
IV. Some other Learned Men have likewise been mistaken in
Particulars with regard to _Sophocles_. In the Synopsis of his
Life, we find these Words; +Teleuta de meta Euripiden eton [st]'+.
_Meursius_, as well as _Camerarius_, have expounded This, as if
_Sophocles_ surviv'd _Euripides_ six Years. But the best Accounts
agree that they died both in the same Year, a little before the
_Frogs_ of _Aristophanes_ was play'd; _scil._ Olymp. 93, 3. The
Meaning, therefore, of the Passage is, as some of the Commentators
have rightly observ'd; _That _Sophocles_ died after _Euripides_, at
90 Years of Age._ The Mistake arose from hence, that, in Numerals,
+stigma'+ signifies as well 6 as 90.
[Sidenote: Father _Brumoy_ mistaken.]
V. The Learned Father _Brumoy_ too, who has lately given us three
Volumes upon the _Theatre_ of the _Greeks_, has slipt into an Error
about _Sophocles_; for, speaking of his _Antigone_, he tells us, it
was in such Request as to be perform'd Two and Thirty times; _Elle
fut representee trente deux fois._ The Account, on which This is
grounded, we have from the Argument prefix'd to _Antigone_ by
_Aristophanes_ the Grammarian: and the _Latin_ Translator of this
Argument, probably, led Father _Brumoy_ into his Mistake, and
he should have referr'd to the Original.
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