ἐκείνη μὲν οὖν ὅταν (13) ἔλθῃ ταὐτὸ ποιήσει τῇ ὑποκριτικῇ, ἐγκεχειρήκασιν δὲ ἐπ’ (14) ὀλίγον περὶ αὐτῆς εἰπεῖν τινές, οἷον Θρασύμαχος ἐν τοῖς (15) Ἐλέοις·
καὶ ἔστιν φύσεως τὸ ὑποκριτικὸν εἶναι, καὶ ἀτεχνό(16)τερον, περὶ δὲ τὴν λέξιν ἔντεχνον.
διὸ καὶ τοῖς τοῦτο δυνα(17)μένοις γίνεται πάλιν ἆθλα, καθάπερ καὶ τοῖς κατὰ τὴν ὑπό(18)κρισιν ῥήτορσιν·
οἱ γὰρ γραφόμενοι λόγοι μεῖζον ἰσχύουσι (19) διὰ τὴν λέξιν ἢ διὰ τὴν διάνοιαν.
(20) ἤρξαντο μὲν οὖν κινῆσαι τὸ πρῶτον, ὥσπερ πέφυκεν, (21) οἱ ποιηταί·
τὰ γὰρ ὀνόματα μιμήματα ἐστίν, ὑπῆρξεν δὲ (22) καὶ ἡ φωνὴ πάντων μιμητικώτατον τῶν μορίων ἡμῖν·
διὸ (23) καὶ αἱ τέχναι συνέστησαν ἥ τε ῥαψῳδία καὶ ἡ ὑποκριτικὴ (24) καὶ ἄλλαι γε.
ἐπεὶ δ’ οἱ ποιηταί, λέγοντες εὐήθη, διὰ τὴν (25) λέξιν ἐδόκουν πορίσασθαι τὴν δόξαν, διὰ τοῦτο (26) ποιητικὴ πρώτη ἐγένετο λέξις, οἷον ἡ Γοργίου,
καὶ νῦν (27) ἔτι οἱ πολλοὶ τῶν ἀπαιδεύτων τοὺς τοιούτους οἴονται δια(28)λέγεσθαι κάλλιστα.
τοῦτο δ’ οὐκ ἔστιν, ἀλλ’ ἑτέρα λόγου (29) καὶ ποιήσεως λέξις ἐστίν.
δηλοῖ δὲ τὸ συμβαῖνον· οὐδὲ γὰρ (30) οἱ τὰς τραγῳδίας ποιοῦντες ἔτι χρῶνται τὸν αὐτὸν τρόπον,
(31) ἀλλ’ ὥσπερ καὶ ἐκ τῶν τετραμέτρων εἰς τὸ ἰαμβεῖον μετ(32)έβησαν διὰ τὸ τῷ λόγῳ τοῦτο τῶν μέτρων ὁμοιότατον εἶναι (33) τῶν ἄλλων,
οὕτω καὶ τῶν ὀνομάτων ἀφείκασιν ὅσα παρὰ (34) τὴν διάλεκτόν ἐστιν, οἷς [δ’] οἱ πρῶτοι ἐκόσμουν, καὶ ἔτι (35) νῦν οἱ τὰ ἑξάμετρα ποιοῦντες [ἀφείκασιν].
διὸ γελοῖον μι(36)μεῖσθαι τούτους οἳ αὐτοὶ οὐκέτι χρῶνται ἐκείνῳ τῷ τρόπῳ,
(37) ὥστε φανερὸν ὅτι οὐχ ἅπαντα ὅσα περὶ λέξεως ἔστιν εἰπεῖν (38) ἀκριβολογητέον ἡμῖν, ἀλλ’ ὅσα περὶ τοιαύτης οἵας λέγομεν.
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Nobody uses fine language when teaching geometry.
When the principles of delivery have been worked out, they will produce the same effect as on the stage. But only very slight attempts to deal with them have been made and by a few people, as by Thrasymachus in his ‘Appeals to Pity’.
Dramatic ability is a natural gift, and can hardly be systematically taught. The principles of good diction can be so taught,
and therefore we have men of ability in this direction too, who win prizes in their turn, as well as those speakers who excel in delivery
—speeches of the written or literary kind owe more of their effect to their direction than to their thought.
It was naturally the poets who first set the movement going;
for words represent things, and they had also the human voice at their disposal, which of all our organs can best represent other things.
Thus the arts of recitation and acting were formed, and others as well.
Now it was because poets seemed to win fame through their fine language when their thoughts were simple enough, that the language of oratorical prose at first took a poetical colour, e.g. that of Gorgias.
Even now most uneducated people think that poetical language makes the finest discourses.
That is not true: the language of prose is distinct from that of poetry.
This is shown by the state of things to—day, when even the language of tragedy has altered its character.
Just as iambics were adopted, instead of tetrameters, because they are the most prose—like of all metres,
so tragedy has given up all those words, not used in ordinary talk, which decorated the early drama and are still used by the writers of hexameter poems.
It is therefore ridiculous to imitate a poetical manner which the poets themselves have dropped;
