CHAPTER XXI THREE MODES, OR STYLES, OF COMPOSITION
I assert without any hesitation that there are many specific differences of composition, and that they cannot be brought into a comprehensive view or within a precise enumeration; I think too that, as in personal appearance, so also in literary composition, each of us has an individual character. I find not a bad illustration in painting. As in that art all painters from life take the same pigments but mix them in the most diverse ways, so in poetry and in prose, though we all use the same words, we do not put them together in the same manner. I hold, however, that the essentially different varieties of composition are the three following only, to which any one who likes may assign the appropriate names, when he has heard their characteristics and their differences. For my own part, since I cannot find recognized names for them, inasmuch as none exist, I call them by metaphorical terms—the first austere, the second smooth (or florid), the third
1 hiatum indicavit Schottius 2 τε om. F 4 κακεῖνα P, MV: καὶ ταῦτα F || διευκρινήσω V || τοῖς FM: om. PV 5 μὲν F: om. PMV 7 λόγῳ om. PV 9 ἢ om. P 11 δὲ ἀπὸ MV: δὲ κατὰ P 12 εἰδικὰς F (E): ἰδικὰς PMV || διαφορὰς πολλὰς F: πολλὰς διαφορὰς PMV 13 εἰς συλλογισμὸν F 14 ἴδιον ἡμῶν ἑκάστῳ χαρακτῆρα] ἰδιώματα ἑκάστῳ χαρακτῆρι F 16 φαύλω F: φαύλως PMV || ζωγραφία F: ζωγραφιαίω PM 19 πάσῃ Us.: ἁπάση libri 20 ἅπαντες F 22 μόνας EF: om. PMV 25 ἀκατονομάστοις PV 26 ἢ ἀνθηράν om. P
3. As the sentence stands, the infinitives μνησθῆναι, παρασχεῖν and διευκρινῆσαι are without regular government. βουλόμενος may be inserted after μνησθῆναι, or (as Usener prefers to think) something like ἀναγκαῖον γὰρ ἡγοῦμαι πρῶτον μὲν παραστῆσαι may be supposed to have fallen out between παύσομαι and τίνες.
7. Dionysius’ practice of variety in his own style is shown by his use of ἐμφερῆ here, as compared with ὁμοίαν in l. 6.
12. This and the following chapters should be compared carefully with de Demosth. cc. 36 ff.
21. For Greek views as to types of style in general (not simply ἁρμονίαι) reference may be made to Demetr. pp. 28 ff.
24. At this point in the Epitome, the Darmstadt codex has (in the margin) ὁ δὲ Πλούταρχος τὸ μὲν τῆς συνθέσεως ἁδρόν, τὸ δὲ ἰσχνόν, τὸ δὲ μέσον καλεῖ.
26. ἢ ἀνθηράν: cp. 232 25 (where P again omits the second epithet) and 248 9 (with critical note).
εὔκρατον· ἣν ὅπως ποτὲ γίνεσθαι φαίην ἄν, ἔγωγε ἀπορῶ,
καὶ “δίχα μοι νόος ἀτρέκειαν εἰπεῖν,” εἴτε κατὰ στέρησιν
τῶν ἄκρων ἑκατέρας εἴτε κατὰ μῖξιν· οὐ γὰρ ῥᾴδιον
εἰκάσαι τὸ σαφές. μή ποτ’ οὖν κρεῖττον ᾖ λέγειν, ὅτι κατὰ
τὴν ἄνεσίν τε καὶ τὴν ἐπίτασιν τῶν ἐσχάτων ὅρων οἱ διὰ 5
μέσου γίνονται πολλοὶ πάνυ ὄντες· οὐ γὰρ ὥσπερ ἐν μουσικῇ
τὸ ἴσον ἀπέχει τῆς νήτης καὶ τῆς ὑπάτης ἡ μέση, τὸν αὐτὸν
τρόπον καὶ ἐν λόγοις ὁ μέσος χαρακτὴρ ἑκατέρου τῶν ἄκρων
ἴσον ἀφέστηκεν, ἀλλ’ ἔστι τῶν ἐν πλάτει θεωρουμένων ὡς
ἀγέλη τε καὶ σωρὸς καὶ ἄλλα πολλά. ἀλλὰ γὰρ οὐχ οὗτος 10
ὁ καιρὸς ἁρμόττων τῇ θεωρίᾳ ταύτῃ· λεκτέον δ’, ὥσπερ ὑπεθέμην,
καὶ περὶ τῶν χαρακτήρων οὐχ ἅπανθ’ ὅσ’ ἂν εἰπεῖν
ἔχοιμι (μακρῶν γὰρ ἄν μοι πάνυ δεήσειε λόγων), ἀλλ’ αὐτὰ
τὰ φανερώτατα.
