H. Recent Writings connected with the de Compositione

A full bibliography, covering not only the de Compositione of Dionysius but his rhetorical and critical works generally, is given in the present editor’s Dionysius of Halicarnassus: the Three Literary Letters (published in January 1901), pp. 209-219. The following are (in chronological order) the early editors who have done most to further the study of the de Compositione: Aldus Manutius (editio princeps), Robertus Stephanus, F. Sylburg, J. Upton, J. J. Reiske, G. H. Schaefer, and F. Goeller. Much interest still attaches to C. Batteux’ publication (1788): Traité de l’arrangement des mots: traduit du grec de Denys d’Halicarnasse; avec des réflexions sur la langue française, comparée avec la langue grecque. The translation is too free and based on too poor a text to meet the needs of exact scholarship. But the Réflexions (which accompany the translation, in vol. vi. of the author’s Principes de littérature) are full of suggestive remarks. Another excellent literary study of Dionysius is that of Max. Egger: Denys d’Halicarnasse: essai sur la critique littéraire et la rhétorique chez les Grecs au siècle d’Auguste (Paris, 1902). As its title indicates, this volume takes a wide range; and it reveals that full competence in these matters which it is natural to expect from the son of Émile Egger. A short general account, by Radermacher, of Dionysius’ critical essays will be found in Pauly-Wissowa’s Realencyclopädie vol. v.

The first volume of Usener and Radermacher’s text was included in the bibliographical list mentioned above. In 1904 appeared the second volume, containing the de Compositione and some other critical writings of Dionysius (Dionysii Halicarnasei opuscula ediderunt Hermannus Usener et Ludovicus Radermacher. Voluminis sec. fasc. prior. Lipsiae, 1904). The second volume is on a par with the first, which was welcomed, as a notable achievement, in the Classical Review xiv. pp. 452-455, where also attention was drawn (p. 454 a) to a questionable emendation previously introduced by Usener into the text of the de Imitatione. This emendation is withdrawn in Usener’s second volume—a fact which may be mentioned as one proof among many that his tendency was to grow more conservative and, in particular, more attentive to the testimony of P 1741. The titles of A. B. Poynton’s articles on Dionysius are: “Oxford MSS. of Dionysius Halicarnasseus, De Compositione Verborum” (Journal of Philology xxvii. pp. 70-99), and “Oxford MSS. of the Opuscula of Dionysius of Halicarnassus” (Journal of Philology xxviii. pp. 162-185). Among other useful subsidia lately published may be mentioned: W. Kroll’s “Randbemerkungen” in Rhein. Mus. lxii. pp. 86-101, and Larue van Hook’s Metaphorical Terminology of Greek Rhetoric and Literary Criticism (Chicago, 1905). R. H. Tukey (Classical Review, September 1909, p. 188) makes the interesting suggestion that “the De Compositione belongs chronologically between the two parts of the De Demosthene.” The use of the present tense δηλοῦται, in C.V. 182 8 may be held to countenance this view.

In some recent books of larger scope it is pleasant to notice an increased appreciation of the high value of the work done by Dionysius in the field of literary criticism. Certain of these estimates may be quoted in conclusion. R. C. Jebb, in the Companion to Greek Studies p. 137: “The maturity of the ‘Attic revival’ is represented at Rome, in the Augustan age, by the best literary critic of antiquity, Dionysius of Halicarnassus.” A. and M. Croiset Histoire de la littérature grecque v. p. 371: “Les uns et les autres [les contemporains et les rhéteurs des âges suivants] appréciaient avec raison l’érudition de Denys, la justesse de son esprit, sa finesse dans le discernement des ressemblances et des différences, la solidité de sa doctrine, son goût dans le choix des exemples. De plus, ils se sentaient touchés, comme nous et plus que nous, par la vivacité de ses admirations, par cette sorte de foi communicative, qui faisait de lui le défenseur des traditions classiques.” Wilamowitz-Moellendorff Die griechische Literatur des Altertums pp. 102 and 148: “Von unbestreitbar hohem und dauerndem Werte ist die andere Seite der rhetorischen Theorie und Praxis, die sich auf den Ausdruck erstreckt, die Stilistik.... Es ist ein hohes Lob, dass er (Dionysios von Halikarnass) im Grunde dieselbe stilistische Überzeugung vertritt wie Cicero, und wir sind ihm für die Erhaltung von ungemein viel Wichtigem zu Dank verpflichtet; seine Schriften über die attischen Redner und über die Wortfügung sind auch eine nicht nur belehrende, sondern gefällige Lekture.” J. E. Sandys History of Classical Scholarship i. p. 279: “In the minute and technical criticism of the art and craft of Greek literature, the works of Dionysius stand alone in all the centuries that elapsed between the Rhetoric of Aristotle and the treatise On the Sublime.” G. Saintsbury History of Criticism i. pp. 136, 137, 132: “Dionysius is a very considerable critic, and one to whom justice has not usually, if at all, yet been done.... A critic who saw far, and for the most part truly, into the proper province of literary criticism.... This treatise [sc. the de Compositione], if studied carefully, must raise some astonishment that Dionysius should have been spoken of disrespectfully by anyone who himself possesses competence in criticism. From more points of view than one, the piece gives Dionysius no mean rank as a critic.” S. H. Butcher Harvard Lectures on Greek Subjects pp. 236, 239: “Of his fine perception of the harmonies of Greek speech we can entertain no reasonable doubt.... We cannot dismiss his general criticism as unsound or fanciful. The whole history of the evolution of Greek prose, and the practice of the great masters of the art, support his main contention.” With these extracts may be coupled one from the Spectator of March 23, 1901: “In this treatise Dionysius reviews and attempts to explain the art of literature. It is a brilliant effort to analyse the sensuous emotions produced by the harmonious arrangement of beautiful words. Its eternal truth might make it a textbook for to-day.”

In the Notes and Glossary, as in the Introduction, references are usually given to the lines, as well as the pages, of the Greek text here printed: e.g. 80 7 = page 80 line 7 of the De Compositione.—The following abbreviations are used in referring to volumes already issued by the editor:—

D.H. = ‘Dionysius of Halicarnassus: the Three Literary Letters.’
Long. = ‘Longinus on the Sublime.’
Demetr. = ‘Demetrius on Style.’