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; ὁρῶμεν γοῦν (says He) τὰς ὀφρῦς ἐν τοῖς προσώποις τῆς Μενάνδρου κωμῳδίας ὁποίας ἔχει, καὶ ὅπως ἐξεστραμμένον τὸ ΣΩΜΑ. καὶ οὐδε κατὰ ἀνθρώπων φύσιν. “We see therefore what strange Eyebrows there are to the Masks used in_ Menander_’s Comedies; and how the _Body_ is distorted, and unlike any human Creature alive.” But the Author, ’tis evident, is speaking abstractedly of _Masks_; and what Reference has the _Distortion_ of the _Body_ to the Look of a _Visor_? I am satisfied, _Platonius_ wrote; καὶ ὅπως ἐξεστραμμένον τὸ ὌΜΜΑ, _i.e._ “and how the _Eyes_ were _goggled_ and _distorted_.” This is to the Purpose of his Subject: and _Jul. Pollux_, in describing the Comic Masques, speaks of some that had ΣΤΡΕΒΛΟΝ τὸ ὌΜΜΑ: Others, that were ΔΙΑΣΤΡΟΦΟΙ τὴν ὌΨΙΝ. PERVERSIS _oculis_, as _Cicero_ calls them, speaking of _Roscius_. [Sidenote: _Camerarius_ and _Keuster_, mistaken.] III. _Suidas_, in the short Account that he has given us of _Sophocles_, tells us, that, besides Dramatic Pieces, he wrote Hymns and Elegies; καὶ λόγον καταλογάδην περὶ τοῦ Χοροῦ πρὸς Θέσπιν καὶ Χοίριλον ἀγωνιζόμενος. This the Learned _Camerarius_ has thus translated: _Scripsit Oratione solutâ de _Choro_ contra _Thespin_ & _Chœrilum_ quempiam._ And _Keuster_ likewise understood, and render’d, the Passage to the same Effect. He owns, the Place is obscure, and suspected by him. “For how could _Sophocles_ contend with _Thespis_ and _Chœrilus_, who liv’d long before his Time?” The Scholiast upon [C]_Aristophanes_, however, expresly says, as _Keuster_ might have remember’d, that _Sophocles_ actually did contend with _Chœrilus_. 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 _Chœrilus_. Is This contending against Them, as rival Poets? [Footnote C: In Ranis, v. 73.] [Sidenote: _Meursius_, and _Camerarius_ mistaken.]