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; +kai
hopos exestrammenon to OMMA+, _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
+STREBLON to OMMA+: Others, that were +DIASTROPHOI ten OPSIN+.
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; +kai logon katalogaden peri tou Chorou pros
Thespin kai Choirilon agonizomenos+. This the Learned _Camerarius_
has thus translated: _Scripsit Oratione soluta de _Choro_ contra
_Thespin_ & _Choerilum_ 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 _Choerilus_, 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 _Choerilus_. 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 Fathe