Page:The Theatre of the Greeks, a Treatise on the History and Exhibition of the Greek Drama, with Various Supplements.djvu/398

 372 ON THE LANGUAGE, METRES AND PROSODY yvfxvovvTO Se TrXcvpat cr7rapayixoi<;. " Quarta : verbum minus forte, sive facit augment! accessio anapses- tum, sive non facit, in principio versus positum, si ultra primum pedem porrigitur, caret augmento : yodro' Otjjviev. " Quinta: ejusdemmodi verbum si non ultra primum pedem porrigi- tur, ut detracto augmento parum numerosum, aut vitatur, ut Kaves, aut cum alia forma commutatur, ut KaXct cum KaXct." There can be no doubt that the omission of the augment in the choruses is an incident of the dialect in which they are supposed to be written (see Monk ad Alcest. 599). On the augment in general, see Donaldson's Greek Grammar, pp. 194, 201, 248. (2) The more genuine forms in -cro-, as Trpao-o-w, eXacro-wv, are pre- ferred to the later forms in -tt, as TrpaxTO), eA-aTrwv, though the more recent form is occasionally found; thus we have Trparro) (Soph. Ant. 564), iXarrov (Soph. Electr. 998), Kpetrrwi/ {ibid. 1465), rjTrinv (Eur. Hec. 274) (see Valcken. ad Eurip. Phoen. 406, 1388). (3) Similarly, apa-rjv and 6ap<7(2 are preferred to the later assimila- tions appr]v and OappQ (see Porson ad Eurip. Hec. 8; Phcen. 54). (4) The second person singular of the pres. and fut. indie, middle or passive is generally contracted from -cat into -€t in the older Attic, and this form is invariably foimd in the fut. oi/^et, and ii) the pres. fiovkei and otct, which are thus distinguished from the subj. j^ovXr) and oty; the form -€t is also to be preferred in Aristophanes; but -y is most common in the MSS. of the tragedians (Donaldson, Gr. Gr. p. 253). (5) In the past tense of oTSa, the forms T^Setv, ^Set?, rjSa or rjSuv are more common in the tragedians than ySr], -^Srjs or ySrjaOa. The dual and plural are ya-rov, ^orr-qv, ^Sct/xei/ or ricrpiev, rjaTC, ^Seto-av or yaav. The perfect emKa makes in the plur. eoty/xev and ci^acrt. (6) Porson remarks (ad Med. 744) that the tragedians never sub- stitute the verb in -vw for that in -u/x,i, and that this change very rarely occurs in the Old Comedy. He also denies (ad Or est. 141) that the dramatic style admits of such forms as TtOeL<;, ^vi/tets, &c. for tlOtj's, ivvLrj<;, &c. But in order to sustain this rule it is necessary to alter the text in several passages (see Buttmann, Aus/iihrl. Gr. Spr. p. 523; Matth. Gr. Gr. § 201, 1, note; cf. § 212, 7). (7) In the imperf of the substantive verb, the tragedians used to write -7, r}(T6a, r/v (Cobet, ]Vov(E Lectiones, p. 187). (8) The forms kXt^?, KkfjOpovy KXyo), &c. are more common in the dramatists than kXcis, KXeiOpov, kXciw, <fec. Similarly, nouns in -€v<;, as