James Adam, The Republic of Plato

ὅτι κτλ.: lit. ‘that whatever jests you would be ashamed to make yourself, but which you are mightily pleased to hear in comic representations, or it may be in private life, and do not hate as bad, you do the same thing’ etc. ‘Whatever’ is treated as equivalent to ‘if any’: see Kühner Gr. Gr. II p. 945. I have followed Schneider in writing ἅν or ἃ ἄν instead of ἄν (see cr. n.), although he gives no other instance where ἄν appears to do double duty in this fashion. The usage, however, ought not on that account to be pronounced impossible; for cases in which a single relative pronoun forms, as here, the object of two opposing clauses, one representing a hypothetical, the other an actual situation, are extremely rare. We should also remember that ὅς is occasionally used instead of ὃς ἄν with the subjunctive, even in classical prose, according to the best MSS: e.g. Laws 737 B: see also Kühner Gr. Gr. II p. 206. A sentence like the present is made easier by the mere existence of such an exceptional liberty of style. For the corruption of ἅν to ἄν cf. (with Schneider) Gorg. 486 E. All other attempts at emendation—and they are numerous—involve too much change: see App. III.

ἰδίᾳ: i.e. “intra privatos parietes et ab iis, qui artem non profitentur” (Schneider). The word has been held to refer to writings in prose: but see on II 363 E.

αὖ κατεῖχες . αὖ is “item, ut antea θρηνῶδες” (Stallbaum). Madvig's conjecture ἄν should not be adopted. The second αὖ (τότ᾽ αὖ) points the contrast between κατεῖχες and ἀνίης: cf. 606 A note