‘And this cheat (disguise, delusion) is fairly effected’ (the assumed character escapes observation, is stolen from the view), ‘if the composer selects for his composition words out of the ordinary language (of common life); such as are the verses of Euripides, who gave us the earliest specimen (hint or glimpse, ὑπό) (of this kind of writing)’. κλέπτεται] Comp. infra § 10, οὐ κλέπτεται οὖν, c. 7. 10, οὕτω κλέπτεται ὁ ἀκροατής. Rhet. ad Alex. 15 (16) §§ 5, and 6, κλέπτειν τὴν μαρτυρίαν, Ib. 35 (36) § 4, τὰ δ᾽ ἔξω κλέπτεται. Aesch. Choeph. 839, οὔτοι φρέν᾽ ἂν κλέψειαν ὠμματωμένην. Soph. Phil. 57, τὸ δ᾽ οὐχὶ κλεπτέον (not to be disguised), Aj. 188, εἰ δ᾽ ὑποβαλλόμενοι κλέπτουσι μύθους οἱ μέγαλοι βασιλῆς, et alibi ap. Soph. (Wunder's note ad loc.). Ib. 1135, κλέπτης, 1137, πόλλ᾽ ἂν κακῶς λάθρα σὺ κλέψειας κακά. Eur. Fragm. Ἱππόλυτος καλυπτόμενος, 12, εὐρόοισι στόμασι τἀληθέστατα κλέπτουσι. Dionysius, de Comp. Verb. c. 19, τάσεις (tension, pitching) φωνῆς αἱ καλούμεναι προσῳδίαι διάφοροι, κλέπτουσαι τῇ ποικιλίᾳ τὸν κόρον. Ib. Ars Rhet. c. X § 14, κλέπτοντα τὴν ἀκρόασιν (“captata furtim auditorum attentione,” Reiske). Bacon, Essays, Of great Place, “And do not think to steale it.” ὑπέδειξε] as I have pointed out, Introd. p. 284, note 2, q. v., may also signify ‘traced as a guide’, for his successors to follow. See also p. 285, note 1, on Euripides' style, and Archimelus' epigram there given. ‘And of the nouns and verbs’ (or subject and predicate, Introd. p. 371, Appendix A to Bk. III), ‘of which the speech (or language, in general) is composed, of which the nouns have so many kinds as have been considered in the treatise on Poetry’ (c. XXI, where, in § 4, eight varieties are enumerated, and then defined seriatim, §§ 5—20), ‘of these words, foreign or obsolete, and (long) compound words’ (Aeschylean compounds), ‘and words invented (manufactured for the occasion), are to be rarely employed, and in rare places (on rare occasions); where (these are), we will state by and by: (in cc. 3 and 7). The why, has been already stated; and that (the why) is because it (the use of them) varies (from the ordinary standard) towards, in the direction of, exaggeration (or excess) beyond propriety (what is becoming)’. On γλῶτται, διπλᾷ ὀνόματα, see Introd. on c. 3, pp. 287, 8. πεποιημένον δ᾽ ἐστὶν ὃ ὅλως μὴ καλούμενον ὑπό τινων αὐτὸς τίθεται ὁ ποιητής: οἷον τὰ κέρατα ἔρνυγας καὶ τὸν ἱερέα ἀρητῆρα (Poet. XXI. 17).
Commentary on the Rhetoric of Aristotle. Edward Meredith Cope. Cambridge. Cambridge University Press. 1877.
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