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But now Menander's phrase is so well turned and
contempered with itself, and so everywhere conspiring,
that, while it traverses many passions and humors and is
accommodated to all sorts of persons, it still shows the
same, and even retains its semblance in trite, familiar, and
every-day expressions. And if his master do now and
then require something of rant and noise, he doth but (like
a skilful flutist) set open all the holes of his pipe, and then
presently stop them again with good decorum and restore
the tune to its natural state. And though there be a great
number of excellent artists of all professions, yet never did
any shoemaker make the same sort of shoe, or tireman
the same sort of visor, or tailor the same sort of garment,
to fit a man, a woman, a child, an old man, and a slave.
But Menander hath so addressed his style, as to proportion
it to every sex, condition, and age; and this, though he
took the business in hand when he was very young, and
died in the vigor of his composition and action, when, as
Aristotle tells us, authors receive most and greatest improvement in their styles. If a man shall then compare
the middle and last with the first of Menander's plays, he
will by them easily conceive what others he would have
added to them, had he had but longer life.
[p. 13]
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