James Adam, The Republic of Plato

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οὐδὲ τὰ δοκοῦντα -- ποιοῦντες. The reverse is affirmed by Socrates in Symp. 223 D τοῦ αὐτοῦ ἀνδρὸς εἶναι κωμῳδίαν καὶ τραγῳδίαν ἐπίστασθαι ποιεῖν, καὶ τὸν τέχνῃ τραγῳδοποιὸν ὄντα καὶ κωμῳδοποιὸν εἶναι. The solution is that in the Symposium Socrates is applying to the drama the Socratic principle μία ἐπιστήμη s. δύναμις τῶν ἐναντίων: theoretically, therefore, and ideally, the tragedian is also capable of writing a comedy. In the Republic, on the other hand, he is describing Greek dramatic art as he found it: for which reason he writes δύνανται and not δύναιντ᾽ ἄν (a corruption in v, wrongly adopted by Stallbaum). Cf. Ion 534 C. Aristophanes did not write tragedy, nor the tragedians comedy. The passage in the Symposium is interesting as an unconscious prophecy of the Shakespearian drama. Cf. Reber Plato u. d. Poesie p. 11.

μιμήματα. See cr. n. Former editors variously read μιμήματα or μιμήματε. Either is admissible, so far as concerns the Greek, but the plural was perhaps— owing to the proximity of τούτω—somewhat more likely to be corrupted to the dual in this instance than vice versâ. Cf. X 614 C δύο—χάσματα ἐχομένω ἀλλήλοιν with note ad loc. The reading μιμήματά τε represents the correction μιμήματα. This is, I think, a somewhat simpler view than to suppose that an original μιμήματε became μιμήματέ τε by dittography, and τέ was afterwards changed to τά. Roeper, however, pronounces in favour of the dual (de dual. usu Pl. p. 14), and it must be admitted that duals are peculiarly liable to corruption in the MSS of the Republic. See Introd. § 5.

ῥαψῳδοί -- ὑποκριταί. Even ῥαψῳδοί seem to have generally confined themselves to a particular poet: see Ion 531 C, 536 B.

ἀλλ̓ οὐδὲ -- οἱ αὐτοί. This was true without exception till comparatively late times: see Müller Gr. Bühnenalt. pp. 185—188. κωμῳδοῖς and τραγῳδοῖς (literally ‘at the tragedians’ etc.) are local—almost adverbial—datives, regularly used to denote the exhibitions of comedies and tragedies: see e.g. Arist. Eth. Nic. IV 6. 1123^{a}23, Aesch. in Ctes. 36, and cf. the Latin use of ‘gladiatoribus’ for ‘at a gladiatorial show.’