[178]
There are
some persons in whom positive excellences have no
charm, while there are others whose very faults give
pleasure. We have seen the greatest of comic actors,
Demetrius and Stratocles, win their success by
entirely different merits. But that is the less
surprising owing to the fact that the one was at his
best in the rôles of gods, young men, good fathers
and slaves, matrons and respectable old women,
while the other excelled in the portrayal of sharptempered old men, cunning slaves, parasites, pimps
and all the more lively characters of comedy. For
their natural gifts differed. For Demetrius' voice,
like his other qualities, had greater charm, while
that of Stratocles was the more powerful.
Quintilian. With An English Translation. Harold Edgeworth Butler. Cambridge. Cambridge, Mass., Harvard University Press; London, William Heinemann, Ltd. 1922.
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