King's College Lectures on Elocution

PREFACE.

EARLY two years have elapsed since the second edition of this work was exhausted; and I cannot but express my grateful thanks to the Press and to the Public for the very favourable and gratifying reception accorded to the preceding editions. I had hoped to have completed the task of preparing this still further enlarged and illustrated edition before the present time; but the almost incessant employment of my days and nights as Lecturer on Public Reading and Speaking in the Evening Classes Department of King's College, as a private teacher of Elocution, and in fulfilling engagements for Lectures and Recitals at Institutions in London and the Provinces, leaves me but scanty leisure for other occupations.

In the present edition, I have derived very great advantage from the consultations I have had with Dr. Morell Mackenzie, Dr. Gordon Holmes, Dr. Shuldham, Mr. Lennox Browne, and Herr Emil Behnke, in regard to the larynx and its various functions, as well as from the works they have written on that subject, and to them all I beg to express my deep obligations.

I have also to return my best thanks to Mr. Darwin for his kind permission to use his illustration of the muscles of expression in the human face, and to Dr. Gordon Holmes and Mr. Lennox Browne for theirs in regard to the diagrams which originally appeared in their respective works, as well to Mr. William Carter and Mr. Godfrey Hall for the excellent physiological drawings they have been good enough to make for me as illustrations for this book.

The portrait which appears in the present edition, from a recent photograph by Mayall, is given (like that which appeared in the former edition) at the request of my past and present classes at King's College.

I would venture to hope that this edition, amplified so greatly in its

details, may serve to refresh the memories of former students who have attended my Lectures, during the many years I have held my present office at King's College, as well as afford useful information and practical suggestions to those persons who may either desire to acquire the art of Elocution as a graceful and, in every way, beneficial accomplishment, or those who suffering under what is known as "clerical sore-throat," impediments of speech, or defective articulation, may desire to be freed from those infirmities, or to those whose regular professional or public life may require them to be at least in some degree versed in the art of Public Reading or extempore speaking.

This latter subject was but very slightly glanced at in my first book, and at Oxford and Cambridge I have confined my practical instruction entirely to the art of Public Reading. But at King's College, instruction in Public Speaking is most properly added to that of Public Reading; and with great reason, for it by no means follows that excellence in the one art is a guarantee of equal excellence in the other. Indeed, I have known more than one instance of a person acknowledged to be on all sides a first-rate Public Reader, being comparatively a very indifferent extempore speaker; and I have known on the other hand a man, who for excellent and well-arranged thoughts, fluency of language, and freedom and animation in delivery, would well deserve to be called an unusually good extempore speaker, yet comparatively fail and seem to be dull and tame, monotonous and fettered in every way, when reading from a book. Of course our aim should be equal excellence in both branches of the art which is taught, but on more than one occasion at King's College, one man at the end of the Session has carried off the prize for Public Speaking, and another for Public Reading.

It is therefore on this account that in the present volume I have devoted a considerable part to the subject of extempore speaking. I do not of course mean to say anything so absurd as that a man may be made an excellent Reader or Speaker merely by reading books, or hearing Lectures on Public Reading and Speaking, without actual practice. It would be equally as unreasonable to say that a person can become an excellent player on the organ or piano, or a fine vocalist, by studying a treatise on music or singing, without practice under a competent instructor. But in all these cases acquaintance with the theory of the art is first requisite, and then the due practice regularly carried out will ensure more or less proficiency, according to natural gifts and steadiness of application. And this holds equally good in Public Reading and Speaking, as it is acknowledged to hold good in music, singing, painting, or any other art.

I cannot conclude these few prefatory remarks better than by quoting

the words of the late Dean of Ripon (the Rev. Hugh M'Neile, D.D.), who in closing a course of Lectures on the Church of England, delivered nearly forty years ago at the Hanover Square Rooms, London, forcibly remarked in reference to educational training for the Ministry :

"No one who has given even a passing attention to the habits and feelings of our people, can doubt of the immense effect produced by a ready and natural elocution: yet how little attention comparatively is paid to a right training for its acquirement! Looking at all the ministrations of the Church practically and in detail; following them from the Pulpit to the Schoolroom; from these to the Platform; in whatever department of his labours you contemplate the minister of the Church, it would be difficult to estimate the advantage that might, under the divine blessing, be derived from Elocution classes in our Universities, where, under the management of competent professors, our young men might be trained in recitation, both of selections from standard authors and of their own compositions on set subjects. ... Instead of superseding any part of the present process, this might be added to it all; and if candidates for Orders were thereby delayed a year, there would be more than compensation for the delay in the increased competency for the work."

The ideas thus forcibly put forth by the eloquent divine who, in his own person, afforded a striking example of great natural powers of oratory, developed and cultivated by elocutionary study and practice to the highest degree of perfection, must have been more or less felt by thousands-laymen as well as clergymen-who have at all considered the subject in any of its many forms and phases. No one can look around him, indeed, without being impressed with their truth and importance. Earnestly do I hope that the time is at hand when the national reproach of not having a regular system of training in the arts (to the Church and the Bar the all-important arts) of Public Reading and Speaking, at our Universities, as suggested, not alone by the preacher whom I have quoted, but by many eminent thinkers and writers during the last twenty years, may be removed from amongst us; and that ere long a regular Professorship of Elocution may be found attached not only to our great Universities, but to all Theological, Legal, and Collegiate Institutions throughout the country.

CHARLES JOHN PLUMPTRE.

KING'S COLLEGE, London,

December 1880.

CONTENTS.`

LECTURE I.

Introduction-What is Elocution ?-Definition-Reasons for the Cultivation of

Elocution- Answers to Objections-The Rev. E. Kirk-Extract from the

Rev. J. B. Mayor's "Ethics of Ritual "-The Advantages to be gained from a

knowledge of the Principles of Elocution in regard to the various Professions,

the Church, the Bar, &c.-Claims of Elocution to rank as one of the Fine Arts

-Professor J. Hullah-Importance of the subject of Elocution generally

-Authorities cited: John Stuart Mill, Dr. Guthrie, Mr. C. Palmer, Dr.