11805 !://12 FIGURES OF ELOCUTION EXEMPLIFIED; OR, DIRECTIONS FOR READING AND RECITING SUCH FIGURES OF SPEECH AS MOST FREQUENTLY OCCUR IN THE BEST WRITINGS, AND WHICH REQUIRE PARTICULAR MODULATIONS OF THE VOICE, FOR THE USE OF SCHOOLS. BY CHARLES RICHSON, Author of PRAYERS for the Use of Schools, and Master of the London: PRINTED FOR THE AUTHOR, AND PUBLISHED BY J. H. POYNTON, KNIGHTSBRIDGE. 1826. PREFACE. Is there any thing whereof it may be said, see, this is new? it hath been already of old time, which was before us. Eccles. i. v. 10. Although the following pages will be found to contain very little novelty of arrangement, yet I trust that the rules are comprehensively explained, and the examples appropriately selected. But as this Work can only be considered as an Introduction to Elocution, I have omitted the more difficult Figures, and confined the examples to those of Antithesis, Interrogation, Parenthesis, Exclamation, and Climax or Amplification, considering that when the pupil can read or recite these Figures according to the rules, he will then have been exercised in the principal modulations of the voice, and consequently, will be well prepared for more advanced studies. The following observations are left to be made by the teacher at discretion. 1. "In reading or reciting be neither awkward nor affected-inanimate nor theatrical. 66 2. You must use judgment, taking care to 'follow nature," for "she instructs us to relate a story, to support an argument, to command a servant, to utter exclamations of anger or rage, to pour forth lamentations and sorrows, not only with different tones, but different elevations of the voice." 3. Learn to speak slow, all other graces Will follow in their proper places. 4. At pauses, accustom yourself to draw breath, that you may be able to preserve the command of your voice. 5. Emphasis is the the raising of the voice. 6. Cadence is the falling of it. 7. Emphasis must not be placed upon unimportant words. In monosyllables his thunders roll, He, she, it, And, we, ye, THEY, fright the soul. 8. In an Antithesis, one contrary must be pronounced more loudly than the other. 9. Amplification (page 44,) is merely an enumeration of particulars. 10. Climax (page 44,) is a beautiful kind of repetition, when the word which ends the first member of a period, begins the second, and so through each member, till the whole is finished. 11. Every Parenthesis must be pronounced in cadence. 12. Let the sound be an echo to the sense." 13. Attend to the subject, and deliver it as if you were talking of it." FIGURES OF ELOCUTION. COMMUNICATION, OR NARRATION. Is the usual manner of relating unimportant circumstances and is read without any particular variation of the voice. EXAMPLES. Theron and Aspasio took a morning walk into the fields. As soon as Boerhaave rose in the morning he retired for an hour to private prayer and meditation. Coriolanus was a distinguished Roman senator and general. Vice and corruption are sufficient to overset the greatest abilities. We are told that the Sultan Mahmoud, had filled his dominions with ruin and desolation, and half unpeopled the Persian empire. It is very certain that a man of sound reason cannot forbear admiring religion upon an impartial examination of it. B |