The New Reciter, reader and orator: a text-book on the principals of Elocution, etc

Front matter

tlttlt flag* fm* fiftl^ j^tro. A.n<l Home Performance. Published at One Shilling each, bound gilt edges, fancy illustrated cover. j— BEAUTY AND THE BEAST. Twelve appropriate illustrations by Alfred Crow-quill. It. 2— WHITTINGTON AND HIS CAT. Twelve appropriate illustrations by Alfred Crowquill. Is. 3— CINDERELLA, AND THE LITTLE GLASS SLIPPER. Twelve illustrations by Alfred Crowquill. 1*. 4— PUSS IN BOOTS; OR, THE MILLER'S FAVOURITE SON. Nine illustrations l>y Harrison Weir. 1«. 5— MOTHER GOOSE AND THE GOLDEN EGGS. Ten illustrations by Harrison Weir. 1*. 6— CHILDREN IN THE WOOD. Eleven appropriate illustrations by J. V. Barret. 1*. 7— THE MILLER'S MAID. A play for juvenile actors by Miss Corner Thirteen illustrations by Tode. la. Or, in two handsomely bound volumes, 3s. Gd. each. In this series of Little Plays for Little People, Miss Corner has re-written the old larourite tales of childhood, that they may afford lively recreation in place of Charades, giving; at the same time hints as regards the management of Costumes, Scenery, 4c. The Dialogue is simple and spirited ; the Scenery is diversified, and the Moral excellent.

Extract from Preface. — ' ' Children want to be amused, and I believe that a very important part of education consists in promoting innocent and agree able occupation for leisure hours in order to prevent any disposition to indolence in mind or body." 8— SLEEPING BEAUTY for Home Eerformance. Hy Miss Corner. Cloth boards, Gd. 9— THE PRINCE AND THE WITCH. A Rhyming Fairy Tale for Home Performance. By Mtra Craeq. 10— LITTLE BLUEBELL AND THE WILL 0' THE WISP. A Play in three Acts, for little children. By Aimee. HUMOROUS READINGS 8t>o. Ch>wn, Sixpence each. Expressly written for reading at Public Entertainments, Penny Readings, and for Home Enjoyment. 1— MEN'S WRONGS— WOMEN'S RIGHTS. By Julia Chandler. Gd. 2 — RUMMY (ARES. By Robert Overton. Gd. 3— A NIGHT WITH A BABY. By Julia Chandler. Gd. 4— BOB SC3_*TCHERTY'S RELIGION.

By Robert Overton. Gd. 5— JACK'S YARN; OR, THE THREE PARSONS. By Robert Overtoh. 6* 6— BILL MUGGINS. 7— ME AND BILL. By Robert Overton. Gd. The above 7 tittle sketches are sure to produce much merriment, whether read by the Fireside with ihe Family Circle, or in Public. PARLOUR PLAYS FOR HOME PERFORMANCE. Ten different in volume. All good entertainment for young and old. Edited by Clement Scott, Esq. ' Price 2s. Gd. DEAN & SON. PUBLISHERS, 160a, FLEET STREET. E.C. THE NEW RECITER, READER AND ORATOR: A TEXT-BOOK ON THE PRINCIPLES OF ELOCUTION, WITH CHOICE AND ORIGINAL RECITATIONS EMBRACING THE BEST SPECIMENS OF THE ART IN PROSE AND VERSE. BY FREDERICK GEORGE WEBB. LONDON : DEAN & SON, 160a, FLEET STREET, E.C.

Preface

. In bringing the present volume before the public, the author desires to state that his object in compiling the work is to offer students of Elocution a simple, practical treatise of its various constituents, together with a number of the very best specimens of the art obtainable, in both prose and verse. It has been his hope that by excluding the more hack neyed, and, at the same time, mediocre selections appearing in most books upon the subject, he might be able to submit only those which were really worthy of repetition upon a public platform. Several quite original recitations appear in the collection, and for permission to insert many valuable copyright works the author has to return his most sincere thanks to their owners and proprietors. If he has uninten tionally encroached upon the rights of any one in the course of his labours, he begs to offer every apology.

With regard to the general arrangement of the book, the various novel methods of treatment adopted have their chief defence in the fact that they run upon the lines of the writer's own practical experience, which is sufficient to induce him to make such changes in the usual course of in struction, for the sake of imparting clearness and simplicity to the delightful study of Elocution. December, 1887. ON LEARNING BY HEART. By Mr. Vernon Lushington. TILL he has fairly tried it, I suspect a reader does not knowhow much he would gain from committing to memory passage45 of real excellence ; precisely because he does not know how much he overlooks in merely reading. Learn one true poem by heart, and see if you do not find it so. Beauty after beauty will reveal itself, in chosen phrase, or happy music, or noble suggestion, otherwise un dreamed of.

It is like looking at one of Nature's wonders through a microscope. Again : how much in such a poem that you really did feel admirable and lovely on a first reading, passes away, if you do not give it a further and much better reading ! — passes away utterly, like a sweet sound, or an image on the lake, which the first breath of wind dispels. If you could only fix that image, as the photographers do theirs, so beautifully, so perfectly ! And you can do so ! Learn it by heart, and it is yours for ever I I have said, a true poem ; for naturally men will choose to learn poetry — from the beginning of time they have done so. To immortal verse the memory gives a willing, a joyous, and a lasting home. How ever, some prose is poetical, is poetry, and altogether worthy to be learned by heart ; and the learning is not so very difficult.

It is not difficult or toilsome to learn that which pleases us ; and the labour, once given, is forgotten, while the result remains. Poems and noble extracts, whether of verse or prose, once so reduced into possession and rendered truly our own, may be to us a daily pleasure ; better far than a whole library Moused. They may come to us in our dull moments, to refresh us as with spring flowers ; in our selfish musings, to win us by pure delight from the tyranny of foolish castle-building, self-congratulations, and mean anxieties. They may be with us in the workshop, in the crowded streets, by the fireside; sometimes, perhaps, on pleasant hill-sides, or by sounding shores ; — noble friends and companions — our own I never intrusive, ever at hand, coming at our call ! VI