Guide to rhetorical delivery; a study of the properties of thought as related to utterance

Preface

This book is the outgrowth of practical class-room work, and is an effort to supplement that work by furnishing a basis for pursuing elocution as a study. The need has long been felt of some definite statement of the principles that govern the mental processes of communication. Heretofore, too generally, the physical has led, instead of the mental. Elocution has been treated as if the materials of the science were tone and action. These are simply its tools.

To furnish to students some suggestions which might become a practical guide to the mental part of the work of expression, constitutes the primary object of this volume.

A second object, in consonance with the first, has been so to present the subject that the student should have a definite thing to do each day ; should be able to have a lesson assigned, to prepare that lesson, and to bring into class the results of his work upon it, as definitely as in any other study. Our elocutionary work in schools and colleges has been, for the most part, a little class-room drill, interspersed with a few general

VI PREFACE.

hints and seed thoughts regarding expression.

The object in presenting this part of the work as a study, is somewhat broader and deeper than the securing of an external delivery for the individual student. It is hoped that the principles underlying the art of vocal expression will be found to offer true discipline, and to furnish their quota of material for a liberal training. If only the commercial and personal advantage of an improved delivery were to result, it might fairly be questioned whether this study should have any place in a college curriculum.

It is believed that the treatment of the subject herein attempted may secure the twofold object, of general discipline and immediate practical utility.

This book does not profess to be a treatise on vocal culture. That topic, however, has not been entirely neglected. Chapter XII., on Vocal Technique, is thought to give as minute and extended directions as will be practical to the ordinary nonprofessional student. These exercises need, of course, to be abundantly illustrated and thoroughly enforced by constant and protracted drill.

The subject of vocal technique is introduced after expressional analysis for a definite reason. It is believed that the physical side of the work

PREFACE. Vll

can be studied most profitably after the mental. By this it is, of course, not intended to maintain that one shall have no knowledge of voice at an earlier stage — the more the better — but the refinement of vocal action itself can be secured only in the case of the trained mind. Thought must lead, and must dominate the utterance. The body is the servant of the soul. It is assumed that, before reaching the point in college or in seminary at which this analysis of the properties of thought as related to utterance will be most useful, the student will have had some training in the use of voice and in the management of the entire body for the purposes of expression.

This is not a work on orthoepy. The elements of the language are supposed to have been mastered, so far as a student in college needs them ; and for the use of teachers there are abundant and valuable works on this subject.

It has not been designed to make this a reader, in the ordinary sense. Hence there will not be found in this book illustrations of exercises designed for practice in the elements of articulation and the simpler forms of word-calling.

It is lamentably true that many students enter college, and graduate therefrom, who cannot pronounce words fluently. For such this book does

Vlll PREFACE.

not propose any remedy, except that which may be indirectly given through stimulating the mind in the better grasp and measurement of thought.

Again, it has not been thought needful to fill this little volume with choice extracts from literature ; a few are introduced for purposes of immediate illustration. Fine collections of extracts from the masterpieces are accessible to all ; and any of these may be used in connection with this work. However, in this day of cheap publications, when an entire oration of one of the great masters, a complete play of Shakespeare, or a whole essay of Carlyle or Macaulay, may be purchased for a few cents, it is more advisable that the student should provide himself with these complete works to accompany a guide in the study of delivery. In our judgment, much harm has been done and much hard work wasted, in the attempt to teach expression through short, detached extracts, — mere fragments of a self-consistent whole. The broader analysis of the entire article or speech must precede any intelligent and valuable study of its choicest passages.

Gesture is not fully treated here. Others have developed, and are developing, that department of the work. Assuming some technical practice on the 'basis of other text-books, or of instruction ac-

PREFACE. IX

companied by living example, this book contents itself with a few hints on the rhetoric of gesture.

Some repetitions will be observed in these pages. For this there are two reasons : the first is that, practically, students need to have certain fundamental things kept constantly before them ; and this book is a student's manual. The writer feels himselfjthe teacher, who is talking with his pupils, and repeating when necessary.

The second reason is that these pages had to be prepared in such broken intervals as could be snatched from crowded hours of teaching ; and the manuscript could not be prepared and revised as a whole.

In the preparation of such a work many sources of help and inspiration must be acknowledged. The author desires to make special mention of two of his teachers : the late Madame Seiler, whose personal instruction in the singing voice has been of the greatest assistance in forming the technique of speech ; and Prof. S. S. Curry, Ph. D., of Boston University, whose class-room expositions of the Delsarte teaching are most helpful in applying the principles of pantomimic training to rhetorical delivery.

Mention should also be made of the work of Prof. G. L. Raymond, entitled " The Orator's

X PREFACE.

Manual," and of Prof. A. M. Bacon's " Manual of Gesture," which books it has been the author's privilege to use in his classes, and which he commends, for preparation and comparison, to students who shall use this book.

The chief inspiration has been drawn from those for whom, especially, this work has been undertaken.

Such as it is, it is offered in this edition to the students in Oberlin College and Theological Seminary, in the expectation that our united labor upon the principles here thus imperfectly sketched, may, by the time this limited and private edition is exhausted, have developed a work which shall have somewhat more of symmetry and completeness. W. B. C.

Oberlin, April 3, 1888.

Introduction

THE RELATION OF ELOCUTION TO RHETORIC.

PAGE

Physical Advantages Conceded — Thought through Tone — Place of this Study in the Course — Elocution Regards the Thought as in Process of Communication — Addressed to the Ear — Modifies Written Thought — Effect on Structure — Modifications of Thought by Delivery — Speaker's Relation to the Thought — Comments — Proofs of Relation between Manner and Matter — Technique of Expression — Mental Must Lead — Divisions of the Subject ... . i — 12

Chapter I. Moods Of Utterance

Predominant Purpose — Deliberation, Discrimination, Emotion, Energy — Intellectual, Emotional, and Volitional Utterances — Examples — Ultimate and Temporary Purposes — Time Measurements — Action Suited to Deliberation — Inflection — Discriminative Gesture — Quality — Pantomimic Expression of Emotion — Energy — Gesture of Energy — "General Force " and "Stress" — Relation of Moods ...... 13 — 22

Chapter II. Deliberation

Definition — Introductory, Propositional and Transitional Matter — Movement as Expressing Deliberative Matter — Pauses — Principle of Pause — Places of Pause — Grammatical Pauses — Rhetorical, or Elliptical Pauses — Prosodial Pauses — Oratorical, or Melodic Pauses . . 23 — 34

Xll TABLE OF CONTENTS.

Chapter III. The Deliberative Paraphrase

Statement of Purpose — Utterance the Speaker's Measurement of the Thought — Benefits of Restating — Subjective Paraphrase — Objective — Expansive — Condensative — Elliptical or Parenthetical — Prosaic . . 35 — 55

Chapter IV. Discrimination

Discernment of Relations — Inflection — Completeness — Finality — Momentary Completeness — Incompleteness, different forms, as Subordination, Anticipation, Negation, Doubt, Interrogation, Supplication — Assertion — Assumption — Complex Relations, Comparison or Contrast with Completeness or Assertion, Comparison or Contrast with Incompleteness, Affirmation with Incompleteness — Examples and Directions for Study . . 56 — 75

Chapter V. The Discriminative Paraphrase

Paraphrase to Reveal Completeness or Incompleteness — To

Show Assertion and Assumption — Complex Relations 76 — 93

Chapter VI. Emotion

Definition — Means of Expression — Normal Feeling — Pure Quality — Enlarged, or Deepened Feeling — Expanded Pure, or Orotund Quality — Suppressed Feeling — Aspirated Quality — Harsh Feeling — The Rigid or Tense Voice — Oppressed, or Covered Feeling — Pectoral Quality — Agitated Feeling — Tremulous Quality — Caution . 94 — 114

Chapter VII. The Emotional Paraphrase

Objective — Subjective — Paraphrase to Reveal Normal Feeling — Enlarged, or Deepened — Suppressed — Harsh or

TABLE OF CONTENTS. Xlll

Severe — Oppressed, or Covered — Agitated, or Tremulous — Perceptive Power Increased — Impression Vivified and Deepened ...... 115 — 144

Chapter VIII. Energy

Concerned with the Will — General and Special — Abruptness, in different types, as Animated Explanation, Prompt Decision, Arbitrary Command, Surprise, Impatience, Petulance — Initial Stress — Insistence of Settled Determination, Dignity, Authority — Final Stress — Enlargement or Expansion with Pressure, expressing Encouragement, Adoration and Admiration with Purpose to Move Listeners to Same — Joy or Exultation, with Purpose to Lead Others to Rejoice — Median Stress — Prolonged Enforcement — Thorough Stress — Violence — Compound Stress — Directions for Study . . 145 — 159

Chapter IX. The Energetic Paraphrase

Objective — Subjective— Paraphrase Illustrating Abruptness — Insistence — Expansion with Pressure — Prolonged Enforcement — Violence— Hints as to Study . . 160 — 172

Chapter X. General Properties Of Utterance

General vs. Particular — Broader Measurements — Thought as a Whole — Movement — Rhythm, Verse and Prose Rhythm, Analogies — Keys — Pitches of Different Voices — Intervals — Quality, General and Special — Practical Study of Qualities — General Force as Distinguished from Stress . . . . . , 173 — 191

CHAPTER XL

GESTURE AS FIGURATIVE LANGUAGE.

Broad Sense and Narrow — Proofs of the Relation of Gesture

XIV TABLE OF CONTENTS.

to Thought — Subjective Properties of Action — Objective Properties, giving Literal and Physical Representation, Metaphorical Representation, Ideal Presence, Energy or Intensity — Pantomimic Paraphrase . . 192 — 201

Chapter XII

. VOCAL TECHNIQUE.

Relation of Mental and Physical — Table of Exercises — The Chest; Poise, Expansion of Trunk, Arm Movements, Special Expansion of Parts, Diaphragm, Upper Chest, Sides, Back — Chest Percussion — Breathings, Slow and Rapid — Counting — Sentences and Passages — Relation of Breath to Rhetorical Significance — Throat, Liberation, Ease, Flexibility, Shaking Larynx, "Koo" Exercises, Test of Freedom, Selections — Jaw, Liberation, Singing Exercises, Varied Rhythms — Tongue, Position, Action — Oral Cavity, Shape, Humming, Vowels, Poetry — Vocal Chords, Staccato Hum, Short Vowels, Musical Exercises — Articulating Organs, Lip Strokes, Tongue Action — Abdominal Muscles, Right, Oblique, Transverse, Uses, Directions for Training .... 202 — 239

Chapter XIII. Criticism

Art-work Tested by Criticism — Necessity — Popular — Technical — Individuality in Speaking — Objective Properties in Delivery — Subjective Properties — Purpose and Paraphrase — Helpfulness . 240—245

INTRODUCTION.

THE RELATION OF ELOCUTION TO RHETORIC.

The physical preparation for speech brings with it advantages so obvious that it is scarcely necessary to designate its place in a course of practical training, or invite attention to its aims and to the benefits which it confers. Grace and suitability of action, purity, ease, fulness and variety of tone, and the incidental benefits to respiration, circulation, and general physical vigor — all these have of late years been made so familiar to us, and are so palpably reasonable, that it has become almost a work of supererogation to press their claims.

Not quite so clear or tangible are the place and claim of the other branch of the elocutionary art — the analysis of thought through tone. Considered by itself, it is one of the departments of the study of language, and might find a place and yield some benefit at almost any point after structure of sentences has been mastered. Its benefits will be much greater when the student has gained some knowledge of formal Rhetoric, and has begun, at least, to appreciate the literary spirit. It will yield its finest and fullest fruits in a mind thoroughly cultivated by a variety of studies, broadened and quickened by experience of men and affairs, mellowed by human sympathies, inspired and elevated by noble purposes.

Practically it is best to begin the study early in the college course.

It is for the present assumed that this subject has the most natural connection with rhetorical and literary studies, and it is hoped the considerations here presented will justify this view.

Observe, first, a few general facts regarding expression, and later, some of a more particular nature.

I. General Considerations.

i. Elocution, or oral expression, presupposes, of course, some thought to be expressed. Delivery does not make thought nor in any sense supply its place. Those entertainments which consist of a display of voice and gesture, of dramatic representation and startling stage effects, may be elocutionary in a sense, but do not belong to that which is of interest to thinking men with something to say. Agreeable sounds and combinations of sound are not the end in speech even in the sense in which they are such in music.

Neither amusement nor aesthetic satisfaction meets the requirements of rhetorical delivery.

Elocution regards first of all the thought and views the thought as being in the process of communication. In order to be communicated it must first be formulated in the mind of the thinker, i. e., prepared for statement, with regard always (a) to the intrinsic properties of the thought, (b) to the effect upon the mind addressed. It is thus, primarily, objective rather than subjective. It conforms itself to the principles of logic and of rhetoric, not to the whim or feeling of the speaker. It is a mat. ter of thought-measurement, and of adaptation of means to end.

2. Elocution, or oral presentation of thought, regards the thought as addressed to the ear; hence it employs as its media all the varied properties of tone through which the human mind can reveal itself, giving a wider range of means than writing — all that writing can give and much more.

Elocution, then, in the best sense, is the study of thought in its connection with vocal expresssion, or of thought through tone.

3. Observe two general ways in which vocalized thought modifies written thought. These will give us a better notion of the vital connection between elocution and rhetoric.

A. The effect which vocal utterance produces upon the structure itself.

B. The additional thought which may be implied and virtually incorporated by the tones of the voice, assisting us to fully interpret another.

A. First, then, as to its effect upon rhetorical structure.

(1) The ear can receive but one word at a time, while the eye can take in a group of words, often an entire sentence, at one glance.

(2) The attention of the listener is carried steadily forward, as fast or as slowly as the speaker may choose to move.

The silent reader, on the other hand, is free to pause and cast his eye back over the preceding sentence, paragraph or page, and so gather up the thought anew at every difficult junction, or he may go as rapidly as possible, not stopping for any reflection or review. Pauses there may be, indeed, in oral delivery, but they can be utilized by the listener only through an effort of memory, recalling and combining. Listening to speech is like reading from a book held by another person who should uncover one word or phrase at a time, and at every pause shut the volume before you. Think how much more mental effort would thus be required, and how much more simple, straightforward and logically progressive must be the style in order to be retained in your mind. A diffusive, involved style, if it should be so read, piecemeal, would baffle almost any attempt. If ever a person does attempt to speak in such a diffusive style, his listeners usually get only a general and confused idea of his meaning. Such productions — virtually essays — are, it is true, often delivered as orations in college exercises and, rarely, from the literary platform, but they always seem vague, distant and complicated. They never have the telling force of direct, sententious talk.

The essay style in sacred eloquence has done much to remove the pulpit from the pews. Such direct and simple style as that employed by Finney, Spurgeon, Talmage, Moody, whatever defects it may possess, always stands out clear and strong, and produces a marked effect. It is not to be thought that the essay or lecture style has no place in public address, or that extempore speech is always most effective. There are great dangers connected with the so-called " off-hand " style, dangers which a habit of careful writing will avert. All that is claimed here is that the limited receiving capacity of the ear reacts upon style favorably, tending to clearness, conciseness, directness, logical sequence; and economizing the receptive energy in cases that must employ a more difficult style. What lawyer dares to read an essay to a jury, or to talk in an elaborate, intricate style ? On the other hand if the necessities of the thought do require a more involved style of writing, delivery can compensate for this by more skillful grouping of phrases and clauses, by significant inflections, and especially by variations in the rate of utterance.

Remark. — It is worth while to remark here that a student should train himself in two things, (i) to hear as many words as possible with one mental effort, grouping and arranging while he listens, (2) to regulate his writing by mentally hearing ( or actually speaking) every sentence as it flows from the pen. The ear thus sits as a "governor" on a steam engine " regulating the supply of steam according to the resistance to be overcome."

B. The second effect which vocal delivery may produce upon the thought as written, consists in modifications by variations of tone. These modifications may be so strongly implied as to become virtually incorporated into the thought itself. The tones thus assist (a) in interpretation of what we hear, (b) in conveying fuller meaning by the same words. Such incorporation could be found in almost infinite variety and illustrated by numberless examples. A few obvious cases are the following:

(i) Additional matter implied. A person quoting some strong utterance will often supply in actual words a thought which, in the original utterance, was only implied by an inflection. It is not simply addition which is effected by the tones of the voice.

(2) The thought may as often be weakened, as in rendering a compliment tardily or indifferently, as, " He spoke very well."

(3) Or the tone may suggest comparison, as, "This is my view."

(4) It may »be intensified or energized, as, "never," or, it may be,

(5) Clothed with the weight of dig-nity or authority, even as much as by an additional formal statement of vested power; such must have been our Lord's " Verily, verily."

(6) The tone may imply an emotional significance, as, " Do not leave me here."

Examples. Find or make illustrations of these six modifications.

Now in listening we do unite with the bare image or predication, as contained in the written words themselves, such meaning as the tones impart, thus enlarging, intensifying, comparing, restricting, or, as in the case of irony, absolutely inverting, the meaning which the words as printed would convey. Furthermore, we add to our modified conception of the thought as an objective product some estimate of the speaker's subjective relation to the thought, i. e., his feeling or interest in it.

This significance, which we thus attach to tones, is for the most part recognized intuitively. There is a natural symbolism in sound, as there is in action ; the one appealing to the ear much as the other does to the eye. There is also, perhaps, a small percentage of effect resulting from meanings which men have conventionally agreed upon. However derived, these effects of tone are real comments upon the thought. This is true not only in regard to the interpretation of other people's thought as heard. Of yet more value, perhaps, and of more present interest, as constituting the basis for the study of practical elocution, is the fact that when we seek to express thought by our own voices we do add to the mere words as written many accompanying thoughts and comments. These additions, direct and parenthetical, if written in full, would quite swamp the thought of any ordinarily suggestive paragraph. The practical effect of such amplifications may occasionally be witnessed in some garrulous individual who while talking " thinks aloud." Though these accompanying comments and reflections are not to be spoken, they are to be thought. In a reasonably expressive paragraph or sentence as many words will be implied, on an average, as are spoken. These implied additional words, if distinctly thought at the moment of uttering the others, impart to those spoken a fulness of significance which can scarcely be realized in any other way. The measurement of these mental processes and the noting of them in suggestive hints accompanying the text, will constitute expressioual paraphrase, which will be developed in connection with many parts of this book.

Oral communication, then, supplements the rhetoric by adding, at the least expense of time and attention, much real meaning, often not the least important part of the thought. Even a gesture may signify more than could be told in a whole paragraph. Illustrations of this may be seen daily in movements of the hand, shrug of the shoulder, carriage of the head, elevation or contraction of brows, and the like.

Examples. — Recall or imagine expressive gestures, reproduce them, with explanation of circumstances if necessary, and translate the action into words.

Proofs of this Relation Between Manner and Matter.

The most obvious proof of this proposition, that oral delivery supplements rhetoric, is found in the familiar fact that we ordinarily feel satisfied of a person's real meaning only after conversing with him. The exceptional cases in which tone and manner confuse rather than clear the sense, only prove their real significance, and show the proportion of effect which we intuitively accord to them. An oral recitation, if you can eliminate embarrassment and other disturbing influences, will give the most satisfactory exhibition of the student's knowledge of a subject. In an important law case the essential testimony is produced by the speaking witness rather than by deposition, because the manner of the witness is a factor in determining his fitness to testify and the accuracy of his knowledge ; and it will often be observed that an unlucky pause, or a timid inflection, or a downcast eye, will at once demand additional questions and statements. Gough's lectures would lose a very large portion of their significance — in some cases almost one hundred per cent. — by being printed, and yet his speaking was not clap-trap. By his enthusiasm, magnetism, and elocution, he did vastly more than amuse. His manner was a teaching. His presence and voice added a real, and in his case, an essential part to the thought.

With all reverence we may refer to the Perfect Teacher. He left no written treatise, nor ever, so far as we know, read a written lecture or sermon. He made the great addition to the written law by personal intercourse with men, by talking with the woman at the well, by familiarly addressing the throngs that covered the banks of Genessaret.

Expression is often thought to be merely the result of natural gifts, the manifestation of genius.

IO GUIDE TO RHETORICAL DELIVERY.

So, perhaps, it is in its highest form ; but, like most other gifts, it may be indefinitely cultivated where it is present, and may usually be developed even where seemingly absent.

In order to have free and full expression, two things are necessary :

i. One must have something to say, and have the disposition to communicate.

2. The channels for communication must be so prepared that the thought shall flow with a fair degree of spontaneity.

The first requisite is presupposed, as a matter of course ; yet it sustains an intimate relation with the second. The relation is one of mutual assistance — of interdependence. It is, perhaps, as true that the opening of the channels for communication affects both the disposition to communicate and the thought that shall be uttered, as it is true that the thought in the mind and the impulse to utter it provide a way for such utterance.

II. Special Features in the Study of Vocal Expression.

Mind and bodv so react upon each other that we may not say this part is only physical ; that, simply mental. Each throb of feeling, though its cause be only spiritual, moves sensibly some portion of the physical frame. It shows itself in quickened pulse, in heated brain, or starting perspiration, or contracting muscle. The world's great poet has said :

"And when the mind is quickened, out of doubt, The organs, though defunct and dead before, Break up their drowsy grave and newly move With casted slough and fresh legerity."

With equal truth the converse may be said : that when the organs, " tho' defunct and dead before," receive a quickening and a strengthening, their influence reacts upon the source which started it, the mind. Every power of the body is the channel for the outflow of some life and action of the soul. There lie in every nature hidden springs of thought, emotion, and activity, over whose mouths the debris of inaction, inefficient will, or ignorance, or evil habit has accumulated so as to choke the natural flow.

But once remove obstructions, and the clear, refreshing stream appears to draw upon its source, until the stagnant pool becomes the living fountain.

A twofold training of the man is thus contemplated in the study of Oral Expression. It includes (a) the measurement of thought as in process of communication, or, the analysis of the expressional elements of thought ; (b) the mastery of the physical means of expression. Both of these — the mental and the physical training — together constitute the technique of expression.

The relation of the two elements in this technical development, will appear as we proceed in the study. Let it here suffice to say that the niental must lead. Thought-measurements must be made first ; and secondly we must find what properties of tone and action naturally fit and represent these properties of thought.

We shall take up, first, the moods of utterance, then each mood separately, in the details of its application, giving,' at each step, the property of tone and action naturally suiting it ; afterward, some study of the General Properties of Utterance ; and lastly, some hints on Individuality in Utterance, and on Criticism.

GUIDE

T O

RHETORICAL DELIVERY.

Chapter I. Moods Of Utterance

We have glanced at some of the principles underlying vocal expression of thought, and have seen that there are two departments in the study, the mental and the physical. The logical order is : first, the thought, viewed in the light of the purpose for which it is to be communicated ; then, the means of accomplishing that purpose ; rhetorical, or thought-measuring processes first, afterward the thought-figuring properties of tone and action.

In the broadest sense the properties of thought as related to communication constitute the Moods of Utterance. In a narrower sense, they determine " emphasis." The narrow and particular will most naturally find place under the broader and more general.

By Mood of Utterance is meant the prevailing or predominant pnrpose in the article, paragraph, or sentence before the mind.

Of course, different purposes will often mingle at the same instant, and the central purpose may change sometimes with great rapidity. But, however frequent the changes of leading purpose, or however complex the motive at any instant, there must be in rational thought at every moment some predominant motive and purpose. This ruling motive the intelligent speaker always knows in the case of original thought ; and to discover it in the case of quoted or written thought, is the business of the intelligent and sympathetic reader.

As an aid to such tracing of the controlling purposes, the following analysis of the Moods of Utterance is suggested :

i. Deliberation, addressing directly the intellect, and employing chiefly the tone-element of Time.

2. Discrimination, addressing also the intellect, but employing chiefly the element of Pitch.

3. Emotion, addressing immediately the sensibilities, and employing chiefly the tone-element of Quality.

4. Energy, addressing the will, and employing chiefly the tone-element of Force.

It will be observed that Deliberation and Discrimination are alike in that both address the intellect rather than the sensibilities or the will. They differ in this ; viz., Deliberation rather presents facts as simple and unrelated, while Discrimination presents them special^ in relations, as comparison, contrast, completeness, and incompleteness. The particular force of this distinction will appear later in the study.

MOODS OF UTTERANCE. I 5