The essentials of elocution / by Alfred Ayres

Front matter

j Cp^

ALFRED AYRES AS SHYLOCK.

Shylock, after the loss of his daughter, his jewels and his ducats, goes through the streets half crazed, bewailing his misfortunes, when suddenly he is halted by Solanio with : How, now Shylock?

Preface

This is the shortest treatise on the Art of Reading that has ever been written in the English language ; yet, short as it is, it is of more practical value than are all the others — which is not saying much in its praise, for all the others are of no practical value whatever.

The mode of procedure herein recommended, in order to become skilled in elocution, is wholly unlike anything that has hitherto found its way into print. Yet what is here is older than the oldest of the venerable " systems M that have come down to us from former generations, for what is here dates back to the time when men began to exchange ideas by means of a spoken language. Then, as ever, the sensible man — spoke he his own language or that of another — spoke naturally, and not as the elocution of the books, and of most teachers of the art, would have us speak, for that tends to make only bow-wowers and sing-songers.

Alfred Ayres.

New York, March, 1886.

NOTE.

It has been intimated that this little book owes its success to the exceeding modesty of its preface. I do not think so ; I think it owes its success to the fact that it is just the sort of book its preface says it is.

The matter I have added — An Essay on Pulpit Elocution, A Plea for the Intellectual in Elocution, The Pause — Its Importance, and A Critical Analysis of Canon Fleming's reading of certain passages in Shakespeare — wiil make the book much more instructive, provided the student take the trouble to decide how far I am right in criticizing the learned Canon. These pages offer such a field for the practice of mental gymnastics as is seldom met with. Elocutionists can not, I am confident, be better employed than in studying them.

Alfred Ayres.

New York, June, 1897.

Contents

PAGE.

The Essentials of Elocution . .... 5

Additional 28

II

You speak the things you should speak, but you speak them not in the manner they should be spoken. — Plutarch.

The more I study Canon Fleming's marking, the more am I inclined to think that his reading is of the stilted, ponderous sort that tries to get an effect out of every word. Here is a speech of Cassius' (Julius Caesar, Act I., Sc. 2) in which the learned Canon italicizes double the number of words that, in my judgment, should be emphasized. Take, for example, the line :

Brutus will start 3. spirit as soon as Ccesar.

Read as here indicated, the utterance is, it seems to me, most monotonous and non-natural, having none of the spirit in it that pervades the entire speech. This is an easy sort of reading. Any one can pound over words in a trip-hammer sort of way, whereas to go

9 2 lightly over the unimportant and to dwell on the important words with that appreciative discrimination that makes the thought clear and forcible; that causes the listener to be occupied with the matter rather than with the manner, is never an easy thing to do. The thought, and not the sound, is what enlists and holds the attention of the listener. In the thought there is never any sameness, whereas tones continually recur, hence they quickly pall. The time consumed by the two styles differs but little, but they distribute the time very differently. The one is the style of the brawn elocutionist, the other of the brain elocutionist ; the one, of the reader that merely apprehends his author ; the other, of the reader that fully comprehends his author. If we read the line I have quoted as it is italicized above, and then read it thus :

Brutus will start a spirit as soon as Ccesar, we quickly see, or I greatly err, that by going lightly over three of the words our English author emphasizes, the rendering of the line gains immensely in effect as well as in animation.

Here is the entire speech as the learned Canon marks it :

1. Why, man, he doth bestride the narrow world

2. Like a Colossus ; and we petty i?ien

3. Walk under his huge legs, and peep about

5. Men at sotnetime are masters of their fates :

6. The fault , dear Brutus, is not in our stars,

7. But in ourselves that we are underlings

8. Brutus and Ccesar ! what should be in that Ccesar T

9. Why should that name be sounded 7nore thsmyours

10. Write them together, yours is as fair a name ;

11. Sound them, it doth become the mouth as well;

12. Wc'gh them, it is as heavy ; conjure with them

13. Brutus will start a spirit as soon as Ccesar.

14. Now in the names of all the gods at 0«^

15. Upon what meat does f£w our Ccesar feed

16. That he is grown so great? Age, thou art shamed;

17. Rome, thou hast /w/ the breed oi noble bloods.

18. When went there ^y an 0^, since the great flood,

19. But it was famed with w<?r^ than 0/2^ man ?

20. When could they say, till «^w, that talked oi Ro?ne >

21. That the wide walls, incompassed but one man ?

22. A^w is it Rome indeed, and room enough,

23. When there is in it but one only man,

24. Oh, you and /have heard our fathers say,

25. There was a Brutus once that would have brooked,

26. The eternal devil to keep his jfote in Rome

27. As easily as a king !

In these twenty-seven lines one hundred and four words are marked for emphasis, fifty more than I should mark. In the first line I should not mark bestride, narrow, or world; nor in the second line we men ; fifth line, masters ; sixth line, dear, not; seventh line, underlings; eighth line, what, that; ninth line, name, more; tenth line, write, together, name; eleventh line, become; thirteenth line, start, spirit, soon; fourteenth line, now, names, all; fifteenth line, meat, this, Cczsar; sixteenth line, so; seventeenth line, lost, bloods; eighteenth line, by, age; nineteenth line, famed, more; twentieth line, when, they, talked, Rome; twenty-first line, wide, walls; twenty-third line, when, man; twenty-fourth line, oh, you, I; twenty-

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fifth line, Brutus, brooked; twenty-sixth line, eternal, state, Rome.

On the other hand, in the third line, I should mark for emphasis the word about, as I think it should be made quite as emphatic as the preceding word. I should also mark feed in the fifteenth line for emphasis, and king in the last line.

Any one desirous to compare the two readings would do well to copy the speech and mark it as I suggest, or to mark it in the printed page.

in.

The right word in the right place, and the right emphasis on the right word. — Dr. Rush.

As I have already intimated, a great fault, to my thinking, with Canon Fleming's reading is over-emphasizing. This, I think, clearly appears, if we study his marking of the following scene — the first of the third act of " The Merchant of Venice " :

Shylock. — How now, Tubal, what news from Genoa?' Hast thou found my daughter?

At the utmost, I should italicize only the words now, Genoa, and daughter. The utterance the Canon, if I understand him, recommends is monotonous and non-natural.

Tubal. — I often came where I did hear of her ; but cannot find her.

Why emphasize came, did ox cannot? I fail to see any reason for it. Hear and find are the only words that should be made specially to stand out.

SHYLOCK. — Why, there, there, there! A diamond gone — cost me two thousand ducats at Frankfort. The curse never fell upon our nation till now. I never felt it till now.

I should not italicize nation till. Though it is Shakespeare, the diction, I venture to intimate, is bettered by transposing the words of the next sentence, thus: Till now, I never felt it.

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This transposition, if I do not err, enables the reader to make the sentence more effective, for the reason that it puts the most emphatic word near the end. No one is invulnerable — no, not even Shakespeare. It is questionable whether I never should be italicized; I am inclined to think not.

Two thousand ducats in that; and other precious, precious jewels !

Neither ducats nor jewels seem tome to be emphatic.

I would my daughter were dead at my foot and the jewels in her ear. Would she were hearsed a.t my foot and the ducats in her coffin.

There are only four words here that I should mark for emphasis, the first foot, ear, hearsed, and coffi?i> Passion is commonly rapid. Rapidity would be impossible if the reader tarried on all the words our author italicizes.

No news of them ! Why so ; and I krww not what's spent in the search. Why, thou loss upon loss !

9 S THE ESSENTIALS

The first sentence being little else than a wail, an exclamation — a question it is not — I should make as much of no as of news. Why so I should treat in like manner. I should also emphasize the second loss. Know not and spent I should not emphasize.

The thief gone with so much and so much to fnd the thief ; and no satisfaction, no revenge, nor no ill luck stirring but what lights o' my shoulders ; no sights but o' my breathing ; no tears but o' my shedding !

Nine of the twenty-four words here marked for emphasis I should not emphasize. In the clause: "And so much to find the thief," I should emphasize only one word — -find. To read it according to the Canon's marking would be to drown it in a sea of sound — a thing that any fellow having a good voice-making apparatus, can do, whether he have any brains or not. I should not emphasize the second so much, the second thief y the second no, no ill luck y nor the two succeeding no's.

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Tubal. — Yes, other men have ill hick, too. Antonio, as I heard in Genoa —

I should not emphasize yes or illluck.

SHYLOCK. — What, what, what? ill luck, ill luck? Tubal. — Hath an argosy cast away, coming from Tripolis.

Argosy and Tripolis seem to me to be the only words that should be made at all prominent.

Shylock. — I thank God; I thank God. Is it true? Is it true ?

Tubal. — I spoke with some of the sailors that y scaped the wreck.

I should, at the most, mark sailors and wreck for emphasis.

Shylock. — I thank thee, good Tubal. Good news, good news. Ha, ha! Where? in Genoa ?

The only possible reason that I can see for emphasizing the first good is insufficient. News, both times, and Genoa should be made quite as emphatic as any other words in the speech.

Tubal. — Your daughter j/^«/, in Genoa, as I heard, one night, fourscore ducats.

I should expend neither time nor stress on spent, nor should I heed the comma. The reader should always be on his guard against expending his breath where he would get no return for it.

Shylock. — Thou stick' st a dagger in me. I shall never see my gold again. Fourscore ducats at a sitting ! Fourscore ducats !

Stick } st should surely not be emphasized. I have always read: "Fourscore ducats — at a sitting?" having Tubal nod in answer to the question. The clause is commonly treated as an exclamation. My treatment, I think, makes the clause much more effective.

Tubal. — There came divers of Antonio's creditors in my company to Venice that swear he cannot choose but break.

At the most, I should mark for emphasis creditors, swear, and break.

Shylock. — I am very glad of it. I'll plague him ; I'll torture him ; I'm glad of it.

The very in the first sentence is a

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superfluity. More can be made of the sentence without it than with it. Were I to speak the very, I should touch the glad comparatively lightly.

Tubal. — One of them showed me a ring that he had of your daughter for a monkey.

What a heartless little wretch Jessica is — swap a ring that was a present from her mother to her father for a monkey !

Shylock. — Out upon her ! Thou torturest me, Tubal. It was my torquoise. I had it of Leah when I was a bachelor. I would not have given it for a -wilderness of monkeys.

It not being necessary, in order to make the thought clear, to emphasize given it is bad technique to make much of it. The skillful reader would touch it lightly in order that wilderness might be made to stand out the more boldly ; then he would pause long enough after it to take a deep, full breath which he would expend in a burst on wilderness, thereby ending one of the best short speeches ever written with a telling; climax.

Tubal. — But Antonio is certainly undone.

Shylock. — Nay that's true, that's very true. Go r Tubal, fee me an officer ; bespeak him a fortnight before. I will have the heart of him if forfeit ; for were he out of Venice, I can make what merchandise I will. Go, Tubal, and meet me at our synagogue; go, good Tubal ; at our Synagogue, Tubal.

I should read : " That's very true," and "bespeak him a fortnight before." As for if, I defy all the bellowcutionists in Christendom to find a reason worth a blade of grass for emphasizing it. Not once in a hundred times when we hear this little word mauled is there any reason for treating it other than with the greatest delicacy. Neither merchandise, meet, nor good should I emphasize, unless I paused after me to decide upon the place of meeting — which I always do — then, I should dwell on meet. If this treatment was intended by our author, he should have put a dash after me.

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