The new hand-book of elocution

SHAKESPERIAN SOLILOQUIES, and extracts from Paradise Lost, there are ample subjects for exercise in the more graceful, elaborate and impassioned style of ORATORY OF THE PAST: but the transition apparent in the tone, words, and manner of Modern Eloquence has rendered it necessary to glean from the Field of more RECENT AUTHORS; and a choice has been made of those Extracts best calculated to cultivate a colloquial style of delivery, and impart an Elocution that shall be as gracefully apparent in Drawing-Room conversation as in declamation from Pulpit, Platform or Bar. For this purpose there are introduced not merely the usual tripologues and dialogues, but the Compiler has appended Scenes which, in more than one instance, embrace seven or eight characters, and also a Debate containing eleven.

Weighing the fact that the book will be used principally by the YOUNG, whatever has been thought dull, feeble, prolix, or common-place, has been carefully excluded, and nothing is now offered which is not bound up with that never-failing charm-A STORY.

TO YOUNG LADIES it is believed the NEW HAND-BOOK will be very acceptable. Many complaints have not unreasonably been made at finding that pieces adapted for the fairer sex have, from some unexplained causes, been omitted in other Treatises. In the present Work not a few have been selected from those which appeal almost exclusively to the softer sympathies and feminine interests. With the knowledge of the importance of rivetting the attention of the VERY YOUNG, by keeping within the limits of their comprehension, the latter portion is devoted almost exclusively to Selections from those authors most adapted to Interest, Amuse, and Instruct the tender intellect.

The embarrassment which must beset compilers will be perhaps apparent in the present case. Some standard pieces which many Elocutionists have been privileged to insert in Full, have here from their length and other circumstances been compressed, and in some cases most reluctantly altogether omitted. In expressing the obligations which he is under to Messrs. Carlyle, Browning, C. Dickens, and other living celebrities, as well as to the various Publishers, some apology is offered for the liberties which it has been found necessary to take in abridging, simplifying, and otherwise slightly altering the words of their productions.

WALTER BAYNHAM.

GLASGOW, 25th June, 1873.

RULES FOR READING.

For the Rules in Detail and Distinctive Exercises see "Twelve Simple Rules and Exercises," by the same Author, price Sixpence.

RULE I.

FINISH each word, and sound Prefixes and Terminations, in most cases, as they are spelt.

RULE II.

Begin in a low tone, and let the voice increase.

RULE III.

Sustain the voice at commas. Lower it at colons and semi-colons. Change it at breaks and paragraphs. Raise it at points of exclamation. Pause and count one at a comma, two at a colon and semi-colon, one at a point of exclamation and dash, and four at a period.

RULE IV.

Sound the definite article FULL before each word beginning with a vowel or silent H, and short only before consonants.

RULE V.

Direct questions (or those which may be answered by yes or no) usually take the Rising Inflection; indirect questions take the Falling. A pause must be made after each question.

RULE VI.

Pause and change the voice between asking a question and returning

an answer.

RULE VII.

The SENSE of the passage must govern the Emphasis and Accent, and where the reader or speaker wishes to be more particularly emphatic, a PAUSE both before and after must accompany the word emphasized.

RULE VIII.

A Parenthesis, Simile, or Quotation, according to its importance, should be read faster or slower than the sentence in which it occurs.

RULE IX.

The voice should be suited to the NATURE of a Passage, and sometimes to that of a Word. Vary the voice according to the passion excited.

RULE X.

Raise the voice at the end of a Negative Sentence; Drop it at the end of an Affirmative or an Imperative.

RULE XI.

A CLIMAX is read with a GRADUAL, INCREASING SWELL OF THE VOICE: The last clause accompanied by a PAUSE, BEFORE EACH MEMBER. The voice should not be dropped at either Semi-colons, Colons, Breaks, or Periods, when they occur in a climax.

RULE XII.

The voice should be changed according to the Description of the character that speaks. The Narrative portion must be made distinct from the Dialogue.