Publisher's Synopsis
Excerpt from Elements of Elocution for Classes in Declamation
Declamation, as distinguished from reading and oratory, is that branch of the art of formal speech which deals with the delivery of memorized compositions.
The first essential of an effective declamation, therefore, is a thorough memorizing of the selection. Only when the recol lection of the lines has become a mechanical process requiring as little conscious effort as the playing of the scale by a music ian, can the declaimer do either the author or himself full jus tice. To acquire such a mastery, the average untrained mind demands not only an amount of time, but also a lapse of time. Two hours distributed in periods of twenty minutes through Six days will, as a rule, prove more effective than four solid hours devoted to study immediately before the recitation.
It Should be noted that the ability to recite the selection by oneself in the privacy of the study is no certain warrant of mastery. Different conditions - the larger room with its strange effect on the sound of the voice, the upturned faces, the opening of a door, the entrance ofa late comer, the um expected self-consciousness - all tend to divert the mind from the work in hand, to divide attention, to break down memory. Not until the declaimer has proved to himself that he can re call the lines readily amid various circumstances - in the family circle, before a few schoolmates in his study, to himself as he hurries along the street - can he go to the platform in perfect confidence.
Clara Morris, writing of her advancement over two of her early associates, says There was no luck about it.
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