A GRAMMAR OF ELOCUTION: IN WHICH THE FIVE ACCIDENTS OF SPEECH ARE EXPLAINED AND RULES GIVEN, BY WHICH A JUST AND GRACEFUL MANNER OF DELIVERY BY THE REV. SAMUEL WOOD, B. A. "Art is but Nature better understood."-POPE. SECOND EDITION. LONDON: PUBLISHED BY JOHN TAYLOR, Bookseller and Publisher to the University of London, UPPER GOWER STREET. MDCCCXXXIII. ADVERTISEMENT. THE want of a good work on Elocution has long been felt. The best which we possess, is Walker's Elements; but in many parts it is very defective, and it is so diffuse and so voluminous, that few students have patience sufficient to endure its prolixity, for the sake of the really valuable matter which it contains. Mr. Walker was the first who developed an important principle; and it was to be expected that, in illustrating the application of his theory, he would be led into discussions, which they who come after him, and who take his principles for granted, have no occasion to repeat. His Elements is a most valuable treatise, but in order to make it useful in a practical view, it is necessary that its redundancies should be curtailed, that its style should be compressed, that its principles should be more fully developed, and its omissions supplied. This is what the Author of the present work has endeavoured to do; he has taken the Elements as his basis, and has supplied from other sources the matter in which they are deficient. Mr. Walker evidently did not understand the subject of Rhythm; this part, therefore, has been supplied from Steele's Proso dia Rationalis, and Chapman's Rhythmical Grammar, and Music and Melody of the English Language. To these works the Author is indebted for all that he has thought it necessary to say respecting Quantity and Rhythm, and he would recommend them to the attention of those who wish to enter more deeply into the subject. For many valuable suggestions in various parts of his work the Author has also to acknowledge his obligations to John M. Vandenhoff, Esq., of Liverpool, whose exquisite reading in private is equalled only by his striking representation of character and passion on the stage. 32, UNIVERSITY STREET, LONDON, March 25th, 1833. In this Second Edition some corrections are made, and some new illustrations introduced; but no essential principle of the first edition is touched. November 18th, 1833. Mr. Wood's Terms for Tuition may be known, by applying at Mr. Taylor's, Upper Gower Street. |