ontrast, Hamlet leads us to infer
that in reading the play over for the actors his principal care
was to give perfect articulation. "Speak the speech as I
_pronounced_ it."

"Trippingly on the tongue." Evidently the slow, thick utterance
of the mumbling speaker, to the roof of whose mouth the words
seem to cling, was not unknown in Shakespere's day. As a remedy
against this he tells them to "speak it trippingly." No word in
the English language could so clearly convey the case. Nimble,
airy resonance is suggested by the very sound of the word
"trippingly."

[Side note: Two errors]

Having given this advice he hastens to warn them against the
opposite extreme: "But if you mouth it." He wants no boisterous
notes of artificial passion: he would as lief the town-crier
spoke his lines. The office of that humble functionary demands
not the graces of finished elocution, only strong lungs with
which to shout; hence a piece of delicate pathos or varied
passions would probably receive scant justice at his hands. But
even the town-crier is tolerable--he is nature's product--
compared with the workmanship of nature's journeymen--those who
strut and bellow. "They imitate humanity so abominably" that
their delivery touches the extremest limit of all that is
reprehensible in elocution.

[Side note: Gesture]

"Suit the action to the word, the word to the action." Here we
have the fundamental law for the use of gesture.

Gesture is not an artificial action standing apart from, or added
to, the words. It is thought seeking spontaneous, visible,
outward expression through the movements of the hand or eye or
features just at the moment when that same thought is receiving
articulate birth on the tongue. Its purpose is to make the words
grow large, as it were; to expand and emphasise their meaning;
hence the wisdom of the advice--"Suit the action to the word, the
word to the action." If the action distract the listeners'
attention from the word its purpose is defeated.

Now that we have an idea of what elocution is, and analysed the
wisest set of rules ever framed for its government, we turn to
the mechanical agencies by which it is produced--breathing,
resonance, inflection.

[Side note: How to inhale]

When a person draws in the air through the mouth, the cold,
unpurified stream strikes directly on the back of the roof,
causing dryness and irritation. To avoid this the preacher,
except when actually engaged in speaking, sho