RECITATION AS A DRAWING-ROOM ACCOMPLISHMENT.

Globe, Volume XXIII, Issue 2379, 17 November 1881, Page 4

RECITATION AS A DRAWING-ROOM ACCOMPLISHMENT.

Londoners may bo congratulated on having lately made considerable improvement in the art of drawing-room management. Our receptions of tho last few seasons have boon considerably lees ponderous and gloomy. The long dormant art of conversation shows symptoms of awakening, and fashionable humanity, no longer an ice-bound clod, threatens to burst forth untrammelled by freezing artificiality, and to change its crushing armour of self-esteem for that more comfortable Christian garment esteem for others. As charity eovercth.a multitude of sins, so the sympathetic, genial manner of a hostess covers a multitude of deficiencies in a drawing room, and certainly never has the ami. ability and self sacrifice of our grandes dames from a social point or view been more generously exercised than in the present season. They have served their metropolis well. Those lavishly endowed by nature have with unaffected frankness and benevolence of purpose Moved in soft beauty end conscious delight, To augment with sweet smiles all the joys of tho night, Nor once blushed to own to the rest of the Faire, That sweet love and beauty are worthy our care. Others musically gifted have organised concerts, and, uniting their efforts with professional musicians, have, whether royal dukes or noble countesses, worked together in a spirit of artistic earnestness and friendliness never before so complete in this country. Paintings by royal hands have hold first places in fair competition with acknowledged artists, and, last, not least, acting and dramatic recitation have attained an unprecedented degree of popularity. Aa it is with this last accomplishment these articles will bo chiefly concerned, it may bo as well in the first place to point out any advantages recitation may possess over other drawing-room entertainments. A chief merit is its adaptability to any sized apartment, to any number of guests, to any occasion. To the rejoicing of a wedding party, and to the mourning of our saddest acsomblies, recitation equally adapts itself. It tnseds no stretchsd holland or varnished floors, no scenic apparatus, no cumbersome musical instrument, not oven a reading desk or chair. It needs simply good oratory, and a not absolutely disagreeable countenance. Of course, even positive physical disqualification has been overcome by genius, but, commonly speaking, no one should take up recitation as an accomplishment it ho have any noticeable physical defect. Even the necessity of wearing glasses io a drawback, the chief effects of many recitations depending, above all things, upon tho language of tho eye. Recitation, more than any other accomplishment, owes its success mainly to the strength and charm of tho reciter's personality. Without the assistance of scenery, costume, music, or anything beyond his own personality, the reciter must conjure up thrilling scenes, and make his audience think, love, laugh, or weep. Tho audience is tho instrument he must perform on, and if ho ha u skilled ar!ist, according to tho grandeur of tho instrument wilt bo the sublimity of his effects. In the heat and hurry of the season, few salons can bo toned up to the sublime. The reciter must reserve his Shakespeare and Shelley for the soft intellectual afterglow, when young and old gather under tho trees of some ancestral park, cr reat beneath gigantic rocks, ■where that eternal onV or old ocean roars hi» hia rounded periods, and whore Domoothcnc-s practised hia—practised, it io said, because his voice was weak, tremulous, and stuttering, ■with pebbles in his mouth. But tho authenticity of this long-cherished anecdote the modern elocutionist would certainly dispute, for speech is not like c dvoafoot jelly, that has to bo filtered through eggshells and cooks only know what, to become clear and flowing Depend on it, the story ought to run thus : Demosthenes apoke as if ho bad pebbles in hia mouth until he practioed by the seashore, Recitation is tho most ancient and universal of accomplishment!]. Centuries before reciters of the Forum and reciters of the Agora, the Chinese and Hindoos had their orators, and it is to he doubted whether we can, even at this day, find more complete rules in the

cultivation of eloquence, or the preservation of the voice, than are to be found in the v.or&s of ancient rhetoricians. Teachers of elocution were even more numerous in those days than in our own time. They wore; designated by various appellations—Pnonasei, 1 Yooifemrii, and Yocales being the commonest. Tertullian (alluding to the taming of wild animals, breaking of horses, &e.) calls them “hreakaro or tumors of the voice,” terras totally inappropriate to teachers of _ tho art nowadays, who, so far as our experience goes, apply themselves chiefly to tho repairing and invigorating of voices ; but certainly elocution may bo studied as perfectly from tho accounts of the various methods and precepts of the ancient Phonasci os from any o£ our modern manuals. One exercise of theirs, which tho G reek teachers call “premising,” wo ourselves invariably use; and the f uncus “Coup do Giotto” exercise of tho French Conservatoire is also as old or older than Nero. Of Nero’s method of nursing his voice, Suetonius gives us a detailed account. Aristotle, in his “ Book on the Soul,” teaches us how nearly purity of life and manners touches the purity of the voice. Seneca bids us to live abstemiously, and go to bed betimes-; in fact, the prescriptions of tho ancient elocutionists are identical with our best vocal remedies of to day, such as barley water, the marsh mallow (used so much in Prance for mollifying tho voice, elegantly prepared as Pate de Guimuuve), liquorice, honey, and above all that good old-fashioned country cure for sore throat of whatever kind, warm onion broth. As to the latter, onion, leek and garlic were all supposed by Aristotle to improve the voice, and on that account, according to Pliny, the Emperor Nero raised the leek to the rank of nobility. Then, more than fifteen hundred years ago, we have Oleurchus prescribing the same voice strengthoner as the late Dr. Cotton prescribed but a few years ago at tho Consumptive Hospital, Brompton—eel broth; and only recently a celebrated singing master handed us, as a newly patented discovery, a lozenge, “ quite wonderful, bo remarked, in its effect, and made of o berry called cubebs.” And only a little while ago wo happened to light on this remark of Hormolans Barbaras, “ Oarpesium or cubebs, if kept in tho mouth, make the voice clear in delivery. Bernard Justinian, a very learned and eloquent man, never harangued without using this sort of seed. Then Galon’s gargles, Quintilian’s regimen, and Cicero’s vocal exercises are still not to bo surpassed. Tho antiquity, as well us tho adaptability of recitation recommending it as a social accomplishment, perhaps its intellectual superiority over many other amusements may impress some as an advantage in our too frequently inane social gatherings. The habit of listening to high thoughts, in beautiful language, eloquently spoken, must assist in raising us somewhat out of the common-place mumblings into which the speech of society too often collapses, but because recitation can also do this, its attraction as an amusement and recreation need not deteriorate, and in another article we will consider the best means of selecting and arranging recitation parties so as to provide equal entertainment for young and old.— “ Mynie Fairfax ” in the “ Queen.”