CURRENT LITERATURE.
Voice, Speech, and Gesture. (Charles Deacon and Co.)—The right book on the elocutionary art has at length appeared. In producing the work as many as six writers have been engaged,— rive of them being experts in the branch of the subject of which they treat. Dr. Hugh Campbell deals with the proper training of the voice ; Mr. Brewer, B.A., with the principles of elocution ; Mr. Henry Neville with attitude and gesture; Mr. Frederic Corder, RA.M., with musical accompaniment to recitation ; and last, but beat of all, Mr. Clifford Harrison, with reciting and recitative; while the general editor, Mr. R. D. Blackman, is mainly responsible for the selected pieces for study and public recitation. The training of the voice is to be accomplished by no petty rules, but by broad considerations of general health, while its control in delivery is secured by such practical sugges- tions as the following :---" What is required, instead of expending all the increased power in raising the voice' only, as is usually done, is to distribute it in more distinct articulation, stronger emphasis, and fuller intonation. By lengthening the pauses, too, which in no little degree contributes to the same result, the waste of exertion is diminished, and opportunity afforded for regaining the breath. Mere vociferation, amounting almost to shouting, defeats its own object; it is the vowel sounds only that can be bawled out, and when this is done, distinct articu- lation of the consonants is impossible. It is an indisputable fact that a man may shout so loud that you cannot hear what be says." In illustration of this, the story is given of a speaker who had bawled himself breathless. An old Quaker gentleman, taking advantage of the lull, called out to the dis- tressed orator,—" Friend, thou art making so much noise that we cannot bear thee." One of the moat interesting portions of the book discusses the question of musical accompaniment to the reciter's voice. That there have been successful combinations of this kind is proved by the occasional practice of Mr. Henry Irving and of Mr. Clifford Harrison himself. But Mr. Harrison has been far from satisfied at the result. "At present," he says, "the best chance of success seems to be for one and the same person to give both words and music. He is then master of the means employed. And it appears necessary that he should be master, and that the means employed should be under his control,—or, rather, under the control of the drama he enunciates. With great practice and an unusually swift understanding and sympathy, a coherent work might be made between a reciter and a pianist, or even a reciter and a band. But the latter would require the devotion and labour given to an opera at Bayreuth, instead of the casual combination that is too often attempted on such occasions." It is instructive to note that several of the writers expose the ridiculous notion that the term "natural" means "uncultivated." The ease, and grace, and power which we admire in all good speakers, never comes by nature, but is the outcome of strenuous and persistent practice. Mr. Blackman quotes Mr. Gladstone as saying "all time and money spent in training the voice and the body, is an investment that pays a larger interest than any other," and Lord Salisbury's remark, " In these days, whether we like it or not, power is with those who can speak," and there are not wanting signs that increased attention is being paid to this finest of the fine arts, which, as Mr. Harrison says, " has been steadily growing in artistic development and in public favour for many years. If true to itself, and if its position be not undermined by the incapa- city of well-meaning but imperfect aspirants, it may well look forward to association and brotherhood with those older executive arts by which literature and music are brought home to the ears and to the hearts of a world that is ready and willing to listen if only the right voice will speak." The book contains 888 pp., the latter and larger portion being selections for public recita- tion, among which are many perfectly new pieces, and as good as they are new,
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