PRINCIPAL OF THE NEW YORK SCHOOL OF EXPRESSION 66 NEW YORK .:. CINCINNATI .:. CHICAGO PREFACE THIS collection includes representative selections from the best literature, arranged and condensed for effective use in school declamation. Part First gives a sufficient outline of the technique to guide the student, but presupposes some knowledge and training on the part of the teacher.1 Part Second consists entirely of selections, arranged as closely as practicable on a historical plan, but interspersed with examples of colloquial and humorous styles, the study of which will help to counteract the tendency toward a stilted and declamatory manner. The criticism has been justly made that the so-called old elocution did not take sufficient account of fundamental psychological processes. On the other hand, certain recent methods erred quite as greatly in ignoring the technique of voice and action. If the old school often fostered a mechanical and "elocutionary" delivery, the tendency to rely exclusively on thought and impulse has resulted quite as often in either cold self-conscious intellectualism, or impassioned rant, according to the idiosyncrasy of teacher or pupil. A truly philosophical method will be coördinative from the outset, and a considerable 1 The author's primer of Elocution and Action [New York: Edgar S. Werner] is recommended as a supplementary text-book for students who wish a more complete knowledge of the subject, as well as for teachers who are unfamiliar with the technical problems of the art. An advanced treatise is in preparation. |