THE AUGUSTAN REPRINT SOCIETY

THOMAS SHERIDAN

A DISCOURSE

BEING INTRODUCTORY TO HIS COURSE OF LECTURES

ON

ELOCUTION AND THE ENGLISH LANGUAGE

(1759)

_Introduction by_ G. P. MOHRMANN

PUBLICATION NUMBER 136 WILLIAM ANDREWS CLARK MEMORIAL LIBRARY UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA, LOS ANGELES

1969

GENERAL EDITORS

William E. Conway, _William Andrews Clark Memorial Library_ George Robert Guffey, _University of California, Los Angeles_ Maximillian E. Novak, _University of California, Los Angeles_

ASSOCIATE EDITOR

David S. Rodes, _University of California, Los Angeles_

ADVISORY EDITORS

Richard C. Boys, _University of Michigan_ James L. Clifford, _Columbia University_ Ralph Cohen, _University of Virginia_ Vinton A. Dearing, _University of California, Los Angeles_ Arthur Friedman, _University of Chicago_ Louis A. Landa, _Princeton University_ Earl Miner, _University of California, Los Angeles_ Samuel H. Monk, _University of Minnesota_ Everett T. Moore, _University of California, Los Angeles_ Lawrence Clark Powell, _William Andrews Clark Memorial Library_ James Sutherland, _University College, London_ H. T. Swedenberg, Jr., _University of California, Los Angeles_ Robert Vosper, _William Andrews Clark Memorial Library_

CORRESPONDING SECRETARY

Edna C. Davis, _William Andrews Clark Memorial Library_

EDITORIAL ASSISTANT

Mary Kerbret, _William Andrews Clark Memorial Library_

INTRODUCTION

Thomas Sheridan (1718-1788) devoted his life to enterprises within the sphere of spoken English, and although he achieved more than common success in all his undertakings, it was his fate to have his reputation eclipsed by more famous contemporaries and eroded by the passage of time. On the stage, he was compared favorably with Garrick, but his name lives in the theatre only through his son Richard Brinsley. A leading theorist of the elocutionary movement, his pronouncing dictionary ranks after the works of Dr. Johnson and John Walker, and his entire contribution dimmed when the movement fell into disrepute.[1]

Sheridan attained his greatest renown through his writing and lecturing on elocution, and the fervor with which he pursued the study of tones, looks, and gestures in speaking animates _A Discourse Delivered in the Theatre at Oxford, in the Senate-House at Cambridge, and at Spring-Garden in London_. This lecture, "Being Introductory to His Course of Lectures on Elocution and the English Language," displays both the man and the elocutionary movement. Throughout the work, Sheridan exhibits his missionary zeal, his dedication to "a visionary hypothesis that dazzled his mind."[2] At the same time, he presents the basic principles of elocutionary theory and reveals the forces that made the movement a dominant pattern in English rhetoric.

Table of contents (by pages)

• 1: A Discourse Being Introductory to his Course of Le
• 2: And Sheridan was lecturing on elocution as late as 1785
• 3: The elocutionists enlisted countless believers
• 4: With the testimony of Cicero and Quintilian because actio
• 5: The Elocutionary Career of Thomas Sheridan 1718 1788
• 6: ADISCOURSEDELIVERED INThe THEATRE at OXFORD
• 7: ADISCOURSEDELIVERED INThe THEATRE at OXFORD
• 8: As that the knowlege of it might be regularly acquired
• 9: Evidently require the whole oratorial powers
• 10: Or consequentially from their knowlege
• 11: In proportion to their progress in knowlege
• 12: Knowlege must be parceled out only to individuals
• 13: Will pass for the best singers
• 14: Nothing but such an uncontrolable power
• 15: The service of the church was in Latin
• 16: More care was probably taken with regard to pronunciation
• 17: Of neglecting the art of elocution
• 18: And consequently pointing to a wrong quarter for redress
• 19: A master of a grammar school is to teach grammar
• 20: From colleges and stipends appointed it
• 21: From the knowlege of those principles
• 22: And knowlege of their mother tongue
• 23: Vel novis exemplis palam facere
• 24: Sheridan indicates that Locke is discussing elocution
• 25: LOS ANGELESPUBLICATIONS IN PRINT Illustration 1948 1949 16
• 26: Introduction by George Robert Guffey