He alludes, of course, to the rocking-horse movement of the rhyming couplet as used during the Popian period. As used by Chaucer, this rocking-horse movement is not so felt.
Legouvé, in his 'L'Art de la lecture,' chap. vii, 'Les vers libres,' says: les vers libres out un rhythme comme les vers alexandrins, comme les vers des strophes, seulement c'est un rhythme caché. Ils obéissent à une règle mystérieuse, mais réelle, que vous ne trouverez dans aucun traité de rhétorique, mais qui est écrite dans l'imagination de tous les poëtes de génie. Voilà pourquoi les vers libres du dix-septième siècle sont excellents, et ceux du dix-huitième, sauf quelques pièces de Voltaire, médiocres; les poëtes n'ont pas deviné le secret.
Socrates. I cannot help feeling, Phædrus, that writing is unfortunately like painting; for the creations of the painter have the attitude of life, and yet if you ask them a question they preserve a solemn silence. And the same may be said of speeches. You would imagine that they had intelligence, but if you want to know anything, and put a question to one of them, the speaker always gives one unvarying answer. And when they have been once written down, they are tumbled about anywhere among those who may or may not understand them, and know not to whom they should reply, to whom not; and if they are maltreated or abused, they have no parent to protect them; and they cannot protect or defend themselves. Phædrus. That again is most true. Socrates. Is there not another kind of word or speech far better than this, and having far greater power—a son of the same family, but lawfully begotten? Phædrus. Whom do you mean, and what is his origin? Socrates. I mean an intelligent word graven in the soul of the learner, which can defend itself, and knows when to speak and when to be silent. Phædrus. You mean the living word of knowledge which has a soul, and of which the written word is properly no more than an image? Socrates. Yes, of course, that is what I mean.—Plato, Phædrus, 275 D, 276, Dr. Jowett's translation.
He refers probably to articles in Punch, contained in the 2d volume for the year 1887, pp. 25, 37, 64, et al.
Ames's, Rev. C. G., description of Emerson's voice, 103, 104.
Appreciation of subject-matter, not sufficient for interpretative reading, 10, 11.
Belshazzar's Feast (Daniel v.), as illustrating the slighting of speech, 83–95.
Brain slaughter in the schools, 40.
Browning, Mrs. E. B., quoted on Chaucer's verse, note 3.
Browning, Robert, quoted on processes of art work, 64;
on the function of art, 153–155.
Chaucer's verse must be voiced, 44, 45;
must be read in time, 50;
Mrs. Browning quoted thereupon, note 3.
Cherbuliez, Victor, quoted on processes of art work, note 4.
Child, early education of the, 138 et seq.
Christianity, a religion of the personal and the concrete, 147.
Co-education of the sexes, 167–174.
Coleridge's reading, 12.
Comparisons and similes, reading of, 80–82.
Culture, true, unconscious of the processes which induced it, 20.
De Imitatione Christi, quoted on 'the eternal word,' 147, 148.
De Quincey, Thomas, quoted on Coleridge's reading, 12.
Dogma, the arch-enemy of Christianity, 147.
Dowden, Prof. Edward, quoted on reading, 120, 121.
Education, the danger to which it will be more and more exposed, 38;
etymology of the word, 39, 40.
Elocutionary skill, 18.
Elwood, Thomas, quoted as to his reading Latin to Milton, 53.
Emerson, quoted on the human voice, 102, 103;
his own voice described, 103, 104.
Enjambement, absence of, in Pope's verse, 101.
Estimates of all things, relative, 27.
Eternal Word, The, not exclusive, 149, 150.
Examinations, literary, 55–60;
leading object of, 59.
Faith in womankind, a liberal education, 173.
Feeling must precede knowing, in a child, 70, 71.
Femineity vs. womanliness, 173, 174.
Garrison, William Lloyd, quoted on Mazzini's advocacy of the equality of the sexes, 177.
Gesture, mimetic, its absurdities, 128–131.
Greek verse must be read aloud, and in time, 46.
Grouping of speech, 28.
Home-life in this country, 139, 140.
Hume, David, quoted on criticism, 37.
Imitation of Christ, quoted on 'the eternal word,' 147, 148.
'Impressions before the letter,' 40.
Inflections, or bends, of the voice, must be always significant, 77–79.
Interior life demanded in reading, 119.
Jesus, teachings of, clothed in circumstance and imagery, 157–160.
Keats, John, quoted on the Popian period of English poetry, note 6.
Language, as addressed to the eye, must be largely supplemented by the voice, 29, 30.
Languages, modern, the study of, 51, 52.
Latin verse, must be read aloud, and in time, 46.
Legouvé, Ernest, quoted in regard to reading, in America, as an educational agency, 34;
quoted on 'les vers libres,' note 7.
Lewes, G. H., quoted on the stuffing of children with knowledge, 40, 41.
Linguistic studies, importance of vocalization in, 43.
Literary education, leading object of, 122.
Literary examinations, 55;
leading object of, 59.
Literary lecture, what it should be, 36, 37.
Manhood, a true, 167.
Mazzini, Giuseppe, quoted on woman, her power, her equality with man, and her rights, 174–177;
William Lloyd Garrison quoted on Mazzini, 177.
Milton's Samson Agonistes, choruses of, must be read in time, 51.
Mimetic gesture, its absurdities, 128–131.
Monotony preferable to non-significant intervals, 79.
Moral influence of the speaking voice, 104–107.
Moral insight of man, 168, 169.
Moral teachers, the greatest, not explicit moralizers, 155.
Mothers, comparatively few, capable, 146;
indebtedness of great men to their, 178.
'Natural' reading, 13.
Nature, spiritual relationship with, 142–145.
Perspective of speech, an important element of interpretative reading, 27.
Phenomena not in themselves educative, 148.
Plato quoted on the written and the spoken word, note 8.
Poem, a, not a poem until it is voiced, 30;
a true, 62.
Poets cannot always vocalize their own verse, 14.
Pope's verse, its mechanical uniformity, 100, 101;
absence of enjambement in, 101.
'Prelude,' Wordsworth's, its great educative value, 145.
Printed, or written, language, deficiencies of, to be supplied by the reader, 29, 30.
Printing, art of, has caused language to be too much known through the eye alone, 114, 115.
Reading, can it be taught?, 9;
the main achievable result, 18;
extempore, its requirements, 26;
the best test of a student's knowledge of language as an organism, 28, 29;
must give life to the letter, 29;
the conditions for so doing, 30;
Shelley quoted thereupon, 31;
requirements in early life for its cultivation, 42;
art of, its correspondences with that of painting, 68, 69;
the requisite physical means of, 72;
technique of, 73 et seq.;
is not acting, 126.
Reading matter for the young, 160–164.
Reasoning faculties, the premature exercise of, 70, 152, 153.
Recitation, its evils, 127.
Reverential sentiments, cultivation of, 141.
Ruskin, John, quoted on the power of woman, 169, 170.
Scholarship must not become an end to itself, 124.
Schools do not fit their students for interpretative reading, 123.
Science, power of, 13;
Wordsworth quoted on, 137.
Shakespeare, reading of, to boys and girls, 35.
Shakespeare's estimate of the voice, 109–113;
his personal history and interior life, 178;
quoted on woman, 179;
on study, 180;
Similes and comparisons, reading of, 80–82.
Skill, elocutionary, 18.
Slaughter of the innocents, in schools, 40;
Slighting of speech illustrated, 83–95.
Speaking voice, importance of its cultivation as a moral agency, 102–109.
Speech, slighting of, illustrated, 83–95.
Spiritual education demanded for interpretative reading, 122;
means and conditions of, 133–166;
must be induced on the basis of the concrete and the personal, 146, 147.
Stories for the young, 153.
Taste, true, an expression of spiritual life, 129.
Taylor, Sir Henry, quoted on reading, 34–36;
quoted on Tennyson's reading, 76, 77.
his 'Recollections of the Arabian Nights,' 162.
'Thorough' study of a work of genius, 124.
Time, its importance in vocal expression, 79–82.
Unconscious might, in every work of genius, 65.
University of the future, what it must do for the spiritual man, 132.
Verse, accentual and quantitative, 46–49.
Vincent de Lérins, St., quoted on the universal and the eternal, 148, 149.
Voice, the speaking, importance of its cultivation as a moral agency, 102–109;
Shakespeare's estimate of, 109–113.
Whateley's, Archbishop, theory of 'natural' reading, 14;
his own oratorical delivery, 15;
his assumptions in regard to elocution, 19.
Woman, her power and rights, Mazzini quoted on, 174–177.
Womanliness vs. femineity, 173, 174.
Wordsworth quoted on hearing, 125;
on science, 137;
the great educative value of his 'Prelude,' 145.
Written, or printed, language, deficiencies of, to be supplied by the reader, 29, 30.
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