Page images
PDF
EPUB
[graphic]

THE

ART OF ELOCUTION:

OR,

LOGICAL AND MUSICAL

READING AND DECLAMATION.

WITH

AN APPENDIX,

CONTAINING A COPIOUS PRACTICE IN

ORATORICAL, POETICAL, AND DRAMATIC
READING AND RECITATION;

THE WHOLE FORMING

A COMPLETE SPEAKER,

WELL ADAPTED TO PRIVATE PUPILS, CLASSES, AND THE USE OF SCHOOLS.

BY G. VANDENHOFF.

SIXTH EDITION.

NEW YORK:

SPALDING & SHEPARD, 189% BROADWAY.

PHILADELPHIA: THOMAS, COWPERTHWAIT & CO.
CINCINNATI: H. W. DERBY & CO.

BOSTON GOULD, KENDALL & LINCOLN.

1851.

Entered according to an act of Congress, in the year 1846, by

C. SHEPARD,

In the Clerk's Office of the District Court of the Southern District of New-York.

[graphic]

f

VAN AR
AR, 6¢

28V5178

PREFACE.

[ocr errors]

THE work now offered to the Public is an enlargement and improvement; by the addition of much original matter, of the Author's previous publication, entitled "A Plain System of Elocution," which ran through two editions, but which is now so much improved upon as to induce the Author to change its name. The alterations and additions made to that System are the result of reflection, study, and of the experience gathered from an extensive practice as an instructor. The Author has great pleasure in acknowledging the valuable suggestions which he has received and adopted, from his father, JOHN VANDENHOFF, Esq., Professor of Elocution at the Royal Academy of Music in London. To Dr. RUSH's Treatise on the Voice, the Author has had recourse for light on many of the niceties of the elementary sounds of our language; and gladly takes this opportunity of offering his humble tribute to the masterly analysis of the voice, its functions and capabilities, contained in that philosophical and eloquent work.

He takes this occasion also to renew his acknowledg

בית הספרים הלאמי והאוניברסיטאי ירן של ים

ments to those families and heads of academies who have encouraged his attempt to awaken greater attention to this essential branch of education, and who do him the honor to approve of his system of instruction.*

The numerous classes of elegant and accomplished ladies who have read with him, in the houses of families of the highest standing and respectability, prove that a just appreciation is entertained of this art as an indispensable female acquirement: and the attention and improvement of his pupils have made his task one of pleasure and selfgratulation. The correct and elegant enunciation of her native tongue, and a graceful style of reading the language of its prose writers and poets, cannot be too assiduously cultivated by a lady: the accomplishment is peculiarly feminine, and its possession is a distinctive mark of high breeding and good education. If the Author's exertions shall be deemed to have facilitated its acquirement, he will be proud indeed.

G. V.

[graphic][merged small]
« PreviousContinue »