Institutio Oratoria

For example, if an actor has to speak the following lines on the stage: [*]( Ter. Eun. I. i. 1. )

1. What shall I do then? Not go, even now,
2. Now when she calls me? Or shall I steel my soul
3. No longer to endure a harlot's insults?

he will hesitate as in doubt, will vary the modulations of his voice, together with the movements of hand and head. But oratory has a different flavour and objects to elaborate condiments, since it consists in serious pleading, not in mimicry.

There is, therefore, good reason for the condemnation passed on a delivery which entails the continual alteration of facial expression, annoying restlessness of gesture and gusty changes of tone. And it was a wise saying that the ancient orators borrowed from the Greeks, as is recorded by Popilius Laenas, to the effect that there is too much

business

in such delivery.

The instructions given by Cicero on this subject, as on all others, are quite admirable; I allude to the passages

which I have already quoted from his Orator, [*](§ 122.) while there are similar observations in the Brutus [*](Brut. xxxviii. 141. ) with reference to Marcus Antonius. But to-day a rather more violent form of delivery has come into fashion and is demanded of our orators: it is well adapted to certain portions of a speech, but requires to be kept under control. Otherwise, in our attempt to ape the elegances of the stage, we shall lose the authority which should characterise the man of dignity and virtue.