The Grammar School, Chapter 18
CHAP. XVIII.
Of pronouncing naturally and sweetly without vaine affectation.
Phil.
WHat will you that we come vntounto next? Take it that wee hauehave gone thorough the most things, which concerne our function for teaching the Latine tongue.
Spoud.
There remaine yet two other matters, and those of no lesse difficulty nor waight then most of the former; and without which, yet schooles doe lacke their principall ornaments, as I suppose: the one of them is pronouncing sweetly, the other speaking Latine purely and readily.
Phil.
These 2. are▪ indeed worthy of our best thoughts. The first of them,The excellency of Pronuntiation. that is, Pronuntiation, beeing that which either makes or mars the most excellent speech. For al speeches are vsually esteemed euen as they are vttered or pronounced; the finest schollar without this is accounted no bodie: and a mean schollar hauing attained this facultie, is ordinarily reputed and commended aboue the best. Wherupō you know how that famous Greek Orator, when he was asked, what was the chief grace or excellēcy in Rhetorick, what was the second and third; he stil answered, To pronounce wel.The necessity and estimation of being able to speake Latine readily and purely. And for the second, that is, speaking of Latine, as in examinations and disputations, so in all other things, there would bee a perpetuall vse of it amongst all Grammar schollars of any yeers. To the end, to fit them to answer any learned man in Latine, or to dispute ex tempore: also to traine them vp to be able to speak purely when they come in the Vniuersities; as in some Colledges they are only to speake Latine: or to fit them, if they shall go beyond these as, as Gentlemen who goe to trauell, Factors for Marchants, and the like. The readinesse in which facultie if it be in a good phrase, how much it graceth a childe in Vniuersitie, Citie, or Countrey, we all of vsus knowe.
Spoud.
Sir, you hauehave spoken very truely of these: therfore let vsus come vntounto them in order, I intreate you; and first vntounto pronuntiation.Pronuntiation ordinarily hard to be attained in Schooles. This I hauehave found passing hard to acquaint my schollars withall, to bring them to any ripenesse or commendable faculty, but still they will speake as a boy who is saying his lesson; though I hauehave both directed them how to pronounce, vttering the sentences oft before them, and hauehave very much called vponupon them for the same.
Phil.
To bring your schollars vntounto this sweetnesse of pronuntiation,How schollars may be broght to pronou…ce sweetly. this is the plainest and surest way, so farre forth as yet I can finde: and this I am assured will effect it in a commendable sort;
1. You must remember that which was generally premised in the beginning.☞ To acquaint your young schollar from the very first entrance,1. Children to be trained vp to pronoūce right from the first entrance. to pronounce eueryevery lesson and each word audibly, leasurely, and distinctly, euer sounding out the last letter.
2. To pronounce eueryevery matter according to the nature of it,☞ so much as you can;To vtter euerie matter, according to the nature of it. chiefly where persons or other things are …ained to speake.
As for example: In the Confabulatiunculae pueriles, Cause them to vtter eueryevery dialogue liuely, as if they themselues were the persons which did speake in that dialogue, & so in eueryevery other speech, to imagine themselues to hauehave occasion to vtter the very same things.
3. What they cannot vtter well in Latine,☞ cause them first to do it naturally and liuely in English,What they can not vtter in Latine, to learn to do it in English, then after the same manner in Latine. and shew them your selfe the absurdnesse of their pronuntiation, by pronouncing foolishly or childishly, as they do: and then pronounce it rightly, and naturally before them likewise, that they may perceiue the difference to be ashamed of the one, and take a delight in the other.
So cause them to do it after you, vntill that they can do it in good sort, tuning their voices sweetly. When they can doe it in English, then cause them to doe it iust in the same manner in Latine; and thus they will vndoubtedly come vntounto it very easily.
4 Also cause sundry of them to pronounce thus the very same sentence;4 To cause sundry to pronounce the very same sentence in emulation. disgracing the speech of those who pronounce absurdly, by imitation of it, and gracing as much the speech of those who doe it most naturally and pleasantly: propounding such as patternes and markes to all their fellows, for al to emulate and imitate them; as I hauehave aduised generally.
5 Cause them to doe the like in Corderius,5 In all Authors wherein persons are fained to speak to be carefull for this. Esops Fables, or Terence as they did in Confabulatiunculae. For Esops Fables, we hauehave shewed before the manner, for making a report of each Fable, first in English, after in Latine, and the benefite thereof.
So after when they shall come to Virgils Eclogues,☜ cause them yet still more liuely, in saying without booke, to expresse the affections and persons of sheepeheards; or whose speech soeuer else, which they are to imitate. Of which sort are the Prosopopeyes of Iupiter, Apollo, and others in Ouids Metamorphosis, Iuno, Neptune, Aeolus, Aeneas, Venus, Dido, &c. Virgils Aeneids.
So in all Poetry,Poetry to be pronounced as prose, except in scanning. for the pronuntiation, it is to be vttered as prose; obseruing distinctions and the nature of the matter; not to bee tuned foolishly or childishly after the manner of scanning a Verse as the vse of some is. OnelyOnly to tune it so in scanning, or getting it without booke, vnlesse you would hauehave them to pronounce some speciall booke, for getting authorities for quantities; or others, onelyonly to that same purpose.
6 To helpe hereunto yet more,6 Further helpes as they proceede. Practice of oft pronouncing … e…ically, some speciall examples in T…l…us. and that they may doe eueryevery thing according to the very nature; acquaint them to pronounce some speciall examples, set downe in Talaeus Rhetoricke as pathetically as they can: as examples of Ironies, Exclamations, Reuocations, Prosopopeyes, and those which are in his rules of pronouncing.
Let them also be taught carefully, in what word the Emphasis duplicate page duplicate page lyeth;To marke in each sentence in what word the Emphasis is. and therefore which is to be eleuated in the pronuntiation. As namely those wordes in which the chiefe Trope or Figure is.
Thus let them take speciall pains to pronounce Theams or Declamations,☞ striuing who shall doe best:Butlars Rhet. li. 2. cap. 2. de voce in singulis verbis. Care in pronouncing all exercises. and in all their oppositions to dispute, as if ex animo in good earnest, with all contention and vehemencie.
Finally, the practice of pronouncing emphatically, of some of Tullies Orations, which are most flowing in these Figures of sentences (especially in Exclamations,The curious pronouncing some of Tullies Orations or the like. Prosopopeis, Apostrophees, and the like: as some against Catiline) must needes much acquaint them with great variety of pronuntiation, to be fitted for all sorts.
For more exquisite knowledge and practice hereof,More exquisite knowledge hereof left to the Vniuersities Butleri Rhet. lib. 2. de proment. I leaue it to the Vniuersities, which are to perfect all those faculties which are but begun in the Grammar Schooles; and do referre you for precepts, to the second booke of Talaeus Rhetoricke de pronunciatione: or rather of Master Butlars Rhetoricke, as I said before.