The Speaker; Or Miscellaneous Pieces: Selected from the Best English Writers, Disposed Under Proper Heads for the Improvement of Youth, in Reading and Speaking; to which is Prefixed An Essay on Elocution |
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This reader was initially published as a British reader, and then imported to America. According to Henry W. Simon, it was first published in America in Philadelphia in 1799. He was unaware of this second American printing. There is also another printing -- from New York in 1812 -- of which he too was unaware. Thus far, these are the only three American printings of which I am aware. In a visit to the Harvard archives, I noticed in their records that the Institute of 1770, an early literary society there, often read aloud from Enfield in their meetings in the 1770s and 1780s (though this would have been a British version of the text, not the American one depicted here).
joseph.p.haughey@gmail.com
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Common terms and phrases
appear arms army breast cause CHAP conduct consider continued dangerous death desire earth equal eternal eyes fair fall father fear feel fool fortune give Gods hand happy hath head hear heard heart Heav'n hold honour hope hour human kind king laws leave light live look Lord matter means mind nature never night o'er once pain pass passion peace perfection person pleasure poor praise present proper reason rest round seems sense side SIR JOHN smile soon soul sound speak spirit stand sure sweet tears tell thee thing thou thought thousand thro true truth virtue voice whole wind wise wish young youth
Popular passages
Page 96 - Be not too tame neither, but let your own discretion be your tutor : suit the action to the word, the word to the action ; with this special observance, that you o'erstep not the modesty of nature...
Page 15 - Heaven doth with us as we with torches do, Not light them for themselves ; for if our virtues Did not go forth of us, 'twere all alike As if we had them not. Spirits are not finely touch'd But to fine issues, nor Nature never lends The smallest scruple of her excellence, But, like a thrifty goddess, she determines Herself the glory of a creditor, Both thanks and use.
Page 16 - Cowards die many times before their deaths ; The valiant never taste of death but once. Of all the wonders that I yet have heard, It seems to me most strange that men should fear ; Seeing that death, a necessary end, Will come, when it will come.
Page 372 - Yet Brutus says he was ambitious; And, sure, he is an honourable man. I speak not to disprove what Brutus spoke, But here I am to speak what I do know. You all did love him once, — not without cause: What cause withholds you, then, to mourn for him? O judgment, thou art fled to brutish beasts, And men have lost their reason! — Bear with me; My heart is in the coffin there with Caesar, And I must pause till it come back to me.
Page 376 - You have done that you should be sorry for. There is no terror, Cassius, in your threats ; For I am arm'd so strong in honesty, That they pass by me as the idle wind. Which I respect not.
Page 277 - The sixth age shifts Into the lean and slipper'd pantaloon, With spectacles on nose, and pouch on side ; His youthful hose, well sav'd, a world too wide For his shrunk shank, and his big manly voice, Turning again toward childish treble, pipes And whistles in his sound.
Page 58 - I observing, Took once a pliant hour; and found good means To draw from her a prayer of earnest heart, That I would all my pilgrimage dilate, Whereof by parcels she had something heard, But not intentively...
Page 108 - In the bright muse, tho' thousand charms conspire, Her voice is all these tuneful fools admire; Who haunt Parnassus but to please their ear, Not mend their minds; as some to church repair, Not for the doctrine, but the music there. These equal syllables alone require, Tho...
Page 364 - O my lord, Must I, then, leave you? must I needs forego So good, so noble, and so true a master? Bear witness, all that have not hearts of iron, With what a sorrow Cromwell leaves his lord. The king shall have my service ; but my prayers For ever and for ever shall be yours.
Page 284 - The traces, of the smallest spider's web ; The collars, of the moonshine's watery beams : Her whip, of cricket's bone ; the lash, of film : Her...
Bibliographic information
| Title | The Speaker; Or Miscellaneous Pieces: Selected from the Best English Writers, Disposed Under Proper Heads for the Improvement of Youth, in Reading and Speaking; to which is Prefixed An Essay on Elocution |
| Author | William Enfield |
| Publisher | Joseph Larkin, 1808 |
| Original from | the University of Michigan |
| Digitized | 9 Oct 2007 |
| Length | 400 pages |
| Export Citation | BiBTeX EndNote RefMan |