THE PUBLIC SCHOOL SPEAKER AND READER: A SELECTION OF PROSE AND VERSE, FROM MODERN AND STANDARD AUTHORS; Classified and Arranged FOR THE USE OF PUBLIC SCHOOLS. WITH FULL INSTRUCTIONS IN THE ART OF ELOCUTION. EDITED BY J. E. CARPENTER, M.A., PH.D. AUTHOR OF 'THE HAND-BOOK OF POETRY," EDITOR OF "PENNY READINGS IN PROSE AND VERSE," "POPULAR READINGS," ETC. LONDON: FREDERICK WARNE AND CO. BEDFORD STREET, COVENT GARDEN. NEW YORK: SCRIBNER, WELFORD AND CO. 1869. 270. g. 259. PREFACE. A FEW words to account for the publication of "The Public School Speaker" will be all that are necessary by way of preface. About three years ago the Editor commenced his publication, "Penny Readings in Prose and Verse," which extended to ten volumes of 256 pages each. A Library Edition in five volumes was subsequently issued, and of these two works about a quarter of a million copies have been already sold. Though intended in the first instance for the use of platform readers only, they were adopted as an Elocution Class book in many public and private schools. For this purpose they ultimately became too bulky. The inconvenience of a school book extending over a series of volumes is so patent that it need scarcely be pointed out. It was to obviate this, and acting on the suggestion of several heads of schools, and esteemed professors of Elocution, that the present work was undertaken. The "Popular Readings," they asserted, contained so many more modern pieces than any of the "Speakers" now in use, that a selection of the best of them, excluding such as were adapted to the platform only, and classifying the rest, would supply a real want. In order that the "Public School Speaker" may not be a mere abridgment of the former work, and that it may be found useful in the sphere for which it is intended, a considerable amount of fresh matter has been introduced. A few concise rules on the art of Elocution, and a few only, have been prefixed, in which all that is necessary to be known is briefly stated, it being the opinion of the Editor, and those who have favoured him with their advice, that not only has the veil of pedantry which has been thrown over so many treatises, rendered them obscure, and retarded the progress of the art, but that wherever this branch of education may be taught, but little good will be accomplished unless under the guidance of a judicious and skilful teacher. For the rules which are embodied in chapters 2 to 6 of the introductory matter the Editor is mainly indebted to his friend, Henry Marston, Esq., the eminent tragedian of the Theatre Royal, Drury Lane. PROPRIETARY SCHOOL, NOTTING HILL, February, 1869. J. E. C. |