Body Language In The Speech

By Author: Arsenalo
Total Articles: 116

The final four lines of Spenser's stanza adhere quite readily to this counsel, as they expand everything implicit in 'broke down' even in ways that refract the imagery of Quintilian's example and capture the emotional tenor of 'rigout pitiless' without, as Demetrius cautions, 'punctiliously and tediously elaborating' the points; enargeia, in other words, depends on leaving some details 'to the comprehension and inference of the hearer'. And, to further contextualise Guyon's ruthlessness at the end of his story, we might also recall with Quintilian that the 'task of the Epilogue includes not only exciting pity but also dispelling it'. Hence, Guyon's pity is aroused for Verdant only two lines before it is banished, replaced instead with 'rigour pittilesse' and the 'tempest of his wrathfulnesse'. Occurring as it does within a discussion of Lee Jeans forensic rhetoric, Quintilian's advice seems especially relevant to the complex interaction of pity and justice that Gerald Morgan has sketched in his discussion of Book II. Guyon's emotional destruction of the Bower, then, is really a problem for the Stoic rather than, for example, Sidney's poet-orator, or even Erasmus' Folly, who praises emotions as the 'spurs or goads, as it were, encouraging the performance of good deeds'.

Thus, to return to Positions, although many of Mulcaster's exercises are justified ostensibly by their role in controlling the humours, this in itself has direct implications on the orator's ability to persuade an audience. But the practice of raising and controlling emotions for the purpose of delivery appears more overtly in Mulcaster's physical education regime, as we find such exercises as, in Chapter 14, 'Of laughing, and weeping'. In fact, many of the exercises in Mulcaster's scheme are recommended due to their facility in training the skills of delivery. The first exercise to appear in Positions is 'Of low speaking', on which the author claims to Diesel Jeans linger because 'it is both the first in rancke, and the best meane to make good pronouncing of any thing, in any auditorie, and therfor an exercise not impertinent to scholars'.

'Good pronouncing' in rhetorical manuals refers not simply to the voice, but to gestures as well, and several exercises in Positions train both parts with respect to delivery. Dancing, for example, teaches 'reason in gesture'; playing with a top will train the 'armes and hands' and rectify the manual deficiencies taught by 'ignoraunt nurses and mothers'; walking is good for 'the benefit of breathing, to deliver... long periodes'; running prevents the 'distorsion or writing of the mouth'; and leaping makes the body 'declare his consent' with the mind, so that it cooperates with the tongue in the 'uttering of joy'. So, when Mulcaster recommends upright wrestling because it makes the body 'better breathed', helps 'haviour', and 'strengthened the sinews', he is thinking not only of its health benefits, but also of its associations with the well-delivered speech. '