ACTION, in Oratory, the adaption of the gestures and attitudes of the body to the thoughts and feelings of the mind, intended to be conveyed by the speaker. There is always a sympathy between the body and the mind, and the one cannot be powerfully affected without a corresponding change taking place in the other. A powerful emotion becomes immediately manifest by its effects upon the voice, countenance, and gestures of the person who feels it ; and if these appropriate effects of strong feeling are not discernible, we find it difficult to persuade ourselves that strong feeling is really excited, but are disposed to think that it is only dissembled.
Pleads be in earnest ? Look upon his face ; His eyes do drop no tears; his prayers are jest ; His words come from his mouth; ours from our breast ; We pray with heart and soul.—SFIAKSPEAR E.
There is something contagious in the appropriate looks and gestures of emotion; insomuch that the most ordinary matter uttered with just action will make a deep, impression upon an audience, when matter greatly more valuable, if delivered without this advantage, will be hardly listened to. The effect of pantomime exhibi tions powerfully illustrates this, and shows that sfi•aking is hut one department of oratory. It is well known, that the greatest of orators, Demosthenes, placed the first, second, and third perfection of an accomplished speaker in elocution; which we are to understand, not only just pronunciation, but appropriate action ; and the same celebrated character while he endeavoured to correct a defect in his articulation, by speaking with pebbles in his mouth, was no less solicitous to conquer a faulty attitude to which he was liable, by practising with a drawn sword suspended over his shoulder.
Minute and elaborate rules have been given by Quin tilian, and other ancient rhetoricians, for perfecting the orator in this difficult branch of his art; and a late inge nious writer has endeavoured to express the gestures appropriate to the different kinds of speaking, by writ ten characters. (See Austin's Chironomia.) We are not, however, of opinion, that much benefit can he de rived from studying the subject in this way. In order
to produce a just e fleet, action must be easy and unaffec ted, not stiff and artificial. It must not seem to be stu died, but to flow from the impulse of the moment. If an orator, when lie delivers a speech, has his attitudes pre viously arranged in his mind, and each introduced at a determinate place, he may earn the reputation of a good actor, but will scarcely ever be deemed a powerful and persuasive speaker. We do not, however, deny, that considerable benefit may be obtained from studying the rules of the best writers on this subject ; but we are of opinion, that much more may be reaped from the study of nature ; i. e. by observing how men of accomplished minds, and elegant address, demean themselves, when they are expressing any thing with energy; and how they vary the gesticulation as the emotion varies. Ac tion is the natural, and not the artificial expression of feeling ; and in an ordinary conversation of genteel com pany, an attentive observer may detect all those gesti culations by which an orator enchants his audience.
Of the two extremes, a deficient, is undoubtedly less faulty than a redundant action. It is less disgusting to see a speaker stand lifeless like a statue, than to find him constantly in motion, and practising a regular round of gesticulations, and grimaces, which can excite no other emotion than ridicule. This is the " tearing the passion to rags," which Hamlet so justly reprehends. It is, however, much easier to say what gestures are wrong, than what are strictly proper. But one thing seems sufficiently manifest, that in public speaking, the exertions of action and emphasis should be reserved for the parts which are truly pathetic, and not wasted upon the common and trivial. If a speaker utters common things in a calm manner, he will the more readily grow vehement when the subject is animating; and on that account will be more apt to affect his audience, than if he had employed vehemence of manner in every part.
See ORATORY. (in)