E. M., “A Treatise on Precision, as it Regards Style, Language, and the Drama”

In an article emphasizing the importance of precision in a time when speaking and writing proliferate, the author discusses how improvisation by its very nature runs counter to this virtue.

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Author:
E. M.
Date Written:
1825
Language:
English
Publication Title:
The European Magazine and London Review
Article Title:
A Treatise on Precision, as it Regards Style, Language, and the Drama
Page Numbers:
87:498-99
Additional Info:
June 1825 issue
Publisher:
Lupton Relfe
Place of Publication:
London
Date Published:
1825

Text:

[498] I know only two modes in the action of delivery, that are absolutely incompatible with precision; one is the intention of deceiving, or empiricism; and the other, improvisation.

[…] [499] Improvisation, when it attains, by long and attentive perseverance, that summit of perfection which entitles it to this name, is either a very happy, or a very unfortunate endowment. Let the orator, moved by passion, or the professor, rich in acquired knowledge, employ it rationally, and without outstepping the modesty of nature, and I shall share in his inspiration with delight. But, if a statue of the improvisator undertakes, at my command, to model sounds upon whatever subject I may prescribe to him, I immediately cease to feel the inspiration of his magic, and can only allow him my astonishment. The artifice of the enchanter consists in gaining, by the mechanism of amplification, sufficient leisure to think and reflect as he proceeds.

That luxury of expression, which is produced with so much labour by the closetted rhetorician, will be found, on the contrary, to be a repose and assistance to the extemporary speaker, during the tumult of his spontaneous effusions. It is sufficient to observe, that precision, in his mouth, would be at variance with nature, as it would require an effort of mind, of which the human powers are totally incapable. If ever this art become a profession, it will probably be under the auspices of a language that offers little difficulty to composition, little harshness to melody; and which it is difficult to render concise, though capable of all the graces of softness and elegance, and spoken by a people that excel in comprehension and versatility of mind.

Notes:

Collected by:
EW