The Augustan Reprint Society
THOMAS SHERIDAN
A DISCOURSE
BEING INTRODUCTORY
TO HIS COURSE OF LECTURES
ON
ELOCUTION
AND THE
ENGLISH LANGUAGE
(1759)
Introduction by
G. P. Mohrmann
PUBLICATION NUMBER 136
WILLIAM ANDREWS CLARK MEMORIAL LIBRARY
University of California, Los Angeles
1969
GENERAL EDITORS
William E. Conway, William Andrews Clark Memorial Library
George Robert Guffey, University of California, Los Angeles
Maximillian E. Novak, University of California, Los Angeles
ASSOCIATE EDITOR
David S. Rodes, University of California, Los Angeles
ADVISORY EDITORS
Richard C. Boys, University of Michigan
James L. Clifford, Columbia University
Ralph Cohen, University of Virginia
Vinton A. Dearing, University of California, Los Angeles
Arthur Friedman, University of Chicago
Louis A. Landa, Princeton University
Earl Miner, University of California, Los Angeles
Samuel H. Monk, University of Minnesota
Everett T. Moore, University of California, Los Angeles
Lawrence Clark Powell, William Andrews Clark Memorial Library
James Sutherland, University College, London
H. T. Swedenberg, Jr., University of California, Los Angeles
Robert Vosper, William Andrews Clark Memorial Library
CORRESPONDING SECRETARY
Edna C. Davis, William Andrews Clark Memorial Library
EDITORIAL ASSISTANT
Mary Kerbret, William Andrews Clark Memorial Library
INTRODUCTION
Thomas Sheridan (1718-1788) devoted his life to enterprises within thesphere of spoken English, and although he achieved more than commonsuccess in all his undertakings, it was his fate to have his reputationeclipsed by more famous contemporaries and eroded by the passage oftime. On the stage, he was compared favorably with Garrick, but his namelives in the theatre only through his son Richard Brinsley. A leadingtheorist of the elocutionary movement, his pronouncing dictionary ranksafter the works of Dr. Johnson and John Walker, and his entirecontribution dimmed when the movement fell into disrepute.[1]
Sheridan attained his greatest renown through his writing and lecturingon elocution, and the fervor with which he pursued the study of tones,looks, and gestures in speaking animates A Discourse Delivered in theTheatre at Oxford, in the Senate-House at Cambridge, and atSpring-Garden in London. This lecture, "Being Introductory to HisCourse of Lectures on Elocution and the English Language," displays boththe man and the elocutionary movement. Throughout the work, Sheridanexhibits his missionary zeal, his dedication to "a visionary hypothesisthat dazzled his mind."[2] At the same time, he presents the basicprinciples of elocutionary theory and reveals the forces that