How to Master the Spoken Word / Designed as a Self-Instructor for all who would Excel in the Art of Public Speaking

by Edwin Gordon Lawrence

In the opinion of the author, both the actress and the critic are half right and half wrong, the scene requiring that emphasis should be placed on the four words; thus,

Deny thy father and refuse thy name.

This reading clearly denotes what Juliet desires shall be done with both the father and the name; the other readings do not.

Daniel Webster, in his reply to Senator Hayne, used this striking arrangement of words to express his idea of the unity of liberty and union:

Liberty and union, now and forever, one and inseparable.

In most readers the passage is marked, liberty and union, thus making the important connective and, which has practically nothing to do with conveying the thought, all-important, and sinking into insignificance the thought words of the orator. Webster distinctly says that “liberty” and “union” are “one and inseparable,” whereas by putting the emphasis on the word and the speaker distinctly states that they are two. Webster undoubtedly intended “liberty” and “union” to be synonymous—“liberty” meaning the same as “union,” and “union” the same as “liberty”—what constituted the one being exactly the same as what constituted the other. Therefore, like emphasis should be placed on both words.

Every sentence contains at least one thought; and in every group of words conveying a thought some particular word carries that thought to the mind. Such words are the thought words. This can be best illustrated by examples. In her plea for mercy Portia says:

The quality of mercy is not strain’d;[4]

In this line, strain’d is the word that conveys the idea. It is not quality nor mercy that Portia desires to impress on the mind of Shylock, but the fact that mercy is not strain’d. Antonio had confessed the bond, Portia had stated that nothing but the mercy of the Jew could save him from paying the penalty, and in making this statement she had used the word must. Shylock replied by saying: “On what compulsion must I?” In other words, how are you going to compel me? And it is this thought of the Jew’s to which she replied.

In the same speech Portia says: