ABSTRACT
David Garrick himself was hailed as a miracle of naturalness and a master of realistic psychology, yet by the end of his career, although his understanding of his characters seems to have deepened, there were many critics who could analyse his pieces of stage business and indeed attack his notorious ‘clap traps’. In fact John Mason’s Essay on Elocution was preceded by the essential translations of the classical authorities to which nearly all the works of the century refer. Throughout his Lectures on Elocution, Thomas Sheridan argues for naturalistic delivery. He attacks the usual method of school teaching, which encourages children to read in a sing-song tone, giving an impression of mechanical learning and boredom; he attacks also the use of theatrical tones. A specific example of both Garrick’s precision of performance and his acquaintance with at least the terminology of rhetorical theory, can be seen in his answer to criticism of his delivery of certain lines in Hamlet.
