ABSTRACT
The final canon of rhetoric is delivery, traditionally associated with oral discourse only. Aristotle gives little attention to this subject, with a brief and apologetic discussion of voice and the importance of the speaker’s volume and pitch. Cicero, however, sees delivery as “precepts to guide the physical presentation of the text” [1, p. 93] and emphasizes this as critical to the eloquence of the discourse. According to Cicero, delivery is elocution, comprising gesticulation and facial expression as well as the register and intensity of the speaker’s voice. Effective delivery is flexible, adjusted to the subject and style of the discourse, and thus assures that the speaker is perceived as sincere. Quintilian also emphasizes delivery as elocution, and it is professional speakers who develop and discuss the skills of elocution during the Middle Ages and the Renaissance.
