CMP Review 2026-02-02

February 2, 2026

“Now, reading aloud always was, is, and always should be, very important. The great works of the world were written to be read or given aloud. The Iliad and the Odyssey we should not possess to-day had men not learnt and repeated the fifty thousand lines. Herodotus, Livy, Virgil, if we may credit respectable tradition, read their works to large or critical audiences. The Law, the Prophets, the Psalms, the Gospels, the Epistles, were dedicated to the human voice. The Romances of the Middle Ages were read, not studied. All the dramatists of the world, from Æschylus to Shakespeare, and from Shakespeare to Pinero, have appealed to the interpretative power of the voice. And there never was a time, perhaps, when a clear, good, sweet, persuasive, incisive, intelligent voice was of such importance as it is to-day.” (Arthur Burrell, Clear Speaking and Good Reading, p. 3)

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