| Show Where the Actors Speak Sp lk British t sh I Everybody knows or If It they dont Bont they ought to right away of the Amer American Amerlean lean ican actor who got to London last sum summer summer summer mer and in his hi bewilderment at the way he heard English proper names pro pronounced pronounced flounced on all an sides Maudlin for Magdeline for St John and the like at last sat down In despair to avail himself of every constant read readers readers readers ers privilege and wrote the London Times a test question Do you ou he asked the editor pro pronounce pr pronounce the famous diarists name Peps Pips or Chol I meley maley Odd English pronunciations of words that do not bear the slightest family re resemblance resemblance resemblance i semblance to the way they are spelled Is Isa Isa Isa I a never ending topic of conversation with him or her who has Just had a first taste of the British life But nobody seems to have given thought to the fact that there Is la often the best beat of reasons euphony the first law of correct speech behind the average British actors for and his circum for circumstance But be that as it may ma the complications complications complications that arise at the rehearsals of plays from th the difference In speech between the two countries is very amusing For example It took Charles Frohman an entire week and no end of interruptions during the rehearsals of The Dollar Princess to teach Miss Valli Valli In her character of an American girl to hire Donald Brian as a clerk not as a adark clark dark At each correction the little actress would say Eay So sorry and then woman like say s y clark dark the next rein min minute ute The odd thing about It was that at the same time at another theatre Mr Froh Frohman Frohman Frohman man with equal insistence was obliged to correct Frank Burbeck an American playing a British earl In Detective Sparkles every time he said clerk for Clark In that play William Seymour the stage director and F Pope Stamper had It out in good style at one rehearsal of The Dollar Princess Mr Stamper would say ex exquisite exquisite exquisite with the accent on the second syllable but Mr Seymour Insisted on ex accent on the first syllable But It mean as much your way the actor a tor complained It my way ray said Mr Seymour It Is Websters way Who cam came the quick query Mr Noah Webster Never heard of him said the de deliciously deliciously naive but right you OU are I shall shaU say It that way Where dictionaries disagree the last court of appeal among the Frohman forces Is John Drew who by association and from a personal fondness for things genuinely correct Is very reliable In pro pronunciation pronunciation pronunciation But last season even John JohnDrew JohnDreW JohnDrew Drew was curiously trapped into an er error error error of speech that he unwillingly re ru retained the entire season seaRon It was the 0 word speciality the obsolete form of specialty It seems to be bo a mannerism with W Somerset Maugham who uses the word wordIn In both of his best known plays Lady Frederick and Jack Straw At the first rehearsal of ot Jack Straw Mr Drew balked at this word and tried to substitute specialty But B ut he was stopped topped by the prompter with the warn I ing lag that the word was not specialty but speciality Well VeIl Its an error I am sure said the actor But the authors original manuscript was consulted and there It was speciality I Moreover someone soon found the same spelling in Lady Frederick All AH right rl ht said Mr Drew so be he it speciality But toward the end of the season when Jack Straw had about run Its course a learned academic friend of Mr 11 Drew after hearing him in the play came back after the performance with the startling Inquiry Why in the name of all aU holy hoh do you say speciality Why sharply answered Mr 11 Drew I because lecause Its the authors language Yes I dare darB say It is but he is wrong Tong that spelling and pronunciation went out of use twenty years ago Bright author answered Mr 11 Draw His speciality hereafter had better be bethe bethe bethe the specialty of thumbing a dictionary |
