Don't think we can accept Peter's interesting potted history of public
readings -- the onset of the declamatory mode, etc. Have a look at lawyer
Silvertongue declaiming his poetry, obviously dramatically, in Hogarth's
Marriage à la Mode, 4, "The Countess's Levée" 1745; or that famous picture of
Chaucer reading, apparently before the king. Rabelais also used to read his
work out loud, I believe. I don't think things of this kind "begin".
Doug
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