Article August 29, 1994 Issue

"Trippingly on the tongue"

Kim Shippey

"Speak the speech, I pray you, as I pronounced it to you, trippingly on the tongue." Has there ever been a better guide to effective speechmaking than is offered by the prince to the players in Act III of Hamlet? Not only, according to Hamlet, does one need clear articulation, but gentle control of gesture and passion, for "you must acquire and beget a temperance that may give it smoothness."

But it's hard to respond to his call for temperance in speech-making when you're still glued to your seat, and speechless! I know the feeling well. Through all my high-school years, through university, and through my early years as a church member, I would rather have left the room than be called upon to speak in public. It didn't occur to me at first that I should pray to overcome my fear. I desperately needed self-assurance, but, in my absorption with self, I completely overlooked the limitless resources of the infinite Father-Mother God, whose care is specially needed by doubters like the teenage me.

There is helpful evidence of that loving support in the Bible account in Exodus of God's call to Moses to deliver the children of Israel from bondage to the Egyptians. Moses felt inadequate to represent God on that mission and insisted that he was not eloquent enough. God said, "Now therefore go, and I will be with thy mouth, and teach thee what thou shalt say" (4:12). The Lord further pointed out that there was ready support for Moses' brother Aaron: "... and I will be with thy mouth, and with his mouth, and will teach you what ye shall do" (4:15).

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