Gilbert Austin’s Chironomia Revisited

Sara Newman and Sigrid Streit’s Gilbert Austin’sChironomiaRevisited is part of the Rhetoric in the Modern Era series published by Southern Illinois University Press. Books in the series are designed to introduce a rhetorical theorist or philosopher to readers with an interest in rhetoric but not necessarily with specialized knowledge and cover biographical material, intellectual contexts, and scholarship on the topic as well as rhetorical theory. Gilbert Austin’sChironomiaRevisited does all this and more. Students and scholars interested in the history of rhetorical theories broadly and, in particular, British rhetorical theories in the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries will find in Newman and Streit’s book material that teaches, delights, and moves.The book’s core argument could be reductively expressed as follows. Austin’s Chironomia (1806) develops a system for recording and reading gestural movement on the printed page that “is at once typical of his time and yet forward-looking” (29) and is designed to assist upper-class students achieve or maintain social status. The focus on gesture and the possibilities and limitations of describing gestural movement in words and images in print is appropriate given Austin’s special emphasis on the topic. Although the subtitle of Chironomia describes the book as “a treatise on rhetorical delivery,” that subtitle also features “an investigation of the elements of gesture, and a new method for the notation thereof; illustrated by many figures.” Newman and Streit closely read both Austin’s words and his illustrations to explicate his rhetorical theory. They reprint over two dozen illustrations—most from Austin’s Chironomia and his scientific papers but also some from scientific papers by others on comparable topics and from works on medicine, music, and more—that help explain how Austin both drew on and departed from conventions of designing and discussing illustrations to depict movement and its sources.The book comprises six chapters. The first two chapters cover contextual material, including Austin’s intellectual context (e.g., elocution as a science and Austin’s scientific publications). The next two cover Chironomia, proceeding through the book sequentially. Chapter 3 covers the first part of Chironomia, where Austin lays out a theoretical framework. The authors find that Austin draws on conventions of science and medicine to connect prose exposition with illustrations. Along the way, they document how he departs from other writers on elocution such as John Bulwer and especially Thomas Sheridan. Chapter 4 covers the second, “applied” part of Chironomia. The authors show that Austin draws on conventions used to represent movement on the printed page in books on other arts such as dancing and that he teaches readers both how to read his newly developed notation system and illustrations and how to perform the movements. The final two chapters cover what could be described as implications. Chapter 5 discusses social implications, or how the book was designed to help readers act in ways that display social status. Chapter 6 discusses implications for contemporary research on topics such as movement and embodiment.The authors’ methods are rhetorical through and through. They address such recurring questions and issues in historical rhetorical theorizing and even in the rhetoric of document design as, How can movement and gesture be represented on the printed page? What affordances and constraints are inherent to technologies designed to represent movement and gestures? What is the nature and status of actio? What rhetorical practices constitute rhetoric? Who may participate in them, why, and how? To address these questions, Newman and Streit “revisit” much more than Austin’s Chironomia. They read rhetorical texts squarely in the European tradition, including of course Austin’s Chironomia as well as other rhetorics that cover the topic of delivery such as Aristotle’s Rhetoric, John Walker’s Elements of Elocution (1781), and Jonathan Barber’s A Grammar of Elocution (1830). In addition, they read some of Austin’s other work, specifically, his four published scientific papers, which discuss barometers, cutting screws, apparatus for transferring gases from one jar to another, and an air pump. All include illustrations. Further, Newman and Streit read scientific works by Austin’s near contemporaries on air pumps and also discuss works on medicine and magic as well as music and dance that use notational systems to record and represent movement in print. In short, they select texts relevant to explaining and appreciating Austin’s approach to the art of rhetoric and especially the rhetoric of scientific writing and illustrating that help illuminate Austin’s intellectual context. Newman and Streit’s reading methods are also rhetorical. They read texts by considering genres, audiences, purposes, strategies, and the like.Gilbert Austin’sChironomiaRevisited can teach and delight both novices and experts in historical rhetorical theories. I mention just some of the illuminating material that extends beyond an introductory level. For example, the authors include an obligatory section on actio in European rhetorical traditions, summarizing sources from the classical, medieval, and Renaissance and other major periods. But the discussion of historical sources also includes material for understanding sympathy, a familiar concept for eighteenth- and nineteenth-century rhetoricians and readers of scholarship on these figures. Newman and Streit show the role of sympathy in discussions of science, magic, and medicine as investigators asked questions about invisible and hidden sources of power in nature, such as attraction and repulsion in physics and chemistry and external manifestations of inner bodily qualities and actions. For example, in medicine, healing properties of treatments were explained in sympathetic terms.In addition, Newman and Streit’s discussion of Austin’s four published scientific papers focuses on disciplinary conventions regarding scientific illustrations and verbal description and illuminates how in Austin’s time the explanatory weight lay with verbal description. Print technology contributes to the emphasis on verbal description as illustrations are not integrated into the prose but appear randomly at the beginning or end of the papers. In Chironomia, in contrast, Austin uses rhetorical conventions in ways that give his gestural illustrations more explanatory power than his scientific illustrations.Further, unlike those among his contemporaries who focus on oral reading and words, Austin focuses his elocutionary program on oral reading and bodily movement. Gestures are not mere ornament for him. In his system, invisible emotions move muscles that, in turn, produce visible gestures. He uses, as Newman and Streit note, medical terms to describe failings in gesture: for example, “imperfect, abnormal, deficient, contorted” (89). When it came to showing movement on the printed page, he could draw on systems of musical and dance notation “to locate elocutionary gestures in time and space . . . and to instruct his students on how to read and apply his novel system” (109). Some of the illustration techniques used to show movement on the printed page included lines to indicate how to move an arm or a flip-book technique that incrementally illustrates movement as would a filmstrip.Gilbert Austin’sChironomiaRevisited ought to move researchers to a further investigation of eighteenth- and nineteenth-century rhetorical theories and practices. It may move researchers to read or reread Austin’s Chironomia in order further to explore Austin’s positions on specific issues regarding the status and performance of rhetorical practices in which Austin himself participated as well as practices in which he trained others to participate. For example, in addition to providing plates showing gestures, Austin refers to images of preachers to illustrate postures and gestures both more and less appropriate for a preacher, including a plate in Laurence Sterne’s Tristram Shandy (1759–67) and Raphael’s Paul Preaching at Athens (1515). Of course, he laments the shortcomings of illustrations or prints to capture movement and gesture. He also critiques the furnishings and the arrangement of the pulpit, both being in part to blame for why religious eloquence is not prominent in Great Britain or Ireland (Austin 1806/1966, 232–35). He notes the benches and desks in a courtroom that crowd the public speakers (Austin 1806/1966, 223). This is all to suggest just a couple of areas where researchers could build on Newman and Streit’s work, perhaps contributing to contemporary scholarship on the rhetoric of place and space.In addition, Gilbert Austin’sChironomiaRevisited may inspire further historical investigation into the social and gender implications of Austin’s theorizing. The authors tell a familiar story about Austin writing for young “gentlemen” with social aspirations in a culture of politeness. In discussing the “gender ethos” that he teaches, Newman and Streit note: “Austin translates women’s prevailing social immobility into figural form; he depicts women in static poses without any of the notation that endows figures with movement” (152). Further exploration of Austin’s professional life could potentially build on these insights. For example, by teaching, preaching, and publishing, Austin himself accrued social capital. He served as a clergyman in the Church of Ireland and published individual sermons and a collection of sermons. As was conventional, he dedicated some of his religious writings to people in high political and religious office. Early on, he served as the chaplain of Magdalen Asylum, and one of his published sermons was designed to raise funds to support the institution founded by Lady Arbella Denny. These details point to the exclusive nature of Austin’s project, especially in terms of class and gender. Although he almost certainly interacted with at least some of the women running the Magdalyn Asylum, it would be noteworthy if any view of gender ethos besides “social immobility”—especially in a social reform context—made it into his rhetorical theorizing.As Newman and Streit note, Austin’s system is highly regulatory. Austin describes his goal as being to “contribute [his] share of labour towards the completion of the rules for the better study and acquisition of rhetorical delivery” (Austin 1806/1966, x). As such, consistent with other rhetorics in widespread use at the time, and in contrast with rhetorics that feature the invention of arguments to manage disagreement, Chironomia is compatible with authoritarianism. Historians of rhetoric may be moved by Newman and Streit’s research to consider potential political and nationalistic motives for attending to gesture at all and with a regulatory orientation. For example, Austin lived in a time of conflict. He regrets “the late civil convulsions in our unfortunate country” that temporarily stopped meetings of the Historical Society of the University of Dublin. He notes that the Historical Society was “opened again under stricter regulations in the year 1795” and that “it is at this day flourishing in all the acquirements of classic knowledge, classic eloquence, morality, loyalty, and religion; a nursery of oratory, learning, and taste; and an honour to the parent University” (Austin 1806/1966, 213). He concludes the book with scored passages from some of Great Britain’s greatest literary hits at the time: Thomas Gray’s “Elegy Written in a Country Church Yard” (1751), William Shakespeare’s Julius Caesar (1623), and Edward Young’s “Night Thoughts” (1742). Certainly, Austin aimed to make a name for himself and Great Britain in the art of public speaking and more.In short, Gilbert Austin’s Chironomia Revisited is an intellectual delight not only on its own but also for the further research it ought to inspire

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