Recitations

Here are entered collections of material written or selected for oral presentation.

See also what's at your library, or elsewhere.

• Speeches, addresses, etc.

• Dialogues

• Declamation
• Speakers (Recitation books)

• The American First Class Book: or, Exercises in Reading and Recitation (Boston : Charles Bowen, 1836, c1835), ed. by John Pierpont (page images at Pitt)
• The American Union Speaker, by John Dudley Philbrick (Gutenberg text)
• Burglar Bill, and Other Pieces for the Use of the Young Reciter (London: Bradbury, Agnew and Co., ca. 1888), by F. Anstey (multiple formats at archive.org)
• The Columbian Orator: Containing a Variety of Original and Selected Pieces, Together With Rules, Calculated to Improve Youth and Others in the Ornamental and Useful Art of Eloquence (Boston: J. H. A. Frost et al, 1832), by Caleb Bingham (page images at Pitt)
• Natural-History Plays, Dialogues and Recitations for School Exhibitions (Boston: Lee and Shepard; New York: C. T. Dillingham, 1885), by Louisa Parsons Stone Hopkins (page images at HathiTrust)
• Platform Pearls for Temperance Workers and Other Reformers: A Collection of Recitations and Other Selections for Entertainments and Public Meetings, Especially Adapted for Christian Endeavor Societies, Prohibition Clubs, Loyal Temperance Legions, Women's Christian Temperance Unions, Etc., Etc., Etc. (New York ;Toronto : Funk & Wagnall's, 1896), by Lilian M. Heath (multiple formats at archive.org)

• Dialogues in French and English (Adapted From a Fourteenth-Century Book of Dialogues in French and Flemish) (London: Published for the Early English Text Society, by K. Paul, Trench, Trübner and co., 1900), by William Caxton, ed. by Henry Bradley
  • Gutenberg text
  • multiple formats at archive.org
  • page images at HathiTrust; US access only
• Vices and Virtues, ed. by Ferdinand Holthausen (HTML at Michigan)

• Dialogues in French and English (Adapted From a Fourteenth-Century Book of Dialogues in French and Flemish) (London: Published for the Early English Text Society, by K. Paul, Trench, Trübner and co., 1900), by William Caxton, ed. by Henry Bradley
  • Gutenberg text
  • multiple formats at archive.org
  • page images at HathiTrust; US access only

• Lucian's Dialogues Prepared for Schools, With Short Notes in Greek (in Greek, with English introduction; Oxford: At the Clarendon Press, 1909), by Lucian of Samosata, ed. by W. H. D. Rouse (page images at HathiTrust; US access only)

• Lucian and the Latins: Humor and Humanism in the Early Renaissance (Ann Arbor: University of Michigan Press, c1998), by David Marsh (page images at HathiTrust)

• Hiero, by Xenophon, trans. by Henry Graham Dakyns (Gutenberg text)

• The Select Dialogues of Lucian; To Which is Added, A New Literal Translation in Latin, With Notes in English (in Greek, Latin, and English; New York: G. Long, 1818), by Lucian of Samosata, ed. by Edward Murphy
  • multiple formats at Google
  • multiple formats at archive.org

• Lucian and the Latins: Humor and Humanism in the Early Renaissance (Ann Arbor: University of Michigan Press, c1998), by David Marsh (page images at HathiTrust)

• 1601 (with commentary), by Mark Twain (HTML at archive.org)
• 1601, by Mark Twain (Gutenberg text)
• All the Familiar Colloquies of Desiderius Erasmus of Roterdam, Concerning Men, Manners, and Things (second edition; London: Printed for J.J. and P. Knapton, et al., 1733), by Desiderius Erasmus, trans. by N. Bailey (multiple formats at archive.org)
• Imaginary Conversations (5 volumes; Boston: Roberts Bros., 1881-1883), by Walter Savage Landor, contrib. by John Forster
  • first series (Classical dialogues): page images at Google; US access only
  • second series (Sovereigns and statesmen): page images at Google; US access only
  • third series (Literary men): page images at Google; US access only
  • fourth series (More literary men, famous women, miscellaneous): page images at Google; US access only
  • fifth series (More miscellaneous): page images at Google; US access only
• Imaginary Conversations (with notes; 6 volumes; London: J. M. Dent and Co., 1909), by Walter Savage Landor, ed. by Charles G. Crump, contrib. by John Forster
  • Volume 1: multiple formats at archive.org
  • Volume 2: multiple formats at archive.org
  • Volume 3: multiple formats at archive.org
  • Volume 4: multiple formats at archive.org
  • Volume 5: multiple formats at archive.org
  • Volume 6: multiple formats at archive.org
• Imaginary Conversations and Poems: A Selection, by Walter Savage Landor (Gutenberg text and page images)

Items below (if any) are from related and broader terms.

• The Columbian Orator: Containing a Variety of Original and Selected Pieces, Together With Rules, Calculated to Improve Youth and Others in the Ornamental and Useful Art of Eloquence (Boston: J. H. A. Frost et al, 1832), by Caleb Bingham (page images at Pitt)
• Select Speeches of Daniel Webster, 1817-1845 (Boston: D. C. Heath and Co., 1903), by Daniel Webster, ed. by Andrew Jackson George (Gutenberg text)
• The World's Famous Orations (New York: Funk and Wagnalls, 1906), ed. by William Jennings Bryan and Francis W. Halsey (searchable HTML at Bartleby)

• A Charge, Delivered May 17, 1757, at the First Anniversary Commencement in the College and Academy of Philadelphia, to the Young Gentlemen Who Took Their Degrees on That Occasion (Philadelphia: Printed by B. Franklin and D. Hall, 1757), by William Smith (frame-dependent page images here at Penn)

• Funeral Services at the Burial of the Right Rev. Leonidas Polk, D. D. Together with the Sermon, by Stephen Elliott (HTML and TEI at UNC)

• True Eminence Founded on Holiness: A Discourse Occasioned by the Death of Lieut. Gen. T.J. Jackson (1863), by James Beverlin Ramsey (HTML and TEI at UNC)

• The Lawyer's Oath, by D. Bethune Duffield (page images at MOA)

• An Address Delivered in Marlboro Chapel, Boston, July 4, 1838, by William Lloyd Garrison (multiple formats at eserver.org)
• The American Idea, and What Grows Out of It, by E. H. Chapin (page images at MOA)
• Celebration by the Inhabitants of Worcester, Mass., of the Centennial Anniversary of the Declaration of Independence, by Worcester (Mass.) (page images at MOA)
• Mr. Webster's Address at the Laying of the Corner Stone of the Addition to the Capitol, by Daniel Webster (page images at MOA)
• New England's Gift to the Nation: The Township, by Arnold Green (page images at MOA)
• The Olive Branch: or, The Evil and the Remedy, by Charles Miner (page images at MOA)
• Oration Delivered Before the City Government and Citizens of Boston, by James Freeman Clarke (page images at MOA)
• Oration Delivered Before the City Government and Citizens of Boston, by Richard Frothingham (page images at MOA)
• Oration on the Centennial Anniversary of the Declaration of independence, by Robert C. Winthrop (page images at MOA)
• Our Triumph and Our New Duties, by Cortlandt Parker (page images at MOA)
• The Voice of Duty (1843), by Adin Ballou, ed. by Joe Lockard (multiple formats at eserver.org)

• The Art of Extempore Speaking: Hints for the Pulpit, the Senate, and the Bar (with additions by "a member of the New York bar"; 6th edition; New York: C. Scribner and Co., 1869), by L. Bautain (multiple formats at Google)
• How to Attract and Hold an Audience: A Practical Treatise on the Nature, Preparation, and Delivery of Public Discourse (New York: Hinds, Hayden and Eldredge, c1902), by J. Berg Esenwein (page images at HathiTrust)
• Phrases for Public Speakers and Paragraphs for Study (1910), ed. by Grenville Kleiser (Gutenberg text)
• Public Speaking: Principles and Practice, by Irvah Lester Winter (Gutenberg text)

• Kings of the Platform and Pulpit (Chicago et al.: The Werner Co., 1896), by Melville D. Landon (page images at HathiTrust)
• Mark Twain's Speeches (1910), by Mark Twain (Gutenberg text)
• The Public Papers and Addresses of Franklin D. Roosevelt (13 volumes, published 1938-1950), by Franklin D. Roosevelt, ed. by Samuel I. Rosenman (page images at Michigan)

• A Basic Call to Consciousness: The Hau De No Sau Nee Address to the Western World, by Six Nations (HTML at ratical.org)

• A Charge, Delivered May 17, 1757, at the First Anniversary Commencement in the College and Academy of Philadelphia, to the Young Gentlemen Who Took Their Degrees on That Occasion (Philadelphia: Printed by B. Franklin and D. Hall, 1757), by William Smith (frame-dependent page images here at Penn)

• Toasts and Forms of Public Address for Those Who Wish to Say the Right Thing in the Right Way, by William Pittenger (Gutenberg text)

• The Complete Best Man, by John Bowden (HTML with commentary at HowTo)
• How to Make a Great Wedding Speech, by Philip Calvert (HTML with commentary at HowTo)
• Making a Wedding Speech, by John Bowden (HTML with commentary at HowTo)
• Making the Bridegroom's Speech, by John Bowden (HTML with commentary at HowTo)
• Making the Father of the Bride's Speech, by John Bowden (HTML with commentary at HowTo)
• Wedding Speeches for Women, by Suzan St. Maur (HTML with commentary at HowTo)

More items available under broader and related terms at left.