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Literary notes about oratory (AI summary)

In literature the word "oratory" unfolds a range of meanings. It frequently denotes the art and style of public speech, applauded for its persuasive force and mastery of rhetoric, as when a speaker’s carefully crafted expressions leave an audience "absolutely intoxicated" by his performance [1], or when technical treatises explore its subtleties [2]. At the same time, the term also identifies a modest space for prayer or reflection, evoking images of intimate chapels and sanctuaries where the sacred intertwines with the spoken word [3][4]. In some contexts authors even employ the word with irony or to signal a divergence from genuine eloquence—from dismissive comparisons of empty rhetoric [5] to puns that shift its meaning entirely [6]—thereby underscoring its rich and versatile presence in literary expression.
  1. For a few seconds the speaker paused, and the public, absolutely intoxicated by his splendid oratory, applauded frantically.
    — from The International Jew : The World's Foremost Problem by Anonymous
  2. Books VIII-XI treat of the manner (style) of oratory.
    — from Helps to Latin Translation at Sight by Edmund Luce
  3. a place where prayer is offered, an oratory, perhaps, Ac. 16.13, 16. S. Προσεύχομαι, f. εύξομαι, imperf.
    — from A Greek-English Lexicon to the New Testament by William Greenfield
  4. Nor did I pause till I had taken sanctuary in the oratory, now empty.
    — from Villette by Charlotte Brontë
  5. 19 Not that I would altogether reject extempore oratory, or its use in critical cases, but it should be used only as one would take medicine.
    — from Plutarch's Morals by Plutarch
  6. "Oratory," properly a private chapel or closet for prayer; here a canting term for brothel: cf. abbess = bawd; nun = whore, and so forth.
    — from The Choise of Valentines; Or the Merie Ballad of Nash His Dildo by Thomas Nash

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