produce its effect even without movement or action in just the 
same way as Epic poetry; for from the mere reading of a play 
its quality may be seen.” Sidelights on the above aspect of 
reading as recitation are available from the Roman practice of 
public recitation as a principal form of book publication. Such it 
remained until printing. Kenyon (Books and Readers , pp. 83­4) 
reports on the Roman practice:

     Tacitus describes how an author would be compelled to 
     hire a house and chairs, and collect an audience by 
     personal entreaty; and Juvenal complains that a rich man 
     would lend his disused house, and send his freedmen and 
     poor clients to form an audience, but would not bear the 
     cost of the chairs. The whole practice finds its analogy in 
     the modern musical world, where a singer is compelled to 
     hire a hall and do his best to collect an audience, in order