The title for this chapter is inspired by an observation made by Park Honan in 1960 concerning the nature of English punctuation practices (pointing theory) in the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries. I find the remark particularly apropos, in light of our discussion thus far, because it embraces not only the very vibrant nature of the subject, but also the sense of amazement we tend to have today that punctuation could be anything other than a rather tedious if necessary element of language, most effective when barely noticeable.

The concept of punctuation as a significant, fascinating, and vital element of spoken and written discourse is one we must recapture if we are to enter into the true spirit of the musical punctuation analogy. In order to do so, however, we must work forward by stages, establishing first (in as summary a fashion as possible), how the diverse social, political, and intellectual developments of the eighteenth century influenced attitudes towards discourse; second, how these attitudes in turn made demands upon and impacted punctuation practices; and third (which we will undertake in chapter 3), how these punctuation practices were then incorporated into musical theory. The route is confusing and circuitous, and, like all histories, the history of punctuation follows no single straightforward path leading to a set of universal principles, but instead chases after a jumble of diverse prospects, revealing in the end a very multifaceted subject. In addition, the sources for our research are to be found not only among the traditional formal studies of grammar, rhetoric, and logic (the classical trivium), but also among the numerous textbooks, handbooks, and other less-scholarly forms of discourse regarding social behavior and etiquette, polite conversation, and fictional writing. All of these contribute to a very complex and constantly shifting rhetorical theory, or what we will broadly call the Art of Communication.

Eighteenth-century philosophies and attitudes towards “the art of communication” reveal an abiding connection to the precepts of classical rhetoric. Countless editions of the rhetorical works of Cicero, edited and abridged versions of Quintilian's De institutione oratoria, and numerous copies and translations of Longinus's On the Sublime were widely available, influencing both the teaching and practice of rhetoric.