Lizzie Borden Society Forum

Here's an interesting question. I'm still working on that audio CD project and I'm searching for an actor to play Prosecutor Knowlton.

We've already discussed what kind of accent Lizzie may have had. What about Knowlton? Anyone have any guesses to what a man of his degree and stature and learning would have sounded like?

Doug may know- he's a Tufts man!

Seems like I have some info on that somewhere.

One thing I notice when he is at trial, sometimes it seems like he's using very poor grammar when that is the way that he said things. (Same as others in that era.) I think it would be great to use one or two of those types of sentences he spoke during any hearing/trial for some original (on your part) authenticity. I don't think anyone's done that before.

Actually that could go for all the characters. When I read the inquest, I thought, 'Gee, Lizzie sounds pretty uneducated,' when I'd go on to read what sounded like a major grammar error on someone else's part.

Study the dialogue in the original steno notes.

Are original steno notes available?
I know the inquest only exists because it was published in a newspaper.

Lizzie's inquest testimony exists from The Evening Standard. Yes.
The Preliminary Hearing exists from the Hip-bath Collection from Lawyer Jennings.
The trial comes from the Boston Public Library and the form we provide as a download at the website is Harry's transcription of that. These last two are from the original Steno record.

http://lizzieandrewborden.com/Resources ... uments.htm

Kat @ Mon Aug 28, 2006 1:34 am wrote:Lizzie's inquest testimony exists from The Evening Standard. Yes.
The Preliminary Hearing exists from the Hip-bath Collection from Lawyer Jennings.
The trial comes from the Boston Public Library and the form we provide as a download at the website is Harry's transcription of that. These last two are from the original Steno record.

http://lizzieandrewborden.com/Resources ... uments.htm

And Volume II of the Inquest on the website, which includes all the witnesses except Bridget and Lizzie, is from the original Steno record as well. It shows all the grammatical and typographical errors and also has the stenographer's handwritten edits included in brackets.

After living in New England and listening to New Englanders talk for more than fifty years I can say with certainty that there is no single New England accent or way of speaking. A person who grew up in Boston will sound somewhat different than someone who grew up in Providence or in Maine and quite a bit different from someone from Connecticut, Western Massachusetts, or Vermont. And word usage differs from place to place as well. Actors on television and in the movies, unless they are very good at voices, usually struggle with New England accents and have trouble getting them right (an example of this is an actor attempting to portray a Boston accent who sounds like a poor excuse for an Irish man or woman). I believe Hosea Knowlton was born and spent at least part of his childhood in Maine and if he learned to talk in Maine chances are he sounded somewhat different than people who learned to talk in Fall River and New Bedford. Knowlton did graduate from Tufts (a few miles northwest of downtown Boston) but I imagine his speech patterns were pretty well formed before he arrived there.

This will probably be more confusing than helpful. It appeared in the Fall River Herald of Aug. 13, 1892 and concerns the argument whether Judge Blaisdell should act as judge at the Preliminary hearing after serving the same function at the Inquest. Knowlton responds to Jennings' objection:

"The Commonwealth demurs to the plea," said Mr. Knowlton in his cool, metallic voice, "and asks that it be overruled. There is nothing extraordinary in these proceedings. ..."

What a "metallic voice" sounds like I have no idea. Other articles describe his voice as "clear and forceful" and "eloquent and forceful" but no mention of an accent.

Probably if he had more than a "normal" New England accent the newspapers from outside New England would have mentioned it. Certainly Joe Howard, the columnist, who commented on everything from the size of the buttons on the bailiff's coat to the mooing of the cow behind the courthouse would have written of it.

This is a cool topic you guys- thanks!

A "metallic" voice? Now that's an interesting adjective; I've got an idea what that might have sounded like, but it's difficult to describe in print!