S^^Ml 7 ^ :k ^~ ■m i3 ?-^\ "ELOCUTIONARY MANUAL:' THE PRINCIPLES ELOCUTION, EXERCISES AND NOTATIONS FOR PRONUNCIATION, INTONATION, EMPHASIS, GESTURE AND EMOTIONAL EXPRESSION. BY ALEXANDER MELVILLE BELL, ri Author of "Visible Speech," "Principles of Speech and Dictionary of Sounds," " Emphasized Liturgy," " Standard Elocutionist," "Essays and Postscripts on Elocution," "Lectures on Phonetics," "English Line- Writing," &c, &c, &c. FIFTH EDITION. revised and enlarged. \ Washington, D. C: New York: JOHN C. PARKER. ^EDGAR S. WERNER. Boston : JAMES P. BURBANK. ? N Copyright, 1887, by Alexander Melville Bell. ixchange rsity JUL 1 2 1933 GIBSON BROS. PRINTERS AND BOOKBINDER8 WASHINGTON, D. C. PREFACE In this fifth edition of the " Principles of Elocu- tion" all the directions and exercises have been again revised, and to a great extent re- written. Much new matter has also been added, including the entire series of "Reading Exercises marked for Emphasis, Clause, and Pitch" (pp. 145 to 156). The work is now as perfect as the Author's best efforts can make it. In this form, therefore, it has been for the first time electrotyped in preparation for continued and ex- tended use. 1525 Thirty-Fifth Street, Washington, D. C., % September, 1887. Extracts from Former Prefaces. First Edition. In the preparation of this Work the Author has endeavoured to write not merely for the use of pupils, to whom a defective description in the book may be orally supplemented in the class-room, but for those to whom such additional instruc- tion is not and cannot be available. How far he has succeeded in this remains to be proved. He has studied to preserve the utmost simplicity of arrangement, and to avoid overloading principles by unnecessary rules. He has not followed in the steps of any preceding writer, either as to his Theory or his plan of developing it; but he has observed Nature for himself, and recorded his observations after his own fashion. The Science of Elocution seemed to him to want an A B C, and he has endeav- oured to supply the deficiency. Edinburgh, November, 1849. Second Edition. Two years ago the Author published his " New Elucidation of the Principles of Speech and Elocution," — a work which has been so favourably received among Critics, and so rapidly dis- posed of, that he has been induced to prepare an Elocutionary Manual adapted for use in classes, as well as for private students. This Volume may be considered as a Second Edition (but en- tirely re-written) of the Elocutionary Sections of the larger work. The Fundamental Theories, and the Details of Articulation and Defective Speech are condensed ; the Principles of Orthoepy, Vocalization, and the Art of Reading, more copiously illustrated ; and a full Practical Treatment of the subject of Gesture has been added ; besides an extensive Collection of Poetical and Dramatic Quotations marked for Exercise in Expressive Reading. All the Extracts are alphabetically collected in one general Index in the Table of Contents, so as to form a Dictionary of Emotive Quotations : and the Table of Contents, generally, is arranged as a minute Reference-Index to the subjects treated of in the Volume. The Author has to acknowledge his obligations to his father, Alex. Bell, Esq., Professor of Elocution, London; and to his brother, D. C. Bell, Esq., Professor of Elocution, Dublin, for their critical perusal of this Work in its progress through the Press. Edinburgh, 1852. EXTRACTS FROM FORMER PREFACES. V Third Edition. In the present Edition the whole of the Notations have been revised, and many new paragraphs have been added in each Division of the Work. The Introductory Essay and the Section on Emphasis are entirely new, and a large number of additional Exercises and Illustrations have been given under the various Heads of Inflexion, Expressive Exercises, Gesture. The Work will now, it is hoped, be found still more worthy of the flattering encomiums it has received from the Press and the Professional Public. Edinburgh, 1859. Fourth Edition. The Third Edition of the " Elocutionary Manual" having been for some time out of print, and the work being still in steady demand, the Author has been induced to prepare a New Edition, with the improvements suggested by his long experience. Such a duty he cannot hope to be again called on to undertake ; and, as his "Principles of Elocution" — first published in 1849 — have had a manifest influence on subsequent elocutionary litera- ture, he desires to extend and perpetuate that influence by a final revision of the Theories and Exercises, which were the fruit of original study and observation thirty years ago. Tutelo Heights, Brantford, Ontario, Canada, July, 1878. CONTENTS. Introductory Essay Directions for Using this Work Par. Page. PART FIRST.— PRONUNCIATION I. General Principles .... Definition of Speech The Instrument of Speech Elocution II. Principles of Respiration The relation of breath to speech . The acts of inspiration and expiration Confidence dependent on respiration Respiratory Exercises. Prolonged vocalization . Frequent inhalation . .Salutary nature of these exercises . To strengthen weak respiration Proper time for exercise Principles of Vocalization Mechanical formation of voice Variations of pitch Vocal energy .... Huskiness ..... Oral modifications of quality Principles of Vowel Formation Illustrative experiment . Organs of vowel modification . Labio-lingual vowels — foreign Varieties of lingual vowels English vowel scheme and numerical notation .... The terms " long " and " short " . Vo%vel Exercises. Illustrations of the various modes of orthography of the English vowels V. Anglicisms of Vowel Sound Characteristic formation of A and O Peculiarities associated with R . VI. Scotticisms of Vowel Sound Numerical notation of examples VII. HlBERNICISMS OF VOWEL SoUXD Numerical notation of examples III. IV. i 2-6 7-8 9-10 11-19 20 21-22 23 24 25 26 27-28 29 30 3i 32-33 34-35 36-37 38 39 40-43 44-45 47-68 69 70-76 77-97 98-109 17 18 25 32 34 37 VIII CONTENTS. VIII. Americanisms of Vowel Sound Numerical notation of examples Nasal quality ..... IX. Distinction Between Vowels a Articulations Sounds of Y and W X. Exercises in Vowel Notation . Phonetic directions Poem for marking — '• Thought and Deed" Words for marking Key to the exercises for marking XI. The Aspirate H English irregularities Northern peculiarity . Oratorical " Silent H XII. Articulations (Consonants) Breath and voice varieties Obstructive and continuous do. . Three modes of articulation . First mode — Complete contact . Nasal elements .... Second mode— Partial contact . Third mode — Approximation Trills General scheme of articulations . English articulations . Phonetic table of articulations XIII. Principle of Distinctness XIV. Defects of Articulation Relative positions of the oral organs Labial expressiveness XV. Anglicisms of Articulation . Sounds, of R, Y, W,~K, G . XVI. Scotticisms of Articulation Sounds of R, L, Ng, T, Th, H, Wh XVII. HlBERNICISMS OF ARTICULATION Sounds of P, T, K, L, S . XVIII. Americanisms of Articulation . Sounds of R XIX. Syllabic Quantity .... Degrees of quantity in elements The liquids— L, M, N, Ng . . Degrees of quantity in combinations XX. Difficult Combinations Sounds of pt, kt Exercises on difficult words Exercises on difficult phrases and sen tences Par. HO-118 119 120-123 124-125 126 127 128-129 131 132 133 134 137 138 139 140 141-142 143 144 145 148 15* 153 161-163 164 165-168 169-176 177-180 181-182 183 184 186-188 190 191 192-193 Page. 38 CONTENTS. IX XXI. Accent or Syllabic Stress . Secondary accents .... Table of verbal accents . Principles of accentuation False accents in poetry . Sentential accents .... Transposition of accent for emphasis Par. 195 197-198 199-201 202 203 204-205 Page. 60 PART SECOND.— INTONATION AND CLAUSING. I. General Principles .... Essential characteristics of speaking tones 1-2 Tones constitute a natural language . 3 Reading and speaking tones . . 4 II. Mechanism of the Inflexions . Simple and compound inflexions . 5 Diagram of simple inflexions . . 6 Pitch and extent of the inflexions 7-12 Analysis of compound inflexions . 13-14 Diagram of compound inflexions 15 III. Notation of the Inflexions Four degrees represented . . 17 Plaintive tones ..... 18 JV. Preparatory Pitch .... A principle of opposition . . . 19-20 V. Expressiveness of the Inflexions Logical expressiveness . . . 21-22 Sentimental expressiveness . . 23-24 Gamut of l7ijlexions. VI. Exercises on the Inflexions . Words with initial accents . . 27 Words with pre-accentual syllables . 28-29 Sentences with tones marked . 30 VII. Resume of Principles of Mechanism, Melody and Meaning of the In- flexions VIII. Principles of Verbal Grouping . Stages of Verbal Grouping. Articles 33 Prepositions .... 34 Pronouns with verbs ... 35 Pronouns with nouns . . 36 Auxiliary verbs .... 37 6. Adverbs with adjectives or adverbs 38 7. Adjectives with nouns ... 39 Conjunctions .... 40 The verb "to be" 41 Adverbs with verbs ... 42 Objects or complements of verbs 43 44 8. 9- 10. 11. 66 68 69 69 7i 72 73 74 12. Complemental clauses X CONTENTS. Par. Page. IX. Punctuation and Pausing . . 81 Clausing not regulated by commas, etc. 45 The marks of punctuation ... 46 Where pauses are required . . 47 - 48 Example: — "Thunder-storm among the Alps " 49 X. Emphatical Disjunctions of Words XL Staccato Pronunciation Importance of clausular reading . 53 XII. Passages for Exercise in Clausing . {For a List of the Passages, see " Central Index of Extracts."} XIII. Application of Principles of Inflex- ion to Sentences Two fundamental principles . . 54 1. Rising progression connects . $$ 2. Falling progression disconnects 56 Three forms of sentences ... 57 1. Assertive sentences . . 58 2. Interrogative sentences . . 59 3. Imperative sentences . . 60 XIV. Analysis of Sentences Subjects, predicates and circumstances 61-68 Complemental and independent clauses 69 Subjects and predicates must be dis- tinctly prominent .... 70 Absolute and conditional predicates 72 Example of sentential analysis . 98 XV. Varieties of Interrogative Sen- tences Inflexion not governed by construc- tion 73 Questions referring to the facts in a sentence ...... 74 Questions not referring to the facts in a sentence ..... 75~76 Questions repeated or echoed . 77 Elliptical questions .... 79 Questions connected by "or" . 80 Interrogative sentences ending with similes, etc. ..... 81 XVI. Governing and Dependent Words Examples 83 XVII. Series . XVIII. Resume of Leading Principles of Sentential Intonation Exercise on Sentential Inflexions . 104 CONTENTS. XI PART THIRD— MODULATION AND EXPRESSIVE DELIVERY. Par. Page. Modulation — what it includes Pitch— where changes are necessary 2-3 Notation of Pitch .... 5 Force — its notation ... 6 Time — its notation .... 7 Where changes of Force and Time are necessary ..... 8 Effectiveness of variations . . 9' Expressive Quality — what it includes Necessity of sentiment in reading 11 Elements of Expressive Quality and their notation Recapitulative Table of Notations for Inflexion, Pitch, Force, Time, and Expression . Marked Exercises in Expressive Reading l&or a List of the Passages, see "General Index of Extracts.") PART FOURTH.— EMPHASIS. I. General Princples .... Kindred nature of accented emphasis 1-2 The new idea emphatic ... 3 Accentual effect of priority of words 4 Relative value of the " parts of speech " 5-7 Principal and accessory parts of* sen- tences ...... 8 Separate delivery of clauses . . 9 Antithesis involved in emphasis . 10 Suggested antithesis the most em- phatic ...... 11 IL Example of Emphatic Analysis — '•'•Lines on the Burial of Sir John Moore" ...... III. Repetitions IV. Reading Exercises marked for Em- phasis, Clause, and Pitch . {For a List of the Passages, see " General Index of Extracts.") V. Resume of the Principles of Senten- tial Accent or Emphasis . VI. Passages for Exercise in the Selec- tion of Emphatic Words {For a list of the Passages, see " General Index of Extracts." ) Key to the emphatic words in the fore- going extracts Key to the emphatic words in " Thun- der-storm among the Alps " . 107 109 no 112 113 13s 137 144 145 156 156 163. 164 XII CONTENTS. Par. Page. PART FIFTH.— LOOKS AND GESTURES I. General Principles Gesticulation necessary to effective oratory Natural order of passionate expression II. Expressiveness of the Different Facial and Bodily Motions The features .... The eyebrows The eyes . The nostrils The lips . The mouth The head The arms The hands The fingers The body The lower limbs The feet III. Summary of the General Principles of Gesticulative Expression IV. Principles of Grace The eye ..... The head .... The arms ..... The hand .... The fingers The weight of the body . The square of the body The feet Turning ..... Kneeling . . . Bowing Standing before a rail Holding a book .... Sitting V. Relative Positions of the Hand and Arm in Motion Illustrative diagrams Exercises on the principle . VI. Application of Gesture . Inexpressive motions to be avoided Repose to be studied Frequency of gesture . Tautology of gesture Directive gestures — their pictorial ar- rangement Illustrative gestures Emotive gesticulation 17 18 19-21 22-24 25 26 27 28-29 30 3i 32 33 34 35 39-40 4i 42 43 44 45-48 49-5o 5i CONTENTS. XIII VIII. Bodily harmony in gesture Colloquial and oratorical gestures . VII. Examples of the Application of Gesture ...... Lochinvar ..... Hamlet's Meditation on Death . Death of Marmion Orator's First Speech in Parliament Rustic Logic ..... Notation of Gesture .... Diagram of positions of the feet . Notation of positions of the feet Notation of positions of the arms . Diagram of positions of the arms Graceful and passionate transitions IX. General Scheme of Notation for Attitude and Motjon . The feet, lower limbs, and trunk . The arms .;.... The hands ..... Parts of the body on which the hands may be placed ..... The head and face .... X. Order of Symbolic Arrangement Recapitulative table of symbolic letters XI. Illustrations of the Notation of Gesture Macbeth to the dagger-vision Marco Bozzaris .... PART SIXTH.— THE LANGUAGE OF PASSION. Comparative rarity of illustrations . Emphasized Exercises in the Lan- guage of Passion {For a List of the Passages, see " General Index of Extracts.") Par. Page. 52 53 180 180 182 183 183 184 185 186 58 62-64 65 66 67 68 69 73 187 [90 192 192 194 197 198 GENERAL INDEX OF EXTRACTS. Prose passages are distinguished by an asterisk (*). Page. Absorbing Love . . . 198 Actions 113 Admiration 198 Admonition to Consist- ency 198 A Dream 198 Adulation 145 Advice 199 Page. Affection 199 Affectionate Remembrance, 199- Age's Sorrow .... 145 Ambition .... 113, 20a Ambition Dissatisfied . 114 Ambition Repented . . 114 Ambitious Rivalry . . . 114 An Ancient Temple . . 84- XIV CONTENTS. Page. Ancestry 114 Anecdote *i56 Anger .... *8s, 115, 200 Angry Surprise . . . 200 Animal Enjoyment . . 84 An Orator's First Speech 183 Antiquarian Rapture .' . 145 Apparition 201 Apprehension .... 201 Assumed Bluntness . . 201 Authority 201 Avarice 115 Avaricious Age .... 202 Battle Alarm .... 146 Battle Array 1.46 Beauty ... 115, 146, 202 Bereavement 202^ Blindness .... 115, 157 Boastful Challenge . . 203 Burial of Sir John Moore, 137 Charity 115, 203 Cheerfulness . . . *8$, 203 Cheerful Piety .... *I57 Childhood *n6 Claims of Kindred . . 146 Close of a Guilty Career 204 Commentators .... 116 Confidence 204 Conflicting Passions, 117, 204 Consolation in Misfortune, *i57 Constancy .... 147, 205 Constancy in Virtue . 85 Contempt 116 Contemptuous Fortitude 147 Contemptuous Reproach 205 Contentment . . *85, *I57 Contradiction . . . Corruption . . . Courage Courageous Defeat Courteousness . . . Courtiers .... Cowardly Surrender Crafty Advice . . Crafty Malignity . . Critics Death Death of Marmion . Defiance . . . . Desert ..... 205 117 117 147 *i 5 8 147 147 206 206 *8 5 206 . 183 117, 148 . *n8 Desire and Dread of Death, 206 Page. Desire of Distinction . . 86 Desires Unlimited . . *86 Despair . . . 118, 148, 207 Desperate Conflict . . 148 Disappointed Envy . . 207 Discrimination .... 118 Disdainful Scorn . . . 208 Disgust 208 Disinterested Love . . 208 Dissembled Love . . . 208 Distinctions .... *no. Distraction 119 Distrust 209 Dominion 119 Employment .... 86 Emotions *ii9 Emulation in Gentility . *209 Encouragement. . . . 210 Energetic Effort ... 119 Envious Contempt . . 210 Envy 120 Equality of Men . . . ="158 Error 148 Error and Ignorance . . *i58 Eventful Epochs . . . *76 Evil Conscience . . . 120 Evil Speaking .... *I58 Exalted Misery .... 211 Exasperation .... 120 Exculpation 211 Exercise *8o Exhortation against Am- bition 212 Exhortation to Courage 213 Existence 120 Ex-Officio Endowments 121 Experience 121 Faith 121 Faithful Prayer .... 159 Fame 121, 148 213 213 121 *i 59 159 86 *i6o 122 122 86 160 Farewell to Greatness Fear of Death . . . Fidelity Figurative Language Flowers Forgiveness . . . Forgiving Disposition Fortitude .... Fortune Fortune's Frolics Fruitless Resolutions CONTENTS. XV Page. Grateful Recognition . 160 Gratitude 214 Greatness . . . * . 122 Greed of Praise . . . . 149 Grief ....... 214 Guilty Conscience . . . 214 Hamlet's Soliloquy on Death 182 Hasty Anger .... 86 Hatred 215 Hearts 122 Honesty True Nobility . 215 Honour . . . . . . *2i5 Hope Personified . . . 149 Human Enjoyments . 149 Human Knowledge . . 149 Human Life . . . *8 > j, 122 Human Progress . . . *78 Human Wretchedness . 123 Humility *87 Hunting 149 If *I23 Ignorant Criticism . . *2i6 Imitation *I23 Incredulous Horror . . 216 Indifference *2i7 Indignant Contrast . . 217 Indignation .... 150, 217 Industry 87 Ingratitude 123 Innocence 87 Insect Life +124 Interrogation .... *I24 Jealousy 217 Joy 218 Justification *2i8 King Lear 150 Kingly Power .... 125 Knowledge and Wisdom 160 Landing of an Army. . 150 Laughter 218 Law 150 Laziness 125 Leadership 151 Liberality +87 Liberty 87 Life 125 Light *88 Lights and Shades . . 125 Listening 219 Listening to Distant Music, 219 Page. Living Merit 88 Lochinvar 180 Love 88 Lovers 126 Lovers' Studies .... *i26 Lowliness of Mind . . 220 Ludicrous Distress . . *i26 Macbeth to the Dagger 192 Malicious Revenge . . *22o Man 126, 161 Marco Bozzaris .... 194 Martyrs 126 Maternal Love .... 220 Melancholy Reflections 221 Mercy 221 Method 127 Might of Mercy ... 88 Misdirected Efforts . . 151 Misery in Royalty . . . 222 Misfortune 151 Misfortunes *89 Moodiness 89 Mui-der 127 Music 222 Music and Language . . 151 Mutability of Love . . 223 Mutual Dependence . . *89 Natural Freedom . . . 223 Night 89 Occupation *89 On Literary Extracts . . *i6i Outcry 151 Parish Common . . . 127 Parting *i28 Patriotic Resolve . . . 152 Peasant Life .... 152 Perversity 224 Philosophy and Religion *90 Pity 224 Politeness *i6i Potency of Courage . . 90 Poverty 225 Power of Music. . . . 152 Prayer 128, 225 Prayer and Submission . 90 Progress in Guilt ... 90 Precedents 152 Prosperity *I29 Proud Independence . . 225 Raving . . . . . . *226 Reasoning 129 XVI CONTENTS. Page. Rebellion 226 Reflection *i2o. Regretful Pity .... *227 Rejecting Counsel . . . 227 Remembered Love . . 228 Remembrance .... 77 Remonstrance — with In- dignation 228 Remorse for committing Murder 228 Remorse forDrunkenness,*22o. Remorseful Horror . . 229 Reproach with want of Friendship 230 Reproach with want of Manliness 230 Reproach with Stupidity and Inconstancy . . . 230 Reproof of Servility . 231 Results 129 Retrospection .... 152 Revelation *8o Ridiculous Deference . 129 Rustic Logic 184 Sad Foreboding ... 231 Sadness of Night ... 90 Sarcastic Expostulation 232 Scorn 232 Second-hand Fame . . 153 Selfish Hatred .... 232 Self-Knowledge . . . *90 Self-Satisfaction . . . 161 Separation 153 Shipwreck 153 Shuffling Refusal . . 233 Sickness 233 Signs of Love . . . 130 Slavery ...... *i3o Sleep 153 Solitude 154 Sorrow causing Forget- fulness 233 Sounds of an Army . . 154 Sounds of Morning . . 154 Sources of Calamity . 90 Sources of Error . . . *9i Spasmodic Emotion . 130 Stability of Nature . . 78 Stairs to Marriage . . *i3o Standards of Character . 154 Stern Reproach . . . 234 Stillness 155 Page. Success 91 Sullenness 234 Sunset ...... 79 Suspicion 235 Sj r mpathy 130 Sympathy — with Admir- ation 235 Teachers +132 Tears 131 Temper *i62 Terror *236 Terrors of Death . . . 236 The Common Lot . . 91 The Falling Leaf . . . 132 The Fine Arts .... *76 The Firmament ... 77 The Gospel .... *9i The Grave 91 The Hunted Deer . . 155 The Passing Chase . . 155 The Secret of Content . *75 Thoughts *92 Thought and Deed . . 41 Threatened Revenge . . 237 Ties of Love .... 237 Time 131, 162 To the Butterfly ... 162 True Courage . . . . 132 True Greatness . . . *75 Truth . *92 Tyranny 92 Tyranny of Vice ... 92 Uncertainty of To-morrow 92 Untold Love 237 Upbraiding with Want of Duty 238 Valour 239 Variety of Endowments . ^92 Vegetation 162 Vengeance 239 Virtue 93 > 240 Virtuous Promptitude . 93 Voices of Night ... 93 War 74, *93 Warning 240 Well-doing 93 Wisdom *93 Wisdom of the Deity . . *i32 Wiseacres 155 Wit 133, 163 Woman 94, 133 Youth 156 THE PRINCIPLES OF ELOCUTION INTRODUCTORY ESSAY. Elocution does not occupy the place it reasonably ought to fill in the curriculum of education. The causes of this neglect will be found to consist mainly of these two : the subject is undervalued, because it is misunder- stood ; and it is misunderstood because it is unworthily represented in the great majority of books, which take its name on their title page ; and, also by the practice of too many of its teachers, who make an idle display in Recita- tion the chief, if not the only, end of their instruction. When we point to the fact, that public speaking is a part of the professional duty of every Clergyman and Advo- cate, and no unusual part of the social duty of a private citizen ; and that Public Speaking involves two distinct requirements, — a knowledge of what to say, and how to say it ; and when we farther advert to the fact, that in the whole course of school and college education, either for private citizens or public speakers, only one of these re- quirements is systematically provided for, the inadequacy of the provision to the requirements cannot but be mani- fest. We naturally ask, "why is this?" The reason, perhaps, may simply be, that so it is I We are all slaves of custom, and cannot, without much difficulty, be brought to alter existing arrangements, however unreasonable. We are too apt to lazily acquiesce in things as they are, however wrong, and passively accept the doctrine that " whatever is, is right." i 2 INTRODUCTORY ESSAY. But, besides this natural conservatism, this unreason, which is the principal cause of the maintenance of all error, there is another cause which is indeed a reason for the anomaly referred to, although the reason itself will be admitted to be unreasonable : a prejudice exists against the cultivation of manner in Delivery. Prejudice, — that Reason's very opposite, — denounces manner as if it was a thing of no matter. "Manner" and "Matter" are spoken of as antagonists in Oratory. But what is matter without manner? Matter is the native unquarried rock ; Manner is the chiseled statue, or the sculptured palace. Matter is the chaos " without form and void" when " darkness brooded over the face of the earth ; " Manner is the rolling globe launched in the flood of light, and beautified with hill and dale, ocean and streamlet, herb, and tree, and flower. Manner is the manifestation of all matter ; and no matter can be known but by the manner of its presentment. This is equally true of intellectual as of physical ma- terial. The matter of the finest oratory may lie hidden within the brain, worthless and unappreciated ; as the marble of that sweetest creation of the sculptor — the " Greek Slave" — lay buried in its native hill, till Powers arose that could unveil its symmetry and grace. And it depends entirely on the speaker's skill, — his power over manner — whether he fashion his matter into a paving stone or a Medicean Venus. But this prejudice has a moral root from which it de- rives all its vitality: — "The eloquence that fascinates may be employed to dazzle and seduce. It may be used to make the worse appear the better reason." True, but the greater the attractiveness of Eloquence for purposes of mere amusement, or for more unholy ends, the stronger is the reason and the more imperative the duty to master its refinements, and utilize its influence in all good and sacred causes. The adage cannot be too often repeated that whatever is worth doing at all, is worth doing well ; and we may add, the worthier any object of effort, the higher should be the standard of efficient execution. Slovenliness is intolerable in the meanest business. How much more INTRODUCTORY ESSAY. 3 so in the highest, and especially in that which has an aim beyond all earthly objects ! But by whom is this prejudice entertained? Who are they that shake the head at oratorical refinement in the pulpit, and denounce preparatory study of" manner" as * • theatrical ? " Are they the eloquent of the Church, the ornaments of their profession, speakers refined by culture, or endowed with natural powers of eloquence ? No ! They are those only who are themselves destitute of any pretensions to effectiveness. No man who is conscious of the ability to speak effectively can undervalue the power, and none w r ho is not competent in this respect, can judge of its value or pronounce it worthless. The studv of Oratory is, however, hindered by another prejudice, founded — too justly — on the ordinary methods and results of elocutionary teaching ; the methods being unphilosophical and trivial, and their result not an im- proved manner, but an induced mannerism . The principle of instruction to which Elocution owes its meanness of reputation may be expressed in one word, — Imitation. The teacher presents his pupils with a model or specimen of reading or declamation, and calls on them to stand forth and do likewise. The model may be good, bad, or indif- ferent ; it is, at all events, tinged with the teacher's own peculiarities, and the pupils, in their imitative essays, can hardly be expected to distinguish between these accidents of style and the essentials of good delivery which may be embodied in the model. Thus, becoming accustomed to imitate the former, they naturally confound them with the latter. Each pupil, too, has his own peculiarities, already more or less developed — arising from structural differences in the organs of speech, from temperament, or from habit, — the result of previous training or of previous neglect. These fixed idiosyncrasies and tendencies, min- gled with the imitated peculiarities, form a compound style, which, whatever its qualities, can hardly fail to be unnatural. Besides, as imitation is in a great degree an unconscious act, habits are thus formed of the existence of which the subject of them is entirely ignorant. In no other way can we account for those monstrous perversions of style which are so common, and so patent to all but, 4 INTRODUCTORY ESSAY. apparently, the speakers themselves. The very purpose of a philosophical system of instruction should be — to give us a standard by which to measure our own shortcomings and, primarily, by which we can discover them. But it may be urged by adherents of the imitative methods of instruction, that they do not teach by imita- tion alone ; that they teach by Rule, and merely illustrate rules by their model readings, in imitating which the pu- pils consciously apply the rules. There has been far too much of this teaching by "Rules" in all departments of education. The rules of nature are few and simple, at the same time extensive and obvious in their application. These are Principles rather than rules, and it is the highest business of philosophy to find out such. Princi- ples atone are worthy of the student's care. These he cannot too perfectly " learn and con by rote." But the rules of elocutionary books are not of this kind. The latter are cumbersome in number, limited in application to certain forms of grammatical construction, and very far from obvious in their use. Some principle must be involved in every rule. Rules are but logical deductions from understood principles ; and, often, a single principle will be found to underlie a whole category of rules. If Principles are understood, the mind will deduce rules for itself, but the knowledge of the most elaborate code of rules may be possessed without acquaintance w T ith a sin- gle principle. Besides, in actual practice, rules cannot be applied. They keep the mind in leading-strings which prevent self-effort, and destroy natural freedom, being rather fetters than assistances to one who has learned to walk alone. For instance, a certain movement of voice implies incompleteness of statement, and its mechanical opposite implies completeness. A knowledge of this sim- ple Principle involves at once a knowledge of more than half the rules for Inflexion with which Elocutionists have bewildered their students. The mind can grasp this principle and carry it along without effort through all the complexities and involutions of composition ; but if, in- stead of this, the student is made to learn all the possible arrangements of words in sentences, and to apply a separate 4 ' Rule " for each new form, he can never bring his rules into INTRODUCTORY ESSAY. 5 spontaneous application. He may apply them, or fancy that he applies them, in the reading of selected sentences, but beyond this he cannot carry them a step without feel- ing them an incumbrance and a hindrance to mental action. Constant thinking of inflection proves fatal to reflection. What a student chiefly requires to know, is how\.o vary his voice ; if his own judgement and apprecia- tion of the sense, in connection with defined principles, do not inform him when to do so, the most minute direc- tion by Rules will be of little service. The mechanics of expression are what he must master, if he w r ould use and manifest his mind in reading ; but he must be unfet- tered in their application, in order that he may develop and improve his manner without acquiring the formality of mannerism. Elocutionary Exercise is popularly supposed to consist merely of Recitation, and the fallacy is kept up both in schools and colleges, where Elocution is said not to be wholly neglected, because an hour is occasionally set apart for a competitive display of the declamatory powers of the pupils or students. This is a miserable trifling with an art of such importance. — an art that embraces the whole Science of Speech, as well as sentimental expression. With as much justice might it be said that music was attended to, if a class were called on once or twice a week, or half a dozen times a session, to whistle a popu- lar air in competition for a prize. Music is both a Science and an Art. So is Elocution ; and such an amount of at- tention as is limited to the occasional " spouting" of pas- sages learned anywhere or anyhow, is to Elocution merely what whistling is to music. The cultivated orators of old esteemed Delivery the chief of all the arts of Oratory, and they "being dead vet speak to us : " and they should do so with authority, for the letter of their eloquence is still the model in our colleges. We admire the orations of Demos- thenes : so did contemporary judges ; but they tell us that truly to appreciate these compositions we must have heard them ! How would the Grecian ' ' Thunderer " esteem our modern wisdom, in practically reversing, as we do, the rel- ative importance of writing and of speaking well ! Ora- tory, doubtless, is not now an art of such high consequence 6 INTRODUCTORY ESSAY. as it was before the invention of the printing press, and the general diffusion of knowledge through its blessed agency; but the sphere of oratorical influence, though narrowed, is yet large, and within that sphere the value of an effective Delivery is as preponderating as it ever was. Oratory was of old a very comprehensive subject, and its study was the labour of a life. It included almost every department of general knowledge, and mental and moral discipline, as well as Pronunciation, or what we now call Elocution or Delivery. The latter department was the one most sedulously cultivated, as being that on which all the rest depended for successful exhibition. Hoary hairs were considered indispensable to the consummate orator, that his manner might be duly refined with that art which hides itself; and also because his laborious preparations were supposed to require the length and vigour of the youth and * prime of life. Consistently with this, Oratory was em- blematized under the figure of an Old Man, threads of amber issuing from his lips, and winding into the ears of deferential auditors. Our modern orators expect to jump into the rostrum and oratorical ability at once, and with- out preparation even for the primary requisite of public speaking — distinct Pronunciation. They expect to find the amber in their mouths, born with them ; — like Dog- berry, who thought that "to write and read comes by na- ture." They expect to drop the native substance from their lips — as the princess in the fairy tale did pearls — at every opening. But men are not orators by birth, and the am- ber of eloquence is seldom found save as the rich deposit of assuetude and science. Elocution may be defined as the effective expres- sion of thought and sentiment, by Speech, Intona- tion, and Gesture. Speech is wholly conventional in its expressiveness, and mechanical in its processes. Intona- tion and gesture constitute a Natural Language, which may be used either independently of, or as assistant to, speech. Speech, in all the diversities of tongues and dia- lects, consists of but a small number of articulated element- ary sounds. These are produced by the agency of the lungs, the larynx, and the mouth. The lungs supply air to the larynx, which modifies the stream into whisper or voice ; INTRODUCTORY ESSAY. >j and this air is then moulded by the plastic oral organs into syllables, which, singly or in accentual combinations, con- stitute words. These words are arbitrarily appropriated to the expression of ideas, and thus we have Language, — variously intelligible in every community, but the same in its elements, throughout the world. Elocution, as it involves the exercise of language, must embrace the Physiology of Speech — the mechanics of vo- calization and articulation. A knowledge of the conven- tional meanings of words is of course also implied, but this may be obtained independently of Elocution, in the modern sense of the term . The student of Elocution, then, should be made acquainted with the instrument of speech, as an instrument, that all its parts may be under his con- trol, as the stops, the keys, the pedals, and the bellows, are subject to the organist. These principles of Instru- mentation are equally applicable to all languages, and the student who has mastered them, in connection with his vernacular tongue, will apply them to the pronunciation of any foreign language with which he may become ac- quainted. Elocution has also a special application to the language or dialect employed, that the elements and vocables of each may be pronounced according to its own standard of correctness ; — that being correct in one which is incor- rect in another. Thus, in the elocution of the northern British, the Irish, the New England and other American dialects of our tongue — for all dialects may have their elo- cution, or effective utterance — the vowels a and o, and the letter r. have different pronunciations from those which obtain in the southern dialects of England. The student of elocution should be capable of discriminating these and all similar differences. He should not be enslaved to the peculiarities of any dialect ; he may, when occasion re- quires, speak English like an Englishman, Scotch like a Scotchman, and Irish like an Irishman ; but his reading should not be imbued with the characteristics of Irish, of Scotch, or of any local pronunciation, when he delivers the language of Shakespeare, of Milton, or of Addison. The differences that distinguish dialects are quite sus- ceptible of assimilation to any standard. Just as a piece O INTRODUCTORY ESSAY. of music can, by a skilful player, be transposed in execu- tion to a different key from that in which it is written, so language can, by one skilled in the characteristics of dia- lects, be transposed in pronunciation from one dialect into another. But local peculiarities manifest themselves in varieties of intonation as well as of syllabic pronunciation. As the tones of speech have all a natural expressiveness, there is rarely any difficulty in acquiring command over them. The "science of sweet sounds" can only be effectively studied by those who have "an ear" for music, but the expressive tones of speech can be distin- guished and efficiently executed, even by those who are destitute of the musical faculty. This department of elo- cutionary discipline is of high importance, as it involves the exercise of much judgement in discriminating the analogies of sound to sense. The peculiarities of tone, which characterize dialects, consist, for the most part, of repetitions of the same species of inflexion, clause 'following clause in a sort of tune, which prevails merely by the force of habit. The voice of every individual is apt to partake too much of a uniformity of melody ; but we have no difficulty in un- derstanding the intention of the speaker, notwithstanding the sameness or the habitual fluctuations of his tones. This proves the folly of attempting, by any set of Rules, to impose a system of intonation as a standard for all voices. There is scarcely a sentence which will not admit of just expression by half a dozen, or ten times as many, modes of vocal inflexion. What is wanted is not a Rule for this or that species of sentence, but a «power over the voice generally, to redeem it from monotony ; a knowledge of the various modes of conveying sense ; and an appreciation of the special sense to be conveyed. To aim at anything more than this would be to destroy the speaker's individuality, and to substitute formality and mannerism for versatility of natural manner. In refer- ence to inflexion, elocutionary training has for its object mechanical facility, and definiteness of execution, rather than uniformity of application. It is the mistake of Mr. Walker's, and all similar Rules, that they tend to produce INTRODUCTORY ESSAY. 9 the latter result only ; one which is neither desirable nor strictly possible, — which is, in fact, unnatural. Inflexion is associated with accent, or emphatic stress, and this is regulated by the sense to be conveyed. The laws of emphasis form a study of the highest intellectual value, which has been too little investigated and systema- tized. No department of Elocution can compare with this in importance ; yet not only has it been superseded in books, by unnecessary Rules for Inflexion, and in schools by thoughtless imitation, but these rules, and all exercise founded on them, constantly violate the laws of accent. Here is one point in which almost absolute uni- formity must prevail among all good readers. Set prac- tice right in respect to emphasis, and inflexion cannot go far wrong. Every sentence or clause is susceptible of various mean- ings, according as its different words are rendered promi- nent by emphasis. " There will always be some word or words more necessary to be understood than others. Those things which have been previously stated, or which are necessarily implied, or with which we presume our hearers to have been preacquainted, we pronounce with such a subordination of stress as is suitable to the small importance of things already understood ; while those of which our hearers have not been before informed, or which they might possibly misconceive, are enforced with such an increase of stress, as makes it impossible for the hearers to overlook or mistake them. Thus, as it were in a picture, the more essential parts of a sentence are raised from the level of speaking, and the less neces- sary are, at the same time, sunk into a comparative obscurity ! " * How awkwardly ambiguous is the reading of those who have no principle to guide them in the selection of emphasis, — the distribution of the light and shade of speech ! One verse of Scripture — a peculiarly difficult one to hap-hazard readers — is rarely delivered correctly. This is the 25th verse of the 24th chapter of the Gospel by Luke : — "O fools, and slow of heart to believe all * 4i Practical Elocutionist." London, 1842. IO INTRODUCTORY ESSAY. that the prophets have spoken !" The reproof conveyed here is that the disciples addressed were " slow to be- lieve ; " but, by a faulty clausing of the sentence, sepa- rating these allied words, and a misplaced emphasis, precisely the opposite censure seems to be intended : " O fools, and slow of heart, to believe all that the prophets have spoken." It is the business of Elocution to teach the student three things important to be known : ist, How to discover all the meanings that any passage may embody ; 2nd, How to express the several meanings, supposing each of them to be just ; and, 3rd, How to ascertain the true interpre- tation, or the sense intended by the author. In all these processes, and especially in the last, much judgement will manifestly be required. Indeed, it may be questioned whether any study is more directly calculated to exercise the mind in all its faculties than the investigation of the precise meaning of a standard author. It is true that the critical acumen to appreciate the sense mav be possessed without the ability to express it ; and herein is manifest the necessity of vocal training, to give the judicious inter- preter a command over the mechanics of expression, that he may 4 ' make the sound an echo to the sense." The succession of the accents in sentences constitutes what is called Rhythm. This succession is regular in metrical composition, and irregular in prose. The regu- larity of rhythmus in poetry, while it favours a musical delivery, is very apt to lead the voice into a tuneful move- ment, where music is not intended ; and the result is that nauseating intermixture of the tones of speaking and of singing which is denoted canting or sing-song. There can be no doubt that the school methods of scanning, and of reading poetry by the line, are directly productive of this worst and most prevailing oratorical taint. It is but rarely that a reader can be found whose voice is entirely free from this blemish ; and the habit is speedily extended from poetry to prose, so that the expressive irregularity of pro- saic rhythm is entirely lost in the uniformity of time to which the reader's voice is set. Pinned, as it were, on the barrel of an organ, his accents come precisely in the same place at every sentential revolution, striking their INTRODUCTORY ESSAY. II emphasis, at one turn, upon a pronoun or a conjunction, and. at another, impinging sonorously on an article or an expletive. " 'Tis education forms the infant mind ; Just as the twig is bent, the tree 's inclined." The little green twigs in the Grammar School are sedu- lously bent into the barrel-organ shape, and pegged to play their destined tune by systematic teaching ; and when the tiny twig-barrel has swelled into a full-grown cylinder, and rolls forth its cadences in far-sounding pitch, the old pegs are still there, striking the old chords in the old way. What have children, or men either, to do. in reading, with trochees, iambi, dactyls, amphibrachs, or anapaests? They are all pests together. Scanning, or the art of dividing verse into the i4 feet" of which it is composed, is a practice that should not be left " a foot to stand upon." It confounds every element of natural pronunciation, call- ing long •• short," and short " long ;" separating the sylla- bles of the same word, and uniting the syllables of different words, in a way that would be almost too monstrous for belief, were we not so habituated to the " scanning " art from our earliest i; twig "-hood, that, we have great diffi- culty in scanning its full stupiditv. While this wretched pedantry is taught in our schools, so long must our pul- pits bring forth the normal increase of such seed, in sing- song, drawling, and unnaturalness. The subject of Rhvthmus has been involved in much obscurity by the way in which writers have treated of it ; and even Elocutionists have been so far misled under the influence of early education, as to adapt their reading ex- ercises to the accustomed measures, and divide their sen- tences into bars of equal time. It is difficult to characterize the folly of such divisions as the following, quoted from a well-known work : — " While the | stormy | tempest | blows While the | battle | rages | long and | loud." " Where is my j cabin door | fast by the i wild wood? Sisters and | sire [ *did you j mourn for its | fall?" These bars are terrible bars to progress in the art of reading— barriers of nonsense in the way of sense ! 12 INTRODUCTORY ESSAY. The marks of punctuation are taught in schools as measures of the pauses in reading. Children are told to stop at all the " stops," and only at the stops, and to pro- portion their stopping to the supposed time-value of the stops. But the marks of punctuation have no relation to time ; nor are they at all intended to regulate the pauses of a reader. They have a purpose, but it is not this. They do, in the majority of cases, occur where pauses should be made, but they do not supply nearly the number of pauses that good reading requires. They simply mark the grammatical construction of a sentence. While word follows word in strict grammatical relation, no comma is inserted, though many pauses may be indispensable ; and wherever any break occurs in the grammatical relation of proximate words, there a comma is written, though, often, a pause would spoil the sense. Commas are placed before and after all interpolations that separate related words — adjective and noun, adverb and adjective, pronoun and verb, verb and object, &c. ; — but they are not written while words follow each other in direct and mutual re- lation. Punctuation has thus no reference to delivery ; it has no claim to regulate reading ; and nothing but ig- norance of a better guide could have led to the adoption of the grammatical points to direct the voice in pausing. Some writer has happily expressed the principle of pausing in a metrical form, which is worth committing to memory, although the reader will find something more definite in the section on "Verbal Grouping:" " In pausing, ever let this rule take place, Never to separate words, in any case, That are less separable than those you join; And, which imports the same, not to combine Such words together as do not relate So closely as the words you separate." The subject of Antithesis and the relation of antithesis to emphasis, is one in which the Rules of Elocutionists are not only superseded by a fundamental law, but in which the rules are often at variance with the natural Principle. There is a grand distinction in the expressive- ness of the tones of speech, which has been insufficiently attended to. The vocal inflexions are primarily two, — INTRODUCTORY ESSAY. 13 an upward and a downward movement. These express the sentiments of appeal to the hearer, in the rising move- ment, and of assertion from the speaker, in the falling turn. The union of these simple movements with one accent, or impulse of stress, produces two compound tones, which express the same sentiments with a sugges- tive reference to the antithesis of the utterance, No great observation was necessary to discover that all em- phasis implies antithesis ; but Elocutionists have jumped to the conclusion that the converse of this principle must needs be likewise true, and that all antithesis implies em- phasis. As if, because every potato is undoubtedly a vegetable, every vegetable must of course be a potato ! Upon this false assumption, rules for the inflexion of an- tithetic sentences have been founded, which led to a con- stant up and down alternation of the voice on opposed words, than which nothing can be more at variance with the natural law of emphasis, or with its invariable mani- festation in the spontaneous utterance of conversation. It is only when verbal opposition is inferred and not fully expressed, that we have a genuine instance of the figure of Antithesis, and nature has provided us with a distinc- tive intonation by which the antithetic idea may be un- mistakeably suggested. When the opposition is complete in terms, the tones of antithesis are not required, and the emphasis follows the general law, by which the idea new to the context, or uppermost in the speaker's mind, is rendered prominent by mere accentual stress, and with simple tones. It is no less true in Elocution than in physics, that the brightest light casts the deepest shadow. The light of emphasis on any word throws a shade of subordination on all allied words, the darker and more concealing in proportion to the lustre of the emphasis. Among speakers whose tones are adjusted by artificial rules, we look in vain for this " night side of nature," this shadow of the illuminated thought. Each word of every contrasted pair of words is thrown mechanically into equal prominence,, with the effect expressed by Pope in his *' Essav on criticism : " " False eloquence, like the prismatic glass, Its gaudy colours spreads on every place." 14 INTRODUCTORY ESSAY. We may follow out the Poet's idea, and add a converse couplet : — True eloquence the lens's part must play, And blend the colours in one focal ray. With many speakers who aim at being emphatic with- out knowing how to be so, every leading ^ra??zmatlcal word — noun and verb, — or every qualifying word — adjective and adverb — is delivered with an intensity of stress which defeats its own object, and is as destitute of intelligent effect as that tame and drawling monotony in which others indulge, where nothing rises above the level of constant dulness. Words are emphatic or otherwise, not in virtue of their inherent grammatical rank, but of the relation they bear to each other in the context. The discriminating principle which marks this relation is called accent in reference to combinations of syllables, emphasis in reference to groups of words, and modulation in ref- erence to successions of sentences. But it is the same art in all its applications, governed by the same intellectual perception of relative proportion and comparative im- portance. The student is now referred to the body of the Work for a full development of Principles. Enough has been said here to prove that Elocutionary Art is something more than merely imitative ; that it has more intellectual exercises than the sentimental declamations usually asso- ciated with the name ; and that, if it has been encumbered with useless Rules, it is not destitute of guiding Principles. DIRECTIONS FOR USING THIS WORK. To the Private Student. When you consult a Teacher for instruction in Elocu- tion, your attention is, for the time, limited to special points — those in which your delivery requires correction, or those to which the Teacher gives precedence. The duly-qualified instructor is, of course, competent to direct his pupils in any of the departments of his art ; but he does not, in every case, allow his lessons to range over all departments. In this Book you have a teacher — prepared to give instruction in Theory, or direction in Exercise, in any department of the Art of Delivery : but you must, in order to self-improvement, do for yourself what you cannot avoid under the living teacher — namely, confine your attention, at first, to those points in which you specially need help, and overlook all else till they are mastered. There is a great art in learning even from the best of teachers. Some pupils will draw out precisely what they require, and profit rapidly ; others — " receptive" only, — will, from a longer period of instruction, derive much less advantage. The art of learning from a Book is of course still more dependent on the student himself. The secret of success is undoubtedly the same in both cases : attend EXCLUSIVELY TO ONE POINT AT A TIME. A cursory examination of the whole ground of study is sometimes advantageous as a preliminary, — especially when it is undertaken merely to assist in the selection of a Department for exercise ; — but a desultory perusal of a practical work — on such a practical subject as elocution — can lead to no satisfactory result. Therefore : — Treat this Book as a viva voce Teacher : Give heed exclusively to the section before you : Practise the exercises prescribed, and look neither backward nor forward until you have mastered the Lesson in hand. Do you belong to either of the following classes of speakers ? I. Your voice is feeble— it is smothered — it is strained — you are soon fatigued by vocal effort — you become hoarse — breathless — giddy — the muscles of your throat, chest, abdomen, are rendered sore by public speaking. — l6 DIRECTIONS, &C. For you, until you have changed these characteristics, this Book has only one lesson — the management of Respiration. II. Your pronunciation is faulty — it is indistinct — it slurs syllables — it is peculiar in some element — it is pro- vincial — it is foreign — it is guttural — it is nasal. — Study first the details of Vowels, Articulation, and Accent- uation. III. Your tones are unvaried — they are limited to a narrow range — they are tunefully recurrent — they are vaguely meandering — they are screechy — they are croaky — they are drawling. — Begin with the mastery of In- flexion. IV. Your reading is governed by sentences — by breath- limits — in poetry by lines — your pauses by the marks of punctuation — your primary and secondary clauses are undiscriminated. — Study Sentential Analysis and the principles of Clausing and Pausing. V. Your delivery is ponderous — it is flippant — it is rhythmical — it is uniform — it is pointless. — Commence with the principles of Emphasis. VI. Your general style is dull — it fails to arrest atten- tion — it is harsh — it is unsympathetic. — Begin with Modulation and Emotive Expression. VII. Your action is awkward — it is angular — it is stiff — it is jerking — it is repetitive — it is indefinite. Study first the section on Gesture. VIII. You feel yourself to be ineffective, but are not conscious of the particulars in which you fail. — Learn the Notations of Inflexion and Expression, and read the notated and emphasized passages, until you acquire a definite knowledge of the source of your ineffectiveness ; for consciousness of a fault is the necessary preliminary to its correction. IX. You simply desire to understand the subject as a matter of interest ; or you wish to master it for the pur- pose of teaching. — Begin at the beginning and go through THE WHOLE WORK. The previous editions of this ' ' Manual " have met with many appreciative and successful disciples. This finally revised edition should prove even more widely useful to new generations of Elocutionary students. THE PRINCIPLES OF ELOCUTION. PART FIRST. PRONUNCIATION. * I. GENERAL PRINCIPLES. 1. Speech is the audible result of a combination of mechanical processes, separately under the government of volition, and conventionally expressive of ideas. 2. As, in learning to play upon an instrument of music, it is indispensable to be practically acquainted with its mechanical principles, so, in studying the Art of Speech, it is of consequence that the learner be familiar with the structure and working of the instrument of Speech. 3. But this important fundamental knowledge is not anatomical in its nature. The pianist does not require to understand the arrangement of the interior of his in- strument, — its pegs and wires, and hammers and dampers — but to be familiar with its keys, and with the principles of digital transition, so that he may gallop over its gamuts without stop or stumble. The violinist does not need to know the details of shape and fastening of the parts of the fiddle-frame, but he must have perfect acquaintance with the working of the pegs, the stopping of the strings, and the drawing of the bow. The flutist does not require any knowledge of the arts of turning and boring the block from which his instrument is formed, or of the mathematical calculations and nice relative measurements which regulate the holing ; but he must thoroughly un- derstand how to blow, to tongue, and to "govern the ventages," so as to make it " discourse its eloquent music." And so, the Speaker does not require to learn of how many, and of what muscles and cartilages the larynx is 2 lb PRONUNCIATION RESPIRATION. formed, and by what sets of" motors" and " antagonists" the various organs of speech are influenced : such knowl- edge may be a welcome addition to his stock of informa- tion, but he cannot bring it into any practical use in speaking. He should, however, comprehend clearly the dynamic principles of the vocal instrument, and the me- chanical means by which the various sounds and articu- lations of speech are produced and modified. 4. The instrument of speech combines the qualities of a wind and of a stringed instrument : voice being produced by means of a current of air impelled from a sort of bel- lows — the lungs — and modified by contraction or expansion of the voice-channels, and by tension or relaxation of the vibrating membranes. 5. The speaking machine, while thus resembling in certain points the organ and the violin, is characteristically distinct from all instruments of music in its unique appa- ratus of Articulation ; which embraces the pharynx; the nares or nostrils ; the palates, soft and hard ; the tongue; the teeth; and the lips. 6. In the management of the Breath, and of the Organs of Articulation, lie the mechanical principles with which the speaker should be practically familiar, in order to en- able him to use his oratorical powers healthfully, in energetic and protracted efforts, and with ease, grace, and precision at all times. 7. Elocution, or Delivery, comprehends, besides the principles of salutary respiration, distinct articulation, and correct pronunciation, those of mental and emotional Expressiveness, by tones, gestures, &c. 8. Regulating the Expressive, as well as the Articula- tive departments of Elocution, are various mechanical principles with which the student should be experimentally familiar, that he may be gracefully effective in every effort ; in nothing giving offence to the eye or ear or taste, or " o'erstepping the modesty of nature." II. PRINCIPLES OF RESPIRATION. 9. Speech consists of variously modified c??iissions of breath. Breath is thus the material of Speech. The RESPIRATION. 19 lungs must, therefore, be well supplied with air be- fore speech is commenced, and they must be kept so supplied during the whole progress of speech. The very common fault of dropping the voice feebly at the end of a sentence, arises in great measure from a faulty habit of respiration : and many personal inconveniences, some- times painful and serious, accrue to the speaker, from insufficient, too infrequent, or ill-managed respiration. 10. The amount of air ordinarily inspired for vital wants is quite insufficient for vocal purposes. Speech must be preceded by a deeper than common inspiration, and sustained by replenishments of more than common frequency. 1 1 . The lungs are supplied with air by the expansion of the cavity of- the chest ; and they are made to yield the air they contain by its contraction from the pressure of its walls and base. 12. The cavity of the chest is conical in form, tapering from its muscular base, — the diaphragm, — by the ribs and clavicle to the windpipe. 13. The chest is expanded by the bulging of the ribs, the raising of the clavicle (or breast-bone) , and the de- scent or flattening of the diaphragm. Expiration may be produced either by means of the bony frame-work, or of the muscular base of the chest. The latter is the correct mode of vocal expiration ; the former is exhausting, and often injurious in its consequences. 14. Too much importance cannot be attached to the formation of a habit of easy respiration. The walls of the chest should not be allowed to fall in speaking, but the whole force of expiration should be confined to the diaphragm. Clavicular respiration is the prevailing error of those who find speaking or reading laborious. When the respiration is properly conducted, vocal exercise should be unfatiguing even though long continued ; and the longer it is practised the more should it be conducive to health. 15. The inspirations in speaking must be noiseless. Audible suction of air is as unnecessary as it is ungrace- ful. To avoid this fault, let th« passage to the lungs be but open, and expand the chest ; the pressure of the 20 RESPIRATION. atmosphere will then inflate the lungs to the full extent of the cavity created within the thorax. 1 6. The common Scotch bagpipe gives an excellent illustration of the comparative efficacy of a partial, and of a complete inflation of the lungs. See the piper, when the bag is only half filled, tuning the long drones : — how his arm jerks on the wind-bag ! — And hear the harsh and uneven notes that come jolting out from the pressure ! Then see him, when the sheep-skin is firmly swelled beneath his arm : — how gently his elbow works upon it ! while the clear notes ring out with ear-splitting emphasis. Let the public speaker learn hence an important lesson. He but plays upon an instrument. Let him learn to use it rationally — in consciousness, at least, of the mechanical principles of the apparatus. For, as the instrument of speech is more perfect than anything the hand of man has fashioned, it surely must, when properly handled, be " easier to be played on than a pipe ! " 17. There is an important point of difference, however, between the human speaking machine and artificial wind instruments like the bagpipe or organ. These latter have separate passages for the entrance and exit of the air, while the instrument of speech has but one channel by which the air is received and delivered. Through the aperture of the glottis,* all the breath must pass both in inhalation and exhalation. These acts must therefore be alternate, and cannot possibly take place at the same time ; while, in playing on artificial instruments, the air is both drawn in and expelled simultaneously by separate apertures. 18. Speaking being an expenditure of breath, pausing must be regularly alternate with utterance, to supply the waste of breath. The speaker must not exhaust his stock before he takes a further supply, but he must aim * The Glottis is the narrow aperture of the trachea or wind- pipe, situated behind the root of the tongue. Its action in closing or opening the passage to the lungs may be felt in coughing. The effort that precedes the cough shuts the glottis, by contact of its edges ; and the explosive ejection of breath in the cough arises from the sudden opening of the glottis by the separation of its edges. RESPIRATION EXERCISES. 21 at keeping up a constant sufficiency, by repeated inhala- tions. This is the principle which the bagpipe teaches. The most momentary pause will be found long enough to give opportunity for adding to the contents of the chest easily and imperceptibly. 19. A clear sonorous voice uses comparatively little breath : consequently the purer the voice the easier the utterance. The chest would be uncomfortably distended if the unexpended breath were held in at pauses. Pauses should therefore be synonymous with change of breath. 20. In addition to the power and ease that are gained by a proper management of the respiration, the speaker derives the further advantage of a good carriage of the bust. This contributes in no slight degree to give the young orator a feeling of confidence in addressing an audience. Fear naturally collapses, and courage expands the chest ; and the cultivation of the habit of keeping the chest expanded in speech imparts courage, and prevents that perturbation of the breathing which bashfulness and diffidence occasion to the unpractised speaker. Respiratory Exercises. 21 . To gain the power of fully and quickly inflating the lungs the following exercise will be useful. Prolong the simple vowel sounds musically to the full extent of expi- ratory power : silently replenishing the lungs and recom- mencing the sound as expeditiously as possible. The voice should begin softly, swell out vigorously, and then " knit sound to silence," by the most gentle termination. Thus : <> <> <> <> e ah aw oo, &c. After a little practice the sound should be continued clearly for the space of from 25 to upwards of 30 seconds. This exercise is equally advantageous to the singer as to the speaker. 22. The same principle of exercise in connection with articulation may be obtained in counting. Pronounce the numbers from one to a hundred, deliberately and dis- tinctly, with as few breathings as possible. Note the ^L 22 RESPIRATION VOCALIZATION. numbers after which the breath is inspired, and compare the results of the exercise at different times. 23. To gain the power of keeping the chest expanded and the lungs well filled, by frequent and imperceptible inspirations, the following exercise will be of service : — After due preparatory elevation of the chest, pronounce a long series of numbers with a gentle and instantaneous expansion of the chest before each number ; and con- tinue the exercise for some minutes at a time, without a single pause for breathing. This may be found difficult and laborious at first, but practice will speedily impart facility. 24. These respiratory exercises will be found of the highest utility in cases of contracted chest or weak lungs. Persons engaged in sedentary occupations, the dyspeptic, and the convalescent, would find in them gym- nastics of the most salutary nature, without leaving the office or the chamber. 25. To strengthen weak respiration the practice of en- ergetic reading in a strong loud whisper, or " gruff" voice, will prove beneficial. Above all, exercise in the open air will be found of advantage. The ancient rhet- oricians practised declamation while walking or running up a hillside before breakfast, or standing by the sea-shore, face to the wind, and endeavoring to out-bellow the tempest. 26. Respiratory exercises should not be practised im- mediately after a full meal. The distension of the stomach prevents the free play of the diaphragm. The public speaker should therefore be sparing before any important oratorical effort, and defer making up the deficiency until he has made his bow to the audience. III. PRINCIPLES OF VOCALIZATION. 27. Voice is the name given to that sound which is formed in the Larynx,* by the passage of the compressed *The Larnyx is that cartilaginous box-like structure which surmounts the trachea, causing the protuberance in front of the neck, known as '-Adam's apple." Its aperture is a lengthened slit, the upper extremity of which is called the superior glottis, and the lower the inferior glottis. VOCALIZATION. 23 air from the lungs, through the contiguous edges of the glottis. It being important that the student should clearly understand the mechanical formation of voice, we offer the following simple and homely illustrations. 28. The principle on which vocal sound is formed is the same as that by which a blade of grass or a slip of ribbon is made to produce a sound by being placed between the lips while the breath is strongly impinged against them. But the most perfect imitation of voice, as well as the most exact imitation of the laryngeal aperture — the glot- tis — is obtained by the approximation of two fingers, say the fore and middle fingers of the left hand, holding them nearly to the middle joints in the right hand, and forcing the breath between their moistened edges. The aperture thus obtained between the fingers, from the knuckles to the next joints, is of about the same size as that of the glottis ; and the sound produced by the vibration of its edges, remarkably resembles glottal voice, and exemplifies many of the vocal principles. Comparative openness of the aperture produces grave sounds, and contraction, acute sounds : slackness of its edges causes huskiness or whis- per, and tension gives clearness and purity of tone. A knowledge of these principles should assist the speaker in correcting habits of defective or impure sonorousness of voice. 29. Variations of Pitch in the voice are thus produced by variations in the condition and dimensions of the glot- tis. Something, too, depends on the elevation or depres- sion of the whole larynx ; as we see coarsely exemplified by untrained singers, who toss the head upwards, or bur- row the chin in the chest, as they squeak or croak at the extremities of the voice. In running over the vocal com- pass, the larynx may be felt descending with the gravity of the tones, and ascending with their acuteness. The head, of course, should be quiescent. A sympathetic motion of the head or eye-brows is a common but offensive accompaniment to the movements of the voice among untutored speakers. [Exercises on the vocal movements — speaking tones — will be found under the head of Inflexion.] 30. The voice may be formed by a soft and gradual 24 VOCALIZATION. vibration, or by an abrupt and instantaneous explosiveness of sound. The latter mechanism of voice is often em- ployed in energetic, emphatic speech ; and the orator should be able, at will, to adopt it with any degree of force from piano to forte. The pronunciation of the vowel sounds with something of the effort of a cough,* but without its breathiness, will develop the power of producing this intensive vocal effect. Thus : — inhale a full breath, and eject the vowel sounds directly from the throat ; avoiding, in the most forcible effort, any bending or other action of the head or body. 31. Huskiness of voice may be the result of diffidence, of disease, or of over-exertion. With the first and last of these Ave have to do. The mechanical cause is a re- laxation of the vocal ligaments. Rest will generallv restore the voice when over-exertion is the cause of its depravity; and the "coup de la glotte " will purify it, and contribute to give confidence when the first is the modifying circumstance. In temporary affections of the voice, warm mucilaginous drinks, and many confectionery preparations will be of service. Dryness of the mouth will be relieved by a small particle of powdered nitre placed upon the tongue. Habits of temperance are the best preservative of the voice. 32. The voice is variously modified in quality by the relative arrangement of the organs of the mouth, — the soft palate, the tongue, the teeth, and the lips. The various configurations of the vocal channel, and of the oral aper- ture, by the plastic soft organs, the tongue and lips, give rise to vowel diversity. The contraction of the arch of the fauces, by enlargement of the tonsils, or by too close approximation of the root of the tongue to the soft palate, produces a guttural depravity of tone : laxity of the soft palate, causing it to hang from, and uncover, or only par- tially close, the nares (the pharyngeal openings of the nostrils) produces a nasal modification : too close ap- proximation of the jaws, especially the falling back of the lower teeth behind the upper, gives rise to a dental *This exercise ("coupde la glotte") is recommended to singers in the excellent and philosophical Treatise on the Art of Singing, by M. Garcia, of Paris. VOCALIZATION VOWELS. 2$ impurity ; and contraction or inequality of the labial aper- ture — by elevation of the lower lip above the edges of the lower teeth, by depression of the upper lip below the edges of the upper teeth, by contact of the corners of the lips, by pouting, or by opening the mouth unequally to one side — produces a labial modification. These labial habits affect not only the quality of the voice, but also many of the vowel and articulate formations. 33. The quality of the voice is said to be gutturally, dentally, or labially depraved, when the approximation of the organs is so close as to produce a degree of guttural, dental, or labial vibration, in addition to the true sonorous vibration of the glottis. V IV.— PRINCIPLES OF VOWEL FORMATION. 34. The voice, as formed in the glottis, may be said to be destitute of vowel quality. It is moulded into vowel shapes as it flows out of the mouth. The following simple experiment will give a clear idea of the nature of vowel formation. 35. Open the mouth to the greatest possible extent — with the lips naturally drawn back, so that the edges of the teeth are visible — and emit an utterance of voice : it will sound ah ! Continue sounding this vowel while you grad- ually cover the mouth firmly with the hand, laying the fingers of the left hand on the right cheek, and slowly bringing the whole hand across the mouth : the vowel quality of the sound will be changed with every diminution of the oral aperture, progressively becoming aw, oh, oo, as the palm gradually covers the mouth. 36. The apparatus of the mouth is wonderfully calcu- lated to effect the most minute and delicate changes with definiteness and precision. The tongue and the lips are the chief agents of vowel modification. When the tongue is evenly depressed, and the lips are fully spread, the voice has the vowel sound ah; when the tongue contracts the oral channel — by rising convexly within the arch of the palate, leaving only a small central passage for the voice — the vowel quality is ee ; and when the labial aper- ture is contracted to a small central opening — the vowel 26 VOWELS. quality is oo. These vowels then, ee, ah, and oo, are the extremes of the natural vowel scale: the closest lingual vowel is ee ; the closest labial, oo ; and the most open sound, ah. 37. From the mutual independence of the vowel modi- fiers — the lips and the tongue, — it will be obvious that their various positions may be assumed either separately or simultaneously. Thus we may put the tongue into the position ee, and the lips into the position 00 at the same instant ; and we shall produce a vowel, which combines the qualities of ee and 00, and is different from both ; just as two colours intermixed, such as blue and yellow, produce a third, — green, — which combines their effects, and differs from either element of the compound. The close labio-lingual vowel, resulting from the simultaneous formation of ee and 00, is the German u — a sound often heard in some of the Irish and American dialects, in- stead of 00, or u. 38. Two other vowels of the Labio-lingual class are such very common European sounds, that an additional illustration, with reference to them, may not be super- fluous. The lips in the position o, and the tongue in the position a, produce the broad variety of French u — the same as the Scotch vowel in fruit, shoe, &c. ; and the lips in the position aw, with the tongue in the position e (ell), produce the French eu or the German 6. If, therefore, the vowel 00 be sounded, or the vowel o, or the vowel aw, the mere advance of the tongue will pro- duce the corresponding Labio-lingual vowels without any change in the position of the lips. Thus, retract and advance the tongue while the lips retain the positions 00, o, aw, and the sounds will be alternately : 00 ii, 00 ii, 00 ii o u, o u, o u aw eu, aw eu, aw eu 39. In the system of " Visible Speech " three classes of purely lingual vowels are recognized, as modified by the " Back," the " Front," or the (" Mixed ") Back and Front, of the tongue. At each of these three parts of the tongue three distinct vowels are formed by the " High," " Mid," or " Low " position of the tongue in reference to VOWELS. 27 the palate ; and of each of the nine vowels so produced there is a ,k Wide " variety, caused by expansion of the faucal cavity behind the tongue. There are thus eighteen vowels of the lingual class provided with separate symbols. Each of these eighteen vowels yields a " Round " or la- bialized variety ; so that the Alphabet of Visible Speech contains 36 simple vowels. The number is extended bv diacritic signs to no fewer than 180 possible shades of vowel quality, for which a distinctive notation is given. It is impossible by means of ordinary letters to tabulate the Universal Alphabet with intelligibility ; although these vowels are all written by only six primary symbols in " Visible Speech." 40. The following Table contains a classification of English Vowel sounds in the order of their formation, commencing with that which has the most contracted lingual aperture. 41. E?iglish Vowel ScJ/eme, and Numerical Notation. pool ^i7 1. /eel poor, pull \^i6 2. /ill (o- 00 ) old \i5 3. /ale (a.~ 9e ) ore \ 14 4./ aii- all \ 13 5- / ell doll\i2 6. an up, urn \ JI - 7- /a err \ l0 — °-/ask \ Q. / \/ Com b inations. 8-2 isle ; 8-16 owl ; 12-2 oil; y -16 cure ; v-17 cue. 42. In order to bring this scheme into practical appli- cation, the student must discard letters as names of the sounds, and adopt instead a numerical nomenclature, in accordance with the arrangement in the Table. Thus, he must associate the sound ee with Number 1 , and speak of the vowel in the words be, fee, tea, key, ceil, field, people, p/que, &c, as uniformly No. 1., independently of the diverse vowel letters which represent the sound. And so with all the other vowels. He has to deal with sounds, not letters. A- 28 VOWELS EXERCISES 43. The key words in the Table contain the vowel sounds to which the numbers refer. The student should make himself expert at vocal analysis, so as to be able to pronounce the vowels alone with the exact sound which the} r receive in the words. He will probably experience some difficulty at first in isolating the " short" sounds correctly, — especially the 2d and 6th vowels, — without the customary assistance of an articulation to "stop" them. But as there is no particular quantity or duration essential to any vowel, he should make himself able to pronounce all the sounds independently, with both long and short degrees of quantity. 44. The terms long and short are here used with ref- erence only to sounds which are identical in quality or formation. Vowels are commonly spoken of as relatively long and short, when they are utterly unlike in every charac- teristic of sound. Thus i in ill is called the short sound of " I," the long sound of which is heard in isle; and u in us, the short sound of" U,"the long sound being heard in use. In the more definite nomenclature by numbers, these " short" sounds are respectively the 2nd and r*ith vowels. 45 . The ' ' long " or name-sounds of the alphabetic vowels are : A=3,E=i, 1 = 8-2, O = 15, U = y-i7 ; and their "short" sounds are: A=6, E = 5, 1=^=3, 6 = 12, U = n. Vowel Rxercises. 46. The following words exemplify each of the Eng- lish vowels in their various modes of orthography. 47. First Vowel, represented by e, i, as, ae, ay, ee, e'e, ea, ei, eo, ey, eye, ie, ce, uoi ; as in eve, fatigue, mi- nutiae, aerie, quay, bee, e'en, eat, conceive, people, key, keyed, field, antoeci, turquoise ; religion, sedate, prefer, vehement, peculiar, enough, decide, between, oetites, assuetude, idea, aureola, sphere, shire, bier, belief, unique, priest, police, treaty, seizure, asgis, amphisboena, oedema, peevish, meagre, league, siege, scream, fiend, 'wean, ease, breeze, frieze, achieve, trustee, ennui, ye, thee. 48. Second Vowel, represented by a, e, i, o, u, y. ai, ay, ea, ee, ei, ey, ia, ie, ui, uy ; as in cabbage, pretty, ill, women, busy, hymn, mountain, Monday, guineas, VOWELS EXERCISES. 29 breeches, forfeit, monkey, parliament, sieve, build, plaguy; orange, England, alkali, ashy, fancies, oxygen, servile, cottage, marriage, miniature, business, vineyard, cygnet, abyss, hyssop, citron, chintz, vivify, dizziness, invisible, miracle, spirit, livelong, vigil, give, film, bilge, finger, singer, precipice, premises, vestige, virility, valleys. 49. Third Vowel, represented by a, ai, ao, au, ay, aye, ea, ei, ey, eye, oi ; as in age, aim, gaol, gauge, pay, aye, steak, vein, obey, preyed, connoisseur ; aerial, archai- ology, ukase, emigrate, portrait, clayey, vacate, weigher, half-penny, phasis, plaice, complacent, obeisance, bait, great, straight, ache, quaint, able, layer, azure, hey-day, maiden, zany, gala, jailor, sago, scabrous, shame, they've, lathe, baize, chaise, rein-deer, vain, veil, bewail, vagrant, neigh, dismay, inveigh, allay, grey, gay, yea. 50. Fourth Vowel, represented by a, e, aa, ae, ai, ay, ea, e'e, ei, ey ; as in fare, ere, Aaron, aer, air, prayer, weaf, ne'er, heir, eyre ; daring, fairy, heiress, Mary, chary, scare-crow, lair, therein, where'er. 51. Fifth Vowel, represented by a, e, u, ae, ai, ay, ea, ei, eo, ie, ue ; as in many, ever, bury, Michaelmas, said, says, health, heifer, leopard, friend, guess ; erratic, erroneous, effect, effeminate, embezzle, eccentric, except, executor, extend, dreaded, essence, headless, segment, freshness, emptiness, jeopardy, feoff, death, etiquette, wealth, elsewhere, burial, beryl, ferret, pellet, rennet, jealous, zenith, pleasure, regiment, legend, emblem, brethren, helmet, velvet. 52. Sixth Vowel, represented by a, aa, ai ; as i:i amber, Canaan, raillery ; atlantean, vagrant, translate, woodland, annual, atlas, capital, passion, patent, relapse, statue, tapestry, waft, wax, altitude, balcony, amaranth, arid, ballad, cavalry, galaxy, gaseous, harass, paragraph, album, band, flag, plaid, glad, pageant, scandal, value, harangue. 53. Seventh Vowel, represented by a ; as in abode, adapt, again, alone, arouse, charade, dragoon, fanatic, oasis, pagoda, idea, paralysis, saliva, saloon, syllable, sofa, drama. 54. Eighth Vowel, represented by a: as in bath, cast, castle, brass, fasten, master, pass, past, repast, sam- ple, staff, task, vast. 30 VOWELS — EXERCISES. 55. Ninth Vowel, represented by a, e, au, ea, ua ; as in ardour, clerk, haunt, hearty, guardian ; artificer, barbaric, harpoon, narcotic, parhelion, sarcastic, lunar, dotard, arch, artifice, carpet, hearth, hearken, startle, tar- tar, aunt, can't, draught, laugh, arm, are, barge, farm, ser- geant, guardian, alms, balm, calves, malmsey, papa, qualm, salve, father. 56. Tenth Vowel, represented by r, re, er, ir, yr, ear, uer, wer ; as in par, here, her, firmness, hyrst, earnest, guerdon, answer ; pier, near, hare, star, war, ore, sure, fire, beaver, fibre, acre, cider, ephir, zephyr, martyr, satire, chirp, earth, bird, fertile, mer- chant, thirty, vertex, virtue, myrtle, gherkin, irksome, kerchief, verb, firm, sirs, hers, bird, herd, verge, dirge, earn, yearn, early, pearl, sirloin, sterling, whirlwind, err, stir, myrrh, prefer.. ^. Eleventh Vowel, represented by o, u, eo, io, oa, oi, 00, ou, ow, wo, eou, iou, olo ; as in world, done, furnace, ugly, dungeon, motion, cupboard, avoir- dupois, blood, journey, young, bellows, twopence, gor- geous, cautious, colonel ; bombast, buffoon, doubloon, sublime, umbrella, unkind, upon, seldom, bankrupt, medium, dubious, jealous, genus, courageous, collection, dudgeon, question, bluff, chough, tough, couple, nuptial, doth, husk, joust^ thus, subtle, luscious, luxury, pulp, bulk, gulf, mulct, monk, uncle, borough, brother, colour, cover, cunning, curricle, honey, money, mother, shovel, smuggle, study, thorough, tunnel, worry, colander, dull, dumb, none, buzz, love, tub, hung ; burr, fur, spur, cur, surfeit, worse, work, worm, curly, worldly, urn, absurd, curdle, urge. $S. Twelfth Vowel, represented by a, o, au, oa, ou, ow ; as in want, often, laudanum-, groat, hough, knowledge ; observe, occasion, oppose, quadroon, vol- cano, blossom, coffee, cloth, fossil, doctor, prologue quantity, quash, squat, topic, twattle, vocative, wash wasp, watch, conch, frontier, monster, prompt, wampum, cauliflower, chronicle, foreign, grovel, honest, laurel monad, nomad, olive, provost, qualify, quarrel, sovereign squalid, volant, warrant, zoology, bond, prong, quadrant solve, squander, swan, was, wan. VOWELS EXERCISES. 31 59. Thirteenth Vowel, represented by a, au, aw, oa, ou; as in all, taught, law, broad, thought; war, swarthy, warm, auction, awful, balk, bought, caution, falcon, vaunt, halt, plaudit, lawyer, bald, broad, shawl, tall, yawn, faugh, pacha, spa, saw. 60. Fourteenth Vowel, (only before R), repre- sented by o, ew, oa, oo, ou, wo, owa ; as in ore, sewer, oar, door, four, sword, towards ; original, oriental, fore- bode, glory, sonorous, coarse, court, courtier, forth, hoarse, porch, source, portly, porte, borne, bourn, forge, gourd, mourn, torn, tournament, untoward, horde, corps, floor, o'er, restore, decorum, horal, pylorus, deportment, victorious, proportion. 61 . Fifteenth Vowel, represented by o, ao, au, ew, eau, ewe, oa, oe, oo, ou, ow, owe ; as in old, Pharaoh, hauteur, shew, beau, sewed, oak, foe, brooch, soul, crow, crowed ; analogy, antelope, apotheosis, arrow, borrow, broccoli, cameo, coeval, colony, colossus, furlough, elo- cution, nosology, obedient, philosopher, potato, rondeau, zoology, oasis, orthoepy, blowpipe, broach, cocoa, en- gross, host, jocose, locomotive, narcosis, oak, oat, oath, bolster, poultry, won't, curioso, hautboy, olio, onyx, trover, zodiac, blown, boll, brogue, comb, droll, foal, knoll, mould, nones, parasol, shrove, though, bureau, dough, hoe, holloa, know, lo, owe, throe, sloe, trow, mower, woe. 62. Sixteenth Vowel, represented by o, u, oo, ou ; as in wolf, pull, look, poor, would ; ambush, bivouac, ferula, fulfil, hurrah, to, into, issue, treasure, book, butcher, cuckoo, cushion, push, puss, put, pulpit, bosom, bully, sugar, woman, woollen, bull, should, stood. 63. Seventeenth Vowel, represented by o, u, ew, oe, 00, ou, ui ; as in do, rude, brew, shoe, woo, you, cruise ; roue, truism, bouquet, brutal, flute, fruitage, goose, croup, recruit, ruler, whoop, youthful, remove, rhubarb, ruby, ruthless, bloom, bouse, bruise, lose, peruse, shrewd, accrue, ado, brew, halloo, ormolu, ra- gout, who, too. 64. Diphthong 8-2, represented by i, y, ai, ay, ei, ey, eye, ie, oi, ui, uy, ye, ; as in isle, by, naivete, ay, height, eying, eye, lie, choir, guide, buy, dye ; diameter, iden- 3 2 VOWELS — ANGLICISMS. tify,iota, psychology, zodiacal, viaduct, society, hierarch, bias, lyre, science, cycle, nightly, viscount, vital, icicle, island, ivy, finite, piebald, sliver, twilight, I'll, I'm, I'd, blithe, gyve, rhyme, lithesome, bye, fy, awry, thigh, rye, vie, why. 65. Diphthong 8-16, represented by o, ou, ow ; as in accomptant, thou, cow ; vouchsafe, foundation, bower, coward, vowel, our, couch, cowslip, doughty, bounteous, countenance, fountain, cloudy, owlet, thousand, browse, lounge, avow, bough, plough, endow. 66. Diphthong 12-2, represented by oe, oi, oy, eoi ; as in oboe, coin, boy, burgeois ; envoy, rhomboid, boy- ish, loyalty, moiety, cloister, doit, hoist, oyster, anoint, jointure, embroider, foible, toilsome, avoid, noiseless, alloy, joy, destroy. 67. Combination y-i6, represented by u, as in cure, durable, nature, obtuse, use (n.), abuse (n.), refuse (n.) 68. Combination Y-17, represented by u, ue, ui, eu, ew, eau, iew, yew, you ; as in duty, imbue, suit, neuter, few, beauty, view, yew, you ; superior, utensil, virtue, interview, tutor, Tuesday, dupe, tune, gewgaw, music, news, fugue, pursuit, mutual, suture, use (v.), alluvial, illusive, pollute, involution, abuse (v.), refuse (v.) V. ANGLICISMS OF VOWEL SOUND.* 69. It will be observed that the a and o which represent the 3rd and 15th vowels in the English scheme (par. 41), have a small ee and 00 printed after these radical letters. This indicates a peculiar Anglicism ; in which, and some associated principles, lies the leading difference between the vernacular dialects north and south of the Tweed. In Scotland these vowels are inonophthongs — that is, their sound is the same from beginning to end, thus a a and o o ; "while in England these vowels are diph- thongs, being tapered from the radical point towards the closest formation of their respective classes, lingual or * For a minute description of each of the English vowels, the defects to which they are liable, and the means of correction, — with copious Exercises, — see " Principles of Speech and Dic- tionary of Sounds." VOWELS ANGLICISMS. 33 labial. A tapers towards e by the progressive ascent of the tongue, and o tapers towards oo by the gradual ap- proximation of the lips. Thus — obey>ee, go>«o, ai>eed, o>oold. pla>eogue, ho>oome, la>eeke, ho>oope, &c. 70. In the lists of the 3d and 15th vowels, there is no word containing the letter R after the vowel. This omis- sion is not accidental. It brings us to another Principle. 71. R in English is articulated but faintly, or not at all, in the two following positions ; 1st, before any artic- ulation — or consonant; — 2d, at the end of any word. In these situations, R has always a vowel sound — that of er or ir in the words her and sir — the 10th vowel. R has this vowel effect also when between two vowels, the first being long, as in weary, fiery, glory, fury. In words of this class, the R has both its vowel and its consonant sound. Thus, glory is not glo-ry, but glo(re)-ry. The vowel-quality of the R is most manifest after the closest radical vowels. The pronunciation pee-rage, poo-rest, &c, is characteristically Scotch. Such words, to be Anglicised, must be pronounced pe-er-age, poo-er-est, &c. 72. Exercise on the Double Sound of R: — Eyry, ear-ache, leering, nearer, peeress, merest, airy, unwary, fairy, Mary, heiress, garish, soaring, gory, boreas, jury, alluring, Moorish, fiery, wiry, showery, towering. 73. The 3rd and 15th vowels are, as shown above, closing diphthongs — that is, the vowel aperture is smaller at the end than at the beginning of the sound. A syllable may consist of either an opening or a closing combination of vowels, but it cannot combine with these any sound that reverses the progression. The vowel sound of R, (No. 10) is a very open sound, and could not, there- fore, be pronounced after the closing diphthongs A^e ox O^oo in one syllable. Either the diphthongal A and O must be contracted into monophthongs ■, or the R must be articulated. The latter expedient would be z^/z-English : the former is adopted. The closing diphthongal termi- nation of the A and O is dropped, and the radical vowel 3 34 VOWELS SCOTTICISMS. sound is slightly opened for easier combination with the very open element 10. Thus, instead of No. 3, we pro- nounce No. 4, and instead of 15, we pronounce 14, before R in the same syllable. 74. In this way a distinctiveness is maintained in the pronunciation of such words as lair and layer, lore and lower, &c. The firsts of these pairs of words are mono- syllables (4^10 and 14^10), and the seconds are dis- syllables (3-2-10 and 15-16-10). 75. The 14th vowel is intermediate in formation to oh and aw. The rapid alternation of these sounds will blend them into No. 14 ; or the effort to pronounce an O with- out using the lips will probably at once give the exact effect. 76. The difference between English and Scotch pro- nunciation in such words as air and ore is very marked : the R being strongly articulated in Scotland, and the A and O having the same sound before R as before other articulations. v VI. SCOTTICISMS OF VOWEL SOUND. 77. Vowel i, too short; as in feet, people, mean, steel, &c. — Vowel 1, as No. 3, short; as in deal, meal, seat, conceit, &c, pronounced dale, male, &c. 78. Vowel 2, too open ; as in Jill, crib, dig, him, &c, pronounced nearly as fell, creb, deg, hem,* &c. — Vowel 2, as No. 1, short, as in religion, individual, vicious, &c, pronounced religion, endev£ f ORAL. .... B . NASAL. M o h < •J -I D O H 04 <1 3 O C o o On O T. IK. x o u E — 1 D G F V 1 Th Th J LI (Welsh) L I = L (Gaelic) J (Ph). Bh (Spanish B).... Rh R (smooth) Ch (German) Gh Wh w s z Sh Zh Yh Y f(KRh) gR (burr) (Rh) R (rough) = (lip vibration) - 149. The three Nasals, M, N, Ng, are placed on the same line with the Obstructives, to show that their oral mechanism is the same ; but as they are continuous in effect (nasally), although orally obstructive, they are connected also with those elements which have Partial Contact. 150. The following Table contains the English Articu- lations arranged in the order of their formation, commenc- ing with those which have their seat farthest within the ENGLISH ARTICULATIONS. 49 mouth, and proceeding to those which have the most an- terior formation. 151. English Articulations.* Breath. Voice. Oral. Oral. Nasal. 1 2 3 K G Ng 4 5 H(ew) Y(ew) 6 7 Sh Zh = R (rough). = fR (smooth) = 10 = ...L = 11 12 13 T D N 14 15 s z 16 17 Th(in) Th(en) = 18 „ 19 F V = 20 21 Wh W = 22 23 24 P B M 152. The student should be able to enounce the sounds of these Articulations independently, and exactly as heard in words. The following Table exhibits all the English Articulations in each of the four positions : initial, final, medial before a vowel, medial before an articulation. * For a minute description of each of the English Articula- tions, the defects to which they are liable, and the means of cor- recting them, see " Dictionary of English Sounds," in the work referred to in note, par. 69. t See par. 71. 5<> ARTICULATIONS DISTINCTNESS. 153. Table of Articulations. p, B, . • • -/ay . . . bee a/e gle^e paper neighbour apricot a% M, Wh, . . . mar . . .w^y arm * arwy awhile arw'd * w, F, V, , . . . way ....fed . . . . -peal * deaf leave away definite evil * de/tness ev(e)ning Th, Mird dear t ft ethic ethnic Th, . . . .these seethe either wreathed s, ....jell . . . . *one less nose essay rosy estuary rosebush R, . . . . rare * rarity * L, ..../eft fell fellow fe//'d T, /ale la/e later lameness D, . . . . i/ay aid tracer tradesman N, Sh, . . . . nave ....shelf vaiw fle^ waging Usher mainland fishmonger Zh, Y, K, G, Ng, . . .giraffe ....ye . . . cap ...£iim * rou£*c fille (French.) pack mvg- sing- pleasure bejond packet slu^ard singer hedgerow * packthread smuggler singly XIII. PRINCIPLE OF DISTINCTNESS. 154. Every articulation consists of two parts — a position and an action. The former brings the organs into approximation or contact, and the latter separates them, by a smart percussive action of recoil, from the articulative position. This principle is of the utmost importance to all persons whose articulation is imper- fect. Distinctness entirely depends on its application. Let it be carefully noted : — audibly percussive organic separation is the necessary action of every articulation. 155. The Breath Obstructives, P-T-K, have no sound in their position, and thus depend, for all their audibility, on the puff that accompanies the organic separation. This therefore must be clearly heard, or the letters are ♦These articulations do not occur in this position in English. ARTICULATIONS DEFECTS. 5 I practically lost. .The Voice Obstructives, B-D-G, have a slight audibility in their " positions," from the abrupt murmur of voice which distinguishes them from P, T, and K ; but they are equally imperfect without the organic " action " of separation and its distinctive percussiveness. All the other elements being Continuous, have more or less audibility in their " positions ;" but in every case distinct- ness and fluency depend on the disjunctive completion of the articulative " action." XIV. DEFECTS OF ARTICULATION. 156. Various faulty formations of the elements of articu- lation are extremely common. The Obstructives become mere stops, and lack the necessary percussive termination ; the voice articulations are deficient in throat-sound, and thus not sufficiently distinguished from their breath cor- respondents ; the Continuous elements are formed by a faulty disposition of the organs, or by the wrong organs ; or their "positions" are not sufficiently firm, and their "actions" altogether wanting or indistinctly languid. The motions of the tongue and the lips are tremu- lous or indefinite, too feebly or too strongly conjunctive, too rapid or too tardy, &c, &c. 157. Lisping consists in partially obstructing the hiss- ing stream of air, by contact of the point of the tongue with the teeth, or by elevation of the lower lip to the upper teeth. 158. Burring consists in quivering the uvula instead of the point of the tongue, or approximating the soft palate and back of the tongue instead of raising the tip of the tongue to the anterior rim of the palatal arch. 159. Thickness of articulation consists in the action of the middle instead of the point of the tongue in the various lingual articulations. This last very common kind of imperfection sometimes arises from congenital inability to raise the tip of the tongue to the palate — re- movable by a simple operation — but most frequently it is the result merely of a bad habit, perfectly removable by energetic and careful application of lingual exercises. 160. In the work referred to in the note, par. 69, the various errors of articulation— including Stuttering and 52 ORAL ORGANS. Stammering — are the subjects of a more elaborate treat- ment. The following is a summary of the correct — Relative Positions of the Oral Organs. The Tongue. 161. The tongue should be held back from the lower teeth, in order that its actions may be independent of the motion of the jaw : the tip should never be pressed into the bed of the lower jaw ; the tongue should never touch the lips, or be protruded between the teeth : it should be rarely seen, and, when visible, the less the better. The root of the tongue should be depressed as much as pos- sible, to expand the back part of the mouth and give ful- ness to the vowel sounds : — this is the chief source of the mellow " orotund " quality which distinguishes the voices of well-practised speakers. The tongue should not be pushed from point to point without disengagement in pass- ing from word to word : but it should sharply finish the articulations by a perfect recoil of the organ : — this insures distinctness. The Jaw. 162. The lower jaw should not, in speaking, fall be- hind the upper, but the two ranges of teeth should be kept as nearly in a line as possible. The teeth should never come in contact : even when the lips are closed, the teeth should not clash. The lower jaw should descend freely for every vowel utterance, and, preparatorily, be- fore the commencement of articulation : its motions must be without jerking, equable, easy, and floating. The Lips. 163. The lips should never hang loosely away from the teeth, or be pursed, pouted, or twisted, but they should maintain the form of the dental ranges as nearly as pos- sible, lying equalliy and unconstrainedly against the teeh. The habits of lick ng or biting the lips are offensive, and should be carefully guarded against by public speakers. The lips should be used as little as possible in articula- tion ; the upper lip should remain almost quiescent, save for emotive expression ; the articulative action being con- fined to the lower lip. ARTICULATION — ANGLICISMS. 53 Labial Expressiveness. 164.. Habits of speech are so peculiarly operative in giving character to the lips, that an acute observer may generally tell by their aspect whether a person's articula- tion is good or bad ; and there are few stammerers who do not show, to the practised eye, an indication of their infirmity in the lips. The soft and pliant texture of the lips is easily impressed by any habit ; and even a passing ■emotion will mould their plastic substance to express it. Habitual ill-nature everybody looks for and recognizes on the lips ; and there sweet temper and cheerfulness have their calm abode. Thus we generally find fixed on these portals of the mouth a legible summary of the man. The lips of the vulgar and ignorant are " arrant tell-tales," which there is no belying ; and mental superiority cannot conceal itself from labial disclosure. The lips refuse to screen the lie they may be forced to speak. It may be said, indeed, that falsehood cannot utter itself by these * l miraculous organs" of truth ; but conscious rectitude, integrity, and virtue shine through the lips, and give irre- fragable evidence there, when other testimony is absent -or doubtful. ^ XV. ANGLICISMS OF ARTICULATION. 165. The leading Anglicism of Articulation has been already pointed out in remarks on the letter R (par. 71, et seq.) This element is distinctly articulated only be- fore a VQivel; but less with a trill, than a smooth buzz- ing vibration of the tongue. In other positions, the letter R is faintly, or not at all articulated. R has a vowel sound (No. 10) after any long vowel, before any articu- lation, and when final. 166. When final R is followed by a word beginning with a vowel, the R is articulated, to avoid hiatus be- tween the words. But the Cockney custom of interpos- ing R between two vowels, as in the sentences, " Is Papa r at home?'* — " What an idea r it is!" &c, is not to be countenanced. This vulgarism is confined to words ending with the open vowels, Nos. 8, 9, and some- times 13 ; the formative apertures of which are of nearly the same expansion as that of the English (R=) 10. 54 ARTICULATION SCOTTICISMS. 167. English speakers too commonly confound the Breath with the Voice forms of the articulations Y and W, and so pronounce alike such words as hue and you y which and witch, whale and wail, whither and wither ,. whig and wig, &c. K-G, as in Kind, Guard, &c. 168. In pronouncing such -words as key and caw,, geese and gauze, it will be observed that the obstructive position of the tongue for the initial articulation is not precisely the same before the open as before the close vowel ; accommodating itself to the formation of the sub- sequent vowel, the tongue is much more advanced before ee than before aw. Indeed, the points of contact are not exactly the same before any two vowels. The closest lingual vowels are associated with the most anterior con- sonant positions, and the open and labial vowels with the most posterior. A peculiar Anglicism arises from viola- tion of this principle in certain cases. K and G before the open vowels, in card, guard, kind, guile, girl, &c, are articulated from the anterior instead of the posterior positions ; so that the breath which follows the articulative "action" has the vowel quality of ee ; and an effect is produced something like that of the articula- tion y. This effect is greatly overdone by those who pro- nounce ee or y in such words. " K^^-ind," and "ky-ard," are affected caricatures of this delicate Anglicism. The following and their derivatives, are the leading words that partake of this peculiarity : — card, kind, garden, guard, girl, guide, guile, guise. XVI. SCOTTICISMS OF ARTICULATION. 169. The leading Scotticism of Articulation consists in the uniform and rough trilling of the tongue for the let- ter R, in all situations. 170. Another very general Scotch peculiarity consists in giving a vowel sound to the letter L when final, espe- cially when it follows the 5th vowel ; the L, in such words as sell, bell, well, swell, &c. , being pronounced nearly like ul. Thus — " seh-^/, beh-^/," &c. ARTICULATION HIBERNICISMS. 55 171. The articulation Ng is pronounced as n before th — as in length, strength, &c. ; and in the final anaccented syllable ing, — as in seeing, believing, &c. ; pronounced le^th, stream, seein, believi?*, &c. 172. The Breath Obstructive Articulations, especially the letter T, are, in the West of Scotland, pronounced without any articulative action, but with a mere glottal catch after the preceding vowel, as in better, butter, &c. ; pronounced be-er, bu-er, &c. 173. The Breath form of the articulation Th, is pro- nounced instead of the Voice form, in the words ^ough, /Either, with, henescth, pa/>£s, &c. A substitution of Breath for Voice forms of articulation is also very gener- ally heard in the words of, as, nephew, &c, pronounced off", ass, nefyoo, &c. ; and the substitution of Voice for Breath forms is likewise common in the words if, us, transact, philosophic, &c, pronounced, iv, uz, tranzact, phiiozophic, &c. 174. The omission of Y before ee, and of W before oo, as in year, yield, wool, &c, is another northern peculiar- ity. Ludicrous ambiguities sometimes arise from these omissions; as when we hear of an old man "bending under the weight of (y)ears and infirmities." 175. The addition of a guttural effect to H and Wh is a Celtic peculiarity — harsh and unpleasing to the unac- customed ear. 176. The pronunciation of t before the syllabic sounds of V and 'n in cas/le, apos/le, pes/le, often, is a Scotticism almost confined to these words. XVII. HIBERNICISMS OF ARTICULATION. 177. Irish Articulation is characterized by a general looseness of oral action, w T hich gives a peculiar softness to the transition from an obstructive articulation to the succeeding vowel. The effect is coarsely imitated by in- terpolating an h between the elements, as in p(h)ut for put, t(h)ake for take, c(h)oat, for coat, &c. 178. The sound of/, especially at the end of a word, is, from the same cause, but little different from that of s ; such words as bet and hat being pronounced nearly as bess and hass. $6 AMERICANISMS SYLLABIC QUANTITY. 179. The sound of /final is formed with a convexity of the middle of the tongue which gives the / the effect of Italian^/, as in well, smile, till, &c, where the final ele- ment has almost the sound of eel. This is the converse of the Scotch peculiarity noticed in par. 170 where / has the open quality of ul. 180. The sound of S before an articulation has the ef- fect of Sh ; as in sky, scrape, sleep, snow, star, stripe, sweet, &c, pronounced shky, shcrape, shleep, &c. XVIII. AMERICANISMS OF ARTICULATION. 181 . The leading Americanism of Articulation is asso- ciated with the letter R. This element has none of the sharpness of the English R, which, however softly, is struck from the tip of the tongue. The American R has a very slight vibration, with the tongue almost in the po- sition for the French vowel e mute. The high convex position of the tongue for the American R final or before an articulation — when the sound is almost that of the English Y — has been noticed in par. 112. 182. The feeble and indefinite vibration of the Amer- ican articulate R leads to a habit of labializing- the sound when it is between vowels, as in very, spirit, &c. This gives a firmness to the articulation, but altogether changes its character : the R becomes long and almost syllabic. Thus : ve-wr-y, spi-wr-it, &c. XIX. SYLLABIC QUANTITY. 183. Two degrees of vowel quantity — long and short, — are generally recognized, but there are many minuter degrees arising from the influence of articulations on pre- ceding vowels. Thus all vowels are comparatively short before Breath articulations, and comparatively long before Voice articulations ; but they are snorter before another vowel than before any articulation. Among vowels separately considered, there are three degrees of quantity ; I. Short monophthongs ; II. Long monophthongs ; III. Diphthongs. Among articulations there are Jive degrees ; I. Breath Obstructive; II. Breath Continuous; III. SYLLABIC QUANTITY. 57 Voice Obstructive ; IV. Voice Close Continuous ; V. Voice Open Continuous, — or Liquids. 184. The Open Continuous Articulations, or Liquids, are L, and the Nasals M, N, and Ng. R has been com- monly included as a Liquid, but it has none of the coales- cent and quantitative characteristics of the Liquid. The term " Liquid " is properly applied only to elements that flow into, and seem to be absorbed by, the articulation that follows. L, M, N, and Ng are peculiarly affected by the succeeding articulation. Before Breath articula- tions, they are so extremely short as hardly to add any perceptible quantity to the syllables, as in lap and lamp, quit and quilt, jlit and Jlint, thick and think, &c. : but before Voice Articulations they are long and sonorous, and add greatly to the duration of the syllabic utterance ; as in head and held, bad and band, juggle and jungle, &c. R is so softened away as almost to lose all articula- tive quality before an articulation ; but its sound is not ab- sorbed as that of the Liquids ; — it is rather slurred and omitted. 185. The following Lists contain examples of Mono- syllabic Combinations arranged in the order of their quan- titative duration, — the shortest first. 186. Breath Articulations. I. Up, sit, black. 11. Gulfs, healths, tenths, 2. If, both, gas, wash. nymphs, lengths. 3- Help, felt, elk, tent, lamp, 12. Adepts, sects. dreamt, bank. 13- Shap'st, sat'st, patched. 4- Self, health, else, Welsh, next. ninth, dance, nymph, 14. Thefts, asps, costs, desks. strength. iS- Fifths. 5- Apt, act. 16. Twelfths. 6. Steps, depth, feast, eighth 17. Help'st, halt'st, filched, (t-th), watch, ox. milk'st, want'st, 7- Left, wasp, fast, ask. flinched, limp'st, 8. Safes, fifth, deaths. tempt'st, think'st. 9- Gulped, milked, stamped, 18. Texts. inked. 19. Sixths. [p. Alps, bolts, belch, bulks, prints, inch, imps, tempts, thanks. 58 DIFFICULT COMBINATIONS. 187. Voice Articulations. I. Babe, trade, plague. 9- Graves, bathes. 2. Leave, bathe, ease, rouge. 10. Helm. 3. Ale, lame, own, tongue. 11. Bulbed. 4- Bulb, old, hemmed, end, 12. Bulbs, builds, bilge, lands 5- wronged. Delve, ells, aims, bronze, 1 3- finds, fringe Delved, bronzed. 6. 7- 8. pangs. Stabbed, begged. Cabs, adge, edge, eggs. Saved, seethed, grazed, rouged. 14. 16. i7- 18. Shelves. Helmed. Films. Judged. Bilged, changed. 188. Mixed Articulations. x . Breadth. 5- Hold'st. 2. Stabb'st, add'st, begg'st. 6. Delv'st. 3- Striv'st. 7- Lov'd'st. t 4- Fail'st. i XX. DIFFICULT COMBINATIONS. 189. In many of the above combinations there is a dif- ficulty of distinct enunciation which will be readily re- moved by reference to the principle explained in par. 154. Give to every articulation its appropriate " action." 190. A tendency to indistinctness is especially felt in combinations of the Breath Obstructives — such as pt and kt, which are of very frequent occurrence. All verbs ending in p or k have the sounds of pt or kt in the past tense, as stopped, walked, &c. The following is a list of words for exercise. Pronounce the pt and ct like the words "pit " and " kit" whispered : — Apt, strapped, kept, slept, whipped, shipped, lopped, cupped, shaped, steeped, piped, hoped, cooped, chapter, styptic, reptile, rapture, captain ; act, tact, sect, erect, strict, hacked, shocked, ducked, poked, looked, walked, ached, leaked, liked, cactus, lacteal, affected, lecture, picture, dictate, instructive, octave, doctor. 191. The following words embody similar principles of difficulty. Repeat each word several times — quickly and with firm accentuation : — Acts, beef, beef-broth, chaise, come, copts, cut, cloud-capt, eighths, (t-ths,) etiquette, faith, fifths, inked, judged, knitting, DIFFICULT COMBINATIONS. 59 laurel, literal, literally, literary, literarily, linen, little, litter, memnon, mimic, move, muff, needle, puff, puffed, plural, pea- cock, quick, quaked, quiet, rail, railroad, raillery, ruler, rural, rivalry, roller, runnel, saith, sash, sashes, search, such, sects, sixths, sooth, soothe, Scotch, slash, sloth, slain, slipped, snail, statist, statistics, shuts, this, thither, thief, thatch, thrash, texts, twelfths, vivid, vivify, vivification, weave, wife, weep, whiff, whip. 192. The following phrases and sentences contain ele- mentary sequences and alternations which are organically difficult. Repeat each sentence two or three times with- out stopping : — Very well. Farewell in welfare. Puff up the fop. Fine white wine vinegar with veal. Velvet weaver. Weave the withes. Five wives weave withes. May we vie ? Pretty, frisky, playful fellow. A very wilful whimsical fellow. A comic mimic. Move the muse by mute manoeuvres. Bring a bit of buttered brown bread. Such pranks Frank's prawns play in the tank. A paltry portly puppy. Portly poultry. A wet white wafer. Beef tea and veal broth. Put the cut pumpkin in a pipkin. Pick pepper peacock. Coop up the cook. A bad big dog. A big mad dog bit bad Bob. Don't attack the cat, Dick. Keep the tippet ticket. Come quickly. Catch the cats. Kate hates tight tapes. Tie tight Dick's kite. Geese cackle, cattle low, crows caw, cocks crow. The tea-caddy key. The key of the tea-caddy. A knapsack strap. Pick up the pips. Take tape and tie the cape. Kate's baked cakes. Quit contact. A school coal-scuttle. Put the pot on the top of the poop. A great big brig's freight. Bid Bob good bye. Pick a pitcher full of pippins. Come and cut the tongue, cook. The bleak breeze blighted the bright broom blossoms. Dick dipped the tippet and dripped it. Fanny flattered foppish Fred. Giddy Kittie's tawdry gewgaws. Kitchen chit-chat. The needy needle- woman needn't wheedle. Fetch the poor fellow's feather pillow. A very watery western vapour. A sloppy, slippery, sleety day. Catch Kate's ten cats. The kitten killed the chicken in the kitchen. Six thick thistle sticks. She says she shall sew a sheet. A sure sign of sunshine. The sun shines on the shop signs: A shocking sottish set of shopmen. Such a sash. A shot-silk sash shop. A short soft shot-silk sash. A silly shatter-brained chatterbox. Shilly-shally, silly Sally. Sickening, stickling, shilly-shally sil- liness. It is a shame, Sam, these are the same, Sam, 'tis all a sham, Sam, and a shame it is to sham so, Sam. Fetch six chaises Catch the cats. Pas que je sache. She thrust it through the thatch. Thrice the shrew threw the shoe. The slow snail's slime. A swan swam over the sea, swim, swan, swim, well swam, swan. I snuff shop snuff, do you snuff shop snuff? She sells sea-shells. Some shjin sunshine. The sweep's suitably sooty suit. A rural ruler. Truly rural. Rural raillery. A laurel crowned clown. Rob Low's lum reeks. Let reason rule your life. A lump of 60 ACCENT. raw red liver. Literally literary. Railway literature. A lucent rubicund rotatory luminary. Robert loudly rebuked Richard, who ran lustily roarng round the lobby. Don't run along the wrong labyrinth. FLs right leg lagged in the race. Don't run tdong the lane in the rain. Lucy likes light literature. Let me recollect a little. A li f tle tittle. A little ninny. A little knitting needle. Let little Nellie run. A menial million. A million minions. A million menial minions. We shall be in an inn in an instant. Don't go on, Ann, in an uninanimated manner. 193. The following phrases and sentences require careful attention to avoid ambiguity. Reiterate the am- biguous portions without hiatus : — Laid in the cold ground, (not coal ground.) Half I see the panting spirit sigh, (not spirit's eye.) Be the same in thine own act and valour as thou art in desire, (not thy known.) Oh, the torment of an ever-meddling memory, (not a never meddling. ) All night it lay an ice-drop there, (not a nice drop ) Would that all difference of sects were at an end, (not sex.) Oh, studied de- ceit, (not study.) A sad dangler, (not angler.) Goodness cen- tres in the heart, (not enters.) His crime moved me, (not cry.) Chaste stars, (not chase tars.) She could pain noboby, (not pay.) Make clean our hearts, (not lean.) His beard descending swept fiis aged breast, (not beer.) XXI. ACCENT OR SYLLABIC STRESS. 194. Every word of more than a single syllable has one of its syllables made prominent, by superior force of articulative or vocal effort: — this is called " accent." 195. When the accented syllable of a word is the third, or any syllable beyond the third, from the beginning, a slight accentual stress is laid on some former syllable to support a rhythmical pronunciation. Thus : — (I.) If the primary accent is on the third syllable a secondary accent is on the first ; (II. ) when the primary is on the fourth syllable, the secondary may be either on the first or second; (III.) when the primary accent is on the fifth, the secondary will be on the second syllable, or there may be two secondary accents, namely, on the first and third syllables ; and, (IV.) when the primary accent is on the sixth syllable, there will be two second- aries — distributed either on the first and third, the first and fourth, or the second and fourth syllables. The primary accent never falls beyond the sixth syllable. ACCENT. 6l 196. The following table exhibits all the varieties of English accentuation. The asterisks (*) denote the ac- cent; the large dots, secondary accent; and the small dots, unaccented syllables. 197. Table of Verbal Accents. * • • * • • * • • • * • * *•••■ 5- 6. 7. 8. • • • * • • • * • - • • * ■ • • • •••#• j • • • • * • * • | * - ■ 198. Words Illustrative of the Preceding- Table. i. Wayward, temperate, temporary, necessariness. 2. Away, remember, contemporal, inveterately, un- necessarily. 3. Recommend, contemplation, anatomical, disingen- uously, inconsiderableness. 4. Superintend, epigrammatic, superabundantly. 5. Misunderstand, subordination, extemporaneous, in- valitudinary. 6. Personification, impracticability. 7. Antipestilential, indestructibility. 8. Intercolumniation, incommunicability, incompre- hensibility. Principles of Accentuation. 199. The general principles that regulate the position of the accent, are the following : — I. The seat of accent tends to the penultimate syllables of dissyllables, and to the ante-penultimate of polysyllables, if no other princi- ple occur to thwart this tendency ; as in aspect, comfort, aggravate, orator, &c. II. The accent of the primitive word is generally re- 62 ACCENT. tained in derivatives, as in accept, acceptable, commend, commendable, &c. III. Words of the same orthography, but of different J>arts of speech, (especially nouns and verbs,) are gener- ally distinguished by difference of accent, as in at'tribute, attrib'ute, accent, accent', reb'el, rebel', &c. The verbs in such cases have the lower accent. IV. Prefixes, terminations, and syllables common to a number of words, are generally without accent ; such as ab, be, con, in, re, mis, ness, less, ly, full, sion, tion, ing, able, ible, ally, ary, &c. 200. When three or more syllables follow the accent, a secondary force is generally accorded to one of them for the sake of avoiding, by an agreeable rhythm, the hurry- ing effect of a long cluster of unaccented syllables. Thus, in such words as the following, the voice will be more or less distinctly poised on the second syllables after the accent : — Ab"dica'tive, accessoriness, arbitrarily, calculatory, figura- tively, gentlewoman, indicator, opinionativeness, secretaryship, temporarily. 201. In all the preceding accentual illustrations, the primary and secondary accents are separated by one or two syllables. They may, however, occur in proximate syllables, as in the words A'men", fare' well". In pro- nouncing these words, the time of an unaccented sylla- ble intervenes between the accents. Thus, " Amen," and " eighty men," " farewell," and " fare thee well," occupy exactly the same time in utterance. 202. Words are frequently used in poetry with false accentuation. The reader must not sacrifice ordinary prose propriety to suit the casual poetic accent. A com- promise may generally be effected by accentuating both the regularly and the rhythmically accented syllables. Thus the words " ravines" and u supreme," in the fol- lowing lines, may be pronounced rav'ines' and su'preme' : " Ye ice-falls ! ye, that from the mountain's brow Adown enormous rav'ines' slope amain !" " Our su'preme' foe, in time, may much remit." ACCENTS. 63 Sentential Accents. 203. In the pronunciation of sentences, the words are not delivered with separate accentuation, as in a vocabu- lary, but they are collocated into accentual groups, ac- cording to grammatical connection and relative value to the sense. Certain classes of words are generally unac- cented ; such as articles, prepositions, pronouns, aux- iliary verbs, and conjunctions. These are primarily accented, only when they are used with antithesis. The same principles which regulate the secondary ac- centuation of single words, apply also to the grammatical groups, or " oratorical words." 204. When words, the accentual syllables of which are the same, are used in contrast, the primary accent is transposed to the syllable of difference, and the regular primary receives a secondary accent ; as in com'prehen"d, pronounced com"prehen'd when opposed to ap"prehend', lit'erall"y and lit'erar'y, affect' and effect', in'form' and re"form', ex"pel' and im"pel', mor"tal'ity and im"- mortal'ity, re"lig'ion and ir'relig'ion, &c. This trans- position always takes place in the second word of the contrasted pair, but not on the first, unless the contrast is distinctly instituted on its utterance. 205. The same principle of contrast or antithesis, ex- pressed or implied, regulates the accentuation or emphasis of sentences. Any phrase or sentence containing a word or idea that has been previously expressed or implied in the context, will have the primary accent — or the em- phasis — on one of the other words, even though of the most subordinate class, conjunction, preposition, pro- noun, or article. Much judgement is displayed by a good reader in this accentual recognition of included thoughts or synonymous expressions. Thus in the word " un- feeling " in the following lines, the accent should fall on the negative prefix " un," to show that the word " tender," before used, includes the idea of " feeling." "To each, his sufferings; all are men, Condemn'd alike to groan ; The tender, for another's pain, The unfeeling, for his own." — Gray. 206. The subject of Emphasis will be found separately and fully illustrated in a subsequent section. THE PRINCIPLES OF ELOCUTION. PART SECOND. INTONATION AND CLAUSING. I. GENERAL PRINCIPLES. i . There is an essential difference between the move- ments of the voice in speech and in song. In singing, the voice dwells monotonously, for a definite time, upon every note, and leaps (or sometimes slides) upwards or downwards to the next. In speaking, the end of each note is invariably a slide, and the voice rarely dwells for a measurable space on any part of a note, but is con- stantly changing its pitch by upward or downward move- ment, or i}iJlexion. 2. The kind and degree of inflexion with which words are pronounced are peculiarly expressive of their rela- tion to the context, or to the feeling of the speaker. Thus the rising turns are connective, referential, dubious, appellatory, or tender in expression ; and the falli?zg inflexions are disjunctive, independent, positive, 7Jian- datory, or harsh. 3. The vocal expressions constitute a Natural Lan- guage, of the import of which mankind are intuitively conscious. The language of tones is most perfectly de- veloped when the feelings are excited, and the speaker is free from all restraint. Children, before their utterance has become denaturalized by school-discipline in " read- ing," speak with the most beautifully expressive intona- tion ; and all persons of sprightly, temperament deliver themselves, in animated conversation, with little short of the expressive perfection of infantile oratory. 5 66 MECHANISM OF INFLEXIONS. 4. The universally observed difference in the intona- tions of reading and speaking arises, in a very great measure, from the manner in which children are allowed to read — in entire ignorance or neglect of the principles of intonation. A natural expressiveness may, and should, be given, even to the A, B, C, or the Multiplication Table. II. MECHANISM OF THE INFLEXIONS. 5. Inflexions are either simple or compound in mech- anism. Simple inflexions consist of two points : — the pitch, accented ; and the termination, unaccented. Thus :— rising, . • (') falling, ' . (v) Compound inflexions consist of three points, by the union of the two simple movements with one accent. Thus : — rising, M falling, .-. (/s) 6. The most important fundamental principle of in- flexion is primarily a mechanical one ; for, if the inflex- ions are faultily formed, they will be neither pleasing nor expressive, but harsh to the ear, false to the sentiment, and injurious to the voice. An illustrative diagram will best explain this principle. Simple Inflexions. I 2 3 4 7 / / \ \ \ > / This diagram represents the speaking voice divided into an upper and a lower half, the middle line denoting the middle pitch, the upper line the highest, and the lower line the lowest pitch. 7. If inflexions are commenced on the middle tone of the voice, as in the first division of the diagram, the speaker, manifestly, has but half his vocal compass MECHANISM OF INFLEXIONS. 6 J through which to range upwards or downwards ; and the voice will erack, or croak, shrilly or hoarsely, if a forcible or emphatic inflexion be attempted. 8. Still more limited and powerless will the inflexions be, if rising turns are pitched above, or falling turns below, the middle tone, as in the second section of the diagram. 9. Grace and energy are attained by depressing the radical part of the inflexion below the middle tone for a rise, and by elevating it above the middle tone for a. fall, as in the third and fourth sections of the diagram ; the greater or less extent of the accentual elevation or depres- sion of pitch corresponding to the emphasis of the utter- ance. 10. Thus, the most extensive rising inflexion may not actually rise higher than a comparatively weak and un- impassioned movement, — but it will begin lower, and with greater radical intensity ; and, on the same principle, the most extensive falling inflexion will not be that which falls lowest, but that which, with radical intensity, begins highest. 1 1 . Unemphatic inflexions are formed as in the first and second divisions of the diagram. 12. The tones are capable of great variety, both in radi- cal fitch, and also in extent of inflexion. The rise or fall may be made through any interval, and with an almost endless diversity of pitch. 13. The mechanism of the compound inflexions exem- plifies the same principles of vocal range. The compound Rise consists of a simple falling tone finished with upward inflexion ; and its commencement (the accented part) is pitched within the lower half of the voice in the less em- phatic mode, and in the upper half, in the more emphatic. The compound Fall consists of a simple rising tone fin- ished by downward inflexion, and its accented commence- ment is pitched within the upper half of the voice in the less emphatic mode ; and in the lower half, in the more emphatic. 14. In the utterance of these compound tones, the fol- lowing principle is to be noted. The voice reaches the turning point in the pronunciation of a single syllable. The termination of the tone may be prolonged through 6S • NOTATION OF INFLEXIONS. any number of subsequent syllables. The termination may extend to the same pitch as the commencement, or it may stop short of it, or go beyond it. 15. The following diagram illustrates the mechanism of the compound inflexions. A rising Double Wave is exhibited in the third division of the diagram. This consists of an ordinary Compound Fall, finished with up- ward inflexion. The voice reaches the second turning point in the pronunciation of the accented syllable. A falling Double Wave is a possible compound tone that is never used. Its effect is not pleasing. The rising Double Wave is frequently employed, and its effect is beautifully expressive. , Compound Inflexions * Compound Rise. Compound Fall. Double Wave. III. NOTATION OF THE INFLEXIONS. 16. The notation of the inflexions* is founded on the principle of their mechanism. The marks are placed below the word when the pitch of the accented syllable is in the lower half of the voice, and above the word, when the inflexion is pitched within the upper half. Thus : — Well. Ah! Yes. Go! Not I! Beware! You! Oh! 17. The notation used in subsequent exercises repre- sents four degrees, which, (without any attempt at strict musical accuracy,) may be taken to correspond generally with the intervals of the second, third, fifth, and octave. 18. The intervals of the semitone and the minor third have a peculiarly plaintive effect. The cry of " Fire !" may be assumed as an appropriate key-word, as it is uni- See "Expressive Exercises," in a subsequent section. EXPRESSIVENESS OF INFLEXIONS. 69 versally uttered with plaintive intonation. Pronounce this word with natural expressiveness, and alternate with it any words of fear or sadness, with similar inflexion, and the plaintive intervals may be satisfactorily practised even by the ' ' ear "-less and unmusical student Fire I Fire I Alas I Ah I Well- a- day I Farewell! Ah ?ne ! IV. PREPARATORY PITCH. 19. Inflexion is associated with accent. The radical part of the inflexion coincides with the accentual force. When any syllable or syllables precede the accent, they should be pronounced in the opposite half of the voice — high when the accent is low, and low when the accent is high. Thus : — What now ? Indeed ! All right. Away ! Not I ! Take care ! Aha ! Oh really ! 20. This principle of opposition of preparatory pitch gives distinctiveness to two Modes of each inflexion ; the one mode having the accent lower, and the other mode having the accent higher, than the pre-accentual pitch. A farther difference in the expressive force of each tone depends on the direction in which the pre-accentual syl- lables are inflected, i. . . . . weaker TIME. 7. A corresponding notation is employed for the Time or rate of utterance ; including a " common" or medium degree, and two degrees relatively quicker, and two slower. Thus : — R Rapid Q^ Quick C Common S Slow T Tardy The following additional signs for relative time may sometimes be found convenient : V . . . quicker y\ . . slower EXPRESSIVE QUALITY. IO9 8. Simple narrative generally requires a medium Force and Time ; animated description an increase of energy and speed ; violent passions a greater increase ; and ten- der emotions a decrease. Pathos and solemnity require a slow movement. Subordinate clauses and sentences, parentheses, &C, are, generally, but not always, pro- nounced with less force and in quicker time than princi- pal members. 9. A great deal of pleasing and expressive variety may be produced by slight variations of Pitch, Force, and Time. The musician's consummate delicacy of execution, in keeping the simple air running with a separate cur- rent in the midst of a river of variations, has its counter- part in the reader's vocal adaptation of sound to sense. The painter's artistic excellence in selecting objects to be " struck out " with varied effects, or " covered down " for contrast, is emulated by the skilful reader, in the due subordination or prominence of every thought and cir- cumstance, according to its relative importance. A Mas- ter of Ceremonies is not more punctilious in his arrange- ments than the voice of a tasteful and judicious reader. EXPRESSIVE QUALITY. *"/* 10. Under this head are comprehended such Expres- sive Modulations as fundamentally affect the quality of the voice, or the mode of utterance, and enable the reader to " make the sound an echo to the sense." 1 1 . The most finely toned voice, with all the charms of graceful and distinct articulation, will not suffice to make an effective reader, if there be not a constant cur- rent of sentiment streaming through the inflexions and articulate utterances. Speech, though chiefly mechani- cal, and therefore, — so far as articulation, force, time, and musical changes are concerned, — imitable by artificial contrivances, receives a higher and inimitable expressive- ness from the feeling of the speaker. There is a Vocal Logic ; a Rhetoric of Inflexion ; a Poetry of Modulation ; a Commentator's explanatoriness of Tone, — and these are combined in effective reading. Reading fails of half its proper effect, and of its highest purpose, if it does not fur- nish, besides a vocal transcript of the written language, no EXPRESSIVE QUALITY. a commentary upon its sentiment, and a judgement upon its reasoning. The language of Emotion must accompany every utterance that is naturally delivered. Yet how many merely mechanical speakers there are, whose voices know no thrill of feeling, and who throw off their tame mo- notonous oratory " coldly correct and regularly dull," nerveless, and passionless as automata. Let it be the ob- ject of the elocutionary student to awaken in himself a sympathetic sensibility with every utterance ; — to "learn to feel ;" — and to keep the fine-strung organs of expres- siveness in a state of delicate susceptibility. Let him make the language he reads his own, and always, in its delivery, " be in earnest." A simple system of notation, will be of great assistance in the formation of a habit of discriminating Expressiveness. 12. The following elements of Expressive quality will be found sufficiently to indicate the functional manifes- tations of nearly all passions. Abbreviations for notation are shown within parentheses. ELEMENTS Qualities. Whisper (Wh.) . . Hoarseness (Ho.) . Orotund (Or.) Falsetto (Fa.) Monotone (Mo.) Plaintive (PI.) Tremor (Tr.) . Chuckle (Ch.) Staccato (St.) Smooth (Sm. ) . Rhythm (Rh.) Prolongation (Pr.)- Restraint (Res.) OF EXPRESSIVE QUALITY. Expressions. Secrecy, cunning, apprehension of evil, fearful suspense, &c. Horror, loathing, agonj, despair, &c. Pomp, sublimity, vastness ; also bom- bast, self-importance, &c. Puerility, senility; also acute anguish, or overpowering mirth, &c. Reflection, gloom, melancholy, awe, &c. Suffering, sympathy, desire, supplica-. tion, &c. Anxiety, alarm, eagerness, intense emo- tion. Boasting, triumph, delight, sneering, merriment, &c. Recrimination, reproach, &c. ; also dis- tributed emphasis. Admiration, tenderness, love, enjoyment, &c. Regular movement, alternation, sugges- tion of music. -Scorn, malignity ; also admiration, long- ing, &c. Effect of distance ; also subdued passion, choking, &c. EXPRESSIVE QUALITY. Ill Straining (Str.) . Panting (Pan.) . Inspiration (In.) . Expiration (Ex.) Percussion (Per.) Hem (Hm.). . . Imitation (Im.) . Sympathy (Sym.) Apathy (Ap.) . . Warmth (Wa.) . Sarcasm (Sar.) . Break (...) Stop (^tn) . . . Effect of difficult effort ; also violent an- ger, &c. Perturbation, flurry, exhaustion, mental suffering, &c. Mental or bodily agony, apprehension of suffering, &c. Sadness, sighing, sympathy in suffering, &c. Intensity of feeling, whether of joy or sorrow. Impatience, sneering, contempt, &c. Analogizing properties of sound or mo- tion, by degrees of Force, Time, &c. : also ridicule. Analogizing sentiments of gaiety, &c, by buoyant inflection ; and of solemnity by subdued tones, &c. Inaccordance of expression with senti- ment ; indifference, &c. Admiration, enjoyment, eagerness, an- ger, &c. Insincerity, double meaning, &c. Reflective, monitory, hesitant, sugges- tive. Meditation, listening, anxious watchful- ness, terror, &c. 13. Explanatory Notes on the Preceding Expressive Qualities. Orotund: — A deep, full-throated, mellow voice. Falsetto : — A thin, shrill voice. Plaintive : — Inflexions limited to the semitone and minor third. Tremor • 1 ^^ e °l ua ^ty of tremor is common equally to I sentiments of sadness and joy. The inflec- Chuckt inc • 1 ^ ve ^ nterva ^ s are i n ^e minor mode for the J former, and in the major mode for the latter. Staccato : — Pointed accentuation on every word or every syllable. Smooth: — Soft, flowing, slightly accentuated sound. Rhythm : — Equal pulsation of accent and remission. Prolongation : — Either of vowel sound or of consonant effect. Restraint : — The volume of voice checked at the throat. Straining : — Restrained voice with strong consonant pressure. Percussion : — Either of voice from the throat or of consonant breath. Hem : — A kind of snorting utterance. 112 EXPRESSIVE QUALITY. 14. Recapitulative Table of the Notations for Inflexion, Pitch, Force, Time, and Expression. Pitck. Force. Time. 5 • . . High V Vehemence R . . Rapid 4 • . . Above E Energy 0. • Quick 3 • . . Middle M Moderate C . . Common Below W Weak s . Slow 1 Low F Feeble T . . Tardy r • . Higher < . . Stronger V Quicker L • . Lower > . Weaker A . . Slower I • . . Clause . Break rv\ Pause Expression. Wh Whisper St . Staccato Ex . Expiration Ho Hoarseness Sm Smooth Per . Percussion Or Orotund Rh . Rhythm Hm . Hem Fa Falsetto Pr . Prolongation Im . Imitation Mo Monotone Res. Restraint Sym . Sympathy PI . Plaintive Str . Straining Ap . Apathy Tr Tremor Pan. Panting Wa . Warmth Ch Chuckle In Inspiration Sar . Sarcasm Simple Inflexion- Compound. ' 1 ' 1 Rise Fall Rise Fall Middle • .• v >v :\ vr -v •\ Pitch • .• :• v -\ vr /v •N ./% 15. The following collection of short expressive pas- sages, carefully marked for exercise, will enable the stu- dent to acquire an agreeable flexibility and effective modu- lation of the voice, and to cultivate the habit of suiting the sound to the sense in reading. 16. The marking is to be considered merely as an exercise. The same passages might be read, — and EXERCISES IN EXPRESSIVE READING. I 1 3 perhaps with equal effect — in a variety of ways. The notation simply illustrates one mode, which is at least effective and fully expressive of the sense and sentiment. 17. The preparatory pitch of syllables before the ac- cent is not indicated in the printing. It is always, how- ever, implied. Thus the introductory couplet in the first extract is to be read : — V -V • • Not always actions show the man ; we find Who does a kindness is not therefore kind. EXERCISES IN EXPRESSIVE READING. ACTIONS. — Pope. Not always actions show the man ; we find Who does a kindness is not therefore kind : 5Ap , ' # ^ Perhaps prosperity becalmed his breast; V Perhaps the wind just shifted from the east : Not therefore humble he who seeks retreat ; Pride guides his steps, and bids him shun the great : 4 /> .v Who combats bravely is not therefore brave. He dreads a death-bed like the meanest slave : 1 . N 5 Who reasons wisely is not therefore wise. His pride, in reasoning, not in acting lies. ••\ v AMBITION. Yotcng. 3 • v Ambition, in the truly noble mind, <\ With sister . . . Virtue, is for ever joined. v V : v In meaner minds, Ambition works alone, 2 St . v But [with sly art, | puts Virtue's aspect on. No mask, in basest mind, Ambition wears, But, [in full light, | pricks up her ass's ears. 114 EXERCISES IN EXPRESSIVE READING. AMBITION DISSATISFIED. — Toung. 3 Consult the ambitious, — 'tis ambition's cure : "And is this all?" cried Caesar, fin his height, 2E :' Disgusted. • •\ AMBITION REPENTED. — Brooke. Oh ! that some villager, [whose early toil Lifts the penurious morsel to his mouth I Had claimed my birth ! ambition had not then 3 , Thus stept 'twixt me and heaven. V V AMBITIOUS RIVALRY. — CoiVper. 3 On the summit j see he seals of office glitter in his eyes ; -v v 2 He climbs, he pants, he grasps them. At his heels, v v Close at his heels, a demagogue ascends, And ] with a dext'rous jerk | soon twists him down, 4CA ^ Ex v v, * And wins them, . . . but to lose them in his turn. V ANCESTRY. — Alex. Bell. 3 If we must look to ancestry for fame, 'v • Let us at least deal justly with mankind. Why should we rake the ashes of the dead For honours only? why conceal their crimes? 3 ^ ^ ' We snatch our fathers' glories from the dust, And wear them [as our own : | Why should we seek .V To cover with oblivion ! their shames? 2# v # ' _St v . The frailties of our sires | set full in view | IP A v^ Might teach their children modesty. EXERCISES IN EXPRESSIVE READING. II5 ANGER. — Baillie. AY : v -v 3 v, Out upon thee, fool ! Go, speak thy . • . comforts Q v To spirits tame and abject as thyself: 4 v, 2 Ho They make me . . . mad. •si AVARICE. — Pope. Wealth in the gross is death, but life diffused; [As poison heals, in just proportion used : In heaps, [like ambergris, | a stink it lies, 4 v, : v But, well dispersed, is incense to the skies. beauty. — Baillie. To make the cunning artless, tame the rude, / v Subdue the haughty, shake the undaunted soul ; 4 Yea, put a bridle in the lion's mouth, St •' .^ [And lead him forth as a domestic cur, — Wa .v These are the triumphs of all powerful beauty. blindness. — Milton . Oh! dark, dark, dark, [amid the blaze of noon, I PI v v . N Irrevocably dark — total eclipse — \" Without all hope of day! J 4 & Oh, first created beam, and thou, great Word. Or " Let there be light," [and light was | over all : | ^ -PJ . \ • • v Why am I | thus bereav'd thy prime decree ? CHARITY. — Rotve. 3 Think not, the good, V The gentle deeds of mercv thou hast done, v . • 2 '* v Shall die forgotten all : the poor, the prisoner, v v The fatherless, the friendless, and the widow, l6 EXERCISES IN EXPRESSIVE READING. |_Who daily own the bounty of thy hand, | . v Per Shall cry to Heaven, and pull a blessing on thee. CHILDHOOD. 3 , The world of a child's imagination is the creation of a far V V holier spell I than hath been ever wrought [by the pride of learn- v v 4 v ./% ing, or the inspiration of poetic fancy. Innocence that thinketh V • V no evil ; ignorance that apprehendeth none ; hope that hath E .v experienced no blight : love that suspecteth no guile ; these are v v v, v Wa its ministering angels ! these wield a wand of power, making this earth a paradise 1/rvTime, [hard, rigid teacher ! | Reality, [rough, •\ v Ex ~ . v stern reality! | World, [cold, heartless world! that ever your > v > Tr . N sad experience, your sombre truths, your killing cold, your Q Per * 3 v ^ ^ withering success, could scare those gentle spirits from their 2 holy temple ! And wherewith do ye replace them ? With caution, 3 v - v [that repulses confidence, | with doubt, [that repelleth love ; j * .v v / E . v with reason that dispelleth delusion ; with fear, [that poisoneth ' s enjoyment; in a word, with knowledge, — that fatal fruit, the , V - V Ply tasting whereof, [at the first onset, I cost us paradise. / -V COMMENTATORS. — Toung. • v/ .v Commentators each dark passage shun, And hold their . . . farthing candle to the sun. contempt. — Byron. * .v 2Q Patience ! Hence, — that word was made For brutes of burthen, not for birds of prey; — IE v ^ Preach it to mortals of a dust like thine, I . . . am not of thine order. EXERCISES IN EXPRESSIVE READING. corruption. — Coivj>er. i Examine well .v 3S v v His . . . milk-white hand 'Tvthe palm is hardly clean, V V ->But | here and there, an ugly smutch appears. lPdr IE .. v 2 St v Foh ! 'twas a bribe that left it. He has touched Corruption. courage. — Brown. The intent [and not the deed j 3 ' ^ Is in our power ; and therefore, who dares greatly, Does greatly. conflicting passions. — Shakespeare. 4 I pr'ythee, daughter, do not make me mad ! 3 STr y , v W1J St X We'll no more meet, no more see one another ! 2 Per < ^ > But yet thou art my flesh, my blood, my daughter, i E .. v • • ' Or, rather, a disease that's in my flesh — .v v Ho .. v Which I must needs call mine ! thou art /c\ a boil — ■V A plague-sore — an embossed carbuncle, 3FS v In my corrupted blood . . . But v v v v v v As hounds and greyhounds, mongrels, spaniels, curs„ Shoughs, water-rugs, and demi-wolves, are cleped All by the name of dogs : | the valued file .v 3£ Distinguishes . . . the swift, the slow, the subtle, v 4v v v The house-keeper, the hunter, every one / v . . v According to the gift which bounteous Nature •\ Hath in him closed ; wherebv he doth receive v Particular addition, from the bill That writes them all alike. EXERCISES IN EXPRESSIVE READING. II9 DISTINCTIONS. v / Kaman society requires distinctions of property, diversity of conditions, subordinations of rank, and a multiplicity of occu- pations, I in order to advance the general good. distraction. — Shakespeare. * PI . v / You see me here, ye gods, a poor old man, . v Per As full of grief as age, wretched in both ! 5 Tr Pr ^ You think I'll weep ; no, I'll not weep : — 2E Per /\ 4 / I have full cause of weeping; but this heart • V Shall /T\ burst into a hundred thousand flaws, . v .. y Fa 2 St Or ere I'll weep — O Gods, I shall go mad ! dominion. — Milton . Here we may reign secure; and, [in my choice, | " v . To reign is worth ambition [though in hell : 4 v Hm s^y, \ Better to reign in hell than . . . serve in heaven. EMOTIONS. • .v • The emotions pervade every operation of the mind, as the life-blood circulates through the body; within us and without. / / / in the corporeal world and in the spiritual, in the past, the present, • .V and the future, there is no object of thought which they do not touch ; there are few, very few, which they do not colour and transmute. •V energetic effort. — Shakespeare. 3 _ Sir I saw him . . . beat the surges under him, . " v " v And ride upon their backs ; he trod the water, [Whose enmity he flung aside, [and breasted 120 EXERCISES IN EXPRESSIVE READING. Eh The surge most swollen that met him : his bold head Pr 'Bove the contentious waves he kept, and oared • *\ Himself with his good arms, in lusty strokes, V s\ To the shore, [that [o'er his wave-borne basis j bowed As stooping to relieve him. envy. — Byron. 3J»f v . , He who ascends to mountain-tops shall find The loftiest peaks most wrapt in clouds and snow : 2S .^ He who sui-passes or subdues mankind, •\ [Must look down on the hate of those below. 3 , Though [high above, | the sun of glory glow, •v / And [far beneath | the earth and ocean spread, Round him are icy rocks, | and loudly blow • v * v Sym Contending tempests | on his naked head ; 4 E vr • v And thus . . . reward . . . the toils which to those summits led. .^ v evil conscience. — Dryden. 3E -v / Str Here, here it lies : a lump . . . of /T\ lead, | by day? | v PI -v / v And j in my short, distracted nightly slumbers | Ho Ex The hag . . . that rides my dreams. exasperation. — Baillie. 3 Tr v -v Oh ! the side glance of that detested eve ! ~ v V V That conscious smile ! that full insulting lip ! existence. —Sew ell. It touches everv nerve : it makes me . . . mad ! To be, is better far than not to be, ^ ^ [Else nature cheated us in our formation. 4k , Sm And when we are, the sweet delusion wears EXERCISES IN EXPRESSIVE READING. 121 v •. Such various charms and prospects of delight, v That what we could not will, we make our choice. V •v [Desirous to prolong the life she gave. EX-OFFICIO ENDOWMENTS. — Toung. v \r v/ 'v All soldiers, valour, [all divines have grace, • v St [As maids of honour, beauty, [by their place. EXPERIENCE. — Toung. 3 -v / 'Tis greatly wise to talk with our past hours ; IS And ask them . . . what report thej brought to heaven ; 2 PI v, ^ Tr * / And how thev might have borne . . . more welcome news. 3J»f / -v •' Their answers form what men Experience call ; If Wisdom's friend, her best, if not, worst foe. FAITH. v Though faith be above reason, yet is there a reason to be v ^ '"> given of our faith. He is a fool who believes he neither knows what nor why. fame. — Toung. With fame [in just proportion | envy grows ; ' • y *\ The man that makes a character makes foes. fidelity — Maturin. Yea, time hath power upon my hopeless love; 8 ./> ' •> •' And what a power, I'll tell thee : IS Rh - v A power to change the pulses of the heart Per . v To one /^ dull /T\ throb, of ceaseless agony — 3 Pr To hush the sigh on the resigned lip And lock it in the heart, — freeze the hot tear, PI -^ Per And bid it on the eyelid hang . . . forever : Such power hath time o'er me. 122 EXERCISES IN EXPRESSIVE READING. fortitude. — Byron. The tortm-e ! you have put me there, already, ^ "' 3 Daily [since I was Doge ! | but [if you will / 4Q - v 3 ^ ^ Add the corporeal rack | you may : these limbs • / / IE Will yield [with age | to crushing iron, but ^ *Str #/x There's that within my heart shall strain your engines. fortune. — Tennyson. * • v v / / Turn, Fortune, turn thy wheel and lower the proud; 3 v v ^ v Turn thy wild wheel [thro' sunshine, storm, and cloud; Thy Avheel and thee | we | neither love nor hate. Turn, Fortune, turn thy wheel with smile or frown ; StE ' ' / v With that wild wheel we go not up or down ; Our hoard is little, but our hearts are great. GREATNESS. — Toting. V • ./\ *v High stations, tumult, [but not bliss I create : None think the great unhappy but the great. hearts. — Byron. Heads bow, knees bend, eyes watch, [around a throne, — ' , ±E ' \v, 3Hm n And hands obey | our hearts . . . are still our own. .•x /\ HUMAN LIFE. — Coivfier. •v / In such a world, [so thorny, and where none / Finds happiness unblighted, [or [if found, [Without some thistly sorrow at its side, || It seems the part of wisdom, and no sin St ' Against the law of love, to measure lots ~ 2 With less distinguished than ourselves, that thus We may, with patience, bear our moderate ills, ■\ V And sympathize with others, suffering more. EXERCISES IN EXPRESSIVE READING. 1 23, HUMAN WRETCHEDNESS. — Southey. 3 As her bier •v 4 Went to the grave, a lark sprang up aloft, Pr 3 And soar'd amid the sunshine, caroling •v / • Ex So full of joy, that [to the mourner's ear •N / More mournfully than dirge or passing bell 2S v ' / His joyful carol came /r\ and made us leel •v v -V That [of the multitude of beings, | none . . . Ex / Per But man . . . was wretched ! .' 'N if. — Shakespeare. ■ 4 I knew when seven justices could not take up a quarrel ; but when the parties were met themselves, one of them thought but •v 3 v ^ 2Pr of an If, as " If you said so, then I said so" " Oh, /t\ did you 1 Ch . v ^ ' ^ ^ so?" — and they shook hands and were sworn brothers. V imitation. — Blair. 3 v . . •> Nothing is more natural than to imitate, [bv the sound of the voice, I the quality of the sound [or noise | which any external object makes, and to form its name accordingly. A certain bird is termed the Cuckoo, from the sound which it emits. When hn v Im one sort of wind is said to . . . whistle, and another to . . . roar ; Pr Pr when a serpent is said to hiss, a fly to buzz, and falling timber Per Sm E to . . . crash; when a stream is said to flow, and hail to rat- tle; the analogy between the word and the thing signified is- plainly discernible. ingratitude. — Shakespeare. S Pr - V . V y Blow, blow, thou wintry wind, Pl Thou art not so unkind v •' As man's ingratitude ; Thy tooth is not so keen, 124 EXERCISES IN EXPRESSIVE READING. [Because thou art not seen | Although thy breath be rude. Tr. Pr. -v ^ . v v Freeze, freeze, thou bitter sky, Thou dost not bite so nigh As benefits forgot : Though thou the waters warp .V Thy sting is not so sharp As — Friend remembered not. insect life. — American Paper. 3 -v / 4 v Insects generally must lead a truly jovial life. Think what it must be [to lodge in a lily. Imagine— a palace /C\ of ivory and / ' v St pearl /T\ with pillars of silver and capitals of gold, and exhaling such a perfume as never arose from human censer. Fancv again, V V V V • • / the fun | of tucking one's-self up for the night in the folds of a v IRh 5 v rose, rocked to sleep by the gentle sighs of summer air, nothing • 3 to do when you wake but to wash yourself in a dew drop, and Ch ,, •< fall to eat your bedclothes. INTERROGATION. 4 3 " I have something more to ask you," said a young eagle | to a • V 4S , v learned, melancholy owl : " Men say | there is a bird, [by name Merops, | who, when he rises in the air, flies with his tail up- v, -v 5CA V ~ wards and his head towards the ground. Is that true ?" 2 Or 4 v :' " Certainly not," answered the owl, " it is only a foolish tra- z /N .v v 3 v 2S. dition of man ; he is himself a Merops : for he would fly to heaven, without | for a moment | losing sight of the earth." EXERCISES IN EXPRESSIVE READING. 12^ kingly power. — Shakespeare. 3 i/s Per Oh, not a minute, king, thy power can give : 4 v, v • v / Shorten my days thou can'st [with sullen sorrow | , 2 St And pluck nights from me, but not lend a morrow : Thou can'st help Time to furrow me [with age, | 3 v v But stop no wrinkle in his pilgrimage ; '? . Thy word is current with him, for my death ; .• 5 E /\ But, fdead, | thy kingdom cannot buy my breath. laziness. — Hall. Laziness grows on people ; it begins in cobwebs, and ends /r\ in ; / • iron chains. The more business a man has, the more he is able •v v . ' ^ to accomplish; for^r\ he learns to economize his time. life. — Madden. I have tried this world fin all its changes. States, and conditions : | have been great, and happy, / * v lEx •' Wretched and low, and passed through all its stages, US •* ■* v, And, oh! believe me, [who have known it best, | 4 It is not worth the bustle that it costs ; 3 .v / v 'Tis but a medley — all — of idle hopes And abject childish fears. • «v LIGHTS AND SHADES. • v .• The gloomiest day hath gleams of light ; • v • The darkest wave hath white foam near it; And — twinkles through the cloudiest night Some solitary star to cheer it. IE 3 v The gloomiest soul is not all gloom; 4Jf . v ^ The saddest heart is not all sadness ; 3 Sm ■■' And sweetly o'er the darkest doom There shines some lingering beam of gladness- 126 EXERCISES IN EXPRESSIVE READING. lovers' studies. V • • / To a lover, the figures, the motions, the words of the beloved object, are not, [like other images, | written on water, but, [as / /\ • Plutarch said | " enameled in fire " and made the study of mid- night. lovers. — Sir R. Aytoun. Some men seem so distracted of their wits, That I would think it but a venial sin, To take | one of these innocents, that sit v/ .v Ch In Bedlam, | out, and put some lover in. ••\ ludicrous distress.— Henry Mackenzie. I had — a piece — of rich — sweet pudding — on my fork, when Miss v ' Tr v * Louisa Friendly begged to /T\ trouble me for part of a pigeon ■ ' Q .v v that stood near me. In my haste [scarce knowing what I did, I R v v ^ In I . . . whipped the pudding into my mouth, rrs hot, as a burning i coal! It was impossible to conceal my agony; my eyes were 3 S Pan . v v starting from their sockets ! At last, [in spite | of shame and "V resolution, | I was obliged to s?\ drop /T\ the cause of my torment on my plate. man. — Shakespeare. .v e .V / What a piece of work is man ! how noble in reason ! how V V infinite in faculties ! in form and moving how express and ad- mirable ! in action how like an angel ! in apprehension how like a god ! martyrs. — Hemans. 3 v Oh ! be the memory cherished Of those [the thousands i that around Truth's throne v s* ^ ESt Have poured their lives out, [smiling, /T\ [in that doom Finding a triumph, if denied a tomb ! — EXERCISES IX EXPRESSIVE READIXG. Ay, with their ashes hath the wind been sown, "A , E » x v And [with the wind j their spirit shall be spread, Wa v .v Filling man's heart with records of the dead. METHOD. The man who does not know how to methodize his thoughts has always [to borrow a phrase from the dispensary, | a barren superfluity of words. murder. — Dr. Porteoics. 3 '^y - v One murder made a villain : Millions a hero. Princes were privileged •v ,, Ex To kill, and numbers t\ sanctified the crime. v -r\ v mur de r. — Ba illie . 3 « Twice it call'd, — so loudly call'd, With horrid strength, [beyond the pitch of nature ; I And murder ! murder ! was the dreadful cry | 3 .v F A third time /r\ it returned, I with feeble strength, But . . . o' the sudden . . . ceased, ^as though the words In • v Str Were . . . smother'd . . . rudely ... in the graopled throatOv 4 And T\ ally's was still again, save the wild blast •V Which at distance growl'd — 2 Pr - v Oh! it will never from mv mind depart! 4 Tr 1 That dreadful cry ... all i' the instant stilled. parish .common. — Eliza Cook. 3 4 , It glads the eve it warms the soul To gaze upon the rugged knoll, Where tangled brushwood twines across The struggling brake and sedgy moss. 128 EXERCISES IN EXPRESSIVE READING. 4 Oh ! who would have the grain spring up Where now we find the daisy's cup? — Where clumps of dark red heather gleam With beauty in the summer beam, — . v Sym And yellow furze-bloom . . . laughs to scorn • s\ Your ripen'd hopes and bursting corn ? . . . 2 • v E v God speed the plough ! But let us trace * .V Something of nature's infant face ; 3 v ., St « Let us behold some spot [where man Has not yet set his " bar and ban," I Leave us some green wastes, [fresh and wild, I Tr * , For poor man's beast, and poor man's child. V V PARTING. 3 v / .v \r The true sadness of parting is not in the pain of separating ; it is the when and the how you are to meet again j with the face .v V • about to vanish from your view. From the passionate farewell, * . v to the friendly good-bye, a chord, stronger or weaker, is snapped , 3 v ^ 4 asunder in every parting. Meet again you may ; but will it be in the same circumstances? with the same sympathies? with the v 2S . same sentiments? Will the souls now hurrying on in diverse • v . . . / paths unite once more, as if the interval had been a dream? Rarely, oh, rarely. PRAYER. — N. P. Willis. 3-ST , Oh ! when the heart is full — when bitter thoughts Come crowding thickly up for utterance, — Per ^ And the poor common words of courtesy 1 3 is* Are such a very mockery — how much .V / The bursting heart may pour itself in prayer. EXERCISES IN EXPRESSIVE READING. 1 29 \ PROSPERITY. There is ever a certain languor attending the fulness of pros- 3 ' v .v • I'm perity. When the heart has no more to wish, it . . . yawns over -v V • its possessions, and the energy of the soul goes out, [like aflame that has no more to devour. reasoning. — Dr. Toung. Bid physicians talk our veins to temper, v • v And I with an argument | new-set a pulse : — Then think, [my lord, | of reasoning into love. •\ V «v REFLECTION. He that would pass the latter part of his life with honour and decency, must, when he is young, consider that he shall one day be old, and remember when he is old, that he has once been young. Scorn not the slightest word or deed, 2Q ' v Nor deem it void of power; There's fruit in each wind-wafted seed, r\ [Waiting its natal hour : | No act falls fruitless : none can tell How vast its power may be ; Nor what results infolded, dwell V Within it | silently. RIDICULOUS DEFERENCE. — CoiU^er. •\ / He would not, [with a peremptory tone, | Assert the nose upon his face, his own : 5 St v v With . . . hesitation /^admirably . . . slow, He . . . humbly . . . hopes, /t\ presumes ... it . . . may be so. 130 EXERCISES IN EXPRESSIVE READING. signs of love. — Dryden. I find she loves him much, [because she hides it. | 4 • vy v ~ Love teaches cunning even to innocence ; And, where he gets possession, his first work Is to dig deep within the heart, and there IS v a Lie hid I like a miser in the dark, 3 Wa / * * To feast alone. slavery. — Brougham. * •% V V V Tell me not of rights — talk not of the property of the planter / 5V : v in his slaves : — I deny the right, I acknowledge not the property. The principles, the feelings of our common nature rise in rebel- lion against it. spasmodic emotion. — Baillie. 3 , Res / I felt/CN a sudden tightness, rrs grasp my throat . . . 2 As it would strangle me, . . . such as I felt, K Ex , [I knew it well | some twenty years ago, Tr , ,' When . . . my good father . . . shed his blessing on me : . . . 3M .v v, •* I hate to weep, and so I came away. •V stairs to marriage. — Shakespeare. 3m / . v 5F y. Your brother and my sister no sooner met but they . . . looked : EQ / S ' u 3 / Im no sooner looked but they loved ; no sooner loved but they . . . Sym ■* > sighed ; no sooner sighed but thev asked one another the reason ; E .., Ch M'^ no sooner knew the reason, but they. . . sought the remedy; and in these degrees they have made a pair of stairs to marriage. sympathy. — 6". T. Coleridge. 3 vy He that works me good | with unmoved face, Does it but half: he chills me while he aids, — 3 .-A -v v My benefactor, I not my brother man. EXERCISES IN EXPRESSIVE READING. 131 sympathy. — Shakespeare. 3 , 2 Thy heart is big : get thee apart and weep. 3St/m * v / v v Passion, II see | is catching; for mine eyes, ./ /\ [Seeing those beads of sorrow stand in thine | Tr Begin . . . to . . . water. tears. — Byron. 4 -v Hide thy tears — 3 v, 4 v I do not bid thee | not to shed them ; 'twere Easier to stop Euphrates at its source, 3 - v .-* * Than one tear | of a true and tender heart ; — 1 ., Tr But ... let me not behold them, /t\ they . . . unman me. ■V tears. — W. E. Aytoun. 3 -v Woman's weakness shall not shame me — 2 .v ~ Why should I have tears to shed ? 4 .. N •'• Per Could I rain them down like water, | / • O, my hero, on thv head — 3 s* Could the cry of lamentation /\ Wake thee from thy silent sleep, — 5 -v ., Could it set thy heart a-throbbing /r\ 2 .^ " Pr It were mine to wail and weep. time. — Carlos Wilcox. Time well employed is Satan's deadliest foe : It leaves no opening for the lurking fiend : Life it imparts to watchfulness and prayer, — •\ ./\ v Statues, without it, fin the form of guards. 132 EXERCISES IN EXPRESSIVE READING. TRUE COURAGE. — Baillie. 3 «v *v • The brave man | is not he who feels no fear. [For that were stupid and irrational ; I But he, whose noble soul its fear subdues, V V And bravely dares the danger nature shrinks from r 2 Hm #v v As for your youth, whom blood and blows delight, ±E » v 2 . . v Away with them ! there is not in their crew One valiant spirit. TEACHERS. 4 Nothing stifles knowledge more than covering every thing * 2 with a doctor's robe ; and the men who would be for ever •V teaching, are great hindrances to learning. THE FALLING LEAF. — HematlS. As the light leaf, [whose fall, to ruin bears v \ Some trembling insect's little world of cares, j .v <-.--- Descends in silence, [while around waves on E .. v The mighty forest . . . reckless what is gone ! — ISt 3 , v I Such is man's doom | and, [ere an hour be flown, | l vr O 3 . v , /tn Reflect, thou trifler srs such may be thine own ! WISDOM OF THE DEITY. — Dr. Dick. The astonishing multiplicity of created beings, the wonderful / V *v laws of nature, the beautiful arrangement of the heavenly • v -v bodies, the elegance of the vegetable world, the operations of animal life, and the amazing harmony of the whole creation,, loudly proclaim I the wisdom I of the Deity. EXERCISES IN EXPRESSIVE READING. 1 33 wit. — Covjper. Is sparkling wit the world's exclusive right — [The fix'd fee-simple of the vain and light? Can hopes of heaven, [bright prospects of an hour, [That come to waft us out of sorrow's power, I Obscure, or quench ... a facultv, that finds •s . Its happiest soil in the serenest minds ?/r\ Religion curbs indeed its wanton way, And brings the trifles under rigorous sway; But gives it usefulness [unknown before, | And [purifying | makes it shine the more. 3 " A Christian's wit is inoffensive light, A beam that aids, but never grieves the sight; Vigorous I in age, as in the flush of youth, 'Tis always, I active on the side of truth: v . Temperance and peace insure its healthful state, St v And make it brightest at its latest date. woman. — Barrett. 3 v / . . Ask the poor pilgrim, [on this convex cast, — [His grizzled locks distorted in the blast, [ — 4 .v Ask him . . . what accent soothes, what hand bestows V V The cordial beverage, garment and repose ? 2 Wa v v O, he will dart a spark of ancient flame, 3 IE And clasp his tremulous hands, . . . and . . . woman name ! f?\ Peruse the sacred volume : Him who died Her kiss betrayed not, nor her tongue denied. 4 , , . v pi - While even the apostle left Him to His doom, V V • • She lingered round His cross, and watched His tomb. THE PRINCIPLES OF ELOCUTION, PART FOURTH. EMPHASIS I. GENERAL PRINCIPLES. i . As every word of more than one syllable has an ac- cented syllable, and every grammatical group of words has an accented word, so every sentence or association of grammatical groups has an accented or emphatic idea. Emphasis is to verbal and clausular accents what the accents themselves are to unaccented syllables. 2. Accent gives prominence to the leading syllables in words, or words in clauses ; emphasis gives prominence to the leading Idea, although it may be expressed by the most subordinate word in the sentence. 3. The leading idea in a sentence is almost invariably the new idea, and on the word expressive of this, what- ever its grammatical value, the accent or emphasis falls. 4. The primary words in sentences are the noun (the subject) and the verb (the predicate) ; and were clauses containing nouns and verbs with their adjuncts, separated from their sentential context, and pronounced as in a vocabulary, the clausular accents would fall on these parts of speech. Thus, A funeral note, I Eagerly wished. A farewell shot, | Distinctly remembered. The struggling moonbeam, I Greatly marvelled. No useless coffin, | No longer hesitating. If the noun or verb preceded the qualifying word, the accent would probably be required by the latter, as it would then be directly suggestive of antithesis. Thus, I36 EMPHASIS. The moonbeam struggling, I Wished eagerly. No coffin useless, | Remembered distinctly. 5 . Nouns and verbs are the essential elements of sen- tences. A sentence may be complete with these alone, while no other parts of speech could make a sentence. 6. Next in grammatical value to nouns and verbs, are those words which qualify nouns and verbs, called adjectives and adverbs ; and next to these latter are those words which qualify adjectives and adverbs, called also adverbs, although they are adjuncts of an inferior class to adverbs proper. 7. Of the other parts of speech the article is of the same nature as the Adjective ; the Pronoun of the same nature as the Noun ; the Preposition of the same nature as the Adverb ; and the Interjection and Conjunction of the same nature as the Verb. 8. "We never speak but we say something" is an adage that is not merely sarcastic in its application. Every sentence says (or asserts) something, or asks something, or enjoins something ; but in connection with that something, much more is frequently added of an ex- planatory or complemental nature. In conversation we feel what we wish to say, and we instinctively give prom- inence to the leading thought and subordinate the accessory parts of our sentences. On the printed page we have the whole of a sentence before the eye at once, principal and accessory parts alike ; and in accordance with our view of the sense, we can, by varying the em- phatic relation of the accents, make the sentence express any one of half a dozen different thoughts as the prin- cipal idea. As in extemporary delivery our perfect knowledge of our own intention dictates the emphasis that best expresses our meaning ; so, in reading, a clear perception of the author's ai?n^ and recollection of what has been said, suggests the emphasis that is expressive of the intended meaning. 9. In extemporary delivery we do not pronounce whole sentences at a time, but clauses only ; and each clause, as it is pronounced, receives such a modification of stress, inflexion, and modulation, as marks its relation to the dominant idea. We must apply the same principle to EMPHASIS. 137 reading. Each clause contains a distinct idea, which might take the form of a separate grammatical sentence, and which is not so expressed only because its idea is subordinate to the principal thought with which it is as- sociated in the grammatical period. Clauses, then, should be considered as distinct assertions, appeals or injunc- tions ; and each should be pronounced with tones accordant with its own nature, merely modified as to pitch, force, time, and stress, in reference to the leading idea in the sentence. 10. Antithesis or contrast is involved in emphasis. We have seen that words, having a common accented syllable, as expulsive and repulsive, have the accent shifted to the syllable of difference when the words are used in contrast. So in sentences : the most important grammatical words will be pronounced without emphasis if the same words, or any words involving the same idea, have occurred in the context ; and the leading emphasis will be given, perhaps, to some words of the most subor- dinate grammatical class which, but for the previous im- plication of the more important words, would have been pronounced entirely without accent. 1 1 . The strongest emphasis is given to words that are suggestive of unexpressed antithesis. When antithesis is fully expressed, the first of the contrasted words will be emphatic only when it is new or antithetically sugges- tive in relation to the preceding context ; it is not em- phatic merely because an antithetic word follows. The second of the contrasted words must be emphatic, be- cause opposed to the preceding term. 12. To make the mode of applying the principle of Em- phasis perfectly clear, the best way will be to analyse a familiar piece of composition. II. EXAMPLE OF EMPHATIC ANALYSIS. LINES ON THE BURIAL OF SIR JOHN MOORE. — Wolfe. 13. At the commencement of a Composition everything is, of course, new; and the first subject and predicate will be emphatic unless either is in the nature of things im- plied in the other. I38 EMPHASIS. " Not a drum | was heard, | not a funeral note \ As I his corpse | to the rampart | we hurried." The subject " drum " will be accented and the predicate "was heard" unaccented, because the mention of a " drum " involves, in the nature of things, recognition by the sense of hearing. To accentuate " heard " would in- volve one of the false antitheses, " Not a drum was heard, " (because we were deaf) ; or, " Not a drum was heard, (but only seen or felt.) The second subject " note " will be emphatic because it is contrasted with " drum," and suggests the antithesis " not a note " (of any instrument.) " Funeral " is un- accented because pre-understood from the Title of the Poem. In the next line " as " will be separately accented, because it has no reference to the words immediately fol- lowing, but to the verb " we hurried. " " His corpse" will be unaccented, because a funeral implies a corpse, and there is no mention in the context of any other than "his." The principal accent of the line may be given to " rampart" or " hurried ; " the former would perhaps be the better word, as it involves the antithesis, — " To the rampart, " (and not to a cemetery.) 14. In the next two lines, "Not a soldier | discharged his farewell shot \ O'er the grave | where | our hero | we buried," "Soldier" is implied in connection with " drum " and "rampart," and the emphasis will fall on "shot," " discharged " being involved in the idea of " shot, " and "farewell" being involved in the occasion to which "shot" refers — a funeral. In the next line no word is emphatic, as a " grave " is of course implied. " O'er " is implied in the nature of things, as the shot could not be discharged under the grave ; " our hero " is the same as "his corpse;" and "we buried" is involved in the mention of " corpse " and " grave." 15. In the next lines, " We buried him | darkly | at dead of night, \ The sods | with our bayonets | turning, " EMPHASIS. 139 the first clause will be unemphatic, as the fact has been already stated. To emphasize "buried" would suggest the false antithesis " We buried him " (instead of leaving him on the battle-field.) "Darkly" and "at dead of night" convey the same idea ; the latter being the stronger expression will receive the principal accent — on " night ; " — and " darkly" will be pi"onounced parenthetically. " Turning the sods " is, of course, implied in the act of burying ; the word " bayo- nets, " therefore, takes the principal accent of the line,, because involving the antithesis "With our bayonets, " (and not with spades.) 16. " By the struggling moonbeam's misty light. And the lantern | dimly burning. " In the first clause, " moonbeam's " will be accented, and "misty light" unaccented, because implied in "the struggling moonbeam's. " "Lantern" in the second line will take the superior accent of the sentence because r of the two sources of light spoken of, it is the more im- mediately serviceable on the occasion ; and " dimly burn- ing " will be unaccented, unless the forced antithesis be suggested, — " Dimly burning," (as with shrouded light, to escape observation. )< \h . "No useless coffin \ enclosed his breast; Not in sheet | nor in shroud | we wound him. " Emphasis on " coffin, " because the word not only con- veys a new idea, but is suggestive of contrast : — " No coffin, " (as at ordinary interments.) No accent on " useless, " because it would suggest the false antithesis. " No useless coffin, " (but only one of the least dispensable kind.) "Enclosed his breast" without emphasis, because im- plied in the mention of "coffin. " Emphasis on "breast " would convey the false antithesis, (Not) " his breast, " (but merely some other part of his body.) "Sheet" and "shroud" in the second line express the same idea ; the latter being the stronger term, takes I40 EMPHASIS. the leading accent. " We wound him " unaccented, be- cause implied in the idea of " shroud. " The tones in these lines should be rising, to carry on the attention to the leading fact of the sentence predicated in the next lines. iS. " But I he lay | like a warrior taking his rest, With his martial cloak | around him." " But" separately accented, because it does not refer to " he lay, " which is of course implied in the idea of the dead warrior. To connect " but" with " he lay" would indicate the opposition to be, " But he lay, " (instead of being in some other attitude.) The reference is rather (In " no coffin " or " shroud. ") " but " in " his martial cloak." In the simile that follows, no accent on " warrior, " be- cause he was a warnor, and not merely was " like" one. The principal emphasis of the whole stanza lies on "rest," which suggests the antithesis, (As if) " taking his rest" (and not with the aspect of death.) In the next line, the principal accent on " cloak ; " " martial " being implied, unless intended contrast could "be supposed between his " martial " and some other cloak ; and " around him " being included in the idea of a warrior taking rest in his cloak. in. '■'•Few I and short | were the prayers | we said, And we spoke not | a word of sorrow. " The principal accent in the first line -will be on the sub- ject " prayers, " but the two predicates " were few, and short, " are also accented, because all the ideas are new ; the predicates are subordinate to the subject only because the latter is placed last. Had the arrangement been re- versed, the principal accent would have fallen on the sec- ond predicate "short." Thus: — " The prayers we said were few and short. " No accent on " we said, " because implied in the nature ■of " prayers, " unless intended contrast could be supposed between " said" and chanted, or otherwise uttered. In EMPHASIS. 141 the next line " spoke" being involved in " said, " will be unaccented, unless the antithesis be suggested, " We spoke not " (though we had the feeling) "of sorrow ; " and " word " being involved in " spoke, " will be unac- cented, unless the antithesis be suggested, (So far from making an oration) "we spoke not (even) a word." "Not" must be united accentually with the word " spoke, " as the negation refers to the verb, and not to the object " a word. " To say "We spoke | not a word," would be nonsense. " Sorrow, " will be accented, un- less either of the preceding words is emphasized ; in the latter case "sorrow," would be unemphatic, because " spoke not (even) a word'"' would imply " of sorrow " as the feeling natural to the occasion. 20. ''But [ we I steadfastly | gazed | on the face of the dead, And I we bitterly thought J of the morrow. " The first four words will be separately pronounced, with the emphatic force on "gazed," which should have a falling turn because it completes the sense. "But " is sep- arated from " we " because it does not connect that with any other pronoun, but joins "spoke" with " gazed. "" The pronoun, adverb, and verb, might be united in one accentual group, but such an utterance of this clause would be too light and flippant for the solemnity of the sentiment. "On the face" without emphasis, as no contrast can be intended between face and any other part of the body; "of the dead" unemphatic, because implied. In the next line " and" should have a sepa- rate accent ; " we bitterly thought" may be united, with the accent on the adverb ; " thought" being implied in the " steadfast gazing" of thinking beings. In the last clause "morrow" will be accented, because it intro- duces a new idea. 21 . "We thought I as we hollowed his narrow bed, And smoothed down his lonely pillow, | That the foe | and the stranger | would tread o'er his head,. And ive | far axvay \ on the billow. " 142 EMPHASIS. No emphasis in the first two lines, " we thought" hav- ing been already stated, and "as we hollowed and smoothed," &c, being implied in the making of a grave. The grammatical sentence is, " we thought that the foe," &c. " Foe " and " stranger " are accented, but not em- phatic, as there can be no antithesis. Treading on the grave, whether by friend or foe, would be equally repug- nant to the speaker's feelings. The emphasis of the sentence therefore lies on "tread." The next clause must be unemphatic, as there can be no antithesis in- tended to "o'er" or "his" or between "head" and any other part of the body. ' ' And we " will have the pronoun accented, because opposed to " foe," &c. ; "far away " will have the adverb accented because suggesting "Far away" (and not here to prevent the indignity.) The meaning is not " away on the billow" but " away " no matter where; and " on the billow" is merely ex- pletive. 22. " But half I of our heavy task | was done | When the clock j struck the hour | for retiring: " Accent on " half" to suggest " But half" (and not the whole.) *' Heavy" and "done" may be accented but not em- phatic. In the second line the emphatic force must fall on the expressive complement of the predicate, " for re- tiring, " because suggesting the antithesis, " For retiring " (and not indulging longer in our reverie.) 27. "And we heard j the distant | and random gun — That the foe | was sullenly firing. " The first clauses unemphatic, because implied in " the clock struck," which of course was also " heard. " The emphasis of this line lies on " gun, " which is antithetic to " clock." In the last line " foe " is emphatic, because antithetic to friend, understood as giving the signal for " retiring." 24. "Slowly I and sadly | we laid him down From the field of his fame | fresh | and gory." In this sentence the subject " we," the predicate " laid liim down," and the expletive clause " from the field of EMPHASIS. 143 his fame," are all implied in the occasion, and the ac- cents fall on " slowly" and "sadly," and on "fresh and gory," which latter are complements of the object " him." The principal accent is on " gory" as the stronger of the two adjectives. The predicate includes all the words " laid him down from the field of his fame," which must be connectively read. A falling termination is necessary to disconnect the last clause from " fresh and gory, " which would otherwise seem to refer to " field" or " fame. " 2Z. " We carved not | a line, | and we raised not | a stone. But I we left him j alone | with his glory." The accents in the first line will fall on "line" and " stone." The negatives must not be united with the objects but with the verbs. To read, "We carved | not a line" would be nonsense. In the second line "but" should be separately pronounced, because it does not refer to " we left him " which is implied as a matter of course, for even if they had raised a monument to mark the spot, they would equally have-" left him." The meaning is equivalent to " We left him " (with no monumental tablet or cairn, but) "alone with his glory." The last are therefore the new and accented words. 26. '•''Lightly I they'll talk | of the spirit that's gone, And I o'er his cold ashes | upbraid him ; But I nothing j he'll reck | if they let him sleep on j In the grave | where | a Briton | has laid him." The emphasis in the first line falls on " lightly " — the expressive complement of the common-place predicate " will talk," — antithesis being implied. Thus, " Lightly" (and not reverently as he deserves.) The subject "they" is used in the general sense of " people " and is unaccented ; " of the spirit that's gone" .is implied in connection with the subject of the poem. " And " in the second line, must be separate, to discon- nect it from the expletive clause that follows ; " up- 144 EMPHASIS REPETITIONS. braid " will be emphatic, as contrasted with the previous predicate, (Not only) " talk lightly " (but even) "upbraid." " But " in the third line, must be separate, to show the sense " notwithstanding " (these facts.) " Nothing he'll reck, " the first word accented, but the principal em- phasis on " he'll " to suggest the antithesis, "He'll reck nothing" (although we shall.) The only other emphasis is on " Briton, " which is sug- gestive of an inference of pride in the nation whose chivalry will defend the hero's name and mortal remains from insult. III. REPETITIONS. 27. The only exception to the rule that the emphatic is always the new idea, is to be found in sentences which contain a repetition of an idea previously expressed. But the exception is more apparent than real, for the re- peated word will generally be found to be suggestive of an antithesis between the ordinary meaning arid some special acceptation of the word or phrase. 28. When the repetition includes a clause or a sen- tence, and not a word merely, the emphasis will be shifted to a different syllable at each repetition, or as often as may be practicable. Thus in the following lines from Dryden's Ode, " Alexander's Feast," Happy, happy, happy pair ! None but the brave, None but the brave, None but the brave Deserves the fair. In such cases as " happy, happy," &c, the accents can- not be shifted, and variety must be given by change of tone. Either of the following arrangements would be effective. "happy happy happy pair;" or V /\ " happy happy happy pair." In such cases as " none but the brave," &c, where a READING EXERCISES. 145 clause is repeated, the accent may be shifted to a different syllable at each repetition. Thus, V None but the brave, V None but the brave, None but the brave V Deserves the fair. 29. In the following series of short extracts the em- phatic words are indicated to the eye in further illustration of the Principle of Emphasis. [The student should ex- ercise himself in discovering the contextual reasons for the selection of the emphasized words, and also for the non-selection of the other words.] Notations for Pitch and Clause are introduced in these Exercises. TV. READING EXERCISES. Marked for Emphasis, Clause, and Pitch. adulation. —Pope. 3 At this— entranced — he lifts his hands and eyes — Squeaks like a high-stretched lute- string — and replies : — 5 " O, 'tis the sweetest — of all earthly things — To gaze on princes — and to talk of kings /" — *Then — happy man "who shows the tombs ! — said I — 4 He dwells amidst the royal family ; — He — every day — from king to king- can walk — Of all our Harrys — all our Edwards talk — And get — 2 by speaking truth of monarchs dead — 4 What few can of the living — *ease — and bread. age's sorrow. — Byron. 4 What is the wow/-ofwoes that wait on age ? — 3 What stamps the wrinkle deeper on the brow? — 2 To view each loved one — blotted from life's page — 3 And be alone on earth — *as /am now. ANTiqjJARIAN RAPTURE. Young. *How his eyes languish — how his thoughts adore . . . That painted coat — which Joseph never wore ! 3 He shows — on holidays — a sacred pin — 4 That touched the ruff—* that touched Queen Bess's chin ! 4 6 READING EXERCISES. BATTLE ALARM. — Byron. 3 Did ye not hear it? — 2 No — 'twas but the wind — Or the car rattling o'er the stony street; — *On with the dance!— let joy be unconfined; — 3 No sleep till morn — when youth and pleasure meet — To chase the glowing hours with flying feet — 2 But harkl — that heavy sound breaks in once more — 4 As if the clouds its echo would repeat — 3 And nearer, — clearer, — deadlier than before! b Arm! — arm! — it is — it is the cannon's opening roar! BATTLE ARRAY. — By r 071. — 4 It is a sple?idid sight — 3 to see — 2 For one who hath no friend, no brother there — 3 Their rival scarfs of mixed embroidery — Their various arms that glitter in the air! — 4 What gallant war-hounds — rouse them from their lair, And gnash their fangs — loud yelling for the prey! — % All)o\u the chase- hut few — the triumph share; — 2 The grave — shall bear the chief est prize away — 3 And Havoc — 4 scarce for joy can member their array. BEAUTY. — Hunt. 4 What is beauty f — 2 not the show Of shapely limbs and features ; — no; — ^hese are hut flowers - That have their dated hours — To breathe their transitory sweets — then go. 4 'Tis the stainless soul within — That outshines the fairest skin — And yields delights outlasting beauty's glow. bereavement. — Campbell. '^Hushed were his Gertrude's lips; — but still — their bland And beautiful expression — 4 seemed to melt With love that could not die ! — 3 and still — his hand She presses — to the heart no more that felt. 4 Ah! heart — where once each fond affection dwelt — And features — yet that spoke a soul — more fair! — 3 Mute— gazing — ^agonising as he knelt. 3 Of them that stood encircling his despair — He . . . heard some friendly words — but — ^knew not what they were. CLAIMS OF KINDRED.— Scott. ^he slow-hound — wakes the fox's lair — The grey-hound — presses on the hare — The eagle — pounces on the lamb — The -wolf— devours the fleecy dam; READING EXERCISES. I47 4 Even tiger fell — and sullen bear — Their likeness and their li?ieage — spare: — Ma?i only — mars kind Nature's plan — And turns his fierce pursuits — on man. constancy. — Campbell. thought ye — jour iron hands of pride — Could break — the knot that love had tied? No — 4 let the eagle change his plume — The leaf 'its hue — the floiver its bloom; 3 But — ties around this heart were spun — *That could not— -would not be undone. contemptuous fortitude. — Byron. "Have I not had my brain seared — my heart riven — Hopes sapped — ?iame blighted— life's life-lieda.wa.yl 3 And only not to desperation driven — Because — 4 not altogether of such clay — As rots — into the souls of those whom I survey ! COURAGEOUS DEFEAT. — Moore. 3 The minstrel fell — 4 but — the foeman's chain — Could not bring his proud soul under; — ^he harp he loved — ne'er spoke again — For — 4 he tore its chords asunder — 3 And said — " 4 JVo chains — shall sully thee — 3 Thou soul of love and bravery! — Thy songs were made for the pure and free — 4 They shall never. — sound in slavery /" COURTIERS. — Wolcot. "Low at his feet — the spaniel courtiers cower — Curl — wheedle — whine — paw — lick his shoe — for power : 3 Prepared for every insult — servile train — "^o take a kicking — and to fawn again. > cowardly surrender. — Butler. 3 'Tis not the least disparagement — To be defeated by the event — Nor to be beaten by main force — A That does not make a man the worse : — But — to 3 turn tail and run a-way — 4 And ■without blows give up the day — Or to surrender ere the assault — 3 That's no man's fortime — 4 but his fault. I48 READING EXERCISES. DEFIANCE — Scott. 3 His back — against a rock he bore — And — firmly placed his foot before : — 4 " Come one, — come all I — 5 this rock — shall fly From its firm base — as soon as I." despair.— Byron. 3 Loud sung the -wind above — and doubly loud — Shook o'er his turret-cell the thunder cloud — 4 And flashed the lightning by the latticed bar — To him — more genial than the midnight star. 2 Close to the glimmering grate— he dragged his chain — 3 And hoped— that peril — might not prove in vain. 4 He raised his ironed hand to heaven — and p rayed One pitying flash— to mar the form it made : — 2 His chains and impious prayer— attract alike — ^he storm rolled onward— and disdained to strike; — 2 Its peal waxed fainterrr^ceased — 2 he felt alone, 3 As if some faithless frie?id had spurned his groan! DESPERATE CONFLICT. — Byron. ill O?ie effort — one — to break the circling host!" ^hey form — unite — 'Y^«r^c. — 1 Look and point with right forefinger to the "virgin member," then speak to front. 2 open the hand. 3 expand both arms. 4 upward wave to right. 6 upward wave to left. 6 a confidential communication — the hand covering the mouth. 7 look around with pride. 8 clasping the hands. 9 hand on forehead. 10 a quiet undertone to front, "look to right and centre, and right again before speaking. 12 look upwards to left. 13 swaying the head rapturously. 14 point with the open right hand as if at a paper in the left hand. 16 point to the speech with the right forefinger. 16 imitative. 17 point to right, and speak to front jocularly. 18 look to right before speaking to front. 19 to centre, with obeisance. 20 look annoyed to left side, then speak smilingly to front. ai look amused to left. 3a point to left, and speak mirthfully to front. 23 look archly to front. 24 look with a contemptuous shrug to left before speaking. 25 look bewildered and glance with an air of annoyance to left before speaking. 26 frowning to left. 27 with a deter- mined side jerk of the head. 28 look to left with an air of triumph, then speak to front. 29 proudly. 30 hesitating. 31 look disconcertedly to left, then speak lugu- briously. rustic logic. — Anonymous. (I.) ^odge, a poor honest country lout, not over-stocked with learning, chanced on a summer's eve 2 to meet the Vicar, home returning. 3 " Ah ! Master Hodge," the Vicar cried, " what, still as wise as ever? 4 the people in the village say that you are won- drous clever." 5 " Why, Measter Parson, as to that I beg you'll right conceive me. 6 I do na brag, but yet 7 I knaw a thing or two, believe me." 3 " We'll try your skill," 8 the Parson cried, 9 " for learning what digestion : and this you'll prove or right or wrong, by solving me a question. 20 Noah, of old, three babies had, or grown-up children rather; "Shem, Ham, and Japhet they were called; — now 12 who was Japhet's father?" 13 " Rat it!" cried Hodge, and scratched his head; " that does my wits belabour : but howsomde'er I'll "homeward run, and ax old Giles my neighbour." 15 To Giles he went, and put the case with circumspect inten- tion : (II.) lfi " Thou fool," cried Giles, " I'll make it clear to thy NOTATION OF GESTURE. I S$ dull comprehension. Three children has Tom Long, the smith, or cattle-doctor rather; Tom, Dick, and Harry, they are called; "now, who is Harry's father?" 1T "Adzooks, I have it," Hodge replied, "right well I know jour lingo; who's Harry's father? 16 — stop — 1T here goes, — why Tom Long, smith, by jingo." (III. ) "Away he ran to find the priest, with all his might and main ; who with good humour instant put the question once again. 10 "Noah, of old, three babies had, or grown-up children rather; n Shem, Ham, and Japhet they were called : now 20 who was Japhet's father?'' ai "I have it now," 22 Hodge grinning cried, 23 " I'll answer like a proctor: 24 who's Japhet's father? 25 now I know; why, Long Tom, smith, the doctor." 26 Pictorial Arrangement. — I. Hodge coming from left meets the Vicar coming from right. II. Giles stands on Hodge's right. III. Hodge runs towards the Vicar on the right. Details of action, &C. — 1 Look and point to left, then speak to front. 2 giving a rustic salute to right. 3 turn and speak to left with raised eyebrows. 4 pout the lips, depress the eyebrows, and shake the head. 5 turn and speak smilingly to right. 6 with raised eyebrows. 7 smiling and jerking the head to one side. 8 speak to front without turning the body. 9 speak to left. 10 very deliberately, "striking the thumb, fore and middle fingers of left hand with right forefinger, in pronoun- cing the names. 12 repeating the last stroke and accentually nodding the head. 13 turn and speak to right with puzzled expression and "scratching" action. 14 point backwards over the shoulder with the thumb of left hand, "pointing to left, and speaking amusedly to front. 16 to left with knitted brow and giving Hodge a dig with the thumb. 17 slapping the leg or otherwise expressing vulgar triumph. 18 chuckle, then change to a wandering silent look of serious stupidity. 19 point to right, and speak smilingly to front. 20 repeatedly strike the middle finger while speaking, 21 chuckling and rubbing the legs, or otherwise expressing vulgar delight. 22 jerk the head to one side triumphantly, then speak to front. 23 panting, as if from quick running. 24 with the head lying knowingly to one side. 25 with a nod of pride. 26 a chuckle of self satisfaction suddenly changed to a look of puzzled disappointment — then look to the audience while you point laughingly to Hodge, and make your bow. VIII. NOTATION OF GESTURE. 56. A system of Notation for Attitude and Motion is presented in the following pages. By this means a speaker can record for practice any position or movement which, in Oratory, in Painting, or in Sculpture, strikes him as effective. By this, also, an artist can jot for re- production any attitude of which he may have obtained a momentary glimpse. To teachers of Gesture the sys- tem of Notation will be of great service, in furnishing a nomenclature for the mechanics of action ; and to stu- dents it will be found of considerable assistance in the ac- quisition of variety and precision of movement. 57* Positions of the Feet. The following diagram illustrates the positions and shifts of the feet : — i86 NOTATION OF GESTURE. A Explanation. No. I. A turn on the ball of the foot from the position indicated by the black feet. No. 2. A turn on the heel from the same position. No. 3. Preparatory shift for turning to the opposite side. 58. When the right foot is in front, these turns can only be made to the left ; and when the left foot is in front the turns can only be made to the right. A circle may be traversed, as an exercise, by shifting one foot after each turn. The circle will be completed in four turns on the heel, or eight turns on the ball of the foot. When the feet are separated by the breadth of a foot the positions are noted : Left foot in front. L 1 R 2 L 2 When the feet are separated by the length of a foot the positions are noted : — R3 L 3 R 4 L 4 When the feet are more widely separated the positions are noted : — R 6 L 6 In these notations the weight of the body is on the retired foot for the odd numbers (1, 3, 5) and on the ad- vanced foot for the even numbers (2, 4, 6) . Right foot in front. R 1 NOTATION OF GESTURE. Vertical and Transverse Motions of the Arms. l8f 59. Either arm may move with grace to the extent of a semi-circle, both vertically and horizontally. For notation, five points are selected — the extremities of the semi-circle, the middle, and a point intermediate to the middle and each extreme. 60. The extremities of the vertical semi-circle are the zenith and the nadir (marked z and n) ; the middle point is the horizontal (h) ; and the other intermediate points are : — elevated half-way to the zenith (e) , and downwards half-way to the nadir (d) . When the arm hangs at rest, it is of course directed to the nadir. The notation N is used to distinguish the rest position from the gesture, n. 61. The extremities of the tra7isverse semi-circle are : — the arm across the body ( c), and backward about 30 degrees (b) : the other points are : — the arm extended in a line with the shoulders (x) ; projected in front of the body (f ) , and directed obliquely between the front and the extended positions (q). The diagram illustrates these notations : 1 88 NOTATION OF GESTURE Graceful and Passionate Transitions. 62. Gestures would be disagreeably angular if the most direct line of transition from point to point were fol- lowed by the arms. A preparatory movement is there- fore made, in the opposite direction, before any impor- tant gesture. 63. In unimpassioned delivery the preparatory move- ment may be sweeping and varied, for graceful effect. 64. In strong passion the preparatory movement will be direct and simple, but extensive, and the lines of the accentual gesture bold and straight. IX. GENERAL SCHEME OF NOTATION FOR ATTI- TUDE AND MOTION. 65* I« Tke Feet, Lower Limbs, and Trunk. (Notation placed below the line). L 6. 1 } See P- l86 - -[-...standing with one foot across the other up. ..body drawn up, as in pride dn...body sunk down, as in languor Note. — I. The right foot is in front for the R series, and the left, for the L se- ries. The weight of the body rests on the foot in front for all the even numbers, and on the retired foot for the odd numbers. II. A small number should be prefixed to the notation for advancing, retiring, stepping to the right, or to the left, when more than one step is to be made. Thus 2 ad, advancing two steps, 3 re, retiring three steps. 66. The Arms. (All the subsequent notations placed above the line.) z ...pointing to the zenith c. .directed across the body e... elevated 45 above the horizon f ... " forwards h... horizontal q... " obliquely45°fromf d,. .downwards 45 ° below the x... extended in the line of the horizon shoulders n... pointing to the nadir b... directed backwards N (nadir) . the arm hanging at rest. R 1; R 2; R 3; R 4; R 5; L 1; L 2; L 3; L 4; L 5; ad. ..advancing sh .. shaking re. ..retiring wk.. .walking r... ..stepping to right kn.. kneeling 1..., ..stepping to left bw... bowing St.. ..starting crt... curtseying sp. ..stamping pp preparatory movement de descending con. ..the arm contracted r moving to the right «xp... " " expanded 1 moving to the left as ... .ascending pj the arm projected NOTATION OF GESTURE. I< bk the arm drawn back wv — waving rb ....rebound from any position w lying close to the waist to the same again si slow motion dr the arms drooping qk quick motion fd the arms folded ^-^(or oc) over curve kim...a kimbo - — '(or ucj under curve shr.... shrinking ouc or uoc... serpentine tr tremulous 6 7 . in.- -The Hands. sh.. ..shaking ) ch.. ..clinched is) str. .striking gr- .grasping in.. .moved inwards, tation as in ] nvi- ou.. ..moved outwards (from the wrist) nt ...naturally opened s supine, (palm upwards) p prone, (palm downwards) o palm outwards i palm inwards v raised vertically do... turned downwards ix.... indexing or pointing rv ...hands revolving ap ...both hands applied palm to pal. ..striking the left palm with palm the right forefinger or hand tip.. .fingers of both hands cr — hands crossed spread and applied tip to tip cl — hands clasped en. ..enumerating (the right wr.... hands wrung forefinger touching succes- clp.. .clapping sively the left finger tips) Note. — I. When the left hand or arm is meant, a line is prefixed 10 the sym- bolic letter. Thus: — d q signifies LEFT HAND, down-wards , oblique. II. A colon is placed between any two sets of letters that refer to the different hands. Thus — d q : z, signifies LEFT HAND, downwards , oblique , and RIGHT HAND pointing to the zenith; dq: — N signifies RIGHT HAND dowmuards, oblique, LEFT HAND falling to rest. The several symbols are separated from each other by spaces or points. III. A small 2 prefixed to the notation will indicate that both hands perform the same motion. IV. Alternation is denoted by the letter a. A number prefixed shows how rften the alternation is repeated. Thus h c^~q 2 a, signifies right hand horizontal, across the body, whence ov£rcurved to the oblique position ; — the left hand alter- nately with tke right , performing the same motion twice to the opposite side. The notation a a may be used for again and again. V. Imitative gestures are expressed by the general symbol im. 68. IV. — Parts of the Body on -which the Hands may be jblaced^ Ck....hand supporting cheek Cn ... " " chin Br — " on breast Bbr... " beating the breast Bk.... " behind the back Li finger on lip Note. — A small 2 prefixed to either of these will denote both hands. Thus : — 2 Ey signifies both hands on the eyes; a Bk, both Itands behind the back. He. .hand on head Fo.. . •' forehead Te.. . " temple Ky.. .. " eyes Mo. " mouth 19° NOTATION OF GESTURE. 69. Y.—The Head and Face. B head thrown back Ts head tossing Cr " crouched Sh ... " shaking I " inclined to one side Nd... " nodding II " " to left Av... " averted from the di- Ir " " to right rection of the gesture H " hanging down Sm.. a smiling countenance Fr frowning F eyes looking in front Lu.... lugubrious Ar... " around Lau... laughing As... " askance Lf..... eyebrows lifted St.... staring Dp.... " depressed We. ..weeping Kn ... " knitted Wi... winking R eyes looking to the right V eyes fixed on vacancy L " " left CI... " closed U " "upwards Mr... " measuring (See par. 5) D " " downwards No... nostrils turned up Pt lips pouted O.... mouth open Bt " bitten Gn... teeth gnashed Cp.... " compressed X. ORDER OF SYMBOLIC ARRANGEMENT. 70. The symbolic letters being in all cases different, no confusion could arise whatever order of notation might be adopted ; but when several letters have to be em- ployed, the following order should be observed, as more convenient than a random arrangement. 71. Place Jirst the notation of the vertical situation of the arm (z e h d n) ; then of its transverse direction (c f q x b) ; next of the manner of presentation or mo- tion of the hand; and the other symbols in the most con- venient order. 72. The notations of the " Parts of the Body on which the Hands may be placed," and of the Expressions of the " Head and Face," are in Capital letters ; all the others (written above the line) are in small letters. 73. The compound symbols will be easily remembered, as they generally suggest at once the words of which they are contractions ; but the single letters directly tax the memory. For convenience of reference, all the symbols written above the line are collected in the following Recapitulative Table of Symbolic Letters: a alternation ad advancing aa again and again ap applied NOTATION OF GESTURE. I 9 I as ascending b .......backward bk drawn back bw bowing c across ch clinched cl clasped clp clapping con.... contracted cr crossed crt ..curtseying d downward de descending dn sunk down do turned downwards dr drooping e elevated en enumerating exp... .expanded f forward fd folded gr grasping h horizontal i inward in moved inwards ix indexing kim....a kimbo kn kneeling 1 to left n to nadir nt naturally o outward Ar looking around As " askance Av eyes averted B head back Bbr ...beating breast Bk hands behind back Br " on breast Bt biting lips Ck hand on cheek Cl eyes closed Cn hand on chin Cp lips compressed Cr head crouched D eyes down Dp eyebrows depressed Ey ....hand on eyes oc over-curve ou moved outwards ouc....over and under-curve p prone pal — striking palm pj projected pp preparatory q oblique qk quick r to right rb rebound rv revolving s supine sh shaking shr — shrinking si slow sp stamping st starting str striking tip tip to tip tr tremulous uc under-curve uoc ...under and over-curve up drawn up v vertical w to waist wk walking wr wringing wv ... .waving x extended z zenith F looking in front Fo hand on forehead Fr frowning Gn gnashing teeth H head hanging He hand on head I head inclined II " " to left Ir head inclined to right Rji...,. brows knitted L looking to left Lau ...laughing Li f..... eyebrows lifted Li hand on lip Lu ....lugubrious Mo ....hand on mouth I92 NOTATION OF GESTURE. Mr ....eyes measuring St staring No ....nostrils lifted Te hand on temple Nd nodding Ts tossing head O mouth open U looking upward Pt pouting V vacant aspect R looking to right We weeping Sh shaking head Wi ... .winking Sm ....smiling 74. The following passages are marked, as Exercises in the Notation. The subject does not require length- ened illustration. Gesture should not be made too studied, or rigidly systematical ; freedom — the chief characteris- tic of grace — would be destroyed in the attempt to follow a minutely directive notation. Let every motion be in itself expressive and graceful, and scope may be left for spontaneity of application. XI. ILLUSTRATIONS OF THE NOTATION OF GESTURE. macbeth to the dagger-vision. — Shakespeare. hqp shr Is this a dagger [which I see before me ? — stR3 PJ gr The handle towards my hand? — Come, let me clutch thee : — R4 L2 r R= hqs St I have thee not; — and vet I see thee still ! Ri Dp o pj Art thou not, fatal vision, sensible R 2 ix To feeling as to sight? — or art thou but rb A dagger of the mind ? — a false creation F Proceeding from the heat-oppressed brain ?/tn eq I see thee yet ; — in form as palpable R 2 Im As this which now I draw. — he to q si — ix Thou marshal'st me the way that I was going; L3 NOTATION OF GESTURE. 1 93 — pp . — e q Andossuch an instrument I was to use. Ri Sh 2 h con 2 pj^*~d Mine eyes are made the fools o' the other senses, Li L2 qk cl e q qk— h q ix Or else worth all the rest : — I see thee still ! Li R2 L 3 — v r.s — h q con — pj h q — c Anderson thy blade and dudgeon, gouts of blood . . . L5 — w Which was not so before ! — R 2 Ar h q v Sh There's no such thing : — Li Kn ch Bbr — e q It is the bloody business, which informs L2 -rl N Thus to mine eyes. Now o'er the one-half world Nature seems dead, and wicked dreams abuse The curtained sleep. Now witchcraft celebrates R 2 Pale Hecate's offering, and withered murder Alarumed by his sentinel the wolf Ri Whose howl's his watch, thus, with his stealthy pace, R 2 With Tarquin's ravishing strides, toward his design -dq Moves like a ghost. Thou sure and firm-set earth ad 1 R2 r:-l shrch Hear not my steps which way they walk — for fear 2 dx The very stones prate of my whereabout ! 2 pj v e f v And take the present horror from the time Ri cl Which now suits with it. 13 194 NOTATION OF GESTURE, w — h q p I go, and it is done :Ovthe bell invites me.^TN R.2 —ad Fr Hear it not, Duncan, for it is a knell — z ix — rv: d b That summons thee ... to heaven or to hell. marco bozzaris. — F. G. Halleck. d q ix At midnight, in his guarded tent, Li rb The Turk was dreaming ... of the hour s pp d q cb sh When Greece, her knee in suppliance bent, con pj Should tremble at his power; h q ix c to f to q^to xs In dreams, through camp and court he bore L2 Li rv ev The trophies of a conqueror; c L3 ix hm In dreams, his song of triumph heard — L2 R hqo Then, wore that monarch's signet-ring — pp d str 2 h P^ w eq Then, press'd that monarch's throne — a king I — r R 2 N As wild his thoughts, and gay of wing, Sb As Eden's garden bird !t\ Ri — h q ix At midnight, in the forest shades, R 2 — r p — I p Bozzaris ranged his Suliote band, — s nt True as the steel of their tried blades, — rb ch as h q str Heroes in heart and hand. La up Ri NOTATION OF GESTURE. 1 95 — hq ix There had the Persians' thousands stood, Li pp as — d q ix str There had the glad earth drunk their blood — ch rb On old Plataea's day ; L2 up qk-hqs: hfs pp 2 e q o And now these breathed that haunted air — Li rb The sons of sires who conquered there — ch con str: — ch Br: With arm to strike, and soul to dare, L2 Li 2 c~x As quick, as far as they !/tn 2 adL2 N h q ix An hour passed on : — the Turk awoke ; — Li v as That bright dreamTNwas his last; — dn As — w He woke — to hear his sentries shriek — re L3 R e q v — ix r. q " To arms ! — they come ! — the Greek !— the Greek !" N c ^ x He woke — to die,/TMnidst flame, and smoke, Ridn R> — c ^x: And shout, and groan, and sabre stroke, R 2 2 h con And death-shots falling thick and fast, R 1 Like forest-pines before the blast, Or lightnings from the mountain-cloud ; . . . R 2 clL And heard — with voice as trumpet loud, — re L3 — hq: Bozzaris cheer his band : — c^h^e q ch str " Strike ! — till the last armed foe expires — L4 And the red field was won ; pp h cr Then saw in death his ejelids close, Li Calmlj as to a night's repose, N Like flowers at set of sun. D— w: f <- Bozzaris ! She who gave thee birth Ri Will, bj the pilgrim-circled hearth ri °u Talk of thj doom without a sigh ; R 2 2 d q cxp 2 e q For thou art Freedom's now, and Fame's rb zf One of the few, the immortal names, Ri — h to — d q That were not born to die ! L2 (bw) THE PRINCIPLES OF ELOCUTION PART SIXTH. THE LANGUAGE OF PASSION. i . A special search for illustrations of the Language of Passion resulted in the discovery that poets, and even dramatists — with the exception of Shakespeare — while they constantly speak about Passion, comparatively sel- dom give it direct utterance. The passages herein gathered from the wide fields of Shakespearean and general literature are embodiments of passionate expres- sion, in all moods, " from grave to gay, from lively to severe." As such, they furnish the very best kind of material for elocutionary exercise. 2. The shades of sentiment in each passage — as appre- hended by the student — should be noted in the margin, and the passages then delivered so as to express the sen- timents indicated. This exercise will be found not onlv improving to style, but valuable for the development of critical acumen, and the formation of a habit of close attentiveness in general reading. 3. The emphatic words are denoted by italics. No attempt is made to show the relative force of the empha- ses. Something must be left for the reader's own dis- crimination. The most important distinction among the italicised words would be manifested by the reader's un- derlining such words as he conceives to be suggestive of more than they literally express. 4. In addition to the ordinary marks of punctuation, the Clause ( \ | ) , the Break ( ... ) , and the Expres- sive Pause (<*>'.), are occasionally introduced. 197 I98 THE LANGUAGE OF PASSION. EMPHASIZED EXERCISES IN THE LANGUAGE OF PASSION. absorbing love. — P. J. Bailey. The only music | he Or learn'd or listened to, was from the lips Of her he loved ; — and that he learnt by heart. Albeit she would try to teach him tunes, And put his fingers on the keys ; but he Could only see . . . her eyes, and hear . . . her voice, And feel . . . her touch. admiration. — Shakespeare. What you do Still betters what is done. When you speak, sweet, I'd have you do it ever : when you si?ig, I'd have you buy and sell so ; so give alms ; Pray so ; and, for the ordering your affairs, To sing them too./rs When you do dance, I wish you A wave of the sea . . . that you might ever do Nothing but that : move still, still so, And otv7i no other function. Each your doing — So singular in each particular — Crowns what you are doing, in the present deeds, That all your acts are queens. admonition to consistency. — Shakespeare. Remember March, the Ides of March remember! Did not great Julius | bleed for justice' sake? What villain touch'd his body, that did stab, And not for justice? What! shall one of us, That struck the foremost man of all this world, But for supporting- robbers — shall we now Contaminate our fingers with base bribes, And sell the mighty space of our large honours . . ► For so much . . . trash as may be grasped thus ? — I had rather be a dog, and bay the moon, Than . . . such a Roman. A dream. — Republic of Letters. Thus spoke I to a vision of the night; — " O, joy ! A dream ? Thank heaven that it is fled ! For know you not, I dreamt that you were dead : — And with the dream my soul was sickened quite. THE LANGUAGE OF PASSION. I99 But since you're here, and since my heart is light, Come, as of old, and let us wandering seek Yon high and lovely hill, upon whose height, Which looks on all we value, we may speak As we were -wont, amid its bracing air, And pluck the while its crowned jewels there : For — [how I know not | but 'tis long ago Since last we met . . . Ha ! Wherefore look you so ? And why this. . . dimness? " rss — Horror ! 'twas the Ghost Alone I saw j of him I loved and lost ! advice. — Shakespeare. Give thy thoughts no tongue, Nor any unproportiond thought his act. Be thou familiar, but by no means vulgar. The friends thou hast, and their adoption tried, Grapple them to thy soul with hooks of steel : But do not dull thy palm with entertainment Of each «ew-hatch'd and unfledg'd comrade. Beware Of entrance to a quarrel ; but being in, Bear it, that the opposer | may beware of thee. Give every man thine ear, outfevj thy voice. Take each man's censure, but reserve thy judgement : This above all, to thine own self he. true, And it must follow, as the night the day, Thou canst not then | be false to any one. AFFECTION.— J. S. KtlOwleS. Men go mad To lose their hoards of pelf, when hoards as rich With industry may come in time again ! Yet they go mad ... it happens every day. Have not some slain themselves? Yet, if a maid, — Who finds that she has . . . nothing j garner'd up, Where she believed she had a heart in store For one she gave away — is desperate, You marvel at her! Marvel\ — when the mines — Of all the earth — are poor as beggary To make her rich again ! Am I ashamed To tell thee this? No ! — Save the love we pay To Heaven, none purer, holier, than that A virtuous woman feels for him she'd cleave Through life to. Sisters part from sisters — brothers From brothers — children from their parents — but Such woman from the husband of her choice . . . Never. AFFECTIONATE REMEMBRANCE. — WordsVJOrth. She dwelt among the untrodde?i ways beside the springs of Dove — A maid whom there were none to praise, and very few to love : — 200 THE LANGUAGE OF PASSION. A violet, by a mossy stone half hidden from the eye — Fair as a star, when only one is shining in the sky. She lived unknown, and few could know when Lucy ceased to be, But . . . she is in her grave — and, oh, the difference to me ! ambition. — Byron. Ay — father! I have had those earthly visions And noble aspirations, in my youth, To make my own the mind of other men, The enlightener of nations ; and to rise . . . I knew not whither — it might be | to fall ; But fall, even as the mountain cataract, Which, having leapt from its more dazzling height, Even in the foaming strength of its abyss, Lies low, but mighty still. /tn But . . . this is past ; My thoughts mistook themselves. anger. — Shakespeare. Not speak of Mortimer! Zounds, I will speak of him ; and let my soul Want mercy, if I do not join with him. — Yea, on his part, I'll empty all these veins, And shed my dear blood, drop by drop, i' the dust, But I will lift the down- trod Mortimer As high i' the air as this unthankful king ; As this ingrate and cankered Bolingbroke. Those prisoners I shall keep— I will ; that's flat./T> He said he would not ransom Mortimer ; Forbad my tongue to speak of Mortimer ; But I will find him when he lies asleep, And in his ear I'll holla — Mortimer I Nay, I'll have a starling shall be taught to speak Nothing but — Mortimer . . . and give it him, To keep his anger still in motion. angry surprise. — Shakespeare. Gone . . . to be married I — gone to swear a peace ! False blood to false blood joined! Gone. . . to be friends ! — Shall Lewis have Blanch ? and Blanch those provinces ? It is not so : — thou hast .mis-spoke, — mis-heard ! /T\ Be well advised, tell o'er thy tale again . . . It cannot be : — thou dost but say 'tis so,rr\ What dost thou mean by shaking of thy head? Why dost thou look so sadly on my son ? What means that hand upon that breast of thine? Why holds thine eye that lamentable rheum, — THE LANGUAGE OF PASSION. 201 Like a proud river peering o'er his bounds ? Be these sad signs confirmers of thy words ? Then speak again ; . . . not all thy former tale, But this one word, — whether thy tale be true P apparition. — Shakespeare. How ill this taper burns ! . . . Ha ! who comes here?^ I think j it is the weakness of mine eyes That shapes this . . . mo?istrous apparition — It comes upon me : /T\ art thou . . . any thing? Art thou some god, some angel, or some devil, That mak'st my blood cold, and my hair to stare? >t\ Speak to me . . . -what thou art. apprehension. — Lee. When the sun sets, shadows that showed at noon But small, appear most long and terrible : So, when we think fate hovers o'er our heads, Our apprehensions shoot beyond all bounds ; Owls, ravens, crickets, seem the watch of death ; — Nature's worst vermin scare her godlike sons. Echoes, ["the very leaving of a voice. | Grow babbling ghosts, and call us to our graves. Each mole-hill thought swells to a huge Olympus : While we, fantastic dreamers, heave and puff, And sweat . . . with an imagination's weight. assumeP bluntness. — Shakespeare. This is some fellow Who, having been praised for bluntness, doth affect A saucy roughness ; and constrains the garb, Quite from his nature. — He cannot flatter . . . he ! An honest mind and plain, — he must speak truth : f7\ An' they will take it. . . so; — if not . . . he's plain. Thy roses faded, and thy lilies soiled. — What had'st thou more to boast of? Will thy lovers Flock round thee now, to gaze and do thee homage ? Methinks I see thee, with thy head laid low; Whilst, surfeited upon thy damask cheek, The high-fed worm in lazy volumes roll'd, Riots unscar'd. For this was all thy caution ? For this, thv painful labours at the glass, To improve those charms, and keep them in repair, For which the spoiler thanks thee not? Foul feeder! Coarse fare and carrion please thee full as well, And leave as keen a relish on the sense. BEREAVEMENT. — Alex. Bell. Each has his woe, and /, alas, teive mine. All common sorrows are in common shared; But there's a climax of calamity Which settles in some solitary breast. THE LANGUAGE OF PASSION. 203. The angry Avinds and flooding rains oft spread A general wreck; -while the electric fire A single victim strikes. — O, I have been A husband and a father ! /t\ Now, alas ! I'm childless, widowed, hopeless, aimless ! boastful challenge. — Shakespeare. Show me what thou'lt do ; Woul't weep PvtouYt fight? wouVt fast ? woul't tear thyself ? Woul't drink up Esil ? eat a crocodile ? ril d.o't. — Dost thou come here to whine, To outface me with leaping in her grave? Be buried . . . quick . . . with her .... and so will I : And if thou prate of mountains, let them throw Millions of acres on us ; till our ground, Singeing its pate against the burning zone, Make Ossa like a wart I Nay!^ an' thou'lt mouth, I'll rant as well as thou. charity. — Crabbe. An ardent spirit dwells Avith. Christian love, — The eagle's A'igour in the pitying dove : 'Tis not enough that we Avith sorroAv sigh, That we the Avants of pleading man supply, That Ave in sympathy Avith sufferers feel, Nor hear a grief Avithout a wish to heal : Not these suffice : — to sickness, pain, and Avoe, The Christian spirit loves Avith aid to go ; /T\ Will not be sought, waits not for Want to plead, But seeks the duty — nay, prevents the need; — Her utmost aid to every ill applies, And plans relief for coming miseries^!*' cheerfulness. — Shakespeare. Now, my co-mates and brothers in exile, Hath not old custom made this life more SAA r eet Than that of painted pomp! 1 Are not these Avoods More free from peril than the envious coitrt f Here feel Ave but the penalty of Adam, The season's difference ; — as the icy fang And churlish chiding of the Avinter's wind, — Which . . . Avhen it bites and bloAvs upon my body, Ev'n till I shrink Avith cold, I smile, /T\and say, This I is no flattery ; these are counsellors That feelingly persuade me . . . what ... I am. Sweet are the uses of Adversity ; Which, like the toad, ugly and venomous, Wears yet a precious jewel in its head; And this our life, [exempt from public haunts, | 204 THE LANGUAGE OF PASSION. Finds tongues in trees, books in the running brooks, Sermons in stones, and good in every thing. close of A guilty career. — Shakespeare. I have liv'd long enough : my May of life Is fall'n into the sear, the yellow leaf; And that which should accompany old age,— - J_As honour, love, obedience, troops of friends, \ /must not look to have; but, in their stead, Curses . . . not loud, but deep, — mo ut/t -honour, — breath, /T\ Which the poor heart would fain deny, but dare not. confidence. — Byron. That's false ! a truer, nobler, trustier heart, More loving, or more loyal, never beat Within a human breast. I would not change My exil'd, persecuted, mangled husband — Oppress'd, but not disgraced, crushed, overwhelm'd — Alive or dead, for Prince or Paladin, In story or in fable — with a -world To back his suit/r\ Dishonoztr'd—He dishonour'd ! I tell thee, Doge, 'tis Venice is dishonour'd. conflicting passions. — Shakespeare. Thou think'st 'tis much that this contentious storm Invades us to the skin : — so 'tis to thee ; But j where the greater malady is fixed, The lesser is scarce felt. Thou'dst shun a bear ; . . . But if thy flight lay toward the raging sea, Thou'dst meet the bear i' the mouth. When the mind^s free, The body's delicate : the tempest . . . in my mind Doth from my senses take all feeling else, Save . . . what . . . beats there, /T\ Filial ingratitude ! . . . Is it not as this mouth should tear this hand For lifting food to't? — But I vr'\\\ punish home! >ts No, I will weep no more. vr\ In such a night To shut me out ! . . . Pour on ; I will endure : /Tn In such a night as this ! O Regan — Goneril ! — Your old kind father, whose frank heart gave all, ... O, that way madness lies : rr\ let me shun that. No more of that. — Prythee go in; seek thine own ease; This tempest will not give me leave j to ponder On things would hurt me more, — But I'll go in ! — In, boy; go first. /T\ I'll pray, and then I'll sleep, r^. Poor ?iaked wretches, wheresoe'er you are. That bide the pelting of this pitiless storm, How shall your houseless heads, and unfed sides, Your loop'd and window'd raggedness, defend you From seasons such as these ? . . . O, I have ta'en THE LANGUAGE OF PASSION. 205 Too little care of this! fair— feeds well — loves company— Is free of speech — sings — plays — and dances well. Where virtue is, these are more virtuous! — Nor, from mine own weak merits, will I draw The smallest fear, or doubt of her revolt — For, she had eyes and chose me. /Tn No, Iago ; — I'll see, before I doubt; -when I doubt . . . prove : And, on the proof, there is no more but this, — Away at once with love, or . . . jealousy. joy. — Shakespeare. O! my soul' s joy ! If after every tempest come such calms, May the winds blow . . . till they have wakened death ! And let the labouring bark climb hills of seas Olympus high, and duck again as low As hell's from heaven ! /t\ If it were now to die, 'Twere now to be most happy; for I fear My soul hath her content so absolute, That not another comfort like to this Succeeds in unknown fate. justification. — Shakespeare. Romans, Countrymen, and Lovers! — Hear me for my cause; and be silent that you may hear. Believe me, for mine honour: and have respect to mine honour, that you may believe. Censure me in your -wisdom ; and awake your senses, that you may the better judge. this action? Is't not / That undergo this charge? Who else but I, — And such as to my claim are liable, Sweat in this business, and maintain this war? Have I not here the best cards for the game, To win this easy match played for a crown? And shall I now give o'er the yielded set? — No, on my soul ; it never shall be said. raving. — Dickens. " Nobody shall go near her." said the man, starting fiercely up, as the undertaker approached the recess. "Keep back I keep back ! if you've a life to lose." " Nonsense, my good man." said the undertaker, who was pretty well used to misery in all its shapes — " nonsense ! " "I tell you," said the man — clenching his hands, and stamp- ing furiously on the floor, — " I tell you I won't have her put into the ground ! She couldn't rest there. The worms would worry — not eat her, — she is so worn away." The undertaker offered no reply to this raving ; but, producing a tape from his pocket, knelt down for a moment by the side of the body. "Ah ! " said the man, — bursting into tears, and sinking on his knees at the feet of the dead woman ; — " kneel down, kneel down ; kneel round her, every one of you, and mark my words. I say, she starved to death. I never knew how bad she was, till the fever came upon her, and then /-rs her bones were starting through the skin. There was neither fire nor candle ; she died in the dark — in the dark! She couldn't even see her children's faces, though we heard her gasping out their names. rs\ I begged tor her in the streets, h\ and . . . they sent me to frison I When I came back, she was dying; and all the blood in my heart is dried up, for they starved her to death I I swear it before Heaven that saw it, — they starved her! " He twined his hands in his hair, and, with a loud scream, rolled grovelling upon the floor; his eyes fixed, and the foam gushing from his lips. rebellion. — Moore. Rebellion ! foul dishonouring word. Whose wrongful blight so oft has stained The holiest cause that tongue or sword Of mortal ever lost or gained. How many a spirit, born to bless, Hath sunk beneath that withering name, — Whom but a day's, an hour's success, Had wafted to eternal fa me! As exhalations, when they burst From the warm earth, if chilled at first, THE LANGUAGE OF PASSION. 227 If checked in soaring from the plain, Darken to fogs, and sink again ; — But, — if they once triumphant spread Their wings above the mountain-head — Become enthroned in upper air, And turn to sun-bright glories there ! regretful pity. — Shakespeare. Alas ! poor Yorick ! I knew him, Horatio : a fellow of infinite pest, of most excellent fancy ; he hath borne me on his back a thousand times; and now. . . how abhorred inmy imagination it is ; /Tv my gorge rises at it. Here hung those lips that I have kissed I know not how oft. Where be your gibes now f Your gambols ? Your songs ? Your flashes of merriment that were wont to set the table on a roar f Not one now ... to mock your own grinning? Quite chop-fallen ? rss Now get you to my lady's chamber, and tell her, let her paint an inch thick, to this favour she . . . must come ; make her laugh ... at that. rejecting counsel. — Shakespeare. I pray thee, cease thy counsel, — Which falls into mine ears as profitless As water in a sieve ; give not me counsel ; Nor let no comforter delight mine ear . . 7 But . . . such a one whose wrongs do suit with mine. Bring me a father that so loved his child, Whose joy of her is over-whelmed like mine, And bid him speak of patience. /c\ Measure his woe the length and breadth of mine, And let it answer every strain for strain ; As thus for thus, and such a grief for such. In every lineament, branch, shape, and form . . . If such a one will smile, and stroke his beard ; Cry — Sorrow, wag ! and hem when he should groan ; Patch grief with proverbs ; . . . bring him yet to me, And I of him will gather patience. But there is no such man ; /cs for men Can counsel, and speak comfort to that grief Which they themselves not feel ; but, tasting it, Their counsel turns to passion — which before Would give preceptial medicitic to rage — Fetter strong madness in a silken thread — Charm ache with air — and agony with words ... No, no; 'tis all men's office to speak patience To those that wring under the load of sorrow : But no man's virtue, nor sufficiency, To be so moral, when he shall endure The like himself: therefore give me no counsel : /Ts My griefs cry louder than advertisement. 228 THE LANGUAGE OF PASSION. remembered love. — Hon. Mrs. Norton. Oh, while the heart, where her head hath lain In its hours of joy, in its sighs of pain ; While the hand, which so oft hath been clasped in hers, In the twilight hour, when nothing stirs, — Beat with the deep full pulse of life; Can he forget his departed wife? Many may love him«, and he, in truth, May love, but not with the love of his youth ; Ever, around his joy, will come A stealing sigh for that long-loved home ; And her step and her voice will go glidingly by, In the desolate halls of his memory I remonstrance — with indignation. — Mrs. Hemans. What ! let the foe engird us — that our bands May rest ? Forget that last disastrous day ! Forget it ! Rest ! Bethink you, noble knights, Whence we must now draw strength ! send down your thoughts Into the very depths of grief and shame, And bring back courage thence ! To talk of rest ! /T\ How do they rest, unburied on their field, Our brethren, slain by Gaza? Had we time To give them funeral rites ? and ask we now Time to forget their fall? My father died. . . . I cannot speak of him ! . . . What ! and forget The infidel's fierce trampling o'er our dead ? Forget his scornful shout f /T\ give battle now, While the thought lives, as fire lives ! There lies strength I Hold the dark memory fast ! Now, now — this hour / Gather your forces to the western gate ! Let none forget that day ! Our field was lost — Our city's strength laid low, — one mighty heart, — Your Chief's . . . my father's — broken ! Oh ! let none Forget it ! Arm ! Way for remorse ! Arm ! arm ! Free way for vengeance ! remorse— for committing murder.— Shakespeare* O, my offence is rank ... it smells to heaven; — It hath the primal eldest curse upon't, — A brother's murder ; sis Pray can I not. Though inclination be as sharp as 'twill My stronger guilt defeats my strong intent; And — like a man to double business bound, — I stand in pause where I shall first begin . . . And both neglect, rrs What if this cursed hand Were thicker than itself with brother's blood? Is there not rain enough in the sweet heavens To wash it white as snow f Whereto serves mercy, But to confront the. visage of offence ? THE LANGUAGE OF PASSION. 229 And what's in grayer, but this two-fold force, — To be forestalled ere we come to fall, Orpardon'd, being down? Then I'll look up, My fault is past. But, O, what/brw of prayer Can serve my turn ?. . . Forgive me . . . my foul murder ? . . . That cannot be, since I am still possess'd Of those effects for which I did the murder — My crown, mine own ambition, and my queen. May one be pardon'd, and retain the offence ?/T\ In the corrupted currents of this world, Offence's gilded hand may shove by justice; — And oft 'tis seen, the wicked prize itself Buys out the laiv. But 'tis not so above — There is no shuffling — there the action lies In his true nature ; and we ourselves compell'd, Even to the teeth and forehead of our faults, To give in evidence. What then ? what rests ?rr\ Try what repentance can : . . . what can it not ? Yet what can it, when one can not repent? O wretched state? O bosom, black as death ! limed soul, that, struggling to be free, Art more engaged ! Help, angels ! /T\ Make essay ! . .'. Bow, stubborn knees ! and heart, with strings of steel, Be soft as sinews of the new born babe, /?s All may be well ! remorse — for drunkenness. — Shakespeare. 1 remember ... a mass of things . . . but nothing distinctly : a quarrel . . . nothing -wherefore. O that men should put an enemy in their mouths to steal aivay their brains! that we should . . . with joy, pleasure, revel, and applause, transform ourselves into beasts I I will ask him for my place again ... he shall tell me I am ... a drunkard, /rs Had I as many months as Hydra, such an answer would stop them all. /Ts To be now a sensible man, by and bye a fool, and presently ... a beast! T\ O strange ! every inor- dinate cup is unblessed— and the ingredient ... is a devil I REMORSELESS HORROR. — Baillie. Alone . . . with thee ! but thou art nothing now. 'Tis done, — 'tis numbered with the things o'erpast ; Would — would it were to come ! — What fated end, what darkly gathering cloud, Will close on all this horror? O, that dire madness would unloose my thoughts, And fill my mind with wildest fantasies, Dark, restless, terrible ! Aught, aught . . . but this ! rr\ How with convulsive life he heaved beneath me, E'en with the death's wound gored ! O horrid, horrid ! Methinks I feel him still. /?s What sound is that? 23O THE LANGUAGE OF PASSION. I heard a smothered groan. /7\ It is impossible ! . . . It moves ! It moves ! the cloth doth heave and swell. It moves again ! I cannot suffer this, — Whate'er it be, I will uncover it. /T\ All still beneath. Nought is there here but fixed and grisly death. How sternly fixed ! Oh ! those glazed eyes ! They look upon me still. Come, madness ! come unto me, senseless death ! I cannot suffer this ! reproach with want of friendship. — Shakespeare. You have done . . . that, you should be sorry for. There is no terror, Cassius, in your threats ; For I am arm'd so strong in honesty, That they pass by me as the idle wind, Which I respect not. I did send to you For certain sums of gold, which you . . . denied me', For / can raise no money by vile means ; No, Cassius, I had rather coin my heart, And drop my blood for drachmas, than to wring From the hard hands of peasants their vile trash By any indirection. I did send To you for gold ... to pay my legions, Which you . . . denied me. -drawn dagger, which you said Led you to Duncan. O, these flaws and starts {Impostors to true fear) would well become A woman's story, at a winter's fire, Authoriz'd by . . . her grandam. T\ Shame itself! Why do you make such faces ? When all's done, You look but on a stool. reproach with stupidity and inconstancy. That Caesar comes in triumph ! Wherefore rejoice P — What conquest brings he home ? What tributaries follow him to Rome, To grace in captive bonds his chariot wheels? You blocks, you stones, you -worse than senseless things ! ts THE LANGUAGE OF PASSION. 231 O, you hard hearts, you cruel men of Rome. — Knew ye not Pompey f Many a time and oft Have you climbed up to walls and battlements, To towers and windows, yea, to chimney tops, — Your infants in your arms. — and there have sat The live-long day, with patient expectation, To see great Pompey pass the streets of Rome : And when you saw his chariot but appear, Have you not made a universal shout, That Tiber trembled underneath her banks, To hear the replication of your sounds, Made in her concave shores ? . . . And do you now put on your best attire ? And do you now cull out a holiday f And do you now strew flowers in his way That comes in triumph over Pompey's blood Be gone ! /T\ Run to your houses ; fall upon your knees ; Pray to the gods to intermit the plague, That needs must light on this ingratitude. REPROOF OF SERVILITY. — Byron. Approach, thou craven crouching slave, Say, is not this Thermopylae f These waters blue that round you lave — O servile offspring of the free — Pronounce what sea, what shore is this :/tn The gulf, the rock of Salami's ! rs\ These scenes, their story not unknown, Arise, and make again your own : ' Snatch from the ashes of your sires The embers of their former fires : And he who in the strife expires Will add to theirs a name of fear That Tyranny shall quake to hear : And leave his sons a hope, a fame, They too will rather die than shame ! For Freedom's battle once begun, Bequeathed by bleeding sire to son, Though baffled oft, is ever \ won. sad foreboding. — Shakespeare. This man's brow, like to a title-leaf, Foretells the nature of a tragic volume To fright our party. — How does my son, and brother ? Thou tremblest, and the whiteness of thy cheek Is apter than thy tongue to tell thy errand, srs Even such a man, — so faint, so spiritless, So dull, so dead in look, so woe-bcione, — 232 THE LANGUAGE OF PASSION. Drew Priam's curtain in the dead of night, And would have told him, half his Troy was burn'd . But Priam found the fire, ere he his tongue; — And I. . . my Percy's death, ere thou report'st it. This thou would'st say. Your son did thus, and thus Your brother, thus : so — fought the noble Douglas ; Stopping my greedy ear with their bold deeds . . . But in the end, — to stop mine ear indeed, — Thou hast a sigh to blow away this praise, Ending with — brother, son, and all . . . are dead. sarcastic expostulation. — Shakespeare. Signior Antonio, many a time — and oft On the Rialto — you have rated me About my moneys, and my usances : /T\ Still have I borne it with a patient shrug; For sufferance is the badge of all our tribe. You call me — misbeliever, cut-throat — dog, And spit upon my Jewish gaberdine . . . And all for use of that which is mine oivn. Well, then, it now appears you need my help : Go to, then ; you come to me, and you say, Shy lock, we would have moneys : . . . You say so ; You, . . . that did void your rheum upon my beard, And foot me, as you spurn a stranger cur Over your threshold ; Moneys is your suit ! sts What should I say to you ? Should I not say Hath a dog money? is it possible A cur can lend three thousand ducats ? or, . . . Shall I bend low, and in a bondsman's key, [With bated breath, and whispering humbleness, | Say this, — Fair sir, you . . . spit on me on Wednesday last ; You spurn d me . . . such a day ; another time You called me . . . dog ; and for these . . . courtesies I'll . . . lend you thus much moneys. scorn. — Byron. Pardon is for men, And not for reptiles, — we have none for Steno, And no resentme?it ; things like him must sting, And higher beings suffer, — 'tis the charter Of life. The man who dies by an adder's fang May have the crawler crush'd. but feels no anger ; 'Twas the worm's nature ; and some men are worms In soul . . . more than the living things of tombs. selfish hatred —Shakespeare. How like a fawning publican he looks ! I hate him /r\ for he is a . . . Christian : THE LANGUAGE OF PASSION. 233 But more, for that, in low simplicity, He lends out money gratis,— and brings down The rate of usance here with us, in Venice. " If I can catch him once upon the hip, I will feed fat the ancient grudge I bear him. He hates our sacred nation, and he rails, — Even there where merchants most do congregate. — On me, my bargains, and my well won thrift, Which he calls . . . interest : /7\ Cursed be my tribe, If I forgive him ! shuffling refusal. — Shakespeare. They answer in a joint and corporate voice, That now they are at fall, — want treasure, — cannot Do what they would . . . are sorry : . . . you are honourable . . . But yet . . . they could have wish'd . . . they know not . . . Something hath been amiss ... a noble nature May catch a wrench . . . would all were well . . . 'tis pity. ^ And so, intending other serious matters, After distasteful looks, and these hard fractions, With certain half-cups, and cold moving nods, They froze me into silence. sickness. — Shakespeare. And wherefore should this good news make me sick ? I should rejoice now at this happy news, And now my sight fails, and my brain is giddy, . . . me ! . . . come near me, . . . now I am ?nuch ill. /C\ 1 pray you take me up, and bear me hence Into some other chamber. rr\ Softly, pray — Let there be no noise made, my gentle friends, — Unless some dull and favourable hand Will whisper music to my weary spirit. sorrow causing forgetfulness. — Shakespeare. Yet one word more : — grief ooundeth where it falls, . . . Not with an empty hollowness, but weight ; I take my leave before I have begun, For sorrow ends not when it seemeth done ; — Commend me to my brother, Edmund York — Lo, this is all : . . . nay, yet depart not so ; Though this be all . . . do not so quickly go. ^ I shall remember more. Bid him . . . Oh, what f T\ With all good speed at Plashy visit me. t\ Alack, and what shall good old York there see, But empty lodgings, and unfurnish'd walls, Unpeopled offices, untrodden stones ? And what hear there for welcome but my groans ? 234 THE LANGUAGE OF PASSION. Therefore commend me ... let him not come there — To seek out sorrow that dwells every where; Desolate, desolate! I will hence, and die :^n The last leave of thee takes my weeping eye. stern reproach. — Shakespeare. Enforced thee ! art thou king, and -wilt be forced? I shame to hear thee speak. Ah, timorous wretch ! Thou hast undone . . . thyself, thy son, and me; And given unto the house of York such head As thou shalt reign but by their sufferance. To entail him and his heirs unto the crown, What is it but to make thy sepulchre, And creep into it far before thy time? War-wick is chancellor, and the lord of Calais ; Stern Faulconbridge commands the narrow seas ; The Duke is made protector ol the realm, And yet shalt thou be safe t> Such safety finds The trembling lamb environed with wolves. Had /been there, which am a silly woman, The soldiers should have tossed me on their pikes Before I would have granted to that act. But thou preferr'st thy life before thine honour. And, seeing thou dost, I here divorce myself — Both from thy table, Henry, and thy bed, — Until that act of parliament be repealed Whereby my son is disinherited. The northern lords, that have forsworn thy colours, Will follow mine, if once they see them spread : And spread they shall be ; to thy foul disgrace, And utter ruin of the house of York. /r\ Thus do I leave thee. Come, son, let's away. sullenxess.— Byron. I have not loved the world, nor the world me ; I have not flattered its rank breath, nor bowed To its idolatries a. patient knee, — Nor coin'd my cheeks to smiles, — nor cried aloud In worship of an echo ; in the crowd They could not deem me one of such ; I stood Among them, but not o/"them; in a shroud Of thoughts which were not their thoughts ; — and still could, Had I not filed my mind, which thus itself subdued. I have not loved the world, nor the world me. — But let us part fair foes. I do believe — Though I have found them not — that there may be Words which are things — hopes which will not deceive, THE LANGUAGE OF PASSION. 235 And virtues which are merciful, nor weave Snares for the failing: I would also deem, O'er others' griefs, that some sincerely grieve ; That two, or one, are almost what they seem, — That goodness is no 7tame, and happiness no dream. suspicion. — Shakespeare. Let me have men about me that are fat ; Sleek-headed men, and such as sleep o'nights : Yond' Cassius has a lean and hungry look ; He thinks too much :— such men are dangerous. 'Would he were fatter! . . . But I fear him not : Yet if my name were liable to fear, I do not know the man I should avoid So soon as that spare Cassius. /ts He reads much ; He is a great observer, and he looks Quite through the deeds of men : he loves no plays y As thou dost, Antony ; he hears no music : Seldom he smiles ; and smiles in such a sort, As if he mock'd himself, — and scorn'd his spirit That could be mov'd to smile at any thing. rz\ Such men as he j be never at heart's ease While they behold a greater than themselves ; And therefore are they very dangerous. r?\ I rather tell thee what is to be fear'd, Than what /fear . . . for always I am . . . Caesar. /Tn Come on my right hand. — for this ear is deaf, — And tell me truly what thou think'st of him. SYMPATHY, WITH ADMIRATION. — Baillic. ! I have seen a sight, a glori >us sight ! Thou would'st have smiled to see it — Yes, smil'd ! although mine eyes are wet with tears. Faith, so they are ; well, well, but / smiled too. O, had you seen it! Drawn out in goodly ranks — there stood our troops ; Here, in the graceful state of manly youth, His dark face brightened with a generous smile, — Which to his eyes such fashing lustre gave, As though his soul, like an unsheathed sword. Had through them gleamed — our noble General stood :. And to his soldiers, with heart-moving words The veteran showing, his brave deeds rehearsed ; Who, by his side stood like a storm-scathed oak Beneath the shelter of some noble tree, In the green honours of its youthful prime. 1 cannot tell thee how the veteran looked I At first he bore it up with cheerful looks. As one who fain would wear his honours bravely. And greet the soldiers with a comrade's face : 236 THE LANGUAGE OF PASSION. But when Count Basil, in such moving speech, Told o'er his actions past, and bade his troops Great deeds to emulate, his countenance changed ; High heav'd his manly breast, as it had been By inward strong emotion ha\{- conv ills' d ; Trembled his nether lip; he shed some tears, The General pans' d— the soldiers shouted loud; Then hastily he brushed the drops away, And wav'd his hand, and clear'd his tear-chok'd voice, As though he Avould some grateful answer make ; When back with double force the whelming tide Of passion came ; high o'er his hoary head His arm he toss'd, and heedless of respect, In BasM's bosom hid his aged face, Sobbing aloud. st\ From the admiring ranks A cry arose; still louder shouts resound; sr\ I felt ... a sudden tightness grasp my throat As it would strangle me ; such as I felt, — I knew it well, — some twenty years ago, When my good father shed his blessing on me. I hate to weep, and so I came away. terror. — Moliere. Ah! mercy on my soul! What is that? — My old friend's. . . ghost f They say none but wicked folks w-a-lk ... I wish I were at the bottom of a coal-pit. t\ La ! how pale and long his face is grown since his death : he never was handsome : and death has improved him very much the wrong way s?\ Pray . . . do not come near me! — I wished you very well when you were alive ; — but I could never abide a dead man cheek-by -jowl with me . . . Ah!— Ah — mercy on us ! . . . No nearer, pray \^\ If it be only to take leave of me that you are come back, I could have ex- cused you the ceremony with all my heart. — Or if you. . . mercy on us! — no nearer — pray — or if you have wronged anybody, as you always loved money ... a little, — I give you the word of a frighted Christian, I will pray as long as yon please for the de- liverance or repose of your departed soul. My good — worthy — noble friend, do pray —