Ih /kc* tiif PRACTICE OF ELOCUTION; OR, A COURSE OF EXERCISES A GOOD DELIVERY. BY B. H. SMAET. FOURTH EDITION, AUGMENTED, PARTICULARLY BY A CHAPTER ON IMPASSIONED BEADING QUALI- FIED BY TASTE; WITH EXERCISES ADAPTED TO A CHRONOLOGICAL OUTLINE OF ENGLISH POETRY. LONDON: LONGMAN, BROWN, GREEN, AND LONGMANS. 1842. London : Printed by WILLIAM CLOWES and Sows, Stamford Street. PREFACE. THE present work is one of several * intended to assist the English student in acquiring the full use of the language, both in oral speech and in writing. These works I have not prepared hastily, nor with shallow experience. Of the subjects which they treat, I have been a practical teacher in London for forty years ; and my pupils have been of all ages, and of various training. The learning acquired at Oxford and Cambridge does not render superfluous such instruction as I profess to give ; and from these Universities, as from other places of learning, I have had, and continue to have, numerous pupils. But I wish to plead in favour of these works something more than my experience as a teacher. They are parts in the practical development of a theory, which exhibits the relation of language to thought in a light very different from that under which elementary grammars, dictionaries, and guides to elocution, are in general planned and executed. In the works which I lay before the English student, logical accuracy or error is not confounded with grammatical, nor the meaning of separate words taken into account, when their function is spoken of as parts of one expression that is to have but one meaning. A word which has many gram- matical phases or inflections, is not set down as a distinct word in each phasis, but as the same logical element in a * A Dictionary (the original work, and an epitomised edition) ; an Accidence and Grammar (to which will shortly be added an Introduc- tion for the use of schools, and a correspondent volume of Exercises) ; and a Selection from the Historical Plays of Shakspeare, with con- necting memoranda. This last work is the companion volume of the present. VI PREFACE. different grammatical shape. Emphasis is not referred to any such principle as a series of more or less important ideas making up a thought or sentence ; but a sentence is considered the expression of one indivisible thought, and emphasis or modulation as the means of giving unity to its grammatical parts, and, occasionally, of making the whole sentence convey something more than its plain meaning. If in thus stating the general principle that runs through the whole of the practical works in view, I am little under- stood indeed, I cannot hope by any brief explanation to make myself understood at once by those to whom such con- siderations are new I must refer to the theory which I published as a preparation for these practical works the volume of essays which I have called ' Beginnings of a New School of Metaphysics' I have only to add that great care has been taken in pre- paring this, the fourth edition of the present work, for the press ; and to express a hope that the new chapter will supply a desideratum in our schools, an introduction to the English poets, comprehensive in outline, but brief in detail. CONTENTS. Page Introduction ....... .1 CHAPTER I. MECHANICAL READING, OR EXERCISES IN ARTICULATION. Intention of the Exercises, and instructions for conducting them 7 EXERCISES ON THE CONSONANTS. The aspirate ......... 10 The pure labial consonant . . . . . .11 The maxillar consonant ....... ib. The dental hissing consonant ...... 12 The dental buzzing consonant . . . . .13 The palatal hissing consonant, and the non-vocal dento-palatal diphthongal consonant ...... ib. The palatal buzzing consonant, and the vocal dento-palatal diphthongal consonant . . . . . .14 The labio-dental breath consonant . . . . . ib. The labio-dental voice consonant . . . . .15 The linguo-dental breath consonant . . . . ib. The linguo-dental voice consonant . . . . ib. The pure dental consonant . . . . . .16 The labio-nasal consonant ....... ib. The dento-nasal consonant ...... ib. The palato-nasal consonant . . . . . .17 The trilled dental consonant . . . . . . ib. The untrilled r 18 The labial mute ........ ib. The labial semi-mute ....... 19 The palatal mute ........ ib. The palatal semi-mute ....... ib. The dental mute 20 The dental semi-mute ....... ib. Exercise on the breath and on the voice consonants alternately 21 EXERCISES ON THE VOWELS. The alphabetic vowels under the accent . . . .21 The essentially short vowels under the accent ... 22 The remaining incidental vowels under the accent . .24 Vlll CONTENTS. Page The vowels which terminate in guttural vibration under the accent ......... 24 Vowel sounds in unaccented syllables ..... 25 Concluding exercise in synepy . . . . . .27 CHAPTER II. SIGNIFICANT READING, OR EXERCISES IN MODULATION. Intention of the Exercises ....... 28 Exercise 1. Modulative and suspensive, modulative and con- clusive accents, in periodic sentences constructed of logical noun and verb ........ 29 Exercise 2. Modulative and suspensive, modulative and con- clusive accents, in periodic sentences partially formed of nouns in series . . . . . . . .31 Exercise 3. Modulative and suspensive, modulative and con- clusive accents, in sentences containing antithetic parts . 32 Exercise 4. Plain modulation (or that which agrees simply with the construction of the sentence) partially disturbed by accents of allusive force ...... 34 Exercise 5. Suspensive and conclusive accents in periodic sentences of various construction .... 35 Exercise 6. Suspensive and conclusive accents as in the pre- vious exercise ........ 38 Exercise 7. Non-periodic sentences to be modulated accord- ing to their construction ...... 40 Exercise 8. Non-periodic sentences to be modulated with periodic effect . . . . . . .41 Exercise 9. Non-periodic sentences containing clauses in series, to be modulated according to their construction . 43 Exercise 10. Periodic sentences containing clauses in series, to be modulated so as to enforce the distinctness of the clauses . .... .... 45 Exercise 11. Periodic sentences containing clauses fti series, to be modulated so as to connect the clauses while in progress . . . . . . . .47 Exercise 12. Lowering the voice in commencing a paren- thesis, the previous suspensive, conclusive, or continuing tone being repeated in finishing it, and the voice then raised to its former pitch ...... 49 Exercise 13. Sentences of various construction to be modu- lated at certain parts with emphatic accents introducing words or clauses of a foreknown or implied meaning . 51 Exercise 14. Sentences of interrogative import to be modu- lated suspensively ....... 55 Exercise 15. Sentences of illative import to be modulated suspensively . . . . . . .57 Exercise 16. Sentences of innuendo to be modulated according to their intent ........ 59 CONTENTS. IX CHAPTER III. IMPASSIONED READING, OB EXERCISES IN SPEAKING. Pag* Intention of the Exercises ....... 62 Gesture ..........63 The Narrative, the Argumentative, and the Meditative manner 66 1. Modesty and Assurance exemplified .... 67 2. The Golden Age ib. 3. Sincerity wiser than Hypocrisy .... 68 4. It is folly to desire powers not consistent with our nature ........ 69 5. Reflections of a King when lost in a wood . .70 6. Reflections on the value of life . . . ib. Vehement, Plaintive, Lively, and Solemn expression . . 71 7. Mutius Scaevola to king Porsenna .... 73 8. The bondmen of Corinth from the fortified walls, to the Corinthian chiefs returning home from war . ib. 9. Address to Sensibility 74 10. Address to the Moon ...... 75 11. A West Indian's Address to his friend on landing in England ........ ib. 1 2. Sentiments of a contented mind .... 76 13. Ossian's address to the Sun ..... 77 14. Effusions on imagining a midnight scene in a reposi- tory of the dead ....... ib. 15. Canute's Reproof ....... 78 16. Douglas's Account of the Hermit .... 79 17. Fortitude is necessary to the enjoyment of happiness . 80 18. Mercy, to be genuine, must be given freely; and it ought always to temper justice . . ib. 1 9. The mind disposing itself to thought on the approach of evening ........ 81 20. Hamlet reflecting oil his irresolution ... 82 21. General Wolfe to his army before Quebec, 1759 . ib. 22. Neptune, in the form of Calchas, reproving and ani- mating the Grecian leaders at the siege of Troy . 84 23. David's lamentation over Saul and Jonathan . . 85 24. An Elegy to Pity ib. 25. Advice to an affected speaker ..... 86 26. Apology for the Pig . . ,~. . .87 27. A vision described ...... 88 28. The influence of midnight 89 29. Crazy Kate ib. 30. Mind the source of true beauty .... 90 31. Curse of Kehama 91 32. The Cur and the Mastiff 92 33. Alexander on passing the Granicus .... 93 34. Helena upbraiding Hermia ..... 16. x CONTENTS. Page 35. Night Thoughts 94 36. The Hare and the Tortoise 95 37. Sin and Death 96 38. Opening of L' Allegro 97 39. Opening of II Feiisieroso ..... 98 40. An ancient battle poetically described ... 99 41. A modern battle poetically described . . .100 43. Address to Independence ..... 101 44. Farewell to Anna's grave . . . . .102 45. The dying Gladiator 104 46. The miseries of the poor, and luxury of the rich. . 105 47. The Jackdaw 106 48. Invocation to Music . . . . . .107 49. Beauty illumined by soul . . . . .108 50. Jephtha's daughter to her father .... 109 51. Greece, as it impressed the mind of a poet in 1810 . 110 52. Influence of natural objects in calling forth the ima- gination . . . . . . . .111 53. Pleasures of Hope . . . . . . .112 54. Pleasures of Memory . . . . . .113 55. Fall of Jerusalem . . . . , . .114 56. Pilgrims and Crusaders . . . . . .115 57. The last Minstrel 116 58. The Passions : anode . . . . . .118 Popular, Senatorial, Forensic, and Pulpit Elocution : 59. The Consul Titus Quintius to the Roman multitude . 121 60. Queen Elizabeth to her forces at Tilbury, in 1588 . 124 61. Demosthenes to the freemen of Athens assembled to legislate . . . . . . . .125 62. Lord Chatham to the British House of Peers . .127 63. Exordium of Cicero's oration against Verres . . 128 64. Exordium of Erskine's defence of the Dean of St. Asaph 123 65. An Exhortation concerning Worship and Holiness . 131 66. Comparison between Human and Divine Justice . 132 CHAPTER IV. DRAMATIC READING, OR EXERCISES IN ACTING. Intention of the Exercises . . . . , .135 1. The Seven Ages 136 2. The Fly and the Spider 137 3. Hodge and the Vicar . . . . . .138 4. Sir Archy Macsarcasm and SirCallaghan O'Brallaghari 140 5. Anne Page and her Lovers . . . . .141 6. Bobadil, Young Knowell, Matthew, and Downright . 144 7. Croaker and Honeywood . . . . .147 8. Antony and Ventidius . . . . . .150 9. Passages from the tragedy of ' Remorse' . . 155 CONTENTS. Xi Page 10. Gesler, and Albert the son of William Tell . . 163 11. Adrastus, Crythes, and Ion ..... 166 12. Van Artevelde, Van den Bosch, and various citizens of Ghent 175 CHAPTER V. IMPASSIONED READING QUALIFIED BY TASTE, WITH EXERCISES ADAPTED TO A CHRONOLOGICAL OUTLINE OF ENGLISH PoETRV. Intention of the Exercises ...... 190 READINGS ILLUSTRATING THE DIFFERENT PERIODS OF ENGLISH POETRY. Historical and Critical Memoranda . . . . .191 THE FIRST OR ROMANTIC PERIOD OF ENGLISH POETRY . .193 Chaucerian Readings ....... ib. Memoranda continued . . . . . . .213 Readings from poets between Chaucer and Spenser Sir Thomas Wyatt ib. Henry Howard, Earl of Surrey 215 Sir Thomas Vaux 216 Memoranda continued . . . . . . .217 Verses by an unknown author, 'The Soul's Errand ' .218 Spenserian Readings ...... 220 Memoranda continued ....... 234 THE SECOND OR CLASSICAL PERIOD OF ENGLISH POETRY. Memoranda continued . . . . . . 236 Miltonian Readings ....... ib. Memoranda continued ....... 2S7 Readings from Butler, Dryden, Pope, and Gray Butler 258 Dryden 262 Pope 265 Gray 268 THE THIRD OR MODERN PERIOD OF ENGLISH POETRY. Readings from ' The Course of Time,' and from ' The Excursion :' From ' The Course of Time '..... 273 From ' The Excursion '..... 278 MR. LEOPOLD SMART, pupil of his father, Mr. B. H. SMART, gives instruction in the higher branches of English Education, either jointly with, or separately from his Father. 55, Connaught Terrace, Hyde Park. THE PRACTICE OF ELOCUTION. INTRODUCTION. THE following are the Requisites of a good Delivery, to which, in the respective Exercises, the pupil's attention and practical efforts are to be directed : 1 . AN EXACT AND FIRM ARTICULATION. 2. A FULL UTTERANCE AND PROPER USE OF THE ACCENTS OR INFLECTIONS OF THE VOICE ESSENTIAL TO JUST MODU- LATION. 3. A VARIED AND SUITABLE EXPRESSION. The first of these constitutes a distinct delivery ; the se- cond makes it significant ; and the third, by adding man- ner, earnestness, and feeling, renders it impressive. With a view to secure the several Requisites here set down, the pupil, in employing Reading as the means, will find a benefit in considering his ultimate object to require and include Three Stages of advancement. First, to be perfect so far as mere MECHANICAL READ- ING extends, that is, Reading in which we undertake to utter the words justly, completely, and in smooth unbroken series between the written stops when they are joined into sentences, but with no higher purpose or attempt. Secondly, to be perfect so far as SIGNIFICANT READING extends, or Reading in the strict sense of the word ; that is, Reading in which we undertake to make the construction and meaning of every sentence plain by appropriate iunes (or inflections) of the voice, but with no purpose of con- B 2 INTRODUCTION. veymg the impression that the sentiments uttered are our own. Thirdly, to be perfect to the full extent of the powers thus far acquired, and of the further powers which nature supplies when the sentiments to be conveyed are appro- priated by the speaker, and he throws off the restraint which the conscious act of reading imposes in the previous stages of advancement. But this kind of Reading, namely, IM- PASSIONED READING, ife more than mere Reading it is SPEAKING : and Speaking distinct, significant, impressive Speaking is the ability we seek to acquire or improve when we study Elocution. The foregoing statement is the theoretical outline, ac- cording to which the Exercises in the following pages are arranged up to the end of the third chapter. Two more chapters are added, and some further remarks must be made to justify the addition. If, to speak with full expression, it is necessary that he who utters the words should feel the facts or sentiments embodied by them as part of his own knowledge, or coming from his own mind, those facts or sentiments ought to be Buch as he can appropriate, otherwise he is not a speaker merely, but an actor. And the exercises in the third chap- ter are accordingly all so chosen that, with some little effort of fancy, in general a very little, the pupil may place him- self in the supposed circumstances, and utter the language furnished for him as the spontaneous effect. This will not be acting, unless the speaker is obliged to change his own natural manner for a manner indicative of character, tem- perament, or humour (call it as we please), distinct from his own. The old dramatists, who iised this last word in the sense here in view, applied it with a clear apprehension of the intended distinction ; the actor's art distinct from mere speaking, was the art of representing " every man in INTRODUCTION. 3 his humour," whether the humour was comic or tragic. But distinct from peculiar humours, there are emotions and passions to which all men are liable under the same exciting circumstances; and the expression of these when the cir- cumstances are supposed, is forcible speaking only, and should not be acting. If, indeed, the pupil is incapable, through nature or unformed habit, of the requisite exertion of fancy, he will also be incapable of the real feeling ; and in such a pupil the attempt at expression will be acting in its worst possible guise. To avoid any effect of this kind, let the pupil's ability be consulted in the exercises assigned to him those pieces in the third chapter that require great liveliness or great warmth of imagination, being left for pupils who are endowed with, or have acquired, the requi- site mental qualities. That the distinction between Speaking in one's own character, and Speaking in an assumed one, or Ac tint], may be practically enforced, a chapter is added which profess- edly transcends the former one, and consequently the strict objects of elocution. Should it be thought desirable to teach the pupil, in some little degree, the actor's art, the exercises there given may serve the purpose. An oppor- tunity was likewise wanted to insert some dialogues, which this division of the work affords. It is true that a dialogue may not necessarily require a greater effort of fancy to realize the supposed situation, and the consequent proper delivery of the language, than such single speeches as the third chapter includes : but a dialogue always has a scenic effect in comparison with a single speech ; and the dialogues, though they do not all require the ability peculiar to act- ing, are therefore all placed together. The fifth chapter brings us from Speaking back again to Reading, not to Mechanical Reading, nor to what was called Significant Reading, but to a kind of Reading which pro- B2 4 INTRODUCTION. poses more than merely to convey the sense, and yet falls short of speaking. Our theory, as laid down above, makes no provision for this, but requires the Reader and the Speaker each to keep strictly to his province, so as not to exceed or fall short in fulfilling it. And, in point of fact, a reader is liable to be moved only in the way in which a hearer is liable, while he recollects that he is a reader : his passion or feeling is, in such case, the effect of what the author lays before him, not a part of the author's language. A reader whose feeling is thus generated, and who gives way to it, as most readers do, under a notion that to read impressively is to read on this principle, seems, as he goes on, to say thus much, " How tender, or how sublime this is, which I am reading, how affecting to my feelings," and so the hearer is called upon to be equally affected. But such Reading, however prevalent, is in bad Taste : plain, simple significant Reading is better, and will be found more effective than such impassioned Reading as this. Either the Reader must keep strictly within his province, or, in order to be legitimately and effectively impassioned, he must forget that he is a Reader, and, by so forgetting, become a Speaker. But, on the other hand, will this be possible, it may be asked, while he maintains the position and other circumstances of a reader ; and, if possible, will this be in good taste? It will not be possible, we may answer, that he should permanently overlook these cir- cumstances, nor would the effect be agreeable if, with these circumstances, a reader should begin, and proceed, and end, exactly as if he were speaking. The reader of true taste begins as a reader, nor does he become impassioned but by forgetting, at times, his real place, through the enthusiasm with which he takes up his author's purpose. To this en- thusiasm, whenever he can, he gives way, and he becomes impassioned in consequence; but he relaxes at suitable INTRODUCTION. 5 moments, and so, upon the whole, fulfils a part between a reader and a speaker, sometimes appearing clearly as the one, sometimes carried almost into the other, according to the change of spirit or of purpose in the composition. That the manner of reading here described is nice and difficult to hit off justly, must be allowed ; and on this very account, the exercises for it are placed in the fifth and last chapter of the work. Presuming, too, that Reading, in this its last stage of improvement, is calculated to promote and to display a just appreciation of Poetry, occasion is taken in this chapter to indicate a course of English poetry, by a brief chronological outline, serving to introduce the extracts, that appear both as examples of the outline, and exercises for the student. CHAPTER I. MECHANICAL BEADING, OR EXERCISES IN ARTICULATION. In jnst articulation the words are not hurried over, nor melted together : they are neither abridged nor prolonged; they are not swallowed, nor are they shot from the mouth; neither are they trailed, and theu suffered to drop unfinished : but they are delivered from the lips as beautiful coins are issued from the mint, deeply and accurately impressed, neatly struck by the proper organs, distinct, sharp, perfectly finislied. AUSTIN'S CHIBONOMIA. Quod est igitur in his doctoris officium ? In primis vitia, si qua sunt, oris, emendet: ut expressa sint verba, ut suis *qiiseque literae souis enuucientur. QUINCT. * Si volet usus, Quem penes arbitrium est, ct jus, et norma loquendi. HOEACE. INTENTION OF THE EXERCISES, AND INSTRUCTIONS FOR CONDUCTING THEM. WORDS uttered without attention to their meaning may be said to be uttered mechanically : and when the sole immediate object is, to improve the act itself of articulation, it will be well to confine the attention as much as possible to the mere act. A course of practice in Elocution ought to begin with exercises thus limited in purpose ; otherwise the speaker his pronunciation and articulation being the results of casual habit only will never be secure that in these fun- damental points his practice is what it ought to be, or fit for the superstructure he is to raise upon it. Pronunciation, be it observed, is a term of much narrower appli- cation in modern than in ancient use, or in treatises that borrow from the ancient works on rhetoric. It now means the manner of sounding words, as orthography is the manner of writing them ; and as we may spell properly, and yet not write .distinctly, so, in the most limited sense of the word pronounce, we may be said to pronounce correctly, that is, according to polite usage, and yet be deficient in articulation : while, on the other hand, a speaker may pronounce his words with remarkable distinctness, and yet with evident im- 8 MECHANICAL READING ARTICULATION. propriety of manner, as tested by that usage which is the law of pronunciation. But perfection in both respects should be aimed at by the pupil ; and, using the word with more extent of meaning than that assigned to it above, we may say, even without applying it so widely as the ancient rhetoricians, that Pronunciation cannot be perfect unless it includes a good articulation. The exercises which follow are Exercises in Articulation ; but as the pupil will have to articulate every word with the sounds which good usage assigns to it, they are Exercises in Pronunciation in that middle sense of the term which has just been indicated. It may be added that practice, not principles, is the object of these pages : should the student desire further assistance or information than is here fur- nished respecting the manner of sounding certain words, he is re- ferred to the author's Pronouncing Dictionaries.* With regard to the method of practice in using the pages assigned to this division of the work, the pupil will observe, that every word must be uttered aloud, distinctly, completely, and particular atten- tion must be given to that sound in it which is the especial subject of exercise, in such a manner that its character or manner of forma- tion may then, and for ever, be accurately known. As each ele- mentary sound is, in this way, brought in turn under notice, the pupil learns, by parts, to articulate the language as a whole, with a precision, and a decision, that no other method of practice can so well or so surely confer. While the pupil is employed in this manner of practice for acquir- ing clearness, accuracy, and strength of articulation, he must not be inattentive to tone and rhythm. It is true that these subjects do not belong to our present division ; but as some tone must be used in articulating a word, as, in articulating a series of words, rhythm must be neglected or not neglected we are scarcely at liberty to overlook these points ; and the pupil's attention may be so directed to them as to form his ear and prepare his habits for the exercises in modulation which belong to the next chapter. First, as to the tones employed in pronouncing the several words that form the exercises, it is probable that the pupil, if left to him- self, will go on from word to word with a sort of running tone indi- cating the continuation of the series, till, coming to some pause in the series, he will drop his tone. To avoid the habit which this tone will confirm or engender, the modulation must be controlled and varied, and the control will be acquired by varying the intention of the mind in pronouncing the series. We must try to explain this by an example ; and let the following eight words be the matter of the example : /teathen Aydra honest humble 7uman humour wholly honour. These words have no stop between them, and the pupil being left to himself in pronouncing the series, will be almost sure Ux * The octavo edition (Walker Remodelled) contains " Principles of Pronunciation" prefixed to the dictionary ; the smaller edition (Smart's Dictionary Epitomized) omits the Principles at large, but furnishes an introduction for the proper use of the dictionary. MECHANICAL READING ARTICULATION. 9 use the running tone alluded to not entirely running the words together perhaps, but keeping up the voice with so much of a similar tone in pronouncing each word, that the effect will be as described. The tones or accents so used may be thus represented : ///////\ *. Instead of pronouncing the whole series, let him now be required to pronounce the first word only, and to stop entirely ; let the next be so pronounced, with an entire stop ; and so on to the last. When each word shall have been pronounced thus independently, the whole eight will appear to have had accents that may be thus re- presented : \\\\\\\\. Here, then, among others to be noticed presently, are two modes of modulating the voice in pronouncing this series of words. Let the pupil first acquire the power of using either of these modes at pleasure, and with perfect deliberation in both ways. In using the first mode, let him avoid the running of the words together ; let him, instead of this, pause between each word with perceptible duration, as if a comma marked off each word, suspending the voice in finishing the word, so that his ear clearly recognises the character of the inflection. In using the second mode, he will pause as if a full stop marked off each word : the pause, however, needs not be longer than before, but the effect will be different if the pupil is successful in using the opposite in- flection, which will be more difficult than the other, because he will scarcely be able to keep his mind fixed to one word at a time, while he knows that other words are to follow. It will probably take a good deal of practice, and much careful listening, before his ear clearly recognises the difference between the two inflections. He must try this form of test : " Did I say strange or strange ? I said strange not strange." Here, if the phrases are naturally pronounced, the inflections on the word strange will be as marked. Knowing at last by such sort of practice the one inflection from the other, he must get the power of prolonging both inflections, and of varying the key in which he utters them : for, be it carefully noted, that either of the two inflections may be high or low in key ; and there- fore, let not a low key be mistaken for the downward direction of the slide, nor a high key for the upward, when perhaps the reverse is the fact. At length, when the power is acquired of using the one or the other inflection at pleasure, other modes of modulation should be attempted, which, as before, will be accomplished by varying the intention of the mind in pronouncing the series. Let the intention, for instance, be a division of the foregoing series as follows, and the inflections proper to enforce such division will be as hereafter marked : Aeathen, A^dra, honest, humble ; Mman, humour, wholly, honour : Or let the following be the division : Aeathen, Ay^lra, ho- nest ; humble, Auman, humour ; ic/tolly, honour : Or let the fol- lowing : Aeathen, Aydra, honest, humble, Auman ; humour, wholly, honour. By such changes of intention may the pupil diversify the modulation of his voice while pursuing the exercises contained in * See the nature of these tones or accents described in the Au- thor's Grammar, IV. 5 (page 246). B 3 10 MECHANICAL READING ARTICULATION. this chapter. Throughout, he will find the words unconnected in construction to be without stops, in order to leave opportunity for such changes ; and as the exercises advance, it is expected that he will mentally divide and subdivide the several series in some such manner as has just been exemplified. All this, it has already been remarked, is beyond the especial object of the present chapter ; but such attention to modulation as is here recommended, will be a most important preparation for the next part of the course. Secondly, as to Rhythm,* lists of words unconnected in con- struction, iu pronouncing which there can be no danger of sacrificing syntax to prosody, offer the best introductory subject of practice for training the ear to the preservation of rhythm in speech ; and in order to draw the attention of the student to this property of lan- guage, the lists of words are arranged so that the accents fall at regular distances during each series. It is expected of him that he shall mark, at first by a gentle beating of the hand or foot, and after- wards mentally, the return of the accent, and regulate the pause between each word so that the return may be regular. Here again, we are requiring something beyond the especial object of the chapter; but the practical utility of this part of the course will be incalcu- lably increased, if the exercises are so conducted as not only to secure the special object, an exact and firm articulation, but the further object of making full preparation for what is to follow. EXERCISES ON THE CONSONANTS. The Consonants are brought forward for exercise before the Towels, because they are mainly subservient to articulation. For the order in which they are here given, see the Schemes in the Author's Pronouncing Dictionaries : see also Smart's PRINCIPLES OF ENGLISH GRAMMAR, ORTHOGRAPHY, Chapter I., which should be carefully studied as a preparation for the Exercises. THE ASPIRATE. (Gram., I. 5, page 3.) {f^ Let the aspirate be heard only where a letter or letters occur in italic. That the pupil may become secure both in the use of the aspirate, and, where necessary, in the omission, words beginning with pure vowels are mingled with those which should be aspirated. Letter h is quite silent in heir, honest, honour, hostler, hour, humble, humour, and all the derivatives. In a few words, namely, those in which letter o follows wh, the sound generally denoted by h alone, is denoted by the two letters wh, which/will be known by both letters being in italic. If the w is not in italic, it must have its proper sound, which must follow, and not precede, the forcible expulsion of breath signified by h ; for example, tohale is to be pronounced h-wale, wheat, h-weat, &c. Aall all aunt /taunt who art heir ^air hour /tew Auge whole * See Rhythm explained in the Author's English Grammar, IV. 8 (p. 248). MECHANICAL READING ARTICULATION. 11 \vAale wAeat wAim wAig Aeathen Aydra honest humble Auman humour wholly honour \vAirlpool wAimper hostler ?<;Aulesome coAort coheir Aot/touse AartsAorn Aereout [ ^Aereiti Aereon Aarangue beAind perAaps inert inAale beAest abAor Aarmony artichoke Aumanize Audibras Aumour- ous Aeritage Auspital veAement coAobate beAemoth Aeteroclite Aospitable Aerculean anniAilate Aiero- glyphical incompreAensible Aypochondriacal Aeliocentrical. (f^ Let the Synepy be- complete in the following part of the Ex- ercise where hyphens are inserted ; and so at the correspondent part of every following Exercise : See Gram., IV. 4, page 245. Ae-Aad-learned the-wAole-art-of-angling by-Aeart. be-honest humble andAumane Aate-not-even-your- enemies. the-portrait-of-an-okl-wAig in-a-brown-wig. with-many-a-weary-step and-many-a-groan up-a-Aigh-Aill Ae-Aeaved a-Auge-round-'stone. THE PURE LABIAL CONSONANT. (Gram., I. 6, page 3.) g^" Let the pure labial consonant be heard only where a letter occurs in italic. Thus in who, there is no sound of w, but. in choir, pronounced kicire, there is. In one, once, the o stands for two sounds, namely, that of u-, and of u short ; for the words are pronounced wun, wunce. way waft one once who woo wain, vane wine vine hood wood wolf ti/'omb ivoe ooze whose moos swoon suite btoy quake choir thwart woman it;olsey wooer tcozmieopd wayward font-aid froioard quorum quagmire cttirass wea- ther itfhether. a-wight itfell-versed-in-waggery. gi v e-rue- 1 Ve e-air or- 1 -sooh-shall-srcoon . hc-wooed-a-ujoman who-t^ould-never-wed. THE MAXILLAR CONSONANT. (Gram., I. 6, page 3.) (J^ Let the maxillar consonant be heard at the letter or letters in italic. And note, that the words in the tirst part of the Exercise which have an asterisk prefixed, must be so pronounced that F, cr, ewe, hu, uc, ui, or eo, in italic, shall be sounded yoo, precisely as the pronoun you. Thus humour (h silent) must be sounded yoo'-mur, 12 MECHANICAL READING ARTICULATION. mi&fcodal f-yoo'-dal : feudal, the more usual form, has the same pronunciation. yawn yell lie ye yean hear ear year yield you *ewe *cwbe. *t/se *huge *\\ew *d? Let the trilled dental consonant be heard at the letter or let- ters in italic. ray raw rheum wrap wry fry pray bray crape grape tray dray shrill sh?-iek shrug shroud throw throng raiment r/mbarb trestle phrenzy Christian rural around erect enrich rebel flowery p7'iory briery horary contrary library regulator rumination memorandum sudorific re- percussion repetition. rend with-tremendous-sound your-ears-asunder with-gun-drum-t/'umpet blunderbuss-and thunder, approach-thou like-the-rugged-russian-bear the-armed-r/tinoceros. 18 MECHANICAL READING ARTICULATION. blow-wind come-wrack. queen-mab drums-in-his-ears at-which-he-starts-and-wakes. the-madding-wheels of-brazen-fury -raged. ruin-seize-thee ?tithless-king. THE UNTRILLED r. (See Gram., I. 19 : at page 8, "For it is to be noted that in good metropolitan usage," &c. See also the Exercise on the vowels which terminate in guttural vibration, page 24, et seq. hereafter.) {j^ The untrilled r is in italic along with any silent letter that may accompany it. bar err fir nor cur bare here hire core pure hour terse force marsh scarf swerve hearth pearl arm learn carp garb dark cart card herd pardon warden mercy virtue border mortgage co/onel commerce defer debar abhor affair appear expire adore demure. thine this-universal-frame thus-wondrous-fair. virtue's-fair-form. what-man-dare I-dare. ah-fear ah-frantic-fear I-see I-see-thee-near like-thee-I-start like-thee disordered-fly. THE LABIAL MUTE. (Gram., I. 13, page 4.) if* Let the labial mute he heard at the letter or letters in italic. pipe pope rasp whelp vamp sharp pippin slipper proper steeple dip/tthong trip/ithong naphtha shep/ierd puritan populous turpitude papacy pabular op/tthalmy. after-moving-equably-for-some-time it-was-made-to-stop with-a-sudden-snap. zeal then not-charity became-the-guide and-hell-was-built-on-spite and-heaven-on-pride. a-pert-prim -prater of-the-northern-race guilt-in-his-heart and-famine-in-his-face. abuse-the-city's-best-good-men in-metre and-laugh-at-peers that -put- their-trust-in-peter. here files-of-pins extend-their-shining-rows puffs-powders-patches bibles-billets-doux. MECHANICAL READING - ARTICULATION. 19 THE LABIAL SEMI-MUTE. (Gram., I. 13, page 4.) labial semi-mute be heard at the letter or letters in italic. cub ebb tube bib glebe babe bulb barb buoy blue - accumft reverb im6ue embark disburse ca&al unblessed baboon - abrogate fabulous e6ony obstacle barbarous 6ar6ican. the-6ar6arous-hu/>ert took-a-6ri6e to-kill-the-royal-6a&e. and-no\v-a-6u661e-6urst and-now-a-world. earth-smiles-around with-6oundless-6ounty-61essed and-heaven 6eholds-its-image-in-his-6reast. the-south-sea-6u661e puts-the-pu61ic-in-a-hu66ui. THE PALATAL MUTE. (Gram., I. 13, page 4.) 8* Let the palatal mute be heard at the letter or letters in italic. k. seek cake coke pack tacA- eke talk folk lough pique dark milk spark keen car chord choir quay quake clear - panic comic kingdom candid cooler confer c/iristian flaccid - collocate cucumber technical orc/iestre epoc/ia conqueror vaccinate siccity. a-blacA ca&e-of-eurious-guality. blow-wind come-wracA at-least-we'11-die-with-harness-on-our-bac^. with-the-cold-caution of-a-coward's spleen which-fears-not-guilt but-always-seeAs-a-screen. the-clumsy-Aitchen-clocA clic&-cliced. THE PALATAL SEMI-MUTE. (Gram., I. 13, page 4.) -Let the palatal semi-mute be heard at the letter or letters in italic. \>ag keg egg gag plague vague teague rogue brogue fugue guide guise gear gird gig ghost, - guerdon ragged craggy gibbous gimblet gibcat g/iastly gherkin - anger finger longer younger. he-gave-a-guinea and-he-got-a-grcat. i-cannot-dig and-am-ashamed -to-beg. a-giddy-gigglin sj-girl her-kinsfolks'-plagwe her-manners-vulgar and-her-converse-vague. 20 MECHAMCAL READING ARTICULATION. THE DENTAL MUTE. (Gram., I. 13, page 4.) {J3=> Let the dental mute be heard at the letter or letters in italic. pa kite dust haft hali dreamf flirt igh< Nothing more distinguishes a person of a good, from one of a mean education than the pronunciation of the unaccented vowels. Sometimes the vowel so circumstanceil is indefinite and obscure, and the effort to make it distinct would be vulgar pedantry : in other cases, the vowel so circumstanced is pronounced neatly and dis- tinctly by the polite, although in some instances with decided irregu- larity of sound, as, for instance, the i in docile, which is sounded as if the word were written without the final e mute. As to the following sounds, the pupil will observe that by ' ah, ob- scure' is meant the natural vowel (see Gram., I. 3, page 2) ; that ' e, i, o, u, distinct' are in no respect different from the correspond- ent alphabetic vowels under the accent but in having less force and prolongation ; that et, It, distinct ' are precisely the same, except the want of equal force, with the correspondent syllables when accented ; but that at, <5t, t, obscure ' have a corruption of their vowels, which makes them all three to sound nearly alike, as if, in C 26 MECHANICAL READING 'ARTICULATION. each instance, it was the natural vowel essentially short ; and, lastly, that ' ur, obscure ' is the natural vowel without force, and termina- ting in guttural vibration, ah, obscure : abase abound baboon cabal data comma villa china umbrella banana diploma enigma. 6, distinct : eject esteem become believe divest divorce dilute finance dirty lately sunday medley journey plaguy appetite benefice sirm'le recipe systole par- liament miniature prophecy civility didacity rigid- ity vicinity vivacity epitome penelope catastrophe geography geometry. 1, distinct : idea hiatus diurnal bidental climacter nigre- scent citation primeval qualify occupy multiply prophesy irascible itinerant bipennated biography hyperbole cibarious cilicious piratical diameter rivality. O, distinct : motto hero solo salvo thorough furlough sorrow barrott; fellow; window profane romance obey procure advocate absolute crocodile opposite obso- lete syllogism- coherent domestic opinion tobacco oracular original philosophy philology. U, distinct : bureau usurp fusee humane ague statue virtue rescue augury emulate masculine monument genuine obdurate residue avenue. at, obscure : husband verbal combat abjure admit baptise instantly penalty valiantly temperance countenance nobleman. et, distinct : goodness anthem silent strength'nedst counsel novel model vessel sudden chicken aspen ticken dividend providence decency engraver en- lighten enchanting. it, distinct : bevil pencil pupil council urchin latin mar- riage carriage village courage furnace Wallace biscuit conduit lettuce women se'mii^At servile docile bodice plaintive poet linen helmet housewife boxes muses prices captain wassail mountain forfeit foreign beau- ties pities marries pitied married cowardice bene- MECHANICAL READING ARTICULATION. 27 fj'ce juvemle diast?/le maritime cymbelme infimte coun- terfeit sovereign handkerchief dignities falsities obse- quzes novelties. ot, obscure : command conduce complete postilion combustion conjecture. wt, obscure : hubbub cherub gamut surpb/s mammoc parrot blossom nation felon demon tenon sermon wag- gon mucous pious factious vacuum occiput unison myrmidon skeleton covetous decorum decision. horison herbaceous umbrageous ambitiot/s. UT, obscure : grammar robber nadir martyr author sul- phur acre lustre. CONCLUDING EXERCISE IN STNEPY. (Gram., IV. 4, page 245.) ^ the-ineligibility-of-the-preliminaries is-unparalleled. such-individual-irregularities are-generally-irrernediable. he-acted contrarily to-the-peremptory-injunctions-that- wcre-given. we-alienate-many by-requiting-a-few with-supernumerary- gratuities. let-the-words-of-my-mouth and-the-meditations-of-my- heart be-al\vays-acceptable-unto-thee. >' ~P discipline-your-temper not-submittmg-to-it-as-a-master but-governing-it-as-a-servant. rising-simultaneously at-the-irreverential-mention-of-their -leader's-name they-swore-revenge. an-inalienable-eligibility-of-election which-was-of-an-au- thority-that-could-not-be-disputed rendered-the-interpoji- tion-of-his-friends altogether-supererogatory. c2 28 CHAPTER II. SIGNIFICANT READING, OR EXERCISES IN MODULATION. Mira est natura vocis, cujus quitlem e tribus omnino sonis, infli'xo, acuto, gravi, tanta sit, et tarn suavis varietas perfecta CICERO. The melody of speech moves rapidly up and down by slides, wherein no gradu- ated distinction of tones or semitones can be measured by the ear; nor does the voice, in our language, ever dwell distinctly, for any perceptible space of time, on any certain level or uniform tone. STEELE'S PBOSODIA RATIOKALIS. 2d edit. 1779- INTENTION OF THE EXERCISES. To make Reading significant, not only must the words be articu- late, and those meant to join in sense be completely joined in pro- nunciation, but the various relations of clause to clause, and of sen- tence to sentence, must be made manifest by the inflections of the voice. "We must know these relations beforehand, or as we proceed, in order to make them known : when we read mechanically, we either do not know them, or we do not care to make them known, or we do not know how ; and the inflections of the voice are therefore of the same recurring character, indicating the procession of the words, halting at the inferior stops, and closing at the full stop, but aiming at nothing more. And this is the necessary character of our early Reading ; and is a manner of reading that in general continues long after it is necessary too often throughout life because the change of early habits requires peculiar attention to them, and a course of practice precisely fitted to effect the change. To furnish such a course is the object of this chapter. In beginning a series of Exercises with the intention alluded to, we have to ask, how the voice is modulated in speaking so as to be significant, by those whose habits of speech are national and polite : for they are the accents of speech which are to be used in reading, in place of the mechanical, or uniformly recurring accents to which SIGNIFICANT READING MODULATION. 29 allusion has just been made. We will suppose the pupil to have a general notion of the nature of modulation, such as he may readily obtain from the section on that subject in the author's English Grammar (IV. iii. page 246). Adverting next to the construction of sentences, he will find that the shortest and simplest is that formed of a single noun nominative and a single verb ; as, Sin de- grades ;' and here, even the mechanical reader can scarcely fail to use the proper inflections, the upward or suspensive at sin, the downward or conclusive at degrades. But a sentence may consist of the same immediate parts, and yet of a great many words ; for the nominative or subject maybe made up of parts, and so may likewise that division of the sentence that answers to the verb : for instance : ' A long continuance in the paths of sin may degrade the soul be- yond the reach of redemption.' Here we have the same logical parts of speech (see Gram., III. iii. page 190), and the same inflections are used at the end of each as in the shorter sentence : these are still the inflections by which its construction, and consequent meaning, are to be made manifest ; but in the longer sentence they are not the only inflections, nor will they have their effect unless the others make preparation for them, and are kept, for this end, duly subordi- nate. The mechanical reader drums through the sentence with similar accents ; but the significant reader prepares for the suspen- sion and conclusion by modulative accents that lead the hearer onward from the commencement of the sentence till the suspension takes place ; and again, by modulative accents that lead onward to the conclusion ; from which description it will appear, that in the significant delivery of discourse, certain accents indicate divisions at which it is judged desirable that the understanding should rest sus- spensively or conclusively (if the train of reasoning goes on after- wards, only for the time conclusively) ; and these, by comparison, are the significant accents ; while the other accents, as being subor- dinate to these, and preparing for them, may be called merely modiir lafive accents. In the first Exercise for acquiring or improving the ability to read significantly, the sentences will agree in general con- struction with the examples just given, but will differ in length : that is to say, each will consist of a logical noun and a logical verb ; but these proximate parts will be various in extent and construction, and require, in consequence, a various modulation. In the Exercises following the first, all varieties of sentences will occur ; and clauses or sentences intended for a referential meaning will be distinguished from such as contain, each, its full intended meaning. EXERCISE 1. Modulative and Suspensive, Modulative and Conclusive Accents, in periodic Sentences constructed of logical Noun and Verb. y^> The dash indicates the division of the sentence at which the great suspensive pause must be suggested to the hearer. 30 SIGNIFICANT READING MODULATION. For the upward slide by which this is signified, preparation by mo- dulative slides must be made from the beginning of the sentence ; and so for the conclusive slide, the moment the Toice takes up the second division of the sentence, which is to make meaning with the first. It is not pretended that every good reader will use precisely the same modulative accents, or even the same reader at different times ; and those marked in this and the next Exercises are not given to prescribe rules, but to form the pupil's ear. Note that at the beginning of long sentences or long clauses the slides are so near a level that for practical ends they may be marked horizontally, and called the continuing tone. The dotted lines indicate the formation of subordinate clauses, and require the momentary pause of an other- wise continuing tone. 1. EVery ddy brings its duties. 2. E'very coming day brings its proper duties. 3. The rising sun. . .that brings the day brings the duties belonging-to-the-day. 4. The sTm which brings a new morn. . .and wdkens the eyes of the sle'eper admonishes the instructed cdn- science. ..that \ve must be active and useful. . .in 6rder to be happy. 5. Content is great gain. 6. To be truly content is to be truly rich. 7. He~who depends on his daily labour. . .for his daily food". . .but is satisfied with what he n6w hks. . .and firmly relies on Providence for the future must appear ... to the eye of reason... a much more wealthy man... than the possessor of a large estate . . , who envies a richer neigh- bour... or who fears that. . .the next ddy. . .he may be poor. 8.* Sin degrades the nature of man. 9. All sinful practices degrade the ndture of man. 10. A Idng continuance. . .in the paths of sin may degrade the sdul. . .beyond the reach of redemption. * For the manner in which the clauses in this series of sentences are usually and properly marked to the eye, see Gram. III. 128, page 232. SIGNIFICANT READING MODULATION. 31 11. To employ the best years. . .of this fleeting existence ... in the pursuits of folly . . . and the indulgences of sense degrades a man . . . from his rank in the creation . . . even below the brutes. . .placed under his command. 12. A long continuance. . .in the sinful practices. ..to which. . .alas !.. .the outward temptations of the world . . . and the dispositions of the sdul within . . . give too strong an inclination will degrade. . .even below the brutes placed under his commdnd. . .a man who. . .with the grace of heaven. . .might. . .by his opportunities and endowments . . .have been raised. . .even in this-state-of-being. . .to a condition . . . approaching tha"t of angelic-natures. EXERCISE 2. Modulative and Suspensive, Modulative and Conclusive Accents, in periodic Sentences partially formed of Nouns in Series. y^ Every periodic sentence, however constructed, divides into two principal parts, as already shown in those constructed of logical noun and verb ; and if the meaning is fully contained within the sentence, the first great member, as we have seen, terminates with the upward inflection, the other with the downward. A preparation for the one or the other of these should take place even with nouns in series, instead of pronouncing such nouns with some one similar tone, which would be the probable method of the mere mechanical reader. 1. E'xercise and temperance strengthen the consti- tution. 2. E'xercise and temperance. . .strengthen the consti- tution and sweeten the enjoyments of life. 3. The young. . .the healthy. . .and the prosperous should not presume on their advantages. 4. 'Industry is the demand of nature. . .of reason. . . and of God. 5. Humanity. . .justice. . .generosity. . .and public spi- rit are the qualities. . .that chiefly recommend. . .man to man. 6. He. . .who gives himself up to the pleasures of the SIGNIFICANT READING MODULATION. w(5rld is in constant search ... of care . . . solicitude . . . remdrse. . .and confusion. 7. Valour. . .humanity. . .courtesy. . .justice. . .and h6- nour were the main characteristics of chivalry. 8. Among the various blessings. . .which we derive from art are wealth . . . commerce . . . honour . . . liberty . . . content. 9. Sdphocles . . . Euripides . . . Pindar .... Thucydides . . . Demosthenes . . . Phidias . . . Apelles were the contem- poraries. . .of So" crates. . . or of Plato. 10. Wine. . .beauty. . .music. .. pomp. .. .study ..di- version . . .business are but poor expedients. . .to heave off. . .the insupportable load of an hour. . .from the heart of man. 11. The fruit of the spirit is 16ve. . .j6y. . .peace . . . long-suffering . . . gentleness . . . gdodness . . . .faith. . . meekness. . .temperance. 12. Complaisance renders a superior. . .amiable. . . . an equal . . . agreeable .... and an inferior .... acceptable. 13. Seneca declares. . .that we spend our lives either in doing nothing at all ... or in doing nothing to the purpose. . .or in doing nothing that we ought-to-do. 14. I am persuaded. . .that neither death nor life. . . . nor dngels . . . nor principalities . . . nor powers .... nor things present. . .nor things to come. . . .nor height. . .nor depth .... nor any other-creature shall be able to sepa- rate us. . . from the 16 ve of God. EXERCISE 3. Modulative and Suspensive, Modulative and Conclusive Accents, in Sentences containing antithetic Parts. (f^* Antithetic words are enforced by antithetic accents ; but if all that is meant is, by the words, expressed, these accents will rea- dily fall into some such order as the previous examples have made familiar. The following sentences are periodic except Nos. 9 and 1 ; and as these may, if we please, be delivered with periodic effect, a second mode of modulation is added to each. See Gram. III. 126, page 230. 1. Business. . . sweetens-pleasure as labour. . .sweet- ens-rest. SIGNIFICANT READING MODULATION. 33 2. Extended empire. . .like expanded gdld exchanges solid strength ... for feeble splendor. 3. A friend. . .cannot be known... in prosperity and an enemy. . .cannot be hidden. . .in adversity. 4. We make provision for this-life. . .as though it were never to have an end and for the other-life. . .as though it were never to have a beginning. 5. Of the difference between a madman and a fo61. . . it is plausibly. . .rather than truly-said that the farmer . . .reasons-justly. . .from false-data. . . .and the latter. . . errdneously. . . from just-data. 6. I'f our principles are false. . .no apdlogy from our- selves . . . can make them right if founded in truth . . . no censure from others. . .can make them wrong. 7. 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 remem- ber. . .when he is 61d. . .that he has once been young. 8. Thames ! could I flow like thee...and make thy stream. . . My great example. . .as it is my theme Though de"ep. . .yet clear. . . .though gentle. . .yet not dull.... Strong . . . without rage. . . .without o'erfluwing. . . full. 9. Pleasures . . . are ever in our hands or e'yes A'nd when in act. . .they cease. . .in prospect. . .rise ; Present. . .to grasp. . .and future. . .still to find The whole employ of body. . .or of mind. Pleasures. . .are ever in our hands or eyes. . . . A'nd when in act ...they cease. . . in prospect. . .rise Present. . .to grasp. . . .and future. . .still to find. . . . The whole emp!6y of body. . .or of mind. 10. Passions . . . are winds .... to urge us o'er the wave Reason. . .the rudder. . .to direct and save ; This. . .without those. . . .obtains a vain-employ Those. . .without this. . . .but urge us to destroy. Passions. . .are winds. . .to urge us o'er the wave. . . . Reason. . .the rudder. . .to direct and sdve c 3 SIGNIFICANT READING MODULATION. This. . .without those. . .obtains a vain-employ. . . . Those. . .without this. . .but urge us to destroy. EXERCISE 4. Plain Modulation (or that which agrees simply with the construction of the Sentence}, partially disturbed by Ac- cents of allusive force. Q^ In each sentence of the previous Exercise, all that was meant was, by the words, expressed : each antithetic word had its counter- word, and the accents upon those words served, at the same time, to enforce the antitheses, and make plain the constructional depend- ence of the sub-clauses, and the greater members, upon each other, just as in the first two Exercises. But in the following Exercise, the words marked in italic for emphatic accent suggest a meaning which the sentence, simply understood, does not contain : and the plain modulation, or that which would make evident the construc- tion of the sentence, and nothing more, partially yields to them, in order that the extra meaning may be conveyed. The subject of emphatic accent will be taken up more at large in the latter Exercises of this chapter ; and no more needs be said here than may guide the pupil to the proper modulation of the examples before him. Let him give the intended delivery to the first sentence, and he will feel that the full meaning is something like this : " When people are determined to quarrel, not merely a common subject of contention, but even a straw will furnish the occasion.'' So the second sentence, properly pronounced, will have a fullness of meaning equivalent to this : " In the present exercise, not this quality of speech, or that, or the other, but emphasis in particular is the subject to which the pupil's attention is called/' Again, the third sentence : " Of all the dis- coveries of modern ages, not this art or the other not the making of gunpowder, or glass, or aught else, but the art of printing has certainly done most, for the improvement of mankind." Once more ; the seventh sentence : " The bounties of Providence are so manifold, that a grateful heart is not merely affected but is overpowered when it calls them to remembrance." In this manner, each of the sen- tences, by means of the emphatic accent or accents, suggests a fuller than its plain sense ; though the statement of this fuller sense in precise words is never very easy. 1. When people are determined to quarrel a straw . . .will furnish the occasion. 2. In the present Exercise emphasis. . . .is the sub- ject. . .to which the pupil's attention is called. 3. Of all the discoveries of modern ages the drt of printing. . . .has certainly done most... for the imprdve- ment of mankind. SIGNIFICANT READING MODULATION. 35 4. If we seek to excel in any-character that of a Christian. . . .claims. . .especially. . . our most ardent wishes . . . our most earnest endeavours. 5. Glory. . . .was the phantom. . .pursued throughout his whole career of life glory. . . .was the subject of his waking thoughts . . . the image of his nightly dreams. 6. A man of a polite imagination can converse with a picture. . . .and find an agreeable companion in a statue. 7. The bounties of providence are so manifold that a grateful he"art. . .is overpowered. . . .when it calls them to remembrance. 8. And who but wishes. . . .to invert the laws Of order sins against the eternal cause. 9. If each system in gradation . . .roll Alike essential to the amazing whole The least confusion but in one. . . .not all TTidi-system-only . . . .but the whole. . . .must fall. 10. None among the choice and prime Of those heaven-warring chdmpions . . . could be found So hardy. . .as to proffer or accept .4/07i It is not always necessary, nor even proper, to enforce the distinctness of the clauses as in the last Exercise, and the sentences will then require no peculiarity of modulation to distinguish them from other periods. 1. To find the nearest way from truth to truth, or from purpose to effect ; not to use more instruments where fewer will he sufficient ; not to move by wheels and levers what will give way to the naked hand ; is the great proof of a healthful and vigorous mind, neither feeble with helpless ignorance, nor overburdened with unwieldy knowledge. 2. A man whose mind is prone to uneasiness and dis- content, who views the happiness of others with envy and repining, who has few sources of satisfaction within him- self, and who looks abroad only for subjects of dislike, anxiety, or apprehension, must necessarily be unhappy even under the most prosperous circumstances, and possessed of every other gift that nature and fortune can bestow. 3. Seeing that the soul has many different faculties, or, in other words, many different ways of acting ; that it can be intensely pleased or made happy by all-these-different- faculties-or-ways-of-acting ; that it may be endowed with several latent faculties, which it is not at present in a con- dition to exert ; that whenever any one of these faculties is transcendently pleased, the soul is in a state of happi- ness ; and, in the last place, considering that the happiness of another world is to be the happiness of the whole man : who that has formed an idea of the infinite variety in the pleasures here alluded to, can question but that the fulness of joy, will be made up of all the pleasures which the nature of the soul is capable of receiving ? 4. When the gay and smiling aspect of things has begun 48 SIGNIFICANT READING- 1 MODULATION. to leave the passages to a man's heart thoughtlessly un- guarded ; when kind and caressing looks of every object without that can flatter his senses, have conspired with the enemy within to betray him and put him off his defence ; when music likewise hath lent her aid, and tried her power upon the passions ; when the voice of singing men, and the voice of singing women, with the sound of the viol and the lute, have broken in upon his soul, and in some tender notes have touched the secret springs of rapture ; that moment if we dissect and look into his heart, we shall see how vain, how weak, how empty a thing it is. 5. Whether it be that every other kind of knowledge is an acquisition gradually attained, and poetry is a gift con- ferred at once ; or that the first poetry of every nation sur- prised as a novelty, and retained the credit by consent which it received at first ; or whether, as the province of poetry is to describe nature and passion, which are always the same, the first writers took possession of the most strik- ing objects for description, and the most probable occur- rences for fiction, and left nothing to those that followed them but transcription of the same events, and new com- binations of the same images : whatever be the reason, it is commonly observed that the early poets are in possession of nature, and their followers of art. 6. Whether Stella's eyes are found Fix'd on earth, or glancing round : If her face with pleasure-glow; If she sigh at others' woe ; If her easy air express Conscious worth or soft distress ; If on her we see display'd Pendent gems and rich brocade ; If her chintz, with less expense Flows in easy negligence ; If she strikes the vocal strings, If she's silent, speaks or sings, If she sit or if she moVe ; Still we love and still approve. SIGNIFICANT READING MODULATION. 49 EXERCISE 12. Lowering the Voice in commencing a Parenthesis, tlie pre- vious suspensive, conclusive, or continuing Tone, being repeated in finishing it, and the Voice then raised to its former Pitch. (j^* A parenthesis, as it is a sentence within a sentence, must be kept as clear as possible from the principal sentence, by a low tone of voice, by accents approaching a level, and generally by a quicker rate of utterance. The power of lowering the voice, and commenc- ing a sentence or clause of a sentence in a different pitch from what preceded, is a qualification indispensable to a good reader, and the parenthesis affords the best opportunity for acquiring it, because the rule is constant. Let the learner imagine, in pronouncing the prin- cipal sentence, he is to make himself heard at a distance ; reaching the parenthesis, let him utter it as to some one immediately at hand ; and, at its conclusion, again address himself as to a distant auditor. The power of changing the key being thus acquired, it may be em- ployed with propriety and effect not only at the parenthesis, but wherever there is a manifest transition of thought in passing from clause to clause, or sentence to sentence, and frequently in passing from the suspensive member of long sentences to the conclusive. Where such change of voice was proper, the pupil has already been recommended to signify it by an appropriate mark in pencil ; but as the voice is always lowered at a parenthesis, no additional mark will be needed. Of the following sentences, the first four are periodic ; the next two are non-periodic ; the seventh and eighth are periodic, and the parenthesis interrupts the suspensive member while in pro- gress ; the ninth is periodic down to " virtue ;" the tenth is non- periodic ; the eleventh is non-periodic in construction, but marked to be read with periodic effect ; the twelfth is periodic from " the gates and porches," &c. 1. Pride in some particular disguise or other (often a secret to the proud man himself), is the most ordinary spring of action among men. 2. What are our views of all worldly things (and the same appearances they would always have if the same thoughts were always predominant), when a sharp or te dious sickness has set death before our eyes, and the last hour seems to be approaching? 3. If sometimes on account of virtue we should be ex- posed to evils, which is sometimes the cdse (though men are much more frequently involved by their vices in evil, and that in a more shameful way), virtue can teach us, if not to conquer, at least to bear them with resolution. 50 SIGNIFICANT READING MODULATION. 4. Though religion removes not all the evils of life ; though it promises no continuance of undisturbed prospe- rity (which indeed it were not salutary for man always to enjoy) ; yet if it mitigates the evils which necessarily be- long to our state, it may justly be said, to give rest to them who labour and are heavy laden. 5. Nature makes us podr only when we want neces- saries (the number thus in want are comparatively few) ; but custom gives the name of poverty to the want of super- fluities. 6. It often happens that those are the best people whose characters are most-injured by slanderers (and who so great or good that slander dares-not-assail ?) as we usually find that to be the sweetest frail, which the birds have been pecking-ut. 7. Criticism, though dignified from the earliest ages by the labours of men eminent for knowledge and sagacity (all have heard of Aristotle, Cicero, Quinctilian, Longmus), and since the revival of polite learning, the favourite pursuit of European scholars ; has not yet attained the certainty and stability of science. 8. If, where these rules not far enough extend, (Since rules were made but to promote their end), Some lucky licence answer to the full Th' intent propos'd, that licence is a rule. 9. If there's a Power ab(5ve-us (And that there is, all nature cries aloud Through all her wdrks), he must delight in virtue ; And that which he delights-in, must be happy. 10. For one end, one much neglected use, Are riches worth our care ; (for nature's wants Are few, and without opulence supplied;) This noble end is, to produce the sonl ; To show the virtues in the fairest light ; And make humanity the minister Of bounteous Providence. 11. On a rock whose haughty brow Frowns o'er old Conway's foamy flood ; Rob'd in the sable garb of woe, With haggard eyes the poet stood; SIGNIFICANT READING MODULATION. 51 (Loose his beard and hoary hair Streamed like a meteor to the troubled air) ; And with a master's hand, and prophet's fire, Struck the deep sorrows of his lyre. 12. To Pandemonium the summons call'd By place or choice the worthiest : they anon With hundreds and with thousands trooping came Attended : all access was throng'd ; the gates And porches wide, but chief the spacious hall, (Though like a cover'd field where champions bold Wont ride in arm'd, and at the Soldan's chair Defied the best of Paynim chivalry To mortal combat or career with lance,) Thick swarm'd, both on the ground, and in the air, Brush'd with the hiss of rustling wings. EXERCISE 13. Sentences of various Construction to be modulated at certain Parts with emphatic Accents introducing Words or Clauses of a fore-known or implied Meaning. (Z^" The modulation of a sentence which arms at nothing more than to make its construction plain, is the proper modulation, so long as no allusive or referential meaning is to be conveyed, over and above the plain sense of the clause or sentence. But we have already seen, in the fourth Exercise, that the plain or constructional modulation must yield to accents of allusive force when a fuller than the plain meaning is intended ; and the pupil will now have to ob- serve, that at all times when there is reference to a fore-known or implied meaning, the modulation should indicate it by what may be called an enclitic accent, that is, an accent that brings several words into union with one leading word, so that those seem to incline or rest themselves on this. The principle on which this is done, is precisely that by which all compound words are framed, as from the two words rose bi'id, cheese monger, ticket porter, water drinker, each pronounced Avith equal accents, are framed by a reference to other buds, other mongers, other porters, and other drinkers, the com- pound words cheesemonger, rosebud, ticketporter, and waterdrinker. Here the student will observe two things : first, that what might be deemed the principal word is the one which loses its accent ; and second, that this loss of accent is no loss of force, but an increase of it to the whole compound, inasmuch as a referential meaning arises from it, or, at least, did arise when the union was originally made. It is the same when emphasis unites several words by pronouncing D 2 52 SIGNIFICANT READING MODULATION- them with one accent : they are not always the less important words that on such occasions lose their accent, nor do they in fact, on that account, lose any portion of their force : on the contrary, the whole clause always receives an increase of meaning, by resigning the accents to one single, and often apparently unimportant word. We say, for instance, with a plain meaning and a usual accentuation, he behaves like a Prince : hut if the sentence were pronounced with a reference to the previous knowledge that he is-a-prince, we should say he behaves like-a-Prince : here the word prince is not less import- ant than it was before, yet it resigns its accent, namely the conclusive, to a word apparently of less importance, in order that the whole clause may have a referential force ; just as we often shift the accent of a single word from the syllable that usually bears it to another syl- lable : as when, with a reference to what has been done, we speak of what is left undone. Emphatic clauses arising from the principle here described have occurred in many parts of the preceding exer- cises, where the enclitic union has been implied to the eye by hy- phens. To the operation of the same principle we must attribute this condition of many words, that, in a plain modulation, they are uniformly enclitics or without accent ; for being employed as com- mon materials in the formation of all sentences, they are in a manner presupposed by the other words, and are therefore joined with them as so many unaccented syllables. And it may be remarked, by the way, that there is nothing which more clearly proves the living pro- nunciation of the classical languages to have been very different from the habits of modern speech, than the fact, that none of their rhe- toricians describe Emphasis as we now understand and practise it. In the ancient languages, emphatic words were distinguished by their position in the sentence : modern languages, admitting not the same varieties of position, charge upon the mode of utterance the distinguishing of words which suggest primary notions from those that refer to meaning pre-understood, and on that, account secondary. Hence it happens, that while in the Greek language there were not two dozen words liable to be enclitics, our language is without limits in this particular : for with us, not only may any word become an enclitic, but a long clause may be introduced by, and continue the effect of some leading accent , BO that all the accents but this one are secondary, like the secondary accents of a polysyl- labic word. The just use of such enclitic accents in reading, is the best proof a reader can give that he understands what he reads. Nor is the task always easy. It may not be difficult if the words that refer to a pre-understood meaning are precisely the same as, and come soon after, those that made it first understood ; but it often occurs that where the meaning is the same, the words referring to it are different, as in Sentence 4 hereafter ; and still more frequently does it happen, that the meaning to be referred to is included in the drift of the argument without having been at any time formally in- troduced, as the words following imagine in Sentence 6, which refer to what the argument presupposes to be in question, namely, whe- SIGNIFICANT READING MODULATION. 53 ther the soul can drop into annihilation. It is in such cases that the intelligence of the reader is tried, who must feel, completely and comprehensively, the full drift of the author's meaning, hefore he can bring it forth with the variety of light and shade necessary to suggest it forcibly to another mind. It only remains to add, that the place of the leading accent may sometimes be advantageously varied, as in the last example of the Exercise, where, instead of repeating it to the end on the conjunction nor, it is thrown, for the sake of variety, on some of the other words. 1. There is a mean in alt things. Even virtue itself has its stated limits, which not being strictly observed, it ceases to be virtue. 2. In the opinion of the world, the road to wealth is the only road to happiness. And if peace of mind and health of body were as easily purchased as a coach or a dainty repast, then undoubtedly wealth would be the road to hap- piness. 3. If we allow that whatever promotes and strengthens virtue, whatever calms and regulates the temper is a source of happiness, then devotion is a source of happiness ; for devotion promotes and strengthens virtue, devotion calms and regulates the temper. 4. Honourable age Is not that which standeth in length of time, or that is measured by number of years ; but wis- dom is the gray hair unto man, and unspotted life is old age. 5. Lay not up for yourselves treasures on earth, where the rust an-d moth doth corrupt, and where thieves break through and steal ; but lay up for yourselves treasures in heaven, where neither rust nor moth doth corrupt, and where thieves do not break through nor steal. 6. How can it enter into the thoughts of man that the soul, which is capable of such immense perfections, shall fall away into nothing almost as soon as it is created? A. brute arrives at a point of perfection that he can never pass ; in a few years he has all the endowments he is capable of, and were he to live ten thousand more, would be the same thing that he is at present. Were a human soul thus at a stand in her accomplishments, were her faculties to be full blown and incapable of further enlarge- 54 SIGNIFICANT READING MODULATION. ment, I could imagine she might drop at once into a state of annihilation. 7. There were two men in one city, the one rich, and the other poor. The rich man had exceeding many flocks and herds : but the poor man had nothing save one little ewe lamb, which he had nourished and brought up ; and it grew up together with him and with his children ; it did eat of his own meat, and drank of his own cup, and was unto him as a daughter. And there came a traveller to the rich man ; and he spared to take of his dion flock and of his own herd to dress for the wayfaring man that was come auto him, but took the poor man's Idmb and dressed It for the man that was come unto him. 8. No longer now that golden age appears When patriarch wits surviv'd a thousand years ; Now length of fame, our second life, is lost, And bare three score is all even that can boast. 9. All that's worth a wish, a thought, Fair virtue gives unbrib'd, unbought. Cease then on trash thy hopes to bind ; Let nobler views engage thy mind. 10. Nor fame I slight, nor for her favours call ; She comes unlook'd-for, if she comes at all. But if the purchase costs so dear a price As soothing folly or exalting vice, Then teach me, Heav'n, to scorn the guilty bays. 11. When lightning fires The arch of heaven, and thunders rock the ground. When furious whirlwinds rend the howling air, And ocean, groaning from his lowest bed, Heaves his tempestu'ous billows to the sky ; Amid the mighty uproar, while below The nations tremble, Shakspeare looks abroad From some high cliff superior, and enjoys The elemental war. 12. Sweet is the breath of morn, her rising sweet With charm of earliest birds ; pleasant the sun, When first on this delightful land he spreads His orient beams on herb, tree, fruit, and flower, SIGNIFICANT READING MODULATION. 55 Glistering with dew; fragrant the fertile earth After soft showers, and sweet the coming on Of grateful evening mild ; then silent night, With this her solemn bird, and this fair moon, And these, the gems of heaven, her starry train. But neither breath of morn when she ascends With charm of earliest birds, nor rising sun On this delightful land, nor herb, fruit, flower, Gt'ist'ring with dew, nor fragrance after showers, Nor grateful evening mild, nor silent night With this her solemn bird, nor walk by moon Or glitt'ring starlight, without thee is sweet. EXERCISE 14. Sentences of interrogative import to be modulated suspen- sively. Q^" If a sentence expresses by words all that it means, it requires, whether interrogative or affirmative, only a plain modulation. ' Who is there!' ' John is there.' ' Is he here, or there 1 !' ' He is not here ; he is there.' These sentences, uttered without reference to each other, have, each, a conclusive modulation : for the speaker says all he means. The following are of a different character : ' Is he here V ' He is there ; he is not here.' These sentences are not uttered conclusively : the former is uttered as the suspensive mem- ber of a sentence, to which the hearer is to furnish something tanta- mount to a conclusive member with a conclusive accent : (for exam- ple ; ' No : or ' Yes :') the last member of the latter is uttered with reference to its first member, which has the conclusive accent ; and we have to transpose these members as they stand above, to make them a plain sentence. The latter example will explain why the concluding sentence of the previous Exercise terminated suspen- sively ; and the example will also prepare for the sentences which compose the next Exercise to the one immediately following. 1. Is it not strange that some persons should be so deli- cate as not to bear a disagreeable picture in the house, and yet, by their behaviour, force every face they see to wear the gloom of uneasiness and discontent ? 2. Would not Diogenes, had he been present at the glut- tony of a modern meal, have thought the master of a family mad, and have begged his servants to tie down his hands, had he seen him devour fowl, fish, and flesh ; swallow oil and vinegar ; wines and spices ; throw down salads of twenty different herbs ; sauces of a hundred ingredients ; confections and fruits of numberless sweets and flavours 1 56 SIGNIFICANT READING MODULATION. 3. Can we believe that a thinking being, that is in a per- petual progress of improvement, and travelling on from perfection to perfection, after having just looked abroad into the works of her Creator, and made a few discoveries of his infinite goodness, wisdom, and power, must perish at her first setting out, and in the very beginning of her in- quiries? Would He, who is infinitely wise, make such glorious creatures for so mean a purpose ? Can He delight in the production of such abortive intelligences, such shdrt- lived reasonable beings ? Would He give us talents that are not to be exerted 1 capacities that are never to be gra- tified ? 4. Has our Maker furnished us with desires which have no correspondent objects, and raised expectations in our breasts with no other view than to disappoint them ? Are we to be for ever in search of happiness without arriving at it, either in this world or in the next ? Are we formed with a passionate longing for immortality, and yet destined to perish after this shdrt period of existence? Are we prompted to the noblest actions, and supported through life under the severest hardships and most trying temptations, by hopes of a reward which is visionary and chimerical ? by the expectation of praises which we are never to realize and enjdy 1 5. To purchase heaven has gold the power? Can gold remove the mortal hour? In life can love be bought with gold ? Are friendship's pleasures to be sold ? 6. Can storied urn or animated bust Back to its mansion call the fleeting breath ? Can honour's voice provoke the silent dust, Or flatt'ry sooth the dull cold ear of death ? 7. Should the loud din of battle cease to bray, Would death befoil'd 1 Would health, and strength, and youth, Defy his power ? Has he no arts in store 1 No other shafts save those of war 1 8. What ! will a man play tricks, will he indulge A silly fond conceit of his fair form, And just proportion, fashionable mien, SIGNIFICANT READING MODULATION. 57 And pretty face, in presence of his God ? Or will he seek to dazzle me with tropes As with the diamond on his lily hand, And play his brilliant parts before my eyes, When I am hungry for the bread of life 1 9. Say, will no white-rob'd son of light, Swift darting from his heavenly height, Here deign to take his hallow'd stand 1 Here wave his amber locks 1 unfold His pinions cloth'd with downy gold ? Here, smiling, stretch his tutelary icdnd? And you, ye host of saints, for ye have known Each dreary path in life's perplexing maze, Though now ye circle yon eternal throne With harpings high of inexpressive praise, Will not your train descend in radiant state To break, with mercy's beam, this gathering cloud of fdtff 10. Think you a little din can daunt my ears? Have I not in my time heard lions roar ? Have I not heard the sea, puff 'd up with winds, Rage like an angry bear ? Have I not heard great ordnance in the field? And heav'n's artillery thunder in the sky 1 Have I not in a pitched battle heard Loud 'larums, neighing steeds, and trumpets' cldnrj 1 And do you tell me of a woman's tongue? EXERCISE 15. Sentences of illative import to be modulated suspensiv ely. (C?* When a sentence is uttered not for what it says in words, but for the sake of some inference which, it is presumed, the hearer cannot but draw, its import may be said to be illative ; and such sentences are properly modulated to a suspensive termination. Thus, when it is said ' The most powerful monarch cannot rely,' &c. (see the first example,) the fact asserted is supposed to be a known or admitted fact. Why, then, state it 1 why but for the sake of some infer- ence which the hearer has to draw ; and it is for the purpose of suggesting this duty to him that the sentence terminates suspensively. A like remark would apply to each of the other sentences ; most of which suggest a counterpart of the following purport : this you c3 58 SIGNIFICANT READING MODULATION. know, and, since you know it, you cannot but admit such and such con- sequences. The conclusive counterpart is included in some of the examples ; only it comes first in the sentence, instead of in its usual place. Thus, the sentence 8, if its parts were transposed, would have a plain modulation : ' Since his praise is lost who stays till all commend, be thou the first to commend true merit.' Sentences which commence with not, at once suggest an affirmative counterpart commencing with but, whether it is expressed or riot : for instance, the last sentence, ' Not to earth let me bound thy goodness ; not of man alone let me think thee Lord, but,' &c. 1. The most powerful monarch cannot rely upon enjoy- ing his present greatness for ever, fixed and unchangeable. 2. It is ungenerous to give a man occasion to blush 'at his own ignorance in one thing, who perhaps may excel us in many. 3. Man, in his highest earthly glory, Is hut a reed float- ing on the stream of time, and forced to follow every new direction of the current. 4. The principal sources of activity are taken away, when they for whom we labour are cut bff from us, they who ani- mated and they who sweetened all the toils of life. 5. Reason, eloquence, and every art that has ever been studied among mankind, may be abused, and may prove dangerous in the hands of bad men ; but it were perfectly childish to contend that, upon this account, they ought to he abolished. 6. Our solicitude cannot alter the course, or unravel the intricacy, of human events. Our curiosity cannot pierce through the cloud which the Supreme Being has made im- penetrable to mortal eye. 7. The music of a bird in captivity produces HO very pleasing sensations ; it Is but the mirth of a little animal insensible of its unfortunate situation ; it is the landscape, the grove, the golden break of day, the contest upon the hawthorn, the fluttering from branch to brunch, the soaring in the dir, and the answering to its young, that give the bird's song its true relish. 8. Be thou the first true merit to befriend ; His praise is lost who stays till all commend. 9. There is some soul of goodness in things evil, Would men observingly distil it out. SIGNIFICANT READING MODULATION. 59 10. No bandit fierce, no tyrant mad with pride, No cavern'd hermit, rests se//-satisfied. 11. Pray, make no such fuss in granting your boon; He doubles his gift, who grants it me soon. 12. All men think all men mortal but themselves ; Themselves, when some alarming shock of fate Strikes through their wounded hearts the sudden dread. 13. Or sink or swim : Send Danger from the east unto the west, So Honour cross it from the north to south, And let them grapple. Oh ! the blood more stirs To rouse a lion than to start a hare. 14. Not to this earth's contracted span Thy goodness let me bound ; Or think thee Lord alone of man When thousand worlds are round. EXERCISE 16. SENTENCES OF INNUENDO TO BE MODULATED ACCORDING TO THEIR INTENT. d^f* Sentences of irony, sarcasm, and strong meaning struggling in any shape for expression, will not be adequately read, if modu- lated simply according to their construction : their intent must be orally manifested by such means as, it is hoped, the three previous Exercises have put under the learner's command. In this last Ex- ercise, the assistance which the marking of certain accents may have given, is discontinued, and the learner left to express the full pur- port of each sentence in the best way he can, by considering the tacit aim of each. He may, however, be premonished, that if he succeeds, his accents will seldom have the plain character which belonged to them in the earlier exercises, but the plain upward^, will become inflex upward \^~, and the plain downward \, inflex downward f\,. In thus labouring to express more than the words literally convey, the learner will perhaps discover that he is doing something more for his author than reading or reporting his language : that to utter sarcasm, irony, and the like, is to feel with the author, and transmit something of his passion as well as of his thought. Thus,'then, will he have advanced to the precincts of Speaking, the principle which he must decidedly take up in the next chapter. It happens indeed here, as in other departments of learning, that our distinctions are manifest when broadly viewed, but seem as colours that shade off into each other, when we are far enough advanced in one depart- ment to pass into the next. 60 SIGNIFICANT READING MODULATION. 1. It well becomes a person, truly, who has spent his life in the indulgence of every vicious propensity, to set up for a judge and a reprover of others. 2. The patricians care for us ! true indeed they ne'er cared for us yet. Suffer us to famish, and their storehouses crammed with grain ; make edicts for usury to support usurers ; repeal daily any wholesome act established against the rich, and provide more piercing statutes daily to chain up and restrain the poor. If the wars eat us not up, they will, and that is all the love they bear us. 3. These invaders boast they come but to improve our state, enlarge our thoughts, and free us from the yoke of error : yes : they will give enlightened freedom to our minds, who are themselves the slaves of passion, avarice, and pride. 4. I knew when seven justices could not take up a quar- rel ; but when the parties were met themselves, one of them thought but of an If; as, if you said so, then I said so : O ho ! did you so ? So they shook hands and swore brothers. Your If is your only peacemaker ; much virtue in If. 5. Oh ! 'tis excellent To have a giant's strength ; but it is tyrannous To use it like a giant. 6. Get wealth and place, if possible with grace, If not, by any means get wealth and place. 7. It is not from his form, in which we trace Strength join'd with beauty, dignity with grace. That man, the master of this globe, derives His right of empire over all that lives. That form indeed the associate of a mind Vast in its powers, ethereal in its kind, That form, the labour of Almighty s-kill, Fram'd for the service of a f'reeborn will, Asserts precedence and bespeaks control : But borrows all its grandeur from the soul. 8. O Friend? (Mencetius' son this answer gave), With words to combat, ill befits the brave ; Not empty boasts the sons of Troy repel, Your swords must plunge them to the shades of hell. SIGNIFICANT READING MODULATION. 61 To speak becomes the council ; but to dare In generous actions is the task of war. 9. You mean to bear me, not bear with me. Uncle, my brother mocks both you and me : Because that I am little like an ape, He thinks that you should bear me on your shoulders. 10. Good friends, sweet friends, let me not stir you up To such a sudden flood of mutiny. They that have done this deed are honourable. What private griefs they have, alas ! I know not That made them do it : they are wise and honourable, And will no doubt with reasons answer you. 11. An't please your worship, Brakenbury, You may partake of every thing we say : We spe'ak no treason, man : we say the king Is wise and virtuous, and his noble queen Well struck in years ; fair, and not jealous : We say that Shore's wife hath a pretty foot, A cherry lip, A bonny eye, a passing pleasing tongue, And the Queen's kindred are made* gentlefolk; How say you, Sir, can you deny all this? 12. But now yes, now We are become so candid and so fair, So liberal in construction, and so rich In Christian charity, (good-natur'd age !) That they are safe, sinners of either sex Transgress what laws they may. Well dress'd, well bred, Well equipag'd, is ticket good enough To pass us readily through ev'ry door. 62 CHAPTER III. IMPASSIONED READING, OR EXERCISES IN SPEAKING. There is no composition in music, however perfect as to key and melody, but, in order to do justice to its author, will require something more than an exact adher- ence to tune and time. It is this which gives music its power over the passions, and it is called Expression. And as we find certain tones analogous to it coalescing with the modulation of the voice, and indicating our passions and affections, the term is usually applied in the same sense to speaking and reading. AET or DELIVERING WKITTEN LANGUAGE. 1775 Dedicated to GARKICK. INTENTION OF THE EXERCISES. To become an impassioned Reader on a true principle, the student must cease to think himself a Reader, and be a Speaker, Taste may hereafter be called in to qualify this decided change of function, when, in point of fact, the eyes are employed, every now and then, in collecting the words from the written or printed page ; but at present let the change of office be complete, and for this end, let the following selections be subjects of memoriter exercise, or, rather, let them be studied in such a manner, that, in the prepared recitation, /the student is conscious of no essential difference between the act of speaking on ordinary earnest occasions, and the act in which he is engaged. To secure this effect, it would be well, in the prose pieces, not to bind his memory too exactly to the words furnished, but to supply his own when memory fails ; and even in the verse pieces, it is desirable that an extemporaneous prose translation should pre- cede or follow the recitation in verse. The moderate length of the pieces, their variety of subject, and their arrangement, by which the less and the more difficult are presented in due gradation, will, it is hoped, assist the student in carrying out these intentions. If it be asked In what does expression consist, over and above the modulation which conveys the sense 1 the answer is, that it IMPASSIONED READING EXPRESSION. 63 consists in the quality of the tone imparted by passion or emotion, and that it cannot be genuine unless the passion or emotion is real. Expression therefore cannot be taught, as Articulation and Modula- tion certainly may ; but it may be drawn out where nature has fur- nished the funds, by the force of example, and the exercise of the imagination. Something, too, may be accomplished by placing the learner in a situation to be affected : they are not the qualities of tone only, that give expression to modulated and articulated voice ; the looks, the gesture, the whole deportment of the speaker, lend assistance ; and it is the union of the whole of these that constitutes expression : now if we place a learner in the situation of a speaker, and call upon him to use a natural gesture at words which would naturally produce it, he will be inclined to entertain the feeling ; and in proportion as the novelty of the attempt, and his first diffi- dence, wear away, his imagination, by the force of such expedients, will become prompt, and his improvement, by so managing the ex- ercises, will be certain. However, a great deal of what we call Gesture is conventional rather than natural, that is, it is what we choose to use, rather than what we must use, because we are not always under the degree of excitement which forces some particular gesture upon us. Some general directions for forming the action seem therefore in this place necessary. GESTURE. Let the pupil begin by trying to feel himself at ease while speak- ing in an erect posture. Take, for the purpose, any of the sentences which have been used for mere significant reading in the last chap- ter : these are in some instances so short, that, with a glance of the eye, the sense may be appropriated, and so the sentence shall be spoken, instead of merely articulated and significantly modulated. The position of the feet may be as in the third figure of the opposite plate, that is, the full weight of the body resting on the right foot, the left lightly touching the ground, and advanced a little in the direc- tion in which it points when the toes are moderately turned out : as to the rest of the person, let it be as in the first figure of the plate, except with regard to the arms, which may hang easily at their place, not stiffly as at a military drill, but unconstrainedly. In this position let the Speaker carry his eyes gently round, addressing a real or imaginary audience, till the situation feels no longer awk- ward. As soon as this is the case, he will experience an inclination to bring his hands into use, in order to mark or enforce the signi- ficant accents ; and in obeying this impulse, the action least awkward to himself will be one that employs both hands ; and therefore he may begin by beating time, as it were, to the modulative progress, by the back of the right hand fingers upon the forepart of the left. Easy at this, let him take a tolerably long period, and begin it in the position of the first figure of the plate, that is, let him throw the weight of the body on the foot in advance, which must now be put a very Little forwarder, in order that the body may incline, as with earn- 64 IMPASSIONED READING EXPRESSION. estness, to the auditors in front ; which action will raise the heel of the hinder, namely, of the right foot. The left foot, thus advanced, is to be accompanied at the same instant by a correspondent ad- vance of the opposite (namely the right) arm toward the persons addressed in front, the left arm at the same time not being quite quiescent, but slightly raised along with its fellow. If, in this posi- tion, the speaker have the notion or feeling of laying, as it were, his facts or truths before his auditors, he will soon be sensible of an ac- cordance between the external and the mental act. The pupil should next learn to enforce an emphasis by a corre- spondent stroke of the arm. For this purpose, let him take the sen- tences of the fourth Exercise of the previous chapter (page 34), and those of the thirteenth (page 53). In lifting the arm, the elbow should be raised, or kept outward from the body ; the hand should not be bent inward at the wrist, but, during the ascent of the arm, kept in a line with the lower arm. This ascent is to correspond with the ascent of the voice towards the emphatic word, and there- fore must always begin in good time. The speaker, being arrived at the word for which this preparation is made, must perform the em- phatic stroke exactly as he utters the emphatic accent. The direc- tion of the emphatic stroke ought to be varied ; we are here sup- posing only one form and manner of it, as exemplified by the second figure in the plate. Here the speaker is represented as having made a step (it may be from the position of the first figure) with his right foot toward the part of his audience in the corresponding direction, whom, for the moment, he is addressing : the arm is raised, and just ready for the emphatic stroke, which stroke may bring it down into the position of the arm exemplified by the figure that faces the title-page. Of course there should occasionally be a similar advance and address toward the part of the audience at the left of the speaker. In these cases, and scarcely ever but in these, the arm and foot on the same side are advanced : when the address is directly in front, the opposite foot and hand (as already shown) ought to be advanced : and, since, of the arms, the right will be chiefly in use, of the feet, the left will be that which will most frequently take precedence of the other. It was observed that the direction of the emphatic stroke should be various : sometimes the arm may recoil inwards, or upwards ; sometimes the preparation may raise the tips of the fingers to the lips, and the stroke bring the fingers to point slantingly to the ground, the palm being outwards ; and occasionally the two arms may simultaneously execute this action : sometimes the rise of the arm, instead of being a preparation, may itself be the emphatic stroke; being in this case executed with more briskness; which kind of action will well suit suspensive emphasis : sometimes the hand may be thrown with a sort of jerk from the body ; and some- times pushed from it while bent at the wrist, so as to keep the palm outward, and point the fingers up : but these two gestures are not emphatic merely ; the last implies reproof, aversion, remonstrance, IMPASSIONED READING EXPRESSION. 65 and the like ; the other might be used to express indignation or contempt. There are indeed four sources from which gesture may be de- rived, of which only one, EMPHATIC GESTURE, has thus far been mainly in view. For the action that accompanies a word may be 1. Emphatic, 2. Referential, 3. Impassioned, or 4. Imitative. REFERENTIAL GESTURE is of frequent occurrence. By it, the speaker calls attention to what is actually present, or to what is imagined for the moment to be present, or to the direction, real, or for the moment conceived, in which any thing has happened, or may happen. When Lord Chatham speaks of the figure in the tapestry frowning on a degenerate representative of his race, he refers to the place by correspondent action. When Canute is described ordering his chair to be placed on the shore, the narrator, by action, fixes attention to 'Some particular spot, as if the sea were really present. When a picture of any kind is to be exhibited to the mental view, the speaker will convey a lively impression in proportion as he him- self conceives it clearly, and by action refers consistently to its differ- ent parts, as if the scene were before the eyes of his auditors. Of IMPASSIONED GESTt'KE, some brief notices will occur a few pages hence in describing the general differences of impassioned expression. In the mean time it may be observed in this place, that, though all gesture of this kind might to be the effect of natural im- pulse, yet the assumption of the outward signs of expression is one of the means of rousing in the speaker the real feeling. This con- sideration, and this alone, can justify any preceptive directions where nature seems to offer herself as sole instructor. IMITATIVE GESTURE often takes place with good effect in speaking, particularly in narration or description of a comic kind. To use it in serious description would generally be, to burlesque the subject ; though even here, if sparingly and gracefully introduced, it is not always misplaced. For instance, in Collins' ' Ode on the Passions,' the narrator may use imitative action when he tells us that Fear his hand its skill to try Amid the chords bewilder'd laid, And back recoil' d : and that Anger rush'd In one rude clash he struck the lyre, And swept with hurried hands the strings : and so, throughout the ode, wherever imitative action is possible without extravagance. Of gesture thus discriminated, it will not be difficult to determine the species which this or that department of speaking calls most into play. The Pulpit, for instance, hardly admits of other than em- phatic gesture, seldom of referential not very often of impassioned, DO IMPASSIONED READING EXPRESSION. never of imitative. The Senate and the Bar may more frequently ad- mit of referential and impassioned gesture, very seldom of imitative. It is only the Stage that makes full use of gesture drawn from all the four sources that have been indicated. Yet the practice of the pupil, whatever may be his destined profession, ought not to be confined only to one or two of these species of gesture. For, in order to bring forth the powers of intellect and sensibility, a wide range of subjects must be chosen ; and as, in all these, his business will be, to "suit the action to the word, the word to the action," his gesture, if proper during such a course of discipline, will be as various as the subjects of exercise. It is only when, by such means, the full powers of expression are acquired, that his attention and practice should be called, in particular, to the subjects, the style of compo- sition, and the gesture, which his profession may, in particular, require. Previously to subjects that stand in need of a decidedly impas- sioned delivery, the pupil should try some of easier character. Such, accordingly, occupy the first place in this chapter, with a view to develop the following diversities of manner : The NARRATIVE, the ARGUMENTATIVE, and the MEDITATIVE MANNER. Even when the subjects are not of a nature to call for any marked expression of feeling, a difference of manner should distinguish nar- ration or description from argument, and meditation from both. When we describe or narrate, our looks and general address, while nothing raises emotion, indicate little more than a desire to be clearly understood, and the delivery differs not from mere signi- ficant reading, except in a certain reality of manner, which shows the speaker to be interested in what he utters. Much more than this will be required when the speaker's business is not merely to inform, but to convince. Argument implies opinions or contrary feelings to be combated : the voice becomes louder, and generally higher ; the accents are of a more marked character ; the motion of the eye is quicker ; the rate of pronunciation is sometimes slow, sometimes rapid ; and the hand and arm accompany the emphatic accents with decisive strokes. Different both from the Narrative and the Argumentative manner is that which may be called Medi- tative. This takes place when the speaker seems to follow, not to guide, the train of thought; that is to say, when he does not seek to convey information of which he is previously possessed, or to establish a truth of which he is previously convinced, but reflects for his own information or pleasure, and pursues his reflections aloud. In this mode of speaking, the tone of voice is generally low, the pauses frequent, and the rate of utterance tardy. The eyes are frequently upward, or cast upon the ground, and only directed to the auditors when something in the way of information occurs. The gesture describes email spaces ; the hand, after wandering for a moment or two. suddenly stops and keeps for a while in a sus- IMPASSIONED READING EXPRESSION. 67 pended position, the looks at the same time being fixed ; till at length the development of thought again gives freedom to the action. The hand is sometimes held under or near the chin, or applied to the forehead, or reposes itself on some neighbouring object ; and sometimes the arms are folded. The third figure in the plate exem- plifies one of the positions which may occur in the delivery of pieces for which this manner is proper. 1 . Modesty and Assurance exemplified. NARRATIVE MANNER : {jr" The passage marked * should be so delivered as to arrest par- ticular attention. I do not remember to have met with any instance of mo- desty with which I am so well pleased, as that celebrated one of the young prince, whose father, being a tributary king to the Romans, had several complaints laid agains't him before the Senate, as a tyrant and oppressor of his subjects. The prince went to Rome to defend his father ; but * coming into the senate, and hearing a multitude of crimes proved upon him, was so oppressed when it came to his turn to speak, that he was unable to utter a word. The story tells us, that the fathers were more moved at this instance of modesty and ingenuousness, than they could have been by the most pathetic oration ; and, in short, par- doned the guilty father for this early promise of virtue in the son. This little historical fact affords an example not only of modesty, but of a becoming assurance ; qualities which are both amiable, and may very well meet in the same person. Without assurance, this prince would never have undertaken to plead before the most august assembly in the world ; without modesty, he would have pleaded the cause he had taken upon him, though it had appeared ever so scandalous. ADDISON. 2. The Golden Age. NARRATIVE MANNER: y^jj* The subject should commupicate a glowing expression of delight throughout ; except at the passage noted, 1 where the voice and looks accord with the circumstance narrated, but change again immediately. The first fresh dawn then wak'd the gladden'd race Of uncorrupted man, nor blush'd to see 68 IMPASSIONED READING EXPRESSION. The sluggard sleep beneath its sacred beam : For their light slumbers gently fum'd away ; And up they rose as vigo'rous as the sun, Or to the culture of the willing glebe, Or to the cheerful tendance of the flock. Meantime the song went round ; and dance and sport, Wisdom and friendly talk, successive, stole Their hours away : while, in the rosy vale, Love breath'd his infant sighs from anguish free. Nor yet injurious act, nor surly deed, Was known among those happy sons of Heaven ; For reason and benevolence were law. Harmonious nature, too, look'd smiling on : Clear shone the skies, cool'd with eternal gales, And balmy spirit all. The youthful sun Shot his best rays, and still the gracious clouds Dropp'd fatness down ; as o'er the swelling mead, The herds and flocks, commixing, play'd secure. This * when, emergent from the gloomy wood, The glaring lion saw, his horrid heart Was meeken'd, and he join'd his sullen joy. For music held the whole in perfect peace ; Soft sigh'd the flute ; the tender voice was heard Warbling the varied heart; the woodlands round Applied their choir ; and winds and waters flow'd In consonance. Such were those prime of days. THOMSON 3. Sincerity wiser than Hypocrisy. ARGUMENTATIVE MANNER : {jj* In delivering the definition marked l the manner relaxes into the merely narrative. Truth and sincerity have all the advantages of appear- ance, and many more. If the show of any thing be good, I am sure the reality is better ; for why does any man dis- semble, or seem to be that which he is not, but because he thinks it good to have the qualities he pretends to. 'For to counterfeit and dissemble is to put on the appearance of some real excellency. Now the best way for a man to seem IMPASSIONED READING EXPRESSION. 69 to be any thing, is really to be what he would seem to be. Besides, it is often as troublesome to support the pretence of a cood quality as to have it; and if a man have it not, it is most likely he will be discovered to want it, and then all his labour to seem to have it is lost. There is something unnatural in painting, which a skilful eye will easily dis- ^over from native beauty and complexion. It is hard to personate and act a part long ; for where truth is not at the bottom, nature will always be endeavouring to return, and will betray herself at one time or other. Therefore, if any man think it convenient to seem good, let him be so indeed ; for then his goodness will appear to every one's satisfaction. TILLOTSON. 4. It is Folly to desire Powers not consistent with our Nature. ARGUMENTATIVE MANNER : {f^ Relaxes for a slight expression of ' Languor, * Awe, 3 Warning, 4 Delight. The bliss of man (could pride that blessing find), Is, not to act or think beyond his kind ; No powers of body or of soul to share, But what his nature and his state can bear. Why has not man a microscopic eye ? For this plain reason, man is not a fly. Say, what the use, were finer optics given To inspect a mite, not comprehend the heaven ? Or touch, if tremblingly alive all o'er, To smart and agonize at every pore ? Or quick effluvia darting through the brain, *Die of a rose in aromatic pain ? 2 If nature thunder'd in his opening ears, And stunn'd him with the music of the spheres, 8 How would he wish that Heaven had left him still 4 The whispering zephyr and the purling rill ! Who finds not Providence all good and wise, Alike in what it gives, and what denies ? POPE. 70 IMPASSIONED READING EXPRESSION. 5. Re/lections of a King ivhen lost in a Wood.. MEDITATIVE MANNER I (j^ ' Confidence; * Alarm; 3 Confidence. No, no ; this can be no public road, tbat is certain : I am lost, quite lost indeed. Of what advantage is it now to be a king ? Night shows me no respect j I cannot see better than another man, nor walk so well. What is a king ? Is he not wiser than another man 1 Not without his counsellors, I plainly find. Is he not more powerful ? I oft have been told so indeed, but what now can my power command ? Is he not greater and more magnificent ? When seated on his throne, and surrounded with nobles and flatterers, perhaps he may think so, but when lost in a wood, alas, what is he but a common man ! His wisdom knows not which is north and which is south ; his power, a beggar's dog would bark at ; and his greatness the beg- gar would not bow to. And yet, how oft are we puffed up with these false attributes ! 'Well, in losing the monarch, I have found the man. 2 Hark, I hear a gun ! some villain sure is near. What were it best to do? Will my majesty protect me ? No. 3 Throw majesty aside then, and let my new-found manhood do it. DODSLEY. 6. Reflections on the Value of Life. MEDITATIVE MANNER. y^ The plain Meditative manner is mingled every now and then with a slight expression of Contempt, as at '. At the conclusion, a the expression is that of Cheerful Resolution. Reason thus with life : If- 1 do lose thee, I do lose a thing That none but fools would reck : a breath thou art, Subject to all the skyey influences That do this habitation where thou keep'st Hourly afflict : 'mei^ely thou art death's fool; For him thou labour's! by thy flight to shun, And yet runn'st toward him still. Thou art not noble ; For all the' accommodations that thou bear'st Are nurs'd by baseness. Thou'rt by no means valiant ; For thou dost fear the soft and tender fork IMPASSIONED READING EXPRESSION. 71 Of a poor worm. Thy best of rest is sleep ; And yet thou fearest death, which is no more. Thou issu'st out of dust ; and art not happy ; For what thou hast not, still thou striv'st to get, And what hast, forgett'st. Thou art not certain ; For thy complexion shifts to strange effects After the moon. If thou art rich, thou'rt poor ; Thou bear'st thy heavy riches but a journey, And death unloadeth thee. In youth or age, Thou art as 'twere an after-dinner's sleep Dreaming on both ; for all thy youth begs alms Of palsied Eld ; and when thou'rt old and rich, Thou ha'st neither heat, affection, limb, nor beauty, To make thy riches pleasant. HVhat's in all this To make me love thee, Life, or fear thee, Death, By whom these odds are all made even ? SHAKSPEARE. VEHEMENT, PLAINTIVE, LIVELY, AND SOLEMN EXPRESSION. By one or other of these terms we may characterise the expres- sion of almost every passion ; and it is as much as can at first be expected of readers whose imagination and sensibility are not natu- rally apt, that they shall make these general differences sufficiently obvious. Among the passions which generally require VEHEMENCE OF MANNER, are courage, fierceness, triumph, pride, indignation, anger, rage, hatred, fear, remorse, despair, envy, malice. In express- ing confidence, courage, determination, pride, the voice is strong and loud, but with respect to pitch, is in a firm middle tone. In remorse, envy, hatred, malice, it is generally low and harsh. Anger, rage, scorn, have the same harshness, but usually the tone is higher. Remonstrance makes the tone lower and smoother. In despair, the voice is low and sullen, or startingly loud and shrill. Fear, when it leads to action, resembles other vehement passions in many of its effects ; but when it entirely relaxes the frame, and takes away the power of action, or when it is excited by the contemplation rather than the presence of danger, it comes in either case under a differ- ent description. Extraordinary vehemence in any of the passions generally accelerates the rate of utterance ; though in hatred and malice it will often be slow and drawling. "With regard to gesture, it will be performed with a tension of the muscles proportioned to the strength of the passion, and should scarcely be artificial, but such as nature herself enforces. In confidence, pride, triumph, the body is erect and sometimes thrown back ; the hand places itself on the breast or on the hip, or is thrown upwards with a correspondent "72 IMPASSIONED READING EXPRESSIONS motion of the head. In exhortation, the hands are raised ; in re- monstrance they are gently hut repeatedly pushed forwards, with the palms out, and the fingers pointing upwards. In fierceness, anger, rage, the hrows are contracted, the foot stamps, the body inclines forward, and the hand is instinctively clinched. In hatred, the hand is violently pushed with the palm outwards toward the object, and the head, at the same time, averted. In fear, the hands raise them- selves as a defence, and the body draws back to avoid the dreaded object. These, it must be remembered, are the direct expressions of the several passions. But there is a reflex expression, when they are not actually felt, but only imagined or described : the gesture, if any be used, must then be more moderate. Opposite to vehemence of manner may be placed the PLAINTIVE, which takes place when the subjects of narration or meditation ex- cite grief in a moderate degree, pity, regret, a soft and tender melan- choly, or any kindred feeling. The tone of voice is smooth and melodious ; the rate of utterance even and moderate : the head is frequently shaken slowly ; the eyes are alternately raised and cast down, and the hands accompany them with a correspondent and somewhat languid motion, being lifted slowly, and then suffered to fall lifeless to their place. The expression proper for GAY and LIVELY subjects is distinguished from the last by requiring a more varied tone of voice, a brisker rate of utterance, and more quickness in the looks and action. It is not always, however, that delight, joy, enthusiasm, rapture, as they are embodied in poetry, demand an expression altogether opposite to the plaintive : something of tenderness may still discover itself in the tones of the voice, and the manner may be said to be lively rather than gay. But in expressing mirth and raillery, the manner is quite opposite to the plaintive. Directly opposed to the last-mentioned expression, is the GLOOMY or SOLEMN. It embraces such passions and affections as awe, deep melancholy, dread, sublime contemplation, and devotion to a being infinitely superior. The eyes are frequently cast upward, and then fixed on the ground with an inclination of the body ; the tone of voice is low, and occasionally tremulous ; the rate of utterance is slow and weighty ; the hands are raised and then suffered to drop in correspondence with the looks ; and the whole frame frequently ap- pears to sink backward, as if overcome by the feelings which press upon it. It is of consequence to remark, before the learner proceeds to the following exercises, that the mode and degree of any particular passion, depend almost entirely on the predominant expression of the piece in which it occurs. Thus when any of the passions which require vehemence occur in a piece whose predominant expression is plaintive, they must be so qualified as to harmonize with the general tone of the whole. On the other hand, the softer passions acquire a degree of vehemence when they occur in a piece whose general .expression is of that character ; and so of all other cases. IMPASSIONED READING EXPRESSION. 73 7. Mutius Sccevola to king Por senna. VEHEMENT EXPRESSION. fl^r" ' Threatening. I am a Roman citizen my name Mutius. My purpose was to kill an enemy. Nor am I less prepared to undergo the punishment, than I was to perpetrate the deed. To do and to suffer bravely, is a Roman's part. ' Neither am I the only person thus affected towards you : there is a long list of competitors for the same honour. If therefore you choose to confront the danger of setting your life every hour at hazard, prepare yourself you will have the foe in the very porch of your palace. This is the kind of war that the Roman youth declare against you. You have nothing to fear in the field : the combat is against you alone, and every individual is your antagonist. LIVY. 8. The Bondmen of Corinth from the fortified walls y to the Corinthian Chiefs returning home from war. VEHEMENT EXPRESSION. {J^ An expression of Delight mingles with that of Indignation ; unqualified Indignation: s Determination and Threatening. Briefly thus, Since I must speak for all : Your tyranny Has drawn us from obedience. ] Happy times Were those when lords were fathers call'd of families, And not imperious masters ! when they number'd Their servants almost equal with their sons, Or one degree beneath them ! when their labours Were cherish 'd and rewarded, and a period Set to their sufferings ! when ye did not press Their duties or their wills beyond the power And strength of their performance ! Things were order'd With such decorum, that wise lawmakers From each well-govern'd private house deriv'd The perfect model of a commonwealth. Humanity inform'd the hearts of men, And thankful masters carefully provided 74 IMPASSIONED READING EXPRESSION. For creatures wanting reaso'n. The noble horse That, in his fiery youth, from his wide nostrils Neigh 'd courage to his lord, and bore him on Safe to triumphant victory, old or wounded Was set at liberty, and freed from service. The mule that from the quarry drew the marble, To raise the temples of the gods, at length When the great work was ended, was dismiss'd, And fed at public cost; the faithful dog Has found a sepulchre. 2 But masters now, Since pride stepp'd in, and riot, and o'erturn'd This goodly frame of concord, masters now Do glory in the' abuse of fellow men Brought under their command, and do esteem them E'en less than brutes when they are grown unuseful. This you have practis'd ; you : 3 and if redress Of these just grievances be granted not, We'll right ourselves, and with strong hand defend , What we are now possess'd of. MASSINGER. 9. Address to Sensibility. PLAINTIVE EXPRESSION. {!?= ' Enthusiasm ; s Relaxes into a gentler expression ; 8 Delight, qualified by the predominant expression. Dear Sensibility, source inexhausted of all that is precious in our joys or costly in our sorrows ! thou chainest thy martyr down upon his bed of straw, and it is thou who lift- est him up to heaven. ' From thee it comes that I feel some generous joys and generous cares beyond myself. Touched with thee, * Eugenius draws my curtain when I languish, hears my tale of symptoms, and blames the weather for the disorder of his nerves. Thou givest a por- tion sometimes to the roughest peasant who traverses the bleakest mountains. He finds the lacerated lamb of an- other's flock. This moment I behold him leaning with his head against his crook, with piteous inclination looking down upon it. Oh ! had I come one moment sooner ! it bleeds to death, his gentle heart bleeds with it Peace IMPASSIONED READING EXPRESSION. 75 to thee, generous swain ; I see thou walkest off with an- guish; 3 but thy joys shall balance it: for happy is thy cottage, and happy is the sharer of it, and happy are the lambs which sport about you. STERNE. 10. Address to the Moon: a Sonnet. PLAINTIVE EXPRESSION : {5=- ' Desire ; 2 Languor. Queen of the silver bow, by thy pale beam, Alone and pensive I delight to stray, And watch thy shadow trembling in the stream, Or mark the floating clouds that cross thy way. And while I gaze, thy mild and placid light Sheds a soft cairn upon my troubled breast ; And oft I think, fair planet of the night, That in thy orb the wretched may have rest : The sufferers of the earth perhaps may go, Releas'd by death, to thy benignant sphere, And the sad children of despair and woe Forget in thee^ their cup of sorrow here. 1 Oh ! that I soon may reach thy world serene, 'Poor weary pilgrim in this toiling scene. y< CHARLOTTE SMITH. 11. A West-Indian's Address to his Friend on landing in England. GAYETY OF EXPRESSION : (j^f=> l The impatience must be slightly imitated. Mr. Stockwell, I am rejoiced to see you. You and I have long conversed at a distance ; now we are met, and the pleasure this meeting gives me, amply compensates for the perils I have run through in accomplishing it. Not that I complain of my passage by sea ; no, no ; courier like, we came posting to your shores on the pinions of the swift- est gales that ever blew. It is upon English ground all my difficulties have arisen ; it is the passage from the river-side I complain of. Your town is as full of denies as the island E 2 76 IMPASSIONED READING EXPRESSION. of Corsica, and I believe they are as obstinately defended. So much hurry, bustle, and confusion, on your quays, so many sugar-casks, porter-butts, and commori-councilmen in your streets, that it is more than the labour of a Her- cules can effect to make any tolerable way through your town. Though, in faith, my troubles were all my own fault. Accustomed to a land of slaves, 1 and out of patience with the whole tribe of custom-house extortioners, boatmen, tide- waiters, and water-bailiffs, that beset me on all sides worse than a swarm of moschettos, I proceeded, a little too roughly, to brush them away with my rattan. The sturdy rogues took this in dudgeon; and, beginning to rebel, the mob chose different sides, and a furious scuffle ensued ; in the course of which my person and apparel suffered so much, that I was forced to step in to the first tavern to refit, be- fore I could make my approaches in any decent trim. CUMBERLAND. 12. Sentiments of a Contented Mind. LIVELY EXPRESSION : {J^ 3 'A slight expression of Scorn and Pity ; 2 The more unmixed expression of Cheerfulness resumed. No glory I covet, no riches I want ; Ambition is nothing to me; The one thing I beg of kind Heaven to grant, Is a mind independent and free. With passion unruffled, untainted with pride, By reason my life let me square : The wants of my nature are cheaply supplied, And the rest is but folly and care. The blessings which Providence freely has lent, I'll justly and gratefully prize; While sweet meditation and cheerful content Shall make me both healthful and wise. In the pleasures the great man's possessions display, Unenvied I'll challenge my part; For every fair object my eyes can survey Contributes to gladden my heart. IMPASSIONED READING EXPRESSION. 77 1 How vainly, through infinite trouble and strife The many their labours employ ! * Since all that is truly delightful in life, Is what all, if they please, may enjoy. ANON. 13. Ossian's Address to the Sun. SOLEMN EXPRESSION : {j^ 1 Rises into ' Vehemence ; deepens into 2 Solemnity: rises again into 3 Vehemence ; deepens into 4 Solemnity ; breaks quickly into an expression of 5 Delight ; which relaxes into the 6 Plaintive ; rises into 7 Vehemence ; relaxes into the 8 Plaintive. thou, that rollest above, whence are thy beams, Sun, thy everlasting light ? Thou comest forth in thy awful beauty : the stars hide themselves in the sky ; the moon, cold and pale, sinks in the western wave : 1 but thou thy- self movest alone. Who can be a companion of thy course ? * The oaks of the mountains fall ; the mountains them- selves decay with years ; the ocean shrinks and grows again ; the moon herself is lost in heaven : 3 but thou art for ever the same, rejoicing in the brightness of thy course. * When the world is dark with tempests ; when thunder rolls and lightning flies ; thou 5 lookest in thy beauty from the clouds, and laughest at the storm. 6 But thou art per- haps, like me, for a season : thy years will have an end : thou shalt sleep in thy clouds, careless of the voice of the morning. 1 Exult then, O Sun, in the strength of thy youth. "Age is dark and unlovely: it is like the glimmering 1 light of the moon when it shines through broken clouds, and the mist is on the hills, the blast of the north is on the plain, the traveller shrinks in the midst of his journey. 14. Effusions on imagining a Midnight Scene in a Repository of the Dead. SOLEMN EXPRESSION : {J^ Rises into Tear, which increases as the circumstances more im- press the imagination. See yonder hallow'd fane, the pious work Of names once fam'd, now dubious or forgot, And burie i mid the wreck of things that were. 78 IMPASSIONED READING EXPRESSION. The wind is up : hark ! bow it howls : methiuks Till now I never heard a sound so dreary. Doors creak, and windows clap, and night's foul bird Rook'd in the spire, screams loud ; the gloomy aisles Black pkster'd, and hung round with shreds of scutcheons And tatter'd coats of arms, send back the sound Laden with heavier airs, from the low vaults, The mansions of the dead. 1 Rous'd from their slumbers, In grim array the grisly spectres rise, Grin horrible and obstinately sullen, Pass and repass, hush'd as the foot of night. Again the screech-owl shrieks : ungracious sound ! I'll hear no more ; it makes one's blood run chill. R. BLAIR. 15. Canute's Reproof. NARRATIVE MANNER : rj^* Assumes ' Affected Pomp of expression ; relaxes into * Plain Narration ; deepens into 3 Earnestness, and 4 Solemnity. Canute, the greatest and most powerful monarch of his time, sovereign of Denmark and Norway as well as of England, could not fail of meeting with adulation from his courtiers ; a tribute which is liberally paid even to the meanest and weakest princes. Some of his flatterers, break- ing out one day in admiration of his grandeur, exclaimed that every thing was possible for him. Upon which the monarch ordered his chair to be set on the sea-shore while the tide was rising ; and, as the waters approached, 1 he commanded them to retire, and to obey the voice of him who was lord of the ocean. 8 He feigned to sit some time in expectation of their submission. 3 But when the sea still advanced towards him, and began to wash him with its bil- lows, he turned to his courtiers, and remarked to them, that every creature in the universe was feeble and impotent, 4 and that power resided with one Being alone, in whose hands were all the elements of nature ; who could say to the ocean, thus far shalt thou go and no farther ; and who could level with his nod the most towering piles of human ambition. HUME. IMPASSIONED READING EXPRESSION. 79 16. Douglas's Account of the Hermit. NARRATIVE MANNER : 2^ Assumes the l Plaintive expression ; rises into * Ardour. Beneath a mountain's brow, the most remote And inaccessible by shepherds trod, In a deep cave, dug by no mortal hand, A hermit lived : ' a melancholy man, Who was the wonder of our wandering swains. Austere and lonely, cruel to himself, ' Did they report him ; the cold earth his bed, Water his drink, his food the shepherds' alms. I went to see him, and my heart was touch'd With reverence and with pity. Mild he spake, And entering on discourse, such stories told As made me oft revisit his sad cell. For he had been a soldier in his youth, 8 And fought in famous battles, when the peers Of Europe, by the bold Godfredo led, Against the usurping infidel, display'd The blessed cross, and won the holy land. Pleas'd with my admiration, and the fire His speech struck from me, the old man would shake His years away, and act his young encounters ; Then, having show'd his wounds, he'd sit him down, And all the livelong day, discourse of war. To help my fancy, in the smooth green turf He'd cut the figures of the marshall'd hosts, Describ'd the motions, and explain'd the use Of the deep column, and the lengthen'd line, The square, the crescent, and the phalanx firm. For all that Saracen or Christian knew Of war's vast art, was to this hermit known. HOME. 80 IMPASSIONED READING EXPRESSION. 17. Fortitude is necessary to the enjoyment of Happiness. ARGUMENTATIVE MANNER : y^* Assumes an expression of ' Firmness ; relaxes into a 2 slight scornful expression of Feebleness : These expressions, with some difference in degree, are repeated ; 8 Firmness ; 4 Scornful Pity ; 5 Firmness; 6 Scornful Pity. Without some degree of Fortitude there can be no hap- piness ; because, amidst the thousand uncertainties of life, there can be no enjoyment of tranquillity. The man of feeble and timorous spirit lives under perpetual alarms. He sees every distant danger, and trembles. He explores the regions of possibility to discover the dangers that may arise. Often he creates imaginary ones ; always magnifies those that are real. Hence, like a person haunted by spectres, he loses the free enjoyment even of a safe and prosperous state. And on the first shock of adversity, he desponds. Instead of ' exerting himself to lay hold on the resources that remain, 2 he gives up all for lost, and resigns himself to abject and broken spirits. 3 On the other hand, firmness of mind is the parent of tranquillity. It enables one to enjoy the present without disturbance, and to look calmly on dan- gers that approach, or evils that threaten in future. Look into the heart of this man, and you will find composure, cheerfulness, and magnanimity. 4 Look into the heart of the other, and you will see nothing but confusion, anxiety, and trepidation. 5 The one is a castle built on a rock which defies the attacks of surrounding waters : 6 the other is a hut placed on the shore, which every wind shakes, and every wave overflows. BLAIR. 18. Mercy, to be genuine, must be given freely ; and it ought always to temper Justice. ARGUMENTATIVE MANNER: {J^> Deepens into an expression of ' Solemnity ; * Rapture ; reassumes 8 Solemnity. The quality of mercy is not strain'd ; It, droppeth as the gentle rain from heaven Upon the place beneath. It is twice bless'd ; It blesseth him that gives, and him that takes : IMPASSIONED READING EXPRESSION. 81 'Tis mightiest in the mightiest ; 1 it becomes The throned monarch better than his crown ; His sceptre shows the force of tempo'ral power, The attribute to awe and majesty, Wherein doth sit the dread and fear of kings . 2 But mercy is above this scepter'd sway, It is enthroned in the hearts of kings, It is an attribute to God himself; And earthly power doth then show likest God's When mercy seasons justice. s Therefore, well Consider this, though justice be our plea, Yet, in the course of justice, none of us Should see salvation : we do pray for mercy, And that same prayer doth teach us all to render The deeds of mercy. SHAKSPEARE. 19. The Mind disposing itself to Thought on the approach of Evening. MEDITATIVE MANNER : Deepens into ' Solemnity. Every object a little while ago, glared -with light; but now, all appears with softened lustre. The animals har- monize with the insensible creation : and what was gay in those, as well as glittering in this, gives place to a universal gravity. Should I, at such a season, be vain and trifling, the heavens and the earth would rebuke my unseasonable levity. 1 Therefore, be this moment devoted to thoughts solemn as the close of day, sedate as the face of things. However my social hours are enlivened with innocent plea- santry, let the evening, in her sober habit, toll the bell to serious consideration. Every meddling and intrusive avo- cation is secluded. Silence holds the door against the strife of tongues, and all the impertinences of idle conversa- tion. The busy swarm of vain images and cajoling temp- tations which beset us, with a buzzing importunity, amid the gayeties of life, are chased by these thickening shades. Here I may, without disturbance, commune with my own heart, and learn that best of sciences, to know myself. HERVEY. E3 82 IMPASSIONED READING EXPRESSION. 20. Hamlet reflecting on his Irresolution. MEDITATIVE MANNER : Deepens into ! Solemnity ; assumes * Decision. Whether it be Bestial oblivion, or some craven scruple Of thinking too precisely on the event, (A thought, which quarter'd, hath but one part wisdom, And ever three parts coward,) I do not know Why yet I live to say, This thing's to do, Sith I have cause, and will, and strength, and means, To do't. What is man, If his chief good and market of his time Be but to sleep and feed ? a beast ; no more. 1 Sure He that made us with such large discourse Looking before and after, gave us not That capability and God-like reason To rust in us unus'd. About, my brains ! I have heard That guilty creatures, sitting at a play Have, by the very cunning of the scene, Been struck so to the soul, that presently They have proclaim'd their malefactions : 2 I'll have these players Play something like the murder of my father Before my uncle : I'll observe his looks ; I'll tent him to the quick ; If he do blench, I know my course : the play, the play's the thing Wherein I'll catch the conscience of the king. SHAKSPEARE. 21. General Wolfe to his Army before Quebec, 1759. VEHEMENT EXPRESSION : (C^ 'Encouragement; * Indignant Anger; 3 Plain Narration; 4 Pride and Ardour ; 6 Contempt ; " Firmness ; 7 Contempt ; . 8 Firmness ; 9 Plain Narration ; 10 Ardour; Firmness ; ^Cheer- ful Resignation. I 1 congratulate you, my brave countrymen and fellow- soldiers, on the spirit and success with which you have IMPASSIONED READING EXPRESSION. S3 executed this important part of our enterprise. The for- midable heights of Abraham are now surmounted, and the city of Quebec, the object of all our toils, now stands in full view before you. 8 A perfidious enemy who have dared to exasperate you by their cruelties, but not to oppose you on equal ground, are now constrained to face you on the open plain, without ramparts or entrenchments to shelter them. 8 You know too well the forces that compose their army, to dread their superior numbers. A few regular troops from old France, weakened by hunger and sickness, 4 who, when fresh, were unable to withstand British soldiers, are their general's chief dependence. 5 Those numerous com- panies of Canadians, insolent, mutinous, unsteady, and ill- disciplined, have exercised his utmost skill to keep them together to this time ; and as soon as their irregular ardour is damped 6 by one firm fire, 7 they will instantly turn their backs, and give you no further trouble but in the pursuit. As for those savage tribes of Indians, whose horrid yells in the forests have struck many a bold heart with affright, terrible as they are with the tomahawk and scalping knife to a flying and prostrate foe, 8 you have experienced how- little their ferocity is to be dreaded by resolute men upon fair and open ground : you can now only consider them as the just objects of a severe revenge for the unhappy fate of many slaughtered countrymen. 9 This day puts it into your power to terminate the fa- tigues of a siege, which has so long employed your courage and patience. 10 Possessed with a full confidence of the certain success which British valour must gain over such enemies, I have led you up these steep and dangerous rocks, only solicitous to show you the foe within your reach. The impossibility of a retreat makes no difference in the situation of men "resolved to conquer or die: 12 and be- lieve me, my friends, if the conquest could be bought with the blood of your general, he would most cheerfully resign a life which he has long devoted to his country. AIKIN. 84 IMPASSIONED READING EXPRESSION. 22. Neptune, in the form of Calchas, reproving and ani- mating the Grecian Leaders at the Siege of Troy. VEHEMENT EXPRESSION : (f>=> J Anger and Reproach, with 2 Astonishment and 3 Contempt ; returns to the more unmixed expression of * Reproach and * Anger ; becomes 6 Argumentative ; rises into the tones of * Encourage- ment; occasionally changing into those of 8 Contempt ; Admi- ration struggling with Grief; 10 Warning; : ' Alarm ; 12 Determi- nation. 1 Oh ! lasting infamy, oh ! dire disgrace, To chiefs of vigo'rous youth and manly race ! 1 trusted in the gods, and you, to see Brave Greece victorious, and her navy free : Ah, no ! the glorious combat you disclaim, And one black day clouds all her former fame. 2 Heavens ! what a prodigy these eyes survey, Unseen, unthought, till this amazing day. Fly we at length from Troy's oft conquered bands ? And falls our fleet by such 3 inglorious hands ? A rout undisciplin'd, a straggling train, Not born to glories of the dusty plain, Like frighted hinds from hill to hill pursued, A prey to every savage of the wood ? 4 Shall these, so late who trembled at your name, Invade your camps, involve your ships in flame ? A change so shameful, say what cause has wrought, The soldiers' baseness, or the general's fault. 5 Fools ! will you perish for your leader's vice : The purchase infamy, and life the price ? "Tis not your cause Achilles' injur'd fame: Another's is the crime, but yours the shame. Grant that our chief offend through rage or lust, Must you be cowards if your king's unjust ? 7 Prevent this evil and your country save : Small thought retrieves the spirits of the brave. Think, and subdue : 8 on dastards dead to fame I waste no anger, for they feel no shame : 9 But you, the pride, the flower of all our host, My heart weeps blood to see your glory lost. IMPASSIONED READING EXPRESSION. 85 l Nor deem this day, this battle, all you lose ; A day more black, a fate more vile, ensues. Let each reflect, who prizes fame or breath, On endless infamy, or instant death ! For lo ! the fated time, the appointed shore, 11 Hark ! the gates burst, the brazen barriers roar Impetuous Hector thunders at the wall ; 14 The hour, the spot, to conquer, or to fall. POPE'S Homer. 23. David's Lamentation over Said and Jonathan. PLAINTIVE EXPRESSION : {3= "Shame; 2 Reproach ; 3 Taunting; 4 Plaintive; * Vaunting; 6 Plaintive. The beauty of Israel is slain upon thy high places : how are the mighty fallen ! ' Tell it not in Gath, publish it not in the streets of Askelon, lest the daughters of the Phi- listines rejoice, lest the daughters of the uncircumcised triumph. * Ye mountains of Gilboa, let there be no dew, nor rain upon you, nor fields of offerings : for there the shield of the mighty is vilely cast away, the shield of Saul, as though he had not been anointed with oil. 3 From the blood of the slain, from the fat of the mighty, the bow of Jonathan turned not back, and the sword of Saul returned not empty. 4 They were lovely and pleasant in their lives, and in death they were not divided. 5 They were swifter than eagles, they were stronger than lions. " I am dis- tressed for thee, my brother Jonathan : very pleasant hast thou been unto me : thy love to me was wonderful, passing the love of women. How are the mighty fallen, and the weapons of war perished ! 2 SAM. i. 24. An Elegy to Pily. PLAINTIVE EXPRESSION : , y^f" The manner throughout should be affectionate, mingled with an expression of ' Delight ; occasionally * Solemn ; sometimes 3 Firm ; relaxing into the predominant tone, and concluding with * Solemnity. Hail, lovely power, whose bosom heaves the sigh When fancy paints the scene of deep distress ; Whose tears spontaneous crystallize the eye, When rigid fate denies the power to bless. 86 IMPASSIONED READING EXPRESSION. Not all the sweets Arabia's gales convey From flowery meads, can, with that sigh, compare ; Not dew-drops glittering in the morning ray Seem near so beauteous as that falling tear. 'Devoid of fear, the fawns around thee play ; Emblem of peace, the dove before thee flies ; No blood-stain'd traces mark thy blameless way ; Beneath thy feet no hapless insect dies. Come, lovely nymph, and range the mead with me, To spring the partridge from the guileful foe, From secret snares the struggling bird to free, And stop the hand uprais'd to give the blow. 2 And when the air with heat meridian glows, And nature droops beneath the conquering gleam, Let us, slow wandering where the current flows, Save sinking flies that float along the stream. 3 Or turn to nobler, greater tasks thy care ; To me thy sympathetic gifts impart, Teach me in friendship's griefs to bear a share, And justly boast the generous feeling heart : Teach me to sooth the helpless orphan's grief, With timely aid the widow's woes assuage, To misery's moving cries to yield relief, And be the sure resource of drooping age. 4 So when the genial spring of life shall fade, And sinking nature owns the dread decay, Some soul congenial then may lend its aid, And gild the close of life's eventful day. ANON. 25. Advice to an affected Speaker. LIVELY AND COLLOQUIAL EXPRESSION : {J^* 'Doubt; ! Hesitation ; B Polite Entreaty; 4 Hesitation and Apology ; 5 Quick Recollection ; G Plain Narrative Manner; ^Sur- prise and Expostulation ; 8 Contempt ; 8 Surprise ; 10 Frankness ; 11 Warning with Archness ; "Frankness. 1 What do you say ? What 2 I really do not un- derstand you. 3 Be so good as to explain yourself again. 4 Upon my word I do not s oh ! now I know : "you mean to tell me it is a cold day : 7 why did not you say at once " It is cold to-day." If you wish to inform me, it IMPASSIONED READING EXPRESSION. 87 rains or snows, pray say " It rains," " It snows :" or if you think I look well, and you choose to compliment me, say, " I think you look well." " But," you answer, 8 " that is so common, and so plain, and what every body can say." 9 Well, and what if they can ? Is it so great a misfortune to be understood when one speaks, and to speak like the rest of the world ? 10 1 will tell you what, my friend ; you and your fine-spoken brethren want one thing " you do not suspect it, and I shall astonish you l * you want common sense. Nay, this is not all : you have something too much ; you possess an opinion that you have more sense than others. That is the source of all your pompous nothings, your cloudy sentences, and your big words with- out a meaning. Before you accost a person, or enter a room, let me pull you by your sleeve and whisper in your ear, " Do not try to show off your sense : have none at all that is your part. Use plain language, if you can ; just such as you find others use,, who, in your idea, have no understanding ; and then, perhaps, you will get credit for having some." LA BRUYERE. 26. Apology for the Pig. LIVELY AND COLLOQUIAL EXPRESSION {j^* There must be a playful tone of Remonstrance throughout the whole; relieved by an expression of ' Dislike and 2 Disgust ; an arch expression of 3 Candour; * Independence ; 'Appealing; 6 Gravity and 7 Importance ; 8 Candour ; 9 Satisfaction. Jacob, I do not love to see thy nose Turn'd up in scornful curve at yonder pig. It would be well, my friend, if we, like him, Were perfect in our kind. And \vhy despise The sow-born grunter ? 1 He is obstinate, Thou answerest ; ugly ; and 2 the filthiest beast That banquets upon offal. 3 Now I pray thee Hear the pig's counsel. Is he obstinate ? We must not, Jacob, be deceiv'd by words, By sophist sounds. 4 A democratic beast, He knows that his unmerci'ful drivers seek Their profit and not his. He hath not learn'd 88 IMPASSIONED READING EXPRESSION. That pigs were made for man, born to be brawn'd And baconiz'd. And for his ugliness 5 Nay, Jacob, look at him ; Those eyes have taught the lover flattery. Behold his tail, iny friend ; with curls like that The wanton hop marries her stately spouse : And what is beauty but the aptitude Of parts harmonious ? give thy fancy scope, And thou wilt find that no imagin'd change Can beautify the beast. All would but mar His pig perfection. The last charge, he lives A dirty life. 6 Here I could shelter him With precedents right reverend and noble, 7 And show by sanction of authority That 'tis a very honourable thing To thrive by dirty ways. B But let me rest On better ground the' unanswerable defence. The pig is a philosopher, who knows No prejudice. Dirt ? Jacob, what is dirt? If matter, why the deli'cate dish that tempts The o'ergorg'd epicure is nothing more. 9 And there, that breeze Pleads with me, and has won thee to the smile That speaks conviction. O'er yon blossom'd field Of beans it came, and thoughts of bacon rise. SOUTHEY. 27. A Vision described. SOLEMN EXPRESSION : (j^ The predominant passions are ' Fear and 2 Horror ; which relax into the Plainly Solemn. In thoughts from visions of the night, when deep sleep falleth on men, 1 fear came upon me and trembling, which made all my bones to shake. Then a spirit passed before my face : 2 the hair of my flesh stood up. It stood still; but I could not discern the form thereof: an image was be- fore mine eyes ; there was silence, and I heard a voice say- ing, ' Shall mortal man be more just than God ? Shall a IMPASSIONED RKABING EXPRESSION. 89 man be more pure than his Maker ? Behold, he put no trust in his servants, and his angels he charged with folly : how much less in them that dwell in houses of clay, whose foundation is in the dust.' JOB, iv. 13. 28. The Influence of Midnight. SOLEMN EXPRESSION '. y$* ' Reproach ; * Disgust ; s Regret ; 4 The unmixed expression of Solemnity resumed, which rises into Earnestness of prayer. As yet 'tis midnight deep. The weary clouds Slow meeting, mingle into solid gloom. Now, while the drowsy world lies lost in sleep, Let me associate with the serious Night, And Contemplation, her sedate compeer; Let me shake off the intrusive cares of day And lay the meddling senses all aside. 1 Where now, ye lying vanities of life, Ye ever tempting, ever cheating train, \V here are ye now ? and what is your amount ? Vexation, disappointment, and remorse. E Sad, sickening thought ! 3 and yet deluded man, A scene of crude disjointed visions past, And broken slumbers, rises still resolv'd, With new flush'd hopes, to run the giddy round. 4 Father of light and life ! thou Good supreme ! O teach me what is good ; teach me thyself : Save me from folly, vanity, and vice, From every low pursuit ; and feed my soul With knowledge, conscious peace, and virtue pure, Sacred, substantial, never-fading bliss. THOMSON. 29. Crazy Kate. NARRATIVE MANNER : (j^ Softens into the ' Plaintive expression ; Delight ; 3 Regret ; 4 Mournful Solemnity ; a Suspensive pause at the end of the line ; * Plaintive expression. There often wanders one whom better days Saw better clad, in cloak of satin, trimm'd 90 IMPASSIONED READING EXPRESSION. With lace, and bat with splendid ribbon bound. A serving maid was she, and fell in love With one who left her, went to sea, and died. 1 Her fancy follow'd him through foaming waves To distant shores ; and she would sit and weep At what a sailor suffers ; fancy too, Delusive most where warmest wishes are, * Would oft anticipate his glad return, And dream of transports 3 she was not to know. 4 She heard the doleful tidings of his death And never smil'd again ! 5 and now she roams The dreary waste ; there spends the livelong day, And there, unless when charily forbids, The livelong night. A tatter'd apron hides, Worn as a cloak, and hardly hides, a gown More tatter'd still ; and both but ill conceal A bosom heav'd with never-ceasing sighs. She begs an idle pin of all she meets, And hoards them in her sleeve ; but needful food, Though press'd with hunger oft, or comelier clothes, Though pinch'd with cold, asks never : Kate is craz'd. COWPER. 30. Mind the Source of true Beauty. ARGUMENTATIVE MANNER : {J^> Rises into l Enthusiastic Delight; relaxes toward the 2 Plain- tive ; assumes an expression of 3 Firmness, which softens into that of * Delight. Beauty dwells There most conspicu'ous, even in outward shape, Where dwells the 1 high expression of a* mind ; By steps conducting our enraptur'd search To that eternal origin, whose power, Through all the' unbounded symmetry of things, Like rays effulging from the parent sun, This endless mixture of her charms diffus'd. Mind, mind alone, (bear witness earth and heaven,) The living fountains in itself, contains Of beauteous and sublime : here hand in hand, IMPASSIONED READING EXPRESSION. 91 Sit paramount the graces ; here enthrou'd Celestial Venus with divinest airs Invites the soul to never-fading joy. Is aught so fair In all the dewy landscapes of the spring, Is the bright eye of Hesper or the morn, In nature's fairest forms, is aught so fair As virtu'ous friendship ? * as the candid blush Of him who strives with fortune to be just? The graceful tear that streams for others' woes ? 3 Or the mild majesty of private life, Where * Peace, with ever-blooming olive, crowns The gate ; where Honour's liberal hands effuse Unenvied treasures, and the snowy wings Of Innocence and Love protect the scene ? AKENSIDE. 31. Curse ofKehama. VEHEMENT MANNER : > J Anger ; * Malice ; and 3 Exultation : * Malice predominates, and the tone deepens to the end. 1 I charm thy life From the weapons of strife, From stone and from wood, From fire and from flood, From the serpent's tooth, And the beasts of blood ; From sickness I charm thee, And time shall not harm thee, 2 But earth, which is mine, Its fruits shall deny thee ; And water shall hear me, And know thee and fly thee ; And the winds shall not touch thee When they pass by thee; And the dews shall not wet thee When they fall nigh thee : And thou shall seek death To release thee in vain ; Thou shalt live in thy pain, 92 IMPASSIONED READING EXPRESSION. 3 While Kehama shall reign, With a fire in thy heart, And a fire in thy brain ; And sleep shall obey me, And visit thee 4 never, And the curse shall be on thee For ever and ever. SOUTHEY. 32. The Cur and the Mastiff. LIVELY AND COLLOQUIAL EXPRESSION : {|P 'Contempt; 2 Plain narrative manner; 3 Indignation ; ''Nar- rative manner ; 5 Indignation and Anger ; * Eagerness ; 1 Anger ; 8 Narrative manner; 'Spiteful Anger; 10 Warning and Remon- strance ; u Narrative manner. 1 A sneaking cur, the master's spy, Rewarded for his daily lie, * With secret jealousies and fears, Set all together by the ears. Poor puss to day was in disgrace, Another cat supplied her place; The hound was beat ; the mastiff chid ; The monkey was the room forbid : Each, to his dearest friend, grew shy And none could tell the reason why. A plan to rob the house was laid, The thief with love seduc'd the maid, Cajol'd the cur, and strok'd his head, And bought his secrecy with bread. He next the mastiff's honour tried, 3 Whose honest jaws the bribe defied ; 4 He stretch'd his hand to proffer more ; * The surly dog his fingers tore. 6 Swift ran the cur : 7 with indignation The master took his information : * Hang him; the villain's curs'd,' he cries, 8 And round his neck the halter ties. The dog his humble suit preferred, And begg'd, in justice, to be heard. The master sat. On either hand The cited dogs confronting stand. IMPASSIONED READING EXPRESSION. 93 9 The cur the bloody tale relates, And, like a tell-tale, aggravates. 1J ' Judge not unheard,' the mastiff cried, ' But weigh the cause on either side : Think not that treachery can be just, Nor take informers' words on trust ' 11 He spoke, and all the truth appear'd : The cur was hang'd ; the mastiff clear'd. GA\. 33. Alexander on passing the Granicus. VEHEMENT EXPRESSION : Exultation and * Pride ; 8 Contempt ; 4 Exultation and Pi 1 Witness, ye heavenly powers, how Alexander Honours and loves a soldier. Oh ! my Clitus, Say, was it not in passing the Granicus Thou didst preserve me from unequal force ? It was, when Spithridates and Resaces Fell both upon me with two dreadful strokes, And clove my temper'd helmet quite asunder; Then I remember, then thou didst me service : And I am prouder to have pass'd that stream, Than that I drove a million o'er the plain. Can none remember ? Yes, I know all must, 2 When glory, like the dazzling eagle, stood Perch'd on my beaver in the Granic flood, When Fortune's self my standard trembling bore, 3 And the pale Fates stood frighted on the shore, 4 When the Immortals on the billows rode, And I myself appear'd the leading god. LEE. 34. Helena upbraiding Hermia. PLAINTIVE EXPRESSION : * Grief and Anger, relaxing into * Affectionate Regret ; rises again into 3 Reproach and 4 Grief. 1 1njurious Hermia, most ungrateful maid, Have you conspir'd, have you with these contriv'd To bait me with this foul derision ? Is all the counsel that we two have shar'd, 94 IMPASSIONED READING EXPRESSION. 2 The sisters' vows, the hours that we have spent, When we have chid the hasty-footed time For parting us : oh ! is it all forgot ? All schooldays' friendship, childhood innocence ? We, Hermia, like two artificer-gods, Created with our needles both one flower, Both on one sampler, sitting on one cushion, Both warbling of one song, both in one key, As if our hands, our sides, our voices, minds, Had been incorporate. So we grew together, Like to a double cherry, seeming parted, But yet a union in partition ; Two lovely berries moulded on one stem ; So with two seeming bodies, both one heart. 3 And will you rend our ancient love asunder To join with men in scorning your poor friend ? It is not friendly, 'tis not maidenly : Our sex, as well as I, may chide you for it, 4 Though I alone do feel the injury. SHAKSPEA.RE. 35. Night Thoughts. SOLEMN EXPRESSION : {J^=" ^leditative Manner ; 2 Awe ; 3 Alarm ; *Regret ; 5 Alarm, with 6 Awe; 7 Pity; 8 Aclmiration ; "Pity; '"Admiration ; H Awe, with 12 Fear, and I8 Astonishment; 14 Dread ; 15 Exultation. 1 The bell strikes one. We take no note of time, But from its loss. To give it then a tongue Is wise in man. 2 As if an angel spoke, I feel the solemn sound. If heard aright, It is the knell of my departed hours : 3 Where are they? 4 with the years beyond the flood. 5 It is the signal that demands despatch : How much is to be done ! My hopes and fears Rise up alarm'd, and o'er life's narrow verge Look down on what ? a fathomless abyss, A dread eternity, 6 how surely mine! And can eternity belong to me, Poor pensioner on the bounties of an hour ? 7 Ho\v poor, 8 how rich, 9 how abject, 10 how august. IMPASSIONED READING EXPRESSION. 95 How complicate, how wonderful, is man ! "How passing wonder He who made him such ! Who centred in our make such strange extremes, From different natures marvellously mix'd. Connection exquisite of distant worlds ! Distinguish'd link in being's endless chain, Midway from nothing to the Deity ! A beam ethereal, sullied and absorb'd ! Though sullied and dishonour'd, still divine. Dim miniature of greatness absolute ! An heir of glory ! a frail child of dust ! Helpless immortal ! insect infinite ! A worm ! a god ! 12 1 tremble at myself, And in myself am lost. At home a stranger, Thought wanders up and down surpris'd, aghast, And wondering at her own : how reason reels ! 13 O what a miracle to man is man ! Triumphantly distress'd, what joy, what dread ! Alternately transported and alarm'd. What can preserve my life, or what destroy? 14 An angel's arm can't snatch me from the grave ; 15 Millions of angels can't confine me there. YOUNG. 36. The Hare and the Tortoise. LIVELY AND COLLOQUIAL EXPRESSION : 3=> Narrative manner; ^Contempt ; 3 Narrative manner; daunt- ing ; *Xarrative manner ; 6 Warning ; 7 Defiance ; Narrative man- ner ; "Rapidity of manner; 10 Drawling manner; n Rapidity of manner; '^Sneering ; 13 Narrative manner ; 14 Sneeriug ; ls Narra- tive manner, with an occasional expression of Slyness and Cau- tion ; ^Argumentative manner. *In days of yore, when Time was young, When birds convers'd as well as sung. When use of speech was not confin'd Merely to brutes of human kind, A forward Hare of swiftness vain, The genius of the neighbou'ring plain, 2 Would oft deride the drudging crowd : 3 For geniuses are ever proud 4 He'd boast his flight 'twere vain to follow ; For dog and horse he'd beat them hollow ; 96 IMPASSIONED READING EXPRESSION. Nay, if he put forth all his strength, Outstrip his brethren half a length. 5 A Tortoise heard his vain oration, And vented thus his indignation : 6 " O Puss, it bodes thee dire disgrace When I defy thee to the race. 7 Come, 'tis a match ; nay, no denial, I'll lay my shell upon the trial." 8 'Twas done, and done, all fair, a bet, Judges prepar'd, and distance set. The scampering Hare 9 outstripp'd the wind, l The creeping Tortoise lagg'd behind, And scarce had pass'd a single pole, "When Puss had almost reach'd the goal. 12 " Friend Tortoise," I8 quoth the jeering Hare, 14 " Your burthen's more than you can bear : To help your speed, it were as well That I should ease you of your shell : Jog on a little faster, prythee, I'll take a nap and then be with thee." 15 The Tortoise heard his taunting jeer, But still resolv'd to persevere, And to the goal securely crept While Puss, unknowing, soundly slept. The bets were won, the Hare awake, When thus the victor Tortoise spake : 16 " Puss, thougli I own thy quicker parts, Things are not always done by starts ; You may deride my awkward pace, But slow and steady wins the race." LLOYD. 37. Sin and Death. NARRATIVE MANNER t {j^> ' Disgust and Dread ; 2 Narrative manner, rising again into 8 Disgust and 4 Dread ; 'Narrative manner, deepening into "Gloom, 7 Horror, and 8 Rage ; renews the expression of 9 Gloom and 10 Dread. Before Hell Gates there sat On either side a formidable shape ; The one seem'd woman to the waist, and fair ; IMPASSIONED READING EXPRESSION. 97 l But ended foul in many a scaly fold, Voluminous and vast, a serpent arm'd With mortal sting. About her middle round, A cry of hell-hounds never ceasing bark'd With wide Cerberean mouths full loud, and rung A hideous peal. *Far less abhorr'd than these Vex'd Scylla, bathing in the sea that parts Calabria from the hoarse Trinacrian shore; 3 Nor uglier follow the night hag, when call'd In secret, riding through the air she comes, Lur'd with the smell of infant blood, to dance With Lapland witches, 4 while the labou'ring moon Eclipses at their charms. 5 The other shape, (If shape it might be call'd that shape had none Distinguishable in member, joint or limb ; Or substance miffht be call'd that "shadow seem'd, For each seem'd either) 7 black it stood as night, 8 Fierce as ten furies, terrible as hell, And shook a dreadful dart ; 'what seem'd his head The likeness of a kingly crown had on. 10 The grisly monster moving onward, came With horrid strides, Hell trembled as he strode. MILTON. 38. Opening of U Allegro. GAYETY OF MANNER : (J^ ' Scorn and Aversion ; 2 Delight and Love. ! Hence ! loathed Melancholy, Of Cerberus, and blackest midnight born, In Stygian cave forlorn 'Mongst horrid shapes, and shrieks, and sights unholy ! Find out some uncouth cell. Where brooding Darkness spreads his jealous wings, And the night raven sings ; There under ebon shades and low-brow'd rocks, As ragged as thy locks, In dark Cimm?randesert ever dwell. * But come thou goddess fair and free In heaven yclep'd Euphrosyne, F 98 IMPASSIONED READING 'EXPRESSION. And by men heart-easing Mirth, Whom lovely Venus at a birth With two sister Graces more To ivy-crowned Bacchus bore ; Haste thee, Nymph, and bring with thee Jests and youthful jollity, Quips, and cranks, and wanton wiles, Nods, and becks, and wreathed smiles, Such as hang on Hebe's cheek, And love to live in dimple sleek ; Sport that wrinkled Care derides, And Laughter holding both his sides ; Come, and trip it as you go On the light fantastic toe, And, in thy right hand, lead with thee The mountain nymph, sweet Liberty ; And if I give thee honour due, Mirth, admit me of thy crew, To live with her and live with thee, In unreproved pleasures free. MILTON. 39. Opening of II Pensieroso. ' SOLEMNITY OF MANNER : (fj* ' Scorn and Aversion mingled with Pity ; *Awe, mingled with 3 Delight, sometimes relaxing into 4 Gloom. " ' Hence ! vain deluding Joys, The brood of Folly without father bred ! How little you bestead, Or fill the fixed mind with all your toys ! Dwell in some idle brain, And fancies fond with gaudy shapes possess, As thick and numberless As the gay motes that people the sun-beams ; Or likest hovering dreams The fickle pensioners of Morpheus' train. s But hail, thou goddess, sage and holy, Hail, divinest Melancholy ! Whose saintly visage is too bright To hit the sense of mortal sight, IMPASSIONED READING EXPRESSION. 99 And therefore to our weaker view O'erlaid with black, staid Wisdom's hue ; Come, pensive Nun, devout and pure, Sober, stedfast and demure, All in that robe of darkest grain Flowing with majestic train, And sable stole of cypress lawn Over thy decent shoulders drawn : Come, but keep thy wonted state, With even step and musing gait, 3 And looks commercing with the skies, Thy rapt soul sitting in thine eyes ; There held in holy passion still, Forget thyself to marble, till 4 With a sad, leaden, downward cast, Thou fix them on the earth as fast.- MILTON. 40. An ancient Battle poetically described, VEHEMENT EXPRESSION : (j^p * Hurry and Trepidation ; 2 Solemnity ; 8 Trepidation ; 4 Force and Eagerness ; relaxes toward the * Plaintive ; 6 Narrative man- ner ; deepens into 7 Solemnity and 8 Dread. 1 Now had the Grecians snatch'd a short repast, And buckled on their shining arms in haste. Troy rous'd as soon : 2 for on that dreadful day, The fate of fathers, wives, and infants lay ; 3 The gates unfolding pour forth all their train ; Squadrons on squadrons cloud the dusty plain ; Men, steeds, and chariots, shake the trembling ground ; The tumult thickens, and the skies resound. 4 And now with shouts the shocking armies clos'd, To lances lances, shields to shields oppos'd, Host against host their shado'wy legions drew ; The sounding darts in iron tempests flew ; Victors and vanquished join promiscu'ous cries ; Triumphant shouts and 5 dying groans arise ; With streaming blood the slippery fields are dyed, And slaughter'd heroes swell the dreadful tide. 'Long as the morning beams, increasing bright, O'er heaven's clear azure spread the sacred light, F 2 100 IMPASSIONED READING EXPRESSION. Commutu'al death the fate of war confounds, Each adverse battle gor'd with equal wounds ; 7 But when the sun the height of heaven ascends, The sire of gods his golden scales suspends With equal hand. In these explores the fate Of Greece and Troy, and poised the mighty weight. Press'd with its load the Grecian balance lies Low sunk on earth : the Trojan strikes the skies. 8 Then Jove from Ida's top his hnrrors spreads ; The clouds burst dreadful o'er the Grecian heads ; Thick lightnings flash ; the muttering thunder rolls ; Their strength he withers, and unmans their souls ; Before his wrath the trembling hosts retire, The god in terrors, and the skies on fire. POPE'S HOMER. 41. A modern Battle poetically described. VEHEMENT EXPRESSION : (f^ ' Narrative manner, with some Solemnity ; 2 Hurry and Trepi- dation, 3 Eagerness, 4 Solemnity, and 5 Dread, with a long pause at the end of the Stanza ; 6 Solemnity ; 7 Eagerness and Exulta- tion ; 8 Plaintive expression. ! On Linden, when the sun was low, All bloodless lay the untrodden snow, And dark as winter was the flow Of Iser rolling rapidly. 2 But Linden saw another sight When the drum beat at dead of night, Commanding fires of death, to light The darkness of her scenery. 3 By torch and trumpet fast array'd, Each horseman drew his battle blade, And furious every charger neigh'd To join the dreadful revelry. 4 Then shook the hills with thunder riven, Then rush'd the steed to battle driven, And louder than the bolts of heaven Far flash'd the red artillery. 5 But redder yet that light shall glow On Linden's hills of stained snow, And bloodier yet the torrent flow Of Iser rolling rapidly. IMPASSIONED READING EXPRESSION. 101 6 Tis morn, but scarce yon level sun Can pierce the war clouds, rolling dun, Where furious Frank and fiery Hun Shout in their sulphu'rous canopy. The combat deepens : 7 on, ye brave, Who rush to glory or the grave ; Wave, Munich, all thy banners wave, And charge with all thy chivalry. 8 Few, few shall part where many meet, The snow shall be their winding-sheet, And every turf beneath their ftet Shall be a soldier's sepulchre. CAMPBELL. 43. Address to Independence. VEHEMENT EXPRESSION : 3 s ] Exultation, Determination, and 2 Defiance ; 3 Exultation ; 4 Scorn ; * Exultation ; 6 Scorn ; 7 Indignation and 8 Contempt ; 9 Indignation predominates ; 10 Contempt predominates ; H Warn- ing, with some solemnity of manner, which assumes the expression of disgust, in pronouncing that word ; 1Z Enthusiastic Delight ; 13 Defiance, and u Determination. 1 Thy spirit, Independence, let me share, Lord of the lion heart and eagle eye, Thy steps I follow with my bosom bare, 2 Nor heed the storm that howls along the sky. 3 Thou, guardian genius, thou didst teach my youth 4 Pomp and her tinsel livery to despise : * My lips, by thee chastis'd to early truth, 6 Ne'er paid that homage which the heart denies. 7 Those sculptur'd halls my feet shall never tread, Where varnish'd Vice and Vanity, combin'd To dazzle and seduce, their banners spread, And forge vile shackles for the free-born mind \ Where Insolence his wrinkled front uprears, And all the flowers of spurious Fancy blow, And Title his ill-woven chaplet wears, Full often wreath'd around the miscreant's brow,' Where ever-dimpling Falsehood, pert and vain, 8 Presents her cup of stale profession's froth, 102 IMPASSIONED READING EXPRESSION. And pale Disease, with all his bloated train, Torments the sons of gluttony and sloth. In Fortune's car behold the minion ride, With either India's glittering spoils oppress'd : So moves the sumpter-mule in harness'd pride That bears the treasure which he cannot taste. 9 For him let venal bards disgrace the bay, And hireling minstrels wake the tinkling string ; Her sensu'al snares let faithless Pleasure lay, 10 And all her jingling bells fantastic Folly ring ; 11 Disquiet, doubt, and dread shall intervene, And Nature, still to all her feelings just, In vengeance hang a damp on every scene, Shook from the baneful pinions of Disgust. 12 Nature I'll court in her sequester'd haunts, By mountain, meadow, streamlet, grove, or cell, Where the pois'd lark his evening ditty chants, And health, and peace, and contemplation dwell. There Study shall with Solitude recline, And Friendship pledge me to his fellow swains, And Toil and Temperance sedately twine The slender cord that fluttering life sustains, And fearless Poverty shall guard the door, And Taste unspoil'd the frugal table spread, And Industry supply the humble store, And Sleep, unbnb'd, his dews refreshing shed ; White-mantled Innocence, ethereal sprite, 13 Shall chase far off the goblins of the night, u And Independence o'er the day preside, Propitious power ! my patron and my pride. SMOLLETT. 44. Fareivell to Anna's Grave. PLAINTIVE EXPRESSION : 0^ A slight expression of l Weariness and Disgust ; 2 The unmingled predominant expression; s Wearineus ; 4 Affectionate warmth; 5 Feebleness ; 6 Affectionate warmth. I wish I was where Anna lies, 1 For I am sick of lingering here; IMPASSIONED READING EXPRESSION. 103 * And every hour aftection cries, Go and partake her humble bier. I wish I could : for when she died I lost my all ; and life has prov'd Since that sad hour a 3 dreary void, A waste unlovely and unlov'd. 4 But who, when I am turn'd to clay, Shall duly to her grave repair, And pluck the ragged moss away, And weeds that have no busi'ness there ? And who with pious hand shall bring The flowers she cherish'd, snow-drops cold, And violets that unheeded spring, To scatter o'er her hallow'd mould ? And who, while memo'ry loves to dwell Upon her name for ever dear, Shall feel his heart with passion swell, And pour the bitter, bitter tear ? -f- I did it; and would Fate allow, Should visit still, should still deplore ; 5 But health and strength have left me now, And I, alas ! can weep no more. 6 Take, then, sweet maid, this simple strain. The last I offer at thy shrine ; Thy grave must then undeck'd remain, And all thy memo'ry fade with mine. And can thy soft persuasive look, Thy voice that might with music vie, Thy air, that every gazer took, Thy matchless eloquence of eye, Thy spirits frolicksome as good, Thy courage by no ills dismay'd, Thy patience by no wrongs subdued, Thy gay good humour, can they fade ? Perhaps ; but sorrow dims my eye : . Cold turf, which I no more must view . Dear name, which I no more must sigh, / A long, a last, a sad adieu. GlFFORD. 104 IMPASSIONED READING EXPRESSION. 45. The Dying Gladiator. VEHEMENT EXPRESSION : y^ ' Earnest and Plaintive manner ; * Firmness and Defiance ; 8 Plaintive manner ; * Firmness and Defiance ; 5 Plaintive man- ner ; 6 Warning ; 7 Rage, relaxes toward 8 Feebleness ; resumes 9 Firmness and 10 Force; relaxes into 1! Feebleness ; 18 Force; 13 Plaintive manner ; 14 Determination and 1S Eagerness : l6 Plain- tive manner; 17 Force; 18 Feebleness ; > 9 Indignation; 20 Awe; 21 Plaintive manner, mingled with 22 Reproach. 1 Will then no pity'ing hand its succour lend, The Gladiator's mortal throes to end ? 8 To free the unconquer'd mind, whose generous power Triumphs o'er nature in her saddest hour? 3 Bow'd low and full of death his head declines, * Yet o'er his brow indignant valour shines ; Still glares his closing eye with angry light, Now glares, 5 now darkens with approaching night. 6 Think not with terror heaves that sine'wy breast ; 7 'Tis vengeance visible, and 8 pain suppress'd : 9 Calm in despair, in agony sedate, His proud soul 10 wrestles with u o'ermastering fate. That pang the conflict ends : 12 he falls not yet ; Seems every nerve for one last effort set, At once, by death, death's lingering power to brave ; He will not sink, but plunge into the grave, Exhaust his mighty soul in one last sigh, And rally life's whole energy to die. 13 Unfear'd is now that cord, which oft ensnar'd The baffled rival whom his falchion spar'd ; Those clarions mute, which, on the murderous stage, Roused him to deeds of more than martial rage. Once pois'd by peerless might, once dear to fame, The shield which could not guard, supports his frame ; !4 His fix'd eye dwells upon his faithless blade, As if in silent agony he pray'd, 15 ' Oh ! might I yet by one avenging blow Not shun my^ fate, but share it with my foe ! ' 16 Vain hope ! the streams of life-blood fast descend ; 17 That giant's arm's upbearing strength l8 must bend, IMPASSIONED READING EXPRESSION. 105 19 Yet shall he scorn, procumbent, to betray One dastard sign of anguish or dismay, With one weak plaint to sharne his parting breath, 80 In pangs sublime, magnificent in death. 21 But his were deeds unchronicled ; his tomb No patriot wreaths adorn ; to cheer his doom No soothing thoughts arise of duty done, Of trophied conquests for his country won ; And he whose sculptur'd form gave deathless fame To Ctesilas, he dies without a name. Haply, to grace some Caesar's pageant pride, The hero slave or hireling champion died, When Rome, M degenerate Rome, for barba'rous shows, Barter'd her virtue, glory, and repose, Sold all that freemen prize as great and good, For pomps of death, and theatres of blood. CHINNERY. Oxford Prize Poem. 46. The Miseries of the Poor and Luxury of the Rich. PLAINTIVE EXPRESSION : (d 3 ' Grief and Indignation ; * Indignation predominates ; 3 Grief predominates; 4 Indignation ; 5 Grief, with solemnity of expres- sion ; 8 Indignation ; 7 Slightly Sarcastic manner ; 8 Grief with Solemnity ; 9 Grief, giving way to a momentary expression of 10 Delight ; n Grief, and slightly imitative expression in uttering the line ' pinched with cold and shrinking from the shower.' 1 Where then, ah ! where shall poverty reside, To 'scape the pressure of contiguous pride ? If to some common's fenceless limits stray'd He drives his flock to pick the scanty blade, 2 Those fen/eless fields the sons of wealth divide, ^/ And e'en the bare-worn common is denied. If to the city sped, what waits him there ? To see profusion which he must not share To see ten thousand baneful arts combin'd To pamper luxury and thin mankind ; To see each joy the sons of pleasure know Extorted from his fellow-creature's wo. -4- Here, while the courtier glitters in brocade, 3 There, the pale artist plies the sickly trade ; P 3 106 IMPASSIONED READING EXPRESSION. 4 Here, while the proud their long-drawn pomps display, 6 There, the black gibbet glooms beside the way. 6 The dome where Pleasure holds her midnight reign, Here, richly deck'd, admits the gorgeous train ; Tumultu'ous grandeur crowds the blazing square, The rattling chariots clash, the torches glare. 7 Sure scenes like these no troubles e'er annoy ! Sure these denote one universal joy ! 8 Are these thy serious thoughts? 9 Ah turn thine eyes Where the poor houseless shivering female lies : She once, perhaps, in village plenty bless'd, Has wept at tales of innocence distress'd : 10 Her modest looks the cottage might adorn, Sweet as the primrose peeps beneath the thorn , 11 Now lost to all, her friends, her virtue fled, Near her betrayer's door she lays her head, And, pinch'd with cold, and shrinking from the shower, With heavy heart deplores the luckless hour, When, idly first, ambitious of the town, She left her wheel, and robes of country brown. GOLDSMITH. 47. The Jackdaw. LIVELY AND COLLOQUIAL EXPRESSION : (> ' Narrative manner ; 3 Repining and 3 Distaste ; 4 Alacrity. 1 There is a bird, who, by his coat And by the hoarseness of his note, Might be suppos'd a crow ; A great frequenter of the church, Where, bishop-like, he finds a perch, And dormitory too. Above the steeple shines a plate That turns and turns, to indicate From what point blows the weather ; Look up your brains begin to swim 'Tis in the clouds that pleases him ; He chooses it the rather. Fond of the speculative height, Thither he wings his airy flight, And thence sccurelv sees IMPASSIONED READING EXPRESSION. 107 The bustle and the raree show That occupy mankind below, Secure, aud at his ease. You think, no doubt, he sits and muses On future bruken bones and bruises, If he should chance to fall : No, not a single thought like that Employs his philosophic pate Or troubles it at all. He sees that this great roundabout, The world, with all its motley rout, Church, army, physic, law, Its customs and its busi'ness, Are no concerns at all of his, And says what says he ? Caw ! 4 Thrice happy bird ! I, too, have seen Much of the vanities of men, And 3 sick of having seen them, * Would cheerfully these limbs resign For such a pair of wings as thine, And such a head between them. COWPER. 48. Invocation to Music. MEDITATIVE MANNER : ^ ' Enthusiasm ; * Plaintive expression ; s Vehemence ; * Solem- nity ; s Gentleness and Delight rising into 6 Vehemence ; n Exul- tation ; 8 Diminution of force relaxing into 9 Softness. 1 Descend, ye Nine, descend and sing ; The breathing instruments inspire, Wake into voice each silent string, And sweep the sounding lyre. 2 In a sadly pleasing strain Let the warbling flute complain : 3 Let the loud trumpet sound Till the roofs all around The shrill echoes rebound : 4 While in more lengthen'd notes and slow, The deep, majestic, solemn organs blow. 108 IMPASSIONED READING EXPRESSION. 5 Hark ! the numbers soft and clear, Gently steal upon the ear, 6 Now louder and yet louder rise, And fill, with spreading sounds, the skies : 7 Exulting in triumph now swell the bold notes, 8 In broken air, trembling, the wild music floats ; 9 Till, by degrees, remote and small, The strains decay, And melt away In a dying, dying fall. POPE. 49. Beauty illumined by Soul. NARRATIVE MANNER : (j=> ' Weariness and Distaste ; 2 Delight ; s Distaste ; 4 Delight : * Delight expressed with gentleness and affection ; 6 Suddenness of emotion ; 7 Narrative manner, with some archness in the ensuing line ; 8 Delight ; 9 Delight mingled with Melancholy ; 10 Delight expressed with gayety and rapture. There's a beauty for ever 1 unchangingly bright, Like the long, sunny lapse of a summer-day's light, Shining on, shining on, by no shadow made tender : 2 That was not her beauty that 3 sameness of splendor, 4 But the loveliness ever in motion, which plays Like the light upon autumn's soft shadowy days, Now here and now there giving warmth, as it flies From the lips to the cheek, from the cheek to the eyes. 5 When pensive it seem'd as if that very grace, That charm of all others, was born with her face ; 6 And when angry, 7 for e'en in the tranquillest climes Light breeezes will ruffle the flowers sometimes 8 The short, passing anger but seem'd to awaken New beauty, like flowe'rs that are sweetest when shaken. 9 If tenderness touch'd her. the dark of her eye At once took a darker., a heavenlier dye, From the depth of whose shadow, like holy revealings From innermost shrines, came the light of her feelings. 10 Then her mirth oh ! 'twas sportive as ever took wing From the heart with a burst, like the wild bird in spring, IMPASSIONED READING EXPRESSION. 109 While her laugh, full of life, without any controul But the sweet one of gracefulness, rung from her soul, And where it most sparkled, no glance could discover In lip, cheek, or .eyes, for she brighten'd all over, Like any fair lake that the breeze is upon, When it breaks into dimples, and laughs in the sun. THOMAS MOORE. 50. Jephtha's daughter to her Father. VEHEMENT EXPRESSION : f=" l Enthusiastic Firmness ; relaxes into the Plaintive manner ; 3 Affectionate Warmth, rising again into ' Enthusiastic Firmness, but relaxing into the 5 Plaintive, again rises into Firmness and 7 Exultation ; 8 Affectionate tenderness. 1 Since our country, our God, O my sire, Demand that thy daughter expire ; Since thy triumph was bought by thy vow ; Strike the bosom that's bar'd for thee now, *And the voice 1 of my mourning is o'er, And the mountains behold me no more. 3 If the hand that I love lay me low, There cannot be pain in the blow, ''And of this, O my father, be sure, That the blood of thy child is as pure As the blessing I beg ere it flow, 5 And the last thought that sooths me below. Though the virgins of Salem lament, ' Be the judge and the hero unbent ; 7 1 have won the great battle for thee, And my father and country are free. 8 When this blood of thy giving hath gush'd, When the. voice that thou lovest is hush'd, Let my rnemo'ry stiil be thy pride, And forget not I smil'd as I died. BYRON 110 IMPASSIONED READING EXPRESSION. 51. Greece, as it impressed the mind of the Poet in 1810. SOLEMNITY OF EXPRESSION : (J^ 'Plaintive manner; z Admiration and Regret; 3 Dread and 4 Pity ; 5 Horror ; 6 Eager Hope ; relaxes into 7 Calm Regret ; 8 Narrative manner, assumes an expression of 9 Dread, which re- laxes into 10 Pity ; with the addition of much n Solemnity as the description draws to a conclusion. 1 He who hath bent him o'er the dead Ere the first day of death is fled, (The first dark day of nothingness, The last of danger and distress,) s Before decay's effacing fingers Have swept the lines where beauty lingers, And mark'd the mild angelic air, The rapture of repose that's there, The fix'd, yet tender traits, that streak The languor of the placid cheek, And 3 but for that sad shrouded eye 4 That fires not, wins not, weeps not now, And 5 but for that chill, and changeless brow Where cold obstruction's apathy Appals the gazing mourner's heart, As if to him it could impart The doom he dreads, yet dwells upon 6 Yes but for these, and these alone Some moments aye one treacherous hour, 7 We still might doubt the tyrant's power ; So fair, so calm, so softly seal'd, The first, last look by death reveal'd. 8 Such is the aspect of that shore : 'Tis Greece, but living Greece no more ; 9 So coldly sweet, so deadly fair, We start ; for soul is wanting there. 10 Hers is the loveliness in death Which parts not quite with parting breath ; But beauty of that fearful bloom, That hue which n haunts it to the tomb ; Expression's last receding ray, A gilded halo hovering round decay, The farewell beam of feeling past away : IMPASSIONED READING EXPRESSION. Ill Spark of that flame, perchance of heavenly birth, Which gleams, but warms no more its cherish'd earth. BYRON. 52. Influence of Natural Objects in calling forth the Imagination. MEDITATIVE MANNER : ^P 1 Delight, mingled with Awe ; 2 Scorn ; 3 Delight and Awe ; 4 Narrative manner, assuming 5 Solemnity of expression ; which relaxes toward the 6 Plaintive manner ; 1 Delight. 'Wisdom and Spirit of the Universe ! Thou Soul that art the eternity of thought, And giv'st to forms and images a breath And everlasting motion ! not in vain, By day or star-light, thus from my first dawn Of childhood, didst thou intertwine for me The passions that build up our human soul ; 9 Not with the mean and vulgar works of man, 3 But with high objects, with enduring things, With life and nature ; purifying thus The elements of feeling and of thought, And sanctifying by such discipline Both pain and fear, until we recognise A grandeur in the beatings of the heart. 4 Nor was this fellowship vouchsaf 'd to me With stinted kindness. In November days When 5 vapours, rolling down the valleys, made A lonely scene more lonesome ; among woods At noon ; and 6 mid the calm of summer nights, When by the margin of the trembling lake Beneath the gloomy hills, I homeward went In solitude ; 7 such intercourse was mine ; 'Twas mine among the fields both day and night, And by the waters all the summer long WORDSWORTH. 112 IMPASSIONED READING EXPRESSION. 53. Pleasures of Hope. MEDITATIVE MANNEK I {f^ J Delight ; * Narrative manner ; rises again into 3 Delight ; Ar- gumentative manner; relaxes into 5 Pity ; 6 Delight ; 7 Awe, mingling with, and qualifying the expression of 8 Delight, with an occasional expression of 'Triumph. 'At summer's eve, when Heaven's aerial bow Spans, with bright arch, the glittering hills below, Why to yon mountain turns the musing eye, Whose sun-bright summit mingles with the sky? Why do those hills of shado'wy tint appear More sweet than all the landscape smiling near? s 'Tis distance lends enchantment to the view, And robes the mountain with its azure hue. 0-K Thus, with delight, we linger to survey 3 The promis'd joys of life's unmeasur'd way; Thus, from afar, each dim-discover'd scene More pleasing seems than all the past hath been ; And every form that fancy can repair From dark oblivion, glows divinely there. 4 What potent spirit guides the raptur'd eye To pierce the shades of dim futurity ? * Can Wisdom lend, with all her boasted power, The pledge of joy's anticipated hour; Ah no ! she. darkly sees the fate of man, Her dim horizon bounded to a span ; -*_ Or if she holds an image to the view, 'Tis nature pictur'd too severely true. 6 With thee, sweet Hope, resides the heavenly light, That pours remotest rapture on the sight : Thine ie the charm of life's bewilder'd way, That calls each slumbering passion into play. ,v 7 Eternal Hope ! when yonder spheres sublime Peal'd their first notes to sound the march of time, "Thy joyous youth began but not to fade. When all the sister planets have decay'd ; When wrapt in fire the realms of ether glow, And heaven's last thunder shakes the world below If f 'Thou, undismay'd, shall o'er the ruins smile, And light thy torch at Nature's funeral pile. CAMPBELL. IMPASSIONED READING EXPRESSION. 113 54. Pleasurps of Memory. MEDITATIVE MANNER : 3 ' Delight mingled with 2 Regret ; 3 Delight predominates ; 4 Exultation ; * An expression of Force and Determination ; with occasional 6 Solemnity ; returns to the expression of 7 Force, Determination, and Triumph ; 8 Calm Delight. 'Sweet merao'ry 1 wafted by thy gentle gale y Oft up the stream of time I turn my sail To view the fairy haunts of 2 long-lost hours, Bless'd with far greener shades, far fresher bowers. When joy's bright sun has shed his evening ray. And hope's delusive meteors cease to play, When clouds on clouds the smiling prospect close, 3 Still through the gloom thy star serenely glows ; Like yon fair orb she gilds the brow of night With the mild magic of reflected light. 4 And who can tell the triumphs of the mind By truth illumin'd and by taste refin'd ? When age has quench'd the eve and clos'd the ear, 5 Still nerv'd for action in her native sphere, Oft will she rise, with searching glance pursue Some long-loved image vanish'd from her view, Dart through the deep recesses of the past 6 O'er dusky forms in chains of slumber cast, 7 With giant grasp fling back the folds of night, And snatch the faithless fugitive to light. 8 Hail, memory, hail ! in thy exhaustless mine From age to age unnumber'd glories shine. Thought and her shado'wy brood thy call obey, And place and time are subject to thy sway. Thy pleasures most we feel when most alone, The only pleasures we can call our own. Lighter than air hope's summer visions fly, If but a fleeting cloud obscure the sky ; If but a beam of sober reason play, Lo ! fancy's fairy frost-work melts away : But can the wiles of art, the grasp of power, Snatch the rich relics of a well-spent hour ? These, when the trembling spirit wings her flight, Pour round her path a stream of living light. 114 IMPASSIONED READING EXPRESSION. And gild those pure and perfect realms of rest Where virtue triumphs and her sons are bless'd. ROGERS. 55. Fall of Jerusalem. PLAINTIVE EXPRESSION : y^ J Regret ; occasionally rises toward ' 2 Delight ; relaxes into 8 Regret ; rises into * Delight ; relaxes again into s Regret. 1 See, where yon proud city, As though at peace and in luxurious joy, Is hanging out her bright and festive lamps. There have been tears from holier eyes than mine Pour'd o'er thee, Zion ! yea, the Son of Man . This thy devoted hour foresaw and wept. And I can I refrain from weeping. . . .? I feel it now, the sad, the coming hour ; The signs are lull, and never shall the sun Shine on the cedar roofs of Salem more ; Her tale of splendor now is told and done ; The wine cup of festivity is spilt, And all is o'er, her grandeur and her guilt. 8 Oh ! fair and favour'd city ! There of old The balmy airs were rich with melody That led her pomp beneath the cloudless sky In vestments flaming with the orient gold, 3 Her gold is dim, and mute her music's voice, The Heathen o'er her perish'd pomp rejoice. 4 How stately then was every palm-deck'd street, Down which the maidens danc'd with tinkling feet ; How proud the elders in their lofty gate ! How crowded all her nation's solemn feasts With white-rob'd Levites and high-mitred Priests ; How gorgeous all her Temple's sacred state ? 5 Her streets- are raz'd, her maidens sold for slaves, Her gates thrown down, her elders in their graves ; Her feasts are holden mid the Gentile's scorn ; By stealth her Priesthood's holy garments worn ; And where her Temple crown'd the glittering rock, The wandering shepherd folds his evening flock. MlLMAN IMPASSIONED READING EXPRESSION. 115 56. Pilgrims and Crusaders. PLAINTIVE EXPRESSION, RISING INTO VEHEMENCE : ^" ' Delight, relaxes into a 2 Calmer expression ; 3 Indignation ; 4 Scorn, and * Pity : 6 Ardour, increasing into ' Enthusiasm, occa- sionally relaxing toward a 8 Softer expression, with * Alarm ; rises again into 10 Enthusiasm, and concludes with n Solemnity. Mid Ziou's towering fanes in ruin laid The pilgrim saint his murmu'ring vespers paid ; 1 'Twas his to climb the tufted rocks, and rove The checquer'd twilight of the olive grove ; 'Twas his to bend beneath the sacred gloom, And wear, with many a kiss, Messiah's tomb, While forms celestial fill'd his tranced eye, The day-light dreams of pensive piety ; 2 O'er his still breast a tearful fervor stole, And softer sorrows charm'd the mourner's soul. 3 Oh ! lives there one who mocks his artless zeal, Too proud to worship, and too wise to feel? 4 Be his the soul with wintry reason blest, The dull, lethargic sovereign of the breast ; Be his the life that creeps in dead repose, 5 No joy that sparkles, and no tear that flows ! 6 Far other whom the hermit wak'd to war, When from the regions of the western star, 7 Their limbs all iron, and their souls all flame, A countless host, the red-cross warriors came : E'en hoary priests the sacred combat wage, And clothe in steel the palsied arm of age ; While beardless youths and tender maids assume The weighty morion and the glancing plume. 8 In bashful pride the warrior virgins wield The ponderous falchion and the sun-like shield, 'And start to see their armour's iron gleam Dance with blue lustre in Tabaria's stream, 10 The blood-red banner floating o'er their van, All madly blithe the mingled myriads ran : 11 Impatient Death beheld his destin'd food, And hovering vultures snuff 'd the scent of blood. HEBER. 11(5 IMPASSIONED READING EXPRESSION. 57. The Last Minstrel. f PLAINTIVE EXPRESSION : {J^ ' Narrative manner : 8 Pity ; 3 Delight ; 4 Pity ; 6 Narrative manner ; 6 Anxiety ; 7 An expression of Force and Power, which relaxes into that of 8 Pity; 'Narrative manner; 10 Pity; H Nar- rative manner ; 12 Exultation ; ls Entreaty with awaking Con- fidence ; u Narrative manner ; 15 Awe ; l6 Pity ; '? Cheering ; 18 Narrative manner ; 19 Hesitation and Anxiety ; zo Enthusiasm, increasing to the end. 1 The way was long, the wind was cold The minstrel was iiifirm and old ; His wlfRer'd cheek and tresses gray Seem'd to have known a better day ; The harp, his sole remaining joy, Was carried by an orphan boy. The last of all the bards was he, Who sung of border chivalry ; 8 For, well-a-day ! their date was fled, His tuneful brethren all were dead, And he, neglected and oppress'd, Wish'd to be with them and at rest. 3 Np more on prancing palfrey borne, He caroll'd Ifght as lark at morn ; No longer courted and caress'd, High plac'd in hall, a welcome guest, He pour'd, to lord and lady gay, The unpremeditated lay : X" 4 A wandering harper, scorn'd and poor, He begg'd his bread from door to door, And tun'd, to please a peasant's ear, The harp a king had lov'd to hear. --*- -^ 5 He pass'd where Newark's stately tower /^ Looks out from Yarrow's birchen bower : 6 The minstrel gaz'd with wishful eye No humbler resting-place was nigh ; With hesitating step, at last, The embattled portal arch he pass'd, 7 Whose ponderous grate and massy bar Had oft roll'd back the tide of war, IMPASSIONED READING EXPRESSION. 117 8 But never clos'd the iron door Against the desolate and poor. ,/\ 'The duchess mark'd his weary pace, His timid mien and reverend face, And bade her page the menials tell, That they should tend the old man well : 10 For she had known adversity, Though born in such a high degree, In pride of power and beauty's bloom, Had wept o'er Monmouth's bloody tomb. 11 When kindness had his wants supplied, And the old man was gratified, 18 Began to rise his minstrel pride : 18 And would the noble duchess deign To listen to an old man's strain, Though stiff his hand, his voice though weak, He thought evln yet, the sooth to speak, That if she lov'd the harp to hear, He could make music to her ear. 14 The humble boon was soon obtain'd, The aged minstrel audience gain'd ; 15 But when he reach'd the hall of state Where she with all her ladies sate, Perchance he wish'd his boon denied : 18 For when to tune his harp he tried, His trembling hand had lost the ease Which marks security to please ; And scenes long pass'd of joy and pain Came wildering o'er his aged brain He tried to tune his harp in vain. The pitying duchess prais'd its chime, 17 And gave him heart and gave him time, Till every string's according glee Was blended into harmony. 18 And then, he said, he would full fain He could recal an ancient strain He never thought to sing again : And much he wish'd, yet fear'd, to try The long-forgotten melody. 118 IMPASSIONED READING EXPRESSION. 19 Amid the strings his fingers stray'd, And an uncertain warbling made, And oft he shook his hoary head. But when he * caught the measure wild, The old man rais'd his head and smil'd, And lighten'd up his faded eye With all a poet's ecstacy. In varying cadence, soft or strong, He swept the sounding chords along; The present scene, the future lot, His toils, his wants, were all forgot ; Cold diffidence, and age's frost, In the full tide of song were lost ; Each blank in faithless memo'ry void The poet's glowing thought supplied ; And while his harp responsive rung, The last of border minstrels sung. WALTER SCOTT. 58. The Passions : an Ode. NARRATIVE MANNER '. O^|P In this Exercise, the passions which diversify the predominant expression heing introduced by name, require no further indica- tion. ' When Music, heavenly maid, was young, / While yet in early Greece she sung, The Passions oft, to hear her shell, Throng'd around her magic cell, Exulting, trembling, raging, fainting, Possess'd beyond the Muse's painting : By turns they felt the glowing mind, Disturb 'd, delighted, rais'd, renn'd; -f- Till once, 'tis said, when all were fir'd, Fill'd with fury, rapt, inspir'd, From the supporting myrtles round They snatch'd her instruments of sound ; ) And as they oft had heard apart Sweet lessons of her forceful art, W Each, for Madness rul'd the hour, ^ . Would prove his own expressive power. IMPASSIONED READING EXPRESSION. 119 First Fear, his bandits skill to try, X Amid the chords, bewilder'd,laid, And back recoil'd, he knew not why, 1-77 E'en at the sound himself had made. Sr Next Anger rush'd, his eyes on fire, In lightnings own'd his secret stings, In one rude clash he struck the lyre, And swept, with hurried hand, the strings. With woful measures wan Despair Low sullen sounds his grief beguil'cl ; A solemn, strange, and mingled air, 'Twas sad by fits, by starts 'twas wild. But thou, O Hope ! with eyes so fair, What was thy delighted measure ? Still it whisper'd promis'd pleasure, And bade the lovely scenes at distance hail; Still would her touch the strain prolong, And from the rocks, the woods, the vale, She call'd on Echo still through all her song : And where her sweetest theme she chose, A soft responsive voice was heard at every close ; And Hope enchanted smil'd, and wav'd her golden hair. And longer had she sung : but, with a frown, Revenge impatient rose ; He threw his blood-stain'd sword in thunder down, And, with a withering look, The war-denouncing trumpet took, And blew a blast so loud and dread, Were ne'er prophetic sounds so full of woe. And ever and anon, he beat The doubling drum with furious heat ; And though, sometimes, each dreary pause between, Dejected Pity, at his side Her soul-subduing voice applied, Yet still he kept his wild, unalter'd mien, While each strain'd ball of sight seem'd bursting from his head. v A 120 IMPASSIONED READING EXPRESSION'. / / Thy x numbers, Jealousy, tp nought were fix'd, Sad proof of thy distressful state ; , Of differing themes thy veerjng song was mix'd, And now^ it courted Love, now raving call'd on Hate. H With eyes uprais'd, as one inspir'd, Pale Melancholy sat retif'd, And, from her wild sequester'd seat, In notes by distance made more sweet, Pour'd through the mellow horn her pensive soul , And, dashing soft from rocks around, Bubbling runnels join'd the sound : Through glades and glooms the mingjed measure stole. Or o'er some haunted stream with fond delay, Round a holy calm diffusing^ Love of peace and lonely musing, In hollow murmurs died away. But oh ! how alter'd was its spnghtlier tone, When Cheerfulness, a nymph of healthiest hue, Her bow across her shoulder flung, Her buskins gemm'd with morning dew, Blew an inspiring air, that dale and thicket rung, The hunters' call to Faun and Dryad known ; The oak-crown'd sisters, and their chaste-ey'd queen, Satyrs and sylvan boys, were seen Peeping from forth their alleys green, Brown Exercise rejoic'd to hear, And Sport leap'd up, and seiz'd his beechen spear. Last, came Joy's ecstatic trial : He with viny crown advancing, First to the lively pipe his hand address'd ; But soon he saw the brisk awakening viol, Whose sweet, entrancing voice he lov'd the best. They would have thought, who heard the sound, They saw in Tempe's vale her native maids, Amid the festal-sounding shades, To some unwearied minstrel dancing ; IMPASSIONED READING EXPRESSION. 121 While, as his flying fingers kiss'd the strings, Love form'd with Mirth a gay fantastic round, Loose were her tresses seen, her zone unbound, And he, amid his frolic play, As if he would the charming air repay, Shook thousand odours from his dewy wings. COLLINS. POPULAR, SENATORIAL, FORENSIC, AND PULPIT ELOCUTION. As the character and situation of a Speaker should materially influence his manner, some brief extracts from 'speeches, ancient and modern, that exemplify the styles of oratory here mentioned, will conclude this chapter. A mixed multitude will be addressed with the utmost freedom of expression, with looks and voice calculated to reach the whole, and with little attention to minute forms and graces. A legislative assembly will demand in general a more reserved address, at least in the opening, though there may be occasions which carry the speaker beyond the usual observances. A regulated address should also distinguish forensic elocution : the speaker must bear in mind that he has to conciliate and persuade the judges of the cause, to whom deference and respect are necessary ; nor must his warmth, however great, ever make him lose sight of this circumstance. Lastly, an address to a Christian congregation from their pastor must display the utmost decorum and seriousness of manner : the expression of whatever passion must be chastened and subdued, and the whole deportment of the speaker should testify a consciousness of the solemnity of his charge. 59. The Consul Titus Quinlius to the Roman Multitude. VEHEMENT EXPRESSION : y^ l Indignation with shame ; rises into 2 Astonishment ; relaxes into 3 Grief; assumes 4 Confidence ; * Compassion, 6 Argument appealing with 7 Solemnity, and * Candour ; * Reproach, with 10 Irony and Sarcasm, with '> Grief, and renewed '* Sarcasm; '"the voice sinks into a low, but full tone, with a renewed expression of Candour, and Solemnity of appeal, and rises by degrees into greater vehemence, with an occasional expression of 14 Contempt. 1 Though I am not conscious, O Romans, of any crime by me committed, it is yet -with the utmost shame and con- fusion that I appear in your assembly. You have seen it G 122 IMPASSIONED READING EXPRESSION. posterity will know it in the fourth consulship of Titus Quintius, the ^Equi and Volsci, (scarce a match for the Hernici alone,) came in arms to the very gates of Rome, and went away again unchastised. The course of manners, indeed, and the state of our affairs, have long been such, that I had no reason to presage much good ; but could I have imagined that so great ignominy would have befallen me this year, I would by death or banishment (if all other means had failed) have avoided the situation I am now in. 2 What ! might Rome then have been taken, if those men who were at our gates had not wanted courage for the at- tempt ? Rome taken while I was Consul ! 3 Of honours I had sufficient of life enough more than enough I should have died in my third consulate. 4 But who are they that our dastardly enemies thus despise, the consuls ? or you, Romans ? If we are in fault, depose us, punish us yet more severely. 5 If you are to blame, may neither gods nor men punish your faults, only may you repent ! 6 No, Romans, the confidence of your enemies is not owing to their courage, or to their belief of your cowardice ; they have been too often vanquished not to know both themselves and you. Discord, discord is the ruin of the city. The eternal dis- putes between the Senate and the people, are the sole cause of our misfortunes. While we will set no bounds to our domination, nor you to your liberty ; while you impatiently endure patrician magistrates, and we plebeian, our enemies take heart, grow elated, and presumptuous. 7 In the name of the immortal gods, what is it, Romans, you would have ? 8 You desired tribunes ; for the sake of peace, we granted them : You were eager to have decem- virs ; we consented to their creation : You grew weary of these decemvirs ; we obliged them to abdicate : Your hatred pursued them when reduced to be private men ; and we suffered you to put to death, or banish, patricians of the first rank in the republic : You insisted on the restoration of the tribuneship ; we yielded : we quietly saw consuls of your own faction elected : you have the protection of your tribunes, and the privilege of appeal ; the patricians are subjected to the decrees of the commons. Under pretence of equal and impartial laws, you have invaded our rights ; IMPASSIONED READING EXPRESSION. 123 and we have suffered it ; and we still suffer it. 9 Whei shall we see an end of discord ? When shall we have one interest and one common country ? Victorious and triumph- ant, you show less temper than we, under our defeat. 10 When you are to contend with us, you can seize the Aveu- tine Hill, you can possess yourselves of the Mons Sacer. The enemy is at our gates, the ^Esquiline is near being taken, and nobody stirs to hinder it. But against us you are valiant, against us you can arm with all diligence. Come on then, besiege the Senate House, make a Camp of the Forum, fill the jails with all our chief nobles; and when you have achieved these glorious exploits, then, at the least, sally out at the yEsquiline gate with the same fierce spirits against the enemy. Does your resolution fail you for this? "Go then, and behold from our walls your lands ravaged, your houses plundered and in flames, the whole country laid waste with fire and sword. l * Have you any thing here to repair these damages? Will the tribunes make up your losses to you ? They will give you words as many as you please; bring impeachments in abundance against the prime men in the state ; heap laws upon laws ; assemblies you shall have without end : but will any of you return the richer from these assemblies ? 13 Extinguish, Romans, these fatal divisions ; generously break this cursed enchantment, which keeps you buried in a scandalous in- action. Open your eyes, and consider the management of those ambitious men, who, to make themselves powerful in their party, study nothing but how they may foment divi- sions in the commonwealth. If you can but summon up your former courage, if you will now march out of Rome with your consuls, there is no punishment you can inflict which I will not submit to, if I do not, in a few days, drive these u pillagers out of our territory. This terror of war, with which you seem so grievously struck, shall quickly be removed from Rome to their own cities. LlVY. 02 124 IMPASSIONED READING EXPRESSION. 60. Queen Elizabeth to her Forces at Tilbury in 1588. VEHEMENT EXPRESSION : {j> ' Cheerfulness and Alacrity, rising into s Confidence and 8 Deter- mination ; 4 Encouraging. 1 My loving people ; We have been persuaded by some that are careful of our safety, to take heed how we commit ourself to armed multitudes, for fear of treachery ; 2 but I assure you, I do not desire to live to distrust my faithful and loving people. Let tyrants fear : I have always so behaved myself, that, under God, I have placed my chief strength and safeguard in the loyal hearts and good will of my subjects. And therefore I am come among you at this time, not for my recreation or sport, 3 but being resolved in the midst and heat of the battle, to live or die among you all ; and to lay down for my God, and for my kingdom, and for my people, my honour and my blood even in the dust. I know I have but the body of a weak and feeble woman ; but I have the heart of a king, and a king of England too ; and think foul scorn that Parma, or Spain, or any prince of Europe, should dare to invade the borders of my realms ; to which, rather than any dishonour should grow by me, I myself will take up arms, I myself will be your general, your judge, and the rewarder of every one of your virtues in the field. 4 1 know already, by your forwardness, that you have deserved rewards and crowns ; and we do assure you, on the word of a prince, they shall be duly paid you. In the mean time, my lieutenant-general shall be in my stead, than whom never prince commanded more noble and worthy- subject ; nor do I doubt, by your obedience to my general, by your concord in the camp, and your valoui in the field, we shall shortly have a famous victory over the enemies of my God, my kingdom, and my people. ENGLISH HISTORY. IMPASSIONED READING EXPRESSION. 125 61. Demosthenes to the Freemen of Athens assembled to legislate. VEHEMENT EXPRESSION : {f^=> ! Narrative manner, becoming * Argumentative, and rising gra- dually into the predominant expression ; a Reproach ; 4 Argument, \vithincreasingvehemenceas it proceeds; 5 Reproach; 'Exhor- tation with encouragement ; sometimes with an expression of 7 Dignity ; sometimes of 8 Reproach mingled with contempt ; 9 Encouragement ; 10 Determination. 1 Had we been convened, Athenians, on some new subject of debate, I had waited until most of the usual persons had declared their opinions. If I had approved of any thing proposed by them, I should have continued silent ; if not, I had then attempted to speak my sentiments. 2 But since those very points on which these speakers have oftentimes been heard already, are at this time to be considered ; though I have risen first, I presume I may expect your pardon : for if they, on former occasions, had advised the necessary measures, you would not have found it needful to consult at present. First then, Athenians, these our aflairs must not be thought desperate ; no, though our situation seems entirely deplorable. For the most shocking circumstance of all our past conduct, is really the most favourable to our future ex- pectations. And what is this ? 3 That our own total indo- lence has been the cause of all our present difficulties. 4 For were we thus distressed in spite of every vigorous effort which the honour of our state demanded, there were then no hope of a recovery. If there be a man in this assembly who thinks that we must find a formidable enemy in Philip, while he views on one hand the numerous armies that surround him, and, on the other, the weakness of the state thus despoiled of its dominions; he thinks justly. Yet let him reflect on this : there was a time, Athenians, when we possessed Pydna, and Potidsea, and Metho-ne, and all that country round ; when many of the states now subjected to him were free and independent, and more inclined to our alliance than to his. Had Philip then reasoned in the same manner How shall I dare to attack the Athenians, whose garrisons com- mand my territories, while I am destitute of all assistance 126 IMPASSIONED READING EXPRESSION. he would not have engaged in those enterprises which are now crowned with success, nor could he have raised himself to this pitch of greatness. No, Athenians, he knew this well, that all these places are but prizes laid between the combatants, and ready for the conqueror ; that the domi- nions of the absent devolve naturally to those who are in the field the possessions of the supine to the active and in- trepid. Animated by these sentiments, he overturns whole nations ; he holds all people in subjection ; some, by the right of conquest, others, under the title of allies and con- federates : 5 for all are willing to confederate with those whom they see prepared and resolved to exert themselves as they ought. 6 And if you, my countrymen, will now at length be per- suaded to entertain the like sentiments ; if each of you, renouncing all evasions, will be ready to approve himself a useful citizen to the utmost that his station and abilities demand ; if the rich will be ready to contribute, and the young to take the field ; in one word, 7 if you will be your- selves, and 8 banish those vain hopes which every single person entertains, that while so many others are engaged in public business, his service will not be required ; you then (if Heaven so pleases) shall regain your dominions, recal those opportunities your supineness has neglected, and chastise the insolence of this man. * For you are not to imagine that, like a god, he is to enjoy his present greatness for ever, fixed and unchangeable. No, Athenians, there are who fear him, who envy him, who hate him, even among those seemingly the most attached to his cause. These are passions common to mankind ; nor must we think that his friends only are exempted from them. It is true, they lie concealed at present, as our indolence deprives them of all resource. IO But let us shake off this indolence: for you see how we are situated ; you see the outrageous arrogance of this man, who does not leave it to your choice whether you shall act or remain quiet, but braves you with his menaces ; and is not contented with his present acquisi- tions, but is ever in pursuit of further corjquests ; and while we sit down inactive and irresolute, encloses us on all sides with his toils. FROM THE FIRST PHILIPPIC. IMPASSIONED READING EXPRESSION. 127 62. Lord Chatham to tJie British House of Peers : in reply to Lord Suffolk, Secretary of State, who had asserted that the employment of Indians in tfie War against tlie British Americans, besides its policy and necessity, was allowable on the principle, that it was perfectly justifiable to use all the means which God and Nature had put into our hands. VEHEMENT EXPRESSION t {J^ 3 ' Indignation ; assumes 2 Solemnity ; resumes the more un- mixed expression of 3 Indignation, with occasional tones of ''Asto- nishment ; * Sinks at the conclusion into a deep and solemn ex- pression of feeling. 1 1 am astonished, I arn shocked to hear such principles confessed ; to hear them avowed in this house, or even in this country. My Lords, I did not intend to have en- croached again on your attention, but I cannot repress my indignation. I feel myself impelled to speak. My Lords, we are called upon as members of this house, as men, as Christians, to protest against such horrible barbarity. " That God and Nature have put into our hands !" What ideas of God and nature that noble lord may entertain, I know not ; but I know that such detestable principles are equally abhorrent to religion and humanity. What! to attribute the sacred sanction of God and nature to the massacres of the Indian scalping-knife ! to the cannibal torturing, murdering, devouring, drinking the blood of his mangled victims ! Such notions shock every precept of morality, every feeling of humanity, every sentiment of honour. These abominable principles, and this more abominable avowal of them, demand the most decisive indignation. * I call upon that right reverend, and this most learned bench, to vindicate the religion of their God, to support the justice of their country. I call upon the bishops to interpose the unsullied sanctity of their lawn; upon the judges to interpose the purity of their ermine; to save us from pollution. I call upon the honour of your lordships to reverence the dignity of your ancestors, and to maintain your own. I call upon the spirit and humanity of my country, to vindicate the national character. I in- voke the genius of the constitution. From the tapestry that adorns these walls, the immortal ancestor of this noble 128 IMPASSIONED READING EXPRESSION. lord frowns with indignation at the disgrace of his country. 3 In vain did he defend the liberty, and establish the reli- gion of Britain against the tyranny of Rome, if these worse than popish cruelties and inquisitorial practices are endured among us. To send forth the merciless cannibal thirsting for blood! against whom? 4 your protestant brethren? to lay waste their country, to desolate their dwellings, to extirpate their race and name by the aid and instrumenta- lity of these horrible hell-hounds of war ! Spain can no longer boast pre-eminence in barbarity. She armed her- self with blood-hounds to extirpate the wretched natives of Mexico ; but we, more ruthless, loose the dogs of war against our countrymen in America, endeared to us by every tie that should sanctify humanity. s My Lords, I am old and weak, and unable to say more ; but my feelings and indignation were too strong to say less. T could not have slept this night in my bed, nor reposed my head upon my pillow, without giving vent to my eternal abhorrence of such enormous and preposterous principles. 63. Exordium of Cicero's Oration against Verres. NARRATIVE MANNER: K^F Rises into * Indignation, relaxes into * Narration, becomes 8 Argumentative, and rises again into * Indignation. The time is come, Fathers, when that which has long been wished for, towards allaying the envy your order has been subject to and removing the imputations against trials, is (not by human contrivance, but superior direc- tion) effectually put in our power. An opinion has long prevailed, not only here at home, but likewise in foreign countries, both dangerous to you and pernicious to the state, namely, that in prosecutions, men of wealth are al- ways safe, however clearly convicted. There is now to be brought on his trial before you, 1 to the confusion of the propagators of this slanderous imputation, one whose life and actions condemn him in the opinion of all impartial persons ; but who, according to his own reckoning, and declared dependence on his riches, is already acquitted I mean Caius Verres. 2 1 have undertaken this trial, Fathers, at the general desire, and with the very great expectation IMPASSIONED READING EXPRESSION. 129 of the Roman peoole ; not that I might draw hatred upon that illustrious order of which the accused happens to be, but with the duect design of clearing your justice and impartiality before the world. 3 For I have brought upon his trial, one, whose conduct has been such, that in pass- ing a just sentence upon him, you will have an opportunity of re-establishing the credit of such trials ; of recovering whatever may be lost of the favour of the Roman people ; and of satisfying foreign states and kingdoms in alliance with, or tributary to us. 4 1 demand justice of you, Fathers, upon the robber of the public treasury, the oppressor of Asia Minor and Pamphylia, the invader of the rights and privileges of Romans, the scourge and curse of Sicily. If that sentence is passed upon him which his crimes de- serve, your authority, Fathers, will be venerable and sacred in the eyes of the public. But if his great riches should bias you in his favour, I shall still gain one point, which i*, to make it apparent to all the world, that what was want- ing in this case was not a criminal nor a prosecutor, but justice and adequate punishment. 64. Exordium of Erskine's Defence of the Dean of St. Asaph. NARRATIVE MANNER : 2^|= 'Surprise; 8 Indignation, with 3 Surprise ; * Argument rising into Vehemence ; * Earnestness with Ardour ; relaxes into 6 Nar- ration, but rises again into earnestness and ardour occasionally mingled with an expression of 7 Disdain, and of 8 Determination. Gentlemen of the Jury, My learned friend having informed the Court that he means to call no other wit- nesses to support the prosecution, you are now in posses- sion of the whole of the evidence ; l and on this evidence the prosecutor has ventured to charge my reverend client, the Dean of St. Asaph, with a seditious purpose to excite disloyalty and disaffection to the person of the king, and an armed rebellion against the state and constitution of his country. Gentlemen, the only difficulty I shall feel in resisting 8 this false and malevolent accusation, is, to repress my feelings, excited by its folly and injustice, within those bounds which leave the faculties their natural and un- G 3 130 IMPASSIONED READING EXPRESSION. clouded operation ; 3 for I solemnly declare to you, that if he had been indicted for a libeller of our holy religion, only for publishing that the world was made by its almighty Author, my astonishment could not have been greater than to see this little book presented to a grand jury of English subjects, as a libel upon the government of England. 4 Every sentence contained in it, if the interpretation of words is to be settled not according to fancy, but by the common rules of language, is to be found in the brightest pages of English literature, and in the most sacred volumes of English law ; if any one sentiment from the beginning to the end of it be seditious or libellous, the Bill of Rights was a seditious libel ; the Revolution was a wicked rebellion ; the existing government is a traitorous conspiracy against the hereditary monarchy of England ; and our gracious sovereign, whose title I am persuaded we are all of us pre- pared to defend with our blood, is a usurper of the crowns of these kingdoms. 5 Gentlemen, in thus declaring my opinion, I place it as my own opinion in front of my address to you, and I wish you not to mistake for the mere zeal of professional duty the energies of truth and freedom. 6 For although, in ordinary cases, the advocate and the private man ought in sound discretion to be kept asunder, yet there are occasions where r such separation would be treachery and meanness. In a case where the dearest rights of society are to be supported by resisting a prosecution of which the party accused is but a mere name ; where the whole community is to be wounded through the sides of that party ; and where the conviction of the individual will be the subver- sion or surrender of public privileges ; the advocate has a more extensive charge. The duty of the patriot citizen then mingles itself with his obligation to his client, and he disgraces himself, dishonours his profession, and betrays his country, if he does not step forth in his genuine cha- racter, and vindicate the rights of his fellow-citizens, which are attacked through the medium of the man he is defend- ing. 8 Gentlemen, I do not shrink from that responsibility upon this occasion, but desire to be considered the fellow- criminal of the defendant, if, by your verdict, he shall be found a criminal. IMPASSIONED READING EXPRESSION. 131 65. An Exhortation concerning the Worship of God, and the Practice of Holiness. ARGUMENTATIVE MANNER I 11 Satisfaction and Delight ; 12 Threatening ; 13 Encouraging ; 14 Reproving; ls Encouraging ; "Warning; 17 Delight, with an occasional tone of 18 Reproof; 19 Awe mingled with delight. It is our duty to love God as our Father", to reverence him as our Lord, to honour him as our Benefactor, and to fear him as our Judge : in each character must he be wor- shipped. 1 What man of sound piety does not love the author of his soul ? 2 or who will dare to set him at nought, who is the ruler of all things, and whose power shall last throughout eternity? 8 As our Father, he produced us into the light which we enjoy : through him we live ; through him we took possession of our worldly abode. As our God, he nourishes, he sustains us by means inexhaust- ible ; \ve dwell in his house ; we are members of his family ; 4 and although less obedient, less attentive than becomes us, and the ever-during kindnesses of our Father and our Lord require ; i yet are we permitted to seek his indulgence by our belief and worship, by rejecting the "vile pursuits and mean rewards of this world, and 7 medi- tating on those which are eternal and divine. 8 That we may accomplish this end, we must obey, we must worship, and love God ; forasmuch as He is the cause of all things, and the rule of all virtue, and the fountain of all good. 9 What indeed is greater than God in power, or higher in understanding, or clearer in brightness? And as he created us for wisdom and justice, 10 we are inex- cusable, if, by renouncing Him who gives us life and feel- ing, by being subservient to earthly vanities, and by cleav- ing to the pursuit of temporal blessings, we fall from innocence and piety. He is not a happy man whom the deadly pleasures of vice, whom opulence, the encourager of sensual desires, whom empty ambition, whom perishable honours, allure : entangled by these, and enslaved to the body, the human soul is condemned to eternal death : " but 132 IMPASSIONED READING EXPRESSION. he alone is happy who is innocent and just. For him, im- mortality is the legitimate and honourable reward ; a reward which God, from the beginning, has appointed for those holy and uncorrupted souls that preserve themselves un- spotted from the world. 12 Nor can any be partakers of this heavenly and eternal prize, who have polluted their consciences by fraud, rapine, or deceit, whose wrongs against their fellow-men have left stains of guilt that can- not be effaced. "Wherefore, if we wish to be deemed wise, and worthily to bear the name of men, it becomes us all to live superior to the vile concerns of earth, in order that, by a blessed necessity, we may be joined to God. 14 Away ! then, with impiety ; peace ! to those turbulent discords and dissensions which break and dissolve the con- cord of human society, the heavenly bond of public union, 15 and let our study be, to make ourselves good arid bene- ficent to the utmost of our power. If something more than a common share of riches and wealth fall to our lot, let it not be squandered for the pleasure of one, but imparted for the welfare of all. 16 For pleasure is as short-lived as the body to which it ministers; ir but justice and bene- ficence are as immortal as the soul, that, by its good deeds, assimilates itself to God. Let us consecrate Him not in temples, but in our hearts ; for all things are destructible which are made with hands. Let us purify that temple which is defiled, 18 not by smoke or by dust, but by evil thoughts ; that temple which is illumined, not by burning tapers, but by the clear light of wisdom : 19 in which if we think that God is ever present, we shall so live as to have him always propitious, without any cause to fear his wrath. LACTANTIUS. 66. Comparison between Human and Divine Justice. ARGUMENTATIVE MANNER : Q^Jr" l A long Pause should precede this passage, and the argumenta- tive manner assume an expression of Warning, with Impressive Solemnity. ' Unto whomsoever much is given, of him shall be much required,' is a general rule, the equity of which is so ap- parent to common sense, that it admits of no dispute, and IMPASSIONED READING EXPRESSION. 133 calls for no explanation. A single mite offered by a poor widow, is a present tit for the King of Heaven j though such a present from the hand of a rich man, would hardly be a decent charity to a poor widow. And thus in all instances to which the rule is applicable. But plain as this general maxim is, the weakness and wickedness of men have almost totally excluded it from human judicatures. For as it is in every one's power to pretend ignorance of a law or some other inability, in ex- cuse for crime, so if the excuse were as easily admitted as it could be pleaded, a door would be opened to all kinds of licentiousness, and that fear of punishment would be taken off, which is so necessary a restraint upon the depraved inclinations of men. And siace the wisest and ablest judges cannot discern (some few cases perhaps excepted) between real and affected ignorance ; or so distinguish between the powers and abilities of one man and of ano- ther, as to proportion rewards and punishments according to this rule ; therefore the law puts all, except those who are manifestly deficient in reason, upon the same level : it supposes every man to know the laws of his country, and consequently, where a malicious act is proved, it pre- sumes a malicious intention, and the criminal is sentenced accordingly. But how justifiable soever this proceeding may be, upon the necessity there is for it in order to preserve some tole- rable degree of peace and quiet in the world : yet it is evident that the general presumptions upon which all hu- man judicatures proceed, do not leave reason for an exact distribution of justice ; and it often happens that men are made equal in punishment, who, if all circumstances could be considered, are not equal in crime. But could vou introduce a judge endowed with a perfect knowledge of men's hearts, there would be an end of all such general presumptions : he would do, in every case, what was ex- actly right and equitable ; and the only standing rule of such a court would be that of the text unto whomsoever much is given, of him shall much be required. 1 One such court there is, in which He who knows the secrets of every heart will sit judge himself; before whose 134 IMPASSIONED READING EXPRESSION. tribunal there will want no evidence to convict the guilty, no advocate to defend the innocent : there, no pretended excuse will he admitted, no real one excluded : there, every man with all his actions, with all his talents and abilities, and all his opportunities of knowing the will of God, will be weighed in the balance ; and unto whom much was given, of him shall much be required. SHERLOCK. 135 CHAPTER IV. DRAMATIC READING, OR EXERCISES IN ACTING. In pronouncing plays and such like conversation pieces, a good reader of very inferior talents fur mimicry may be heard with pleasure; but he will be qualified to give a higher degree of life and force to the dialogue and characters, by deli- vering them as an actor. ART of DELIVERING WRITTEN LANOUAOK 1775. In comoediis servi, lenones, parisiti, rustici, milites, vetulse, meretriculac, ancillx, senes austeri ac mites, juvenes severi ac luxuriosi, matrona?, puellas, inter se discernuntur. Aliud oralio sapit actione enim constat, non imitations. QUINCTILIAN. INTENTION OF THE EXERCISES. The talent required for delivering, with complete effect, such pieces as are contained in the chapter before us, is hy no means in- dispensable to accomplish a Speaker. To be affected by the passions to which all human beings are liable, and to give expression to those passions in one's own character, is one thing; and this is all we expect from the Speaker : to assume peculiarities of manner indi- cating correspondent peculiarities of corporeal or mental constitu- tion, whether original or habitual, is to do much more than this ; and is the duty not of the mere speaker, but, of the actor. It must however be confessed, that though the difference of purpose and function is, on the broad view, sufficiently evident, yet it is not always easy to say of particular pieces, that they do, or do not re- quire, for their full effect, a little of the actor's, as well as of the speaker's talent. The intention of the following Exercises is, to afford opportunity for acquiring so much of the actor's talent as may be thought desirable ; and in using them, if he uses them at all, the pupil is therefore to attempt, with each change of person, some change of manner, by which that person is supposed to be charac- terized. "We might call the manner so assumed mimicry; but mimicry is mostly, and perhaps justly, understood only of the imi- tation of some one person's manner : but it is the imitation of certain sorts of manner that he must aim at ; that is, sucli as are 136 DRAMATIC READING HUMOUR. subjectible to certain general designations ; the manner, t'or instance, of the meek, the morose or surly, the violent in temper, the affec- tionate, the repulsive, the gloomy ; the manner, too, of persons of some particular age of life, sex, country, province, or profession. The term humour, if understood as among the dramatists in Queen Elizabeth's day, seems the best adapted for implying that, which in every exercise the pupil should keep in view, over and above the expression of the more general passions. It is true, that in modern usage, this term is apt to be understood only of laughable pecu- liarities of character ; but there is 110 reason for this limited sense ; and the learner will please to observe, that it is not meant with this limited sense where it stands at the head of the page throughout this chapter. 1. The Seven Ages. {J^ The characters in this piece being merely described, the humour must be touched with delicacy. The speaker, by his action, represents the infant in the nurse's arms, utters " muling" with slight mimicry, and turns with aversion at the mention of "puking." In the next character, " whining" must be uttered with mimicry of voice, "creeping" with mimicry of action, and, " unwillingly to school" must imitate sulkiness or pouting. The lover must be described with languishing soft tones, except where he mentions his " mistress' eyebrow," which must be said with a glowing expression. In proceeding with the soldier, the tone becomes rough, and the action sudden. The justice must be described with the voice of a fat elderly man, and the line "full of wise saws," &c., must be given with mock gravity. The next character requires a thin tone, except at the words, " big manly voice," where the tone must be firm ; but " childish treble," and " pipes and whistles/' must be uttered with mimicry. The conclusion requires solemnity of tone, strongly contrasting with' all that precedes. All the world 's a stage, And all the men and women merely players ; They have their exits and their entrances ; And one man in his time plays many parts ; His acts being seven ages/x; At first the infant, Muling and puking in his nurse's arms. And then the whining school -boy, with his satchel And shining morning face, creeping like snail Unwillingly to school.^ And then the lover, Sighing like furnace, with a woful ballad . Made to his mistress' eyebrow.X Then a soldier, Full of strange oaths, and bearded like the pard, Jealous in honour, sudden and quick in quarrel ; ' DRAMATIC READING HUMOUR. 137 Seeking the bubble, reputation, Even in the cannon's mouth, ^nd then the justice, In fair round belly with good capon lin'd, With eves severe and beard of formal cut, Full of wise saws and modern instances ; And so he plays his part, y The sixth age shifts Into the lean and slipperxl pantaloon, With spectacles on nose and pouch on side ; His youthful, hose, well sav'd, a world too wide For his shrunk shank, and his big, manly voice Turning again to childish treble, pipes And whistles in his sound. XLast scene of all That ends this strange, eventful history, Is second childishness and mere oblivion ; >^/ Sails teeth, sans eyes, sans taste, sans every thing. SHAKSPEARE. 2. The Fly and the Spider. {f^ To read this fable dramatically, there must be three voices, the narrator's natural voice, a feigned rough voice for the spider, and a feminine voice with much archness of manner for the fly. Fresh was the breath of morn ; ' the busy breeze,' As poets tell us, ' whisper'd through the trees,' And swept the dew-clad blooms with wings so light ; Phrebus got up and made a blazing fire, That gilded every country house and spire, And smiling, put on his best looks so bright. On this fair morn, a spider who had set, To catch a breakfast, his old waving net, With curious art upon a spangled thorn, At length, with gravely, squinting, longing eye, Near him beheld a pretty plump young fly, Humming her little orisons to morn. * Good morrow, dear Miss Fly,' quoth gallant Grim ; ' Good morrow, Sir,' replied Miss Fly to him : ' Walk in, Miss, pray, and see what I'm about :' ' I'm much oblig'd t'you, Sir,' Miss Fly rejoin'd, ' My eyes are both so very good, I find, That I can plainly see the whole withou' ' 138 DRAMATTC READING HUMOUR. ' Fine weather, Miss' ' Yes, very, very fine,' Quoth Miss, ' prodigious fine indeed :' ' But why so coy,' quoth Grim, ' that you decline To put within my bower your pretty head ? ' ' 'Tis simply this, ' Quoth cautious Miss, ' I fear you like my pretty head so well, You'd keep it for yourself, Sir, who can tell ? ' ' Then, let me squeeze your lovely hand, my dear, And prove that all your fears are foolish, vain.' ' I've a sore finger, sir; nay more, I fear You really would not let it go again.' ' Poh poh ! child, pray dismiss your idle dread ; I would not hurt a hair of that sweet head ; Well then, with one kind kiss of friendship meet me :' ' La, Sir,' quoth Miss, with seeming artless tongue, ' I fear our salutation would be long; So loving too, I fear that you would eat me.' So saying, with a smile she left the rogue, To weave more lines of death, and plan for prog. WALCOT. 3. Hodge and the Vicar. {!= In this piece, all that Hodge says must be uttered in a broad rustic dialect, and accompanied by correspondent action. The Vicar's manner must be full of urbanity. Giles must be plain, distinct, and a little broad ; and the narrator's own manner must be distinguishable from all these. Hodge, a poor honest country lout, Not over-stock'd with learning, Chanc'd, on a summer's eve, to meet The vicar, home returning, ' Ah ! master Hodge,' the vicar cried, ' What, still as wise as ever ? The people in the village say That you are wondrous clever.' ' Why, master parson, as to that I beg you'll right conceive me, I do na brag, but yet I know A thing or two, believe me.' DRAMATIC READING HUMOUR. 139 ' We '11 try your skill,' the parson cried, ' For learning what digestion : And this you '11 prove, or right or wrong, By solving me a question : Noah of old three babies had, Or grown-up children rather ; Shem, Ham, and Japhet, they were call'd : Now, who was Japhet's father ? ' ' Rat it !' cried Hodge, and scratch'd his head, ' That does my wits belabour : But howsomde'er, I'll homeward run, And ax old Giles, my neighbour.' To Giles he went, and put the case With circumspect intention : ' Thou fool,' cried Giles, ' I '11 make it clear To thy dull comprehension. Three children has Tom Long, the smith, Or cattle-doctor rather; Tom, Dick, and Harry, they are call'd : Now, who is Harry's father ? ' ' Adzooks ! I have it, ' Hodge replied, ' Right well I know your lingo ; Who 's Harry's father? stop here goes ! Why long Tom Smith, by jingo.' Away he ran to find the priest With all his might and main, Who, with good humour, instant put The question once again : ' Noah of old three babies had, Or grown-up children rather; Shem, Ham, and Japhet, they were call'd : , Now who was Japhet's father ? ' ' I have it now,' Hodge grinning cried, ' I '11 answer like a proctor ; Who 's Japhet's father ? now I know ; Why long Tom Smith, the doctor.' ANON. 140 DRAMATIC READING HUMOUR. 4. Sir Archy Macsarcasm and Sir Callaghan 0' Brallaghan. t^= The former of these characters must be read in a strong Scotch dialect, and the latter in an Irish. There is no narrative ; and if the two dialects are properly discriminated, the reader will be able to pass from one person of the dialogue to the other without any mention of the names. [Sir Archy Macsarcasm.] Here, i' the sooth, they are aw sprang from sugar hogsheads, and rum puncheons, and wool packs, and hop sacks, and iron bars, and tar jackets. In short they are a composition of jews, and turks, and refugees, and of aw the commercial vagrants of the land and sea ; a sort of amphibious breed are they. Ah ! there 's as much deeference be- twixt oor nobeelity of the north and theirs of the sooth, as betwixt a haund of blood and a mongrel. And there 's nai scant of wealth or honour in oor family. We hai in the hoose of Macsarcasm twa barons, three viscounts, six earls, and jane marquisate, besides baronets and lairds out of aw reckoning. [Sir Call. 0' Brail."] You are sensible, Sir Archy, that my family is as ould as any in the three kingdoms, and oulder too. For all my family by my father's side are the true ould Milesians, and related to the O'Flaherties, the O'Shaughnesses, the Maclaughlins, the O'Donnaghans, the O'Callaghans, the O'Geo- ghans, and all the tick blood of the nation. And I myself you know am an O'Brallaghan, which is the ouldest of them all. [Sir Archy Mac.] I believe you are of an auncient family, Sir Callaghan, but you are oot in yane point where ye said ye were as auncient as any in the three kingdoms : hoot hoot awa, mon ; ye monno say that : What the de'el ! consider oor auncient fa- milies of the north : why ye of Ireland are but a colony frai us, an ootcast a mere ootcast, and as such ye remain to this hoor. [Sir Call. 0' Brail.] I beg your pardon, Sir Archy ; that DRAMATIC READING HUMOUR. 141 is the Scotch account, which you know niver spakes truth, because it is always partial. But the Irish History, which must be the best, because it was writ- ten by an Irish poet of my own family, one Shemus Thurlough Flannaghan O'Brallaghan, and he says in his chapter of genealogy that the Scotch are all Irishmen's bastards. [Sir Archy Mac.] Hoo, Sir, baistaids ! d'ye mak us illee- geetimate, illeegeetimate, Sir ! But I must impute it to yeer ignorance and vanity. And let me counsil ye as a friend, Sir Callaghan ; never enter into a dis- pute aboot leeterature, or heestory, or the anteequity of families ; for ye a'gotten sick a wecked, awkward, cursed jargon upon yeer tongue, mon, that ye are never inteeligible in yeer language. [Sir Call. O' Brail.] Ha ! ha ! ha ! I beg your pardon, Sir Archy. It is you that have got such a cursed twist of a great fat Scotch brogue about the middle of your own tongue, that you can't understand good English when I spake it to you MACKLIN. 5. Anne Page and her Lovers. {J^= Several characters are to be discriminated in this dialogue. Fenton's voice must he youthful, manly, and gentle : Anne Pace's must contrast with it, by its feminine softness. Justice Shallow must be known at once, from his piping tones, to be a feeble old man : Abraham Slender has a thin voice and silly bashful action. Mi-s. Quickly's voice has a variety of notes in it, but all tending to be shrill. Page is blunt and plain. The characters should be known -without naming them, but the short passages which men- tion who enter, and who make their exeunt, must be read in a plain narrative manner. Enter Fenton and Anne Page. [Fenton.] I see, I cannot get thy father's love ; Therefore no more turn me to him, sweet Nan. [Anne Page.'] Alas ! how then ? [Fenton.] Why, thou must be thyself. He doth object, I am too great of birth ; And that, my' estate being gall'd with my expense, I seek to heal it only by his wealth : 142 DRAMATIC READING HUMOUR. Beside these, other bars he lays before me, My riots past, my wild societies ; And tells me 'tis a thing impossible I should love thee but as a property. [Anne Page.] May be he tells you true. [Fenton] No, Heaven so speed me in my time to come ! Albeit, [ will confess thy father's wealth Was the first motive that I woo'd thee. Anne ; Yet, wooing thee, I found thee of more value Than stamps in gold, or sums in sealed bags ; And 'tis the very riches of thyself That now I aim at. [Anne Page.] Gentle master Fenton, Yet seek my father's love ; still seek it, sir : If opportunity and humble suit Cannot attain it, why then hark you hither. Fenton and Anne Page retire a little. Enter Justice Shallow, Abraham Slender, and Mrs. Quickly. [Justice Shallow."] Break their talk, mistress Quickly; my kinsman shall speak for himself. [Abraham Slender.] I'll make a shaft or a bolt on't : 'slid, 'tis but venturing. [Justice Shallow] Be not dismayed. [Abraham Slender] No, she shall not dismay me : I care not for that, but that I am afeard. [Mrs. Quickly] Hark ye, mistress Anne ; master Slender would speak a word with you. [Anne Page] I come to him. This is my father's choice. O what a world of vile ill-favour'd faults Look handsome in three hundred pounds a-year ! [Mrs. Quickly] And how does good master Fenton? Pray you a word with you. Mrs. Quickly draws Fenton aside. [Justice Shallow] She's coming ; to her, coz. O boy, thou hadst a father ! [Abraham Slender] Mistress Anne, I had a father ; my uncle can tell you good jests of him ; Pray you, uncle, DRAMATIC READING HUMOUR. 143 tell mistress Anne the jest, how my father stole two geese out of a pen, good uncle. [Justice Shallow.} Mistress Anne, my cousin loves you. [Abraham Slender. ] Ay, that I do; as well as I love any woman in Glostershire. [Justice Shallow.] He will maintain you like a gentle- woman. [Abraham Slender."] Ay, that I will, come cut and long- tail, under the degree of a 'squire. [Justice Shallmv.] He will make you a hundred and fifty pounds jointure. [Anne Page.] Good master Shallow, let him woo for himself. [Justice Shallow] Marry I thank you for it ; thank you for that good comfort. She calls you, coz : I'll leave you. [Abraham Slender.] Nay, don't go, uncle. I wish he hadn't gone, I do. [Anne Page.] Now, master Slender. [Abraham Slender .] Now, good mistress Anne. [Anne Page.] What is your will ? [Abraham Slender.] My will? Od's heartlings, that's a pretty jest indeed ! I ne'er made my will yet, I thank Heaven : I am not such a sickly creature. [Anne Page.] I mean, master Slender, what would you with me ? [Abraham Slender.] Truly, for mine own part, I would little or nothing with you. Your father and my uncle have made motions : if it be my good luck, so ; if not, happy man be his dole ! They can tell you how things go better than 1 can : you may ask your father ; here he comes. Enter Page. [Page.] Now, master Slender : love him, daughter Anne. Why, how now ! what does master Fenton here ? You wrong me, sir, thus still to haunt my house ; I told you, sir, my daughter is disposed of. 1 44 DRAMATIC READINU HUMOUR. [Fenton.] Nay, master Page, be not impatient. Will You hear me ? [Page.'] No, good master Fenton Knowing my mind, you wrong me, master Fenton. Come daughter and son Slender, come you in. Mrs. Quickly and Fenton remain. [Fenton.'] Shall I do any good thinkst thou? shall I not lose my suit ? [Mrs. Quickly.] Master Fenton, you shall speak to Mrs. Page. I'll be sworn on a book the maid loves you. Have not your worship a wart above your eye ? [Fenton.] Yes, marry, have I : what of that ? [Mrs. Quickly.] Well, thereby hangs a tale ; good faith it is such another Nan ; but I detest, an honest maid as ever broke bread. We had an hour's talk of that wart ; ha ! ha ! ha ! I shall never laugh but in that maid's company : but indeed she is too much given to allicholy and musing: But for you: Well, go to ! [Fenton.] Well, I shall see her again to-night. If thou seest her before me, commend me, and give her this ring. There's money for thy pains. Mrs. Quickly alone. Now Heaven send thee good fortune ! A kind heart he hath : a woman would run through fire and water for such a kind heart. But yet, I would my master had mistress Anne ; or I would master Slender had her ; or, in sooth, I would master Fenton had her : I will do what I can for them all three ; for so I have promised, and I'll be as good as my word ; but speciously for master Fenton. SHAKSPEARE. 6. Bobadil, Young Knowell, Mattheiv, and Doicnright. {3= Bobadil must be loud and swaggering ; Young Knowell, gentle- manly, with an evident touch of sly banter ; Matthew, foolishly conceited ; Downright, sudden and determined. Enter Matthew, Young Knowell, and Bobadil. [Matthew.] Sir, did vour eves ever taste the like clown of DRAMATIC READING HUMOUR. 145 him, where we were to clay, Mr. Wellbred's half-brother, master Downright ? I think the whole earth cannot show his parallel, by this day-light ! [F. Knowell.] We w r ere speaking of him. Captain Bobadil tells me he has fallen foul of you too. [Matthew.'] Oh, ay, sir ; he threatened me with the bas- tinado. [BobadiL] Ay, but I think I taught you prevention for that. You shall kill him beyond question, if you be so generously minded. [Matthew.] Indeed, it is an excellent fencing trick. [practising."] [BobadiL] Oh, you do not give spirit enough to your motion ; you are too tardy, too heavy : it must be done like lightning ; hey ! [practising at a post.~\ Tut, 'tis nothing if not done in a punto. [Y. Knowell.] Captain, did you ever try any of our mas- ters of defence here ? [BobadiL] I'll tell you, sir. They have assaulted me some three, four, five, six of them together, as I have walked alone, in divers skirts of the town, where I have driven them before me the whole length of a street, in the open view of all our gallants, pitying to hurt them, believe me. Yet all this lenity will not overcome their spleen : they will be doing with the pismire, raising a hill a man may spurn abroad with his foot at plea- sure. By myself I could have slain them all ; but I delight not in murder. Yet I hold it good policy not to go disarmed ; for, though I be skilful, I may be oppressed with multitudes. [F. Knowell.] Ay, believe me, may you, sir; and, in my conceit, our whole nation should sustain the loss by it, if it were so. f BobadiL] Alas, no ! what's a peculiar man in a nation ? not seen. [Y. Knowell] Oh, but your skill, sir ! [BobadiL] Indeed, that might be some loss : but who respects it ? I will tell you, sir, by way of private, H 146 DRAMATIC READING HUMOUR. and under seal, I am a gentleman, and live here ob scure, and to myself: but were I known to his majesty, and the lords, observe me, I would undertake, upon this poor head and life, for the public benefit of the state, not only to spare the entire lives of his subjects in general, but to save the one half, nay, three parts of his yearly charge in holding war, and against what enemy soever. And how would I do it, think you ? [F. Knowell.] Nay, I know not, nor can I conceive. [Bobadil.'] Why thus, sir. I would select nineteen more to myself; gentlemen they should be, of a good spirit, strong, and able in constitution : I would choose them by an instinct, a character that I have ; and I would teach these nineteen the special rules, as your Punto, your Reverse, your Stoccata, your Imbrocata, your Passada, your Montanto, till they could all play very near, or altogether, as well as myself. This done, say the enemy were forty thousand strong, we twenty would come into the field the tenth of March, or there- abouts, and we would challenge twenty of the enemy ; they could not in their honour refuse us ; well, we would kill them ; challenge twenty more, kill them ; twenty more, kill them ; twenty more, kill them too ; and thus would we kill, every man, his twenty a day ; that's twenty score ; twenty score are four hun- dred ; four hundred a day in five days, that's two thousand ; so that twenty times five a hundred days kills them all up the whole forty thousand by computation. And this I will venture my poor gen- tlemanlike carcass to perform, (provided there be no treason practised upon us,) by fair and discreet man- hood, that is, civilly by the sword. [I 7 ". Knowell.'] Why, seeing what a man you are, I would not stand in that Downright's shoes that you were threatening so. You would kill him a thousand times over. [Bobadil.] No, sir, you mistake. I would not draw my weapon upon him. I would give him the bastinado. [F. Knowell.] 'Faith, sir, and here he comes. DRAMATIC READING HUMOUR. 14"< [Bobadil.'] No, that's not he : are you sure it is ? No, no : he's gone. Nay, had that been he, he had not gone thus, believe me. [Y. Knowell.] Why, sir, he's here again. Enter Doicnright. [Downright.'] Oh, have I found you ? Come, draw, draw ; what ! you will not draw ? [Bobadil.] I beseech you, gentleman ; I am bound to keep the peace. [Downright.] What! you will not draw? Then there's .that for you, [beating him,] and that, and that. [Y. Knowell.'] What, captain! twenty more, kill them; twenty more ; kill them too ! Go get you a surgeon, captain : ha ! ha ! ha ! farewell, valiant captain ! BEN JONSON. 7. Croaker and Honeyivood. fcp' Croaker must preserve throughout a tone of exaggerated lament- ation; Honeywood must be cheerful in manner, till the melan- choly of his fellow dialogist partially affects him, though by starts he must still show his habitual cheerfulness. [Croaker.] A pleasant morning to you, Mr. Honeywood, arid many of them. How is this ? You look shock- ingly to-day, my dear friend. I hope this weather does not affect your spirits. To be sure, if this weather continues I say nothing but Heaven send we be all better this day three months. [Honeywood.'] I heartily concur in the wish, Mr. Croaker, though I own, not in your apprehension. [Croaker.'] May be not. Indeed, what signifies what weather we have in a country going to ruin like ours ? Taxes rising, trade falling ; money flying out of the kingdom, and Frenchmen swarming into it to eat us up, and pervert our morals and religion. [Honeywood.] They will scarcely pervert you or me, I should hope. [Croaker.] May be not. Indeed, what signifies whom they pervert in a country that has scarce any re- H2 148 DRAMATIC READING HUMOUR. ligion to lose. I am only afraid for our wives and daughters. [Honey wood.] I have no apprehensions for the ladies, I assure yuu. [Croaker."] May be not. Indeed, what signifies whether they be perverted or not. The women in my time were good for something. I have seen a lady dressed from top to toe in her own manufacture formerly ; but now-a-days, the devil a thing about them is of their own manufac- ture, except their faces. [Honeywood.] But however these faults may be practised abroad, you don't find them at home : there, at least, a due respect for your authority prevents them. [Croaker."] Ah, my dear friend, you know but very little of my authority at home. People think, indeed, be- cause they see me come out in a morning thus, with a pleasant face, and to make my friends merry, that all's well within. But I have cares that would break a heart of stone. My wife has so encroached on every one of my privileges, that I am now no more than a mere lodger in my own house. [Honeywood.'] But a little spirit exerted on your side might, perhaps, restore your authority. [Croaker.] No, though I had the spirit of a lion. I do rouse sometimes : but what then ? always haggling, haggling. A man is tired of getting the better, before his wife is tired of losing the victory. [Honeywood.] It is a melancholy consideration indeed, that our chief comforts often produce our greatest anxieties, and that an increase of our possessions is but an inlet to new disquietudes. [Croaker] Ah, my dear friend, those were the very words of poor Dick Doleful to me not a week before he made away with himself. Indeed, Mr. Honeywood, I never see you but you put me in mind of poor Dick. Ah, there was merit neglected for you ! And so true a friend : we loved each other for thirty years, and yet he never asked me to lend him a single farthing. DRAMATIC READING HUMOUR. 149 [Hcmer/wood.] Pray what could induce him to commit so rash an action at last ? [Croaker.'} I don't know; some people were malicious enough to say it was keeping company with me : because we used to meet now and then, and open our hearts to each other. To he sure, I loved to hear him talk, and he loved to hear me talk ; poor, dear Dick ! He used to say that Croaker rhymed to joker, and so we used to laugh. [Honey wood.'] His fate affects me. [Croaker.'] Ay, he grew sick of this miserable life, where we do nothing but eat and grow hungry, dress and un- dress, get up and lie down : while reason, that should watch like a nurse by our side, falls asleep as fast as we do. [Honey 'wood. .] To say truth, if we compare that part of life which is to come, by that which is past, the pro- spect is hideous. [Croaker."] Life at the greatest and best is but a froward child, that must be coaxed and humoured till it falla asleep, and then all the care is over. [Honey ic ood.'] Very true, sir; nothing can exceed the vanity of our existence but the folly of our pursuits. We wept when we came into the world, and every day tells us why. [Croaker.] Ah, my dear friend, it is a perfect satisfaction to be miserable with you. My son shall not lose the benefit of such fine conversation ; I'll just step home for him : I am willing to show him so much serious- ness in one scarce older than himself. And what if I bring my last letter to the Gazetteer on the increase and progress of earthquakes? It will amuse us, I promise you. I there prove that the earthquake is coming to pay us a visit, from Lisbon to the Canarv islands, from the Canary islands to Palmyra, from Palmyra to Constantinople, and from Constantinople to London. GOLDSMITH. 150 DRAMATIC READING HUMOUR. 8. Antony and Ventidius. {j^f=" Antony, throughout his grief and despair, must preserve an habitual dignity of deportment, and his elocution must be flowing and harmonious. Ventidius must have the manner of an old man, but without feebleness : his address must be bluff, and some- what stern, except when softened by commiseration. [Antony. 1 They tell me 'tis my birthday and I '11 keep it With double pomp of sadness : 'Tis what the day deserves that gave me breath. He throws himself on ilue ground. Lie there, thou shadow of an emperor ; The place thou pressest on thy mother earth Is all thy empire now ; now it contains thee ; Some few days hence, and this will be too large : When thou 'rt contracted to thy narrow urn, Shrunk to a few cold ashes, then Octavia Shall bear thee in her widow 'd hand to Caesar, And he will weep, the crocodile will weep, To see his rival of the Universe Lie still and peaceful there. Ventidius^ who has been listening, approaches. [Ventidius.] I must disturb him ; I can hold no longer. [Antony, starting up.] Art thou Ventidius ? [ Ventidius.] Are you Antony ? I } m liker what I was than you to him, When last I left you. [Antony.] I 'm angry. [ Ventidius.] So am I. [Antony.] I would be private : leave me. [Ventidius.] Sir, I love you, And therefore will not leave you. [Antony] Will not leave me ! Where have you learn'd that answer ? Who am I ? [ Ventidius.] My emperor ; the man I love next Heaven : You 're all that 's good and godlike. [Antony.] All that 's wretched. You will not leave me then ? DRAMATIC READING HUMOUR. 151 [ Ventidius.} 'Twere too presuming To say I will not : but I dare not leave you ; And 'tis unkind in you to chide me hence So soon, when I so far have come to see you. [Antony .] Now thou hast seen me, art thou satisfied? For, if a friend, thou hast beheld enough, And, if a foe, too much. [ Ventidius.} Look, emperor, this is no common dew : I have not wept these forty years, but now My mother comes afresh into mine eyes ; I cannot help her softness. [weeps ! [Antony.'] By Heaven ! he weeps ; poor good old man, he The big round drops stop them, stop them, Ventidius, Or I shall blush to death : they set my shame, That caus'd them, full before me. [ Ventidius.] 1 '11 do my best. [Antony.'] Sure there 's contagion in the tears of friends ; See, I have caught thy tears. Believe me, 'tis not For my own griefs, but thine Nay, father [ Ventidius.] Emperor ! [Antony. .} Emperor ! why that's the style of victory ; The conquering soldier, red with unfelt wounds, Salutes his general so : but never more Shall that sound reach my ears. [Ventidius.] I warrant you. [Antony.] Actium, Actium ! oh ! it sits upon me : Here, here it lies, a lump of lead by day, And, in my short, distracted, broken slumbers, The hag that rides my dreams ! [Ventidius.} Out with it; give it vent. [Antony.} Urge not my shame I lost a battle. [ Ventidius.] So has Julius done. [Antony.] Thou favour'st me, and speak'st not half thou For Julius fought it out, and lost it fairly ; [think'st : But Auton DRAMATIC READING HUMOUR. [Ventidius.] Nay, stop not. [Antony.] Antony, (Well, thou wilt have it,) like a coward fled, Fled while his soldiers fought, fled first, Ventidius : Thou long'st to curse me, and I give thee leave : I know thou cam'st prepar'd to rail. [ Ventidius ] I did. [Antony.] I '11 help thee I have been a man, Ventidius- [Ventidius] Yes, and a brave one ; but [Antony] I know thy meaning But I have lost my reason, have disgrac'd The name of soldier with inglorious ease, In the full vintage of my flowing honours Sat still, and saw it press'd by other hands : Fortune came smiling to my youth, and woo'd it, And purpled greatness met my ripen'd years. When first I came to empire, I was borne, On tides of people crowding to my triumphs, The wish of nations ; and the willing world Receiv'd me as its pledge of future peace : I was so great, so happy, so belov'd, Fate could not ruin me ; till I took pains To chide her from me : yet she came again. My careless days, and my luxurious nights, At length have wearied her, and now she's gone, Gone, gone, divorc'd for ever. Help me, soldier, To curse this madman, this industrious fool, Who labour'd to be wretched : pr'y thee, curse me. [Ventidius] No. [Antony] Why ? [ Ventidius.] You are too sensible already Of what you 've done, too conscious of your failing. I would bring balm, and pour it in your wounds, Cure your distemper'd mind, and heal your fortunes. [Antony] I know thou wouldst. [ Ventidius] I will. [Antony ] Ha, ha, ha, ha ! DRAMATIC READING HUMOUR. 153 [ Ventidius] ' You laugh. [Antony.'] I do, to see officious love Give cordials to the dead. [ Ventidius.] You would be lost then ? [Antony. .] I am. [ Ventidius.] I say you are not. Try your fortune. [desperate [Antony.] I have to the' utmost. Dost thou think me Without just cause ? No ; when I found all lost Beyond repair, I hid me from the world, And learn' d to scorn it here ; which now I do So heartily, I think it is not worth The cost of keeping. [ Ventidius] Csesar thinks not so : He'll thank you for the gift he could not take. You would be kill'd like Tully, would you ? Do : Hold out your throat to Csesar, and die tamely. [Antony] No ; I can kill myself, and so resolve. [ Ventidius] I can die with you too, when time shall serve ; But fortune calls upon us now to live, To fight, to conquer. [Antony] Sure thou dream'st, Ventidius. [ Ventidius] No, r tis you dream ; you sleep away your In desperate sloth, miscall'd philosophy. [hours Up, up, for honour's sake ! twelve legions wait you, And long to call you_ chief : by painful journeys I've led them, patient both of heat and hunger, Down from the Parthian borders to the Nile. 'Twill do you good to see their sun-burnt faces, Their scarr'd cheeks and chopp'd hands ; there's vir- [tue in them : They '11 sell those mangled limbs at dearer rates Than yon trim bands can buy. [Antony] Where left you them ? [ Ventidius] I said in Lower Syria. [Antony] Bring them hither ; There may be life in these. H 3 154 DRAMATIC READING HUMOUR. [ Ventidius.] They will not come. [are mutinous. [Antony. ] Not come ? Why mock my hopes ? then they [ Ventidius.] Most firm and loyal. [Antony.'] And will not march to succour me ? Oh, trifler ! [ Ventidius] They said they would not fight for Cleopatra. [Antony.] What was 't they said ? [ Ventidius] They said they would not fight for Cleopatra. Why should they fight indeed to make her conquer, And make you more a slave ? to gain you kingdoms Which, for a kiss, you 'd sell to her. [Antony.] No more ! On all my other faults, I do allow Your tongue free licence ; but, on your life, No word of Cleopatra : she deserves More worlds than I can lose. [ Ventidius] Behold, you Powers, To whom you have intrusted human kind ! See Europe, Afric, Asia, put in balance, And all weigh'd down by one light worthless woman ! [Antony.] You grow presumptuous. [ Ventidius] I take the privilege of plain love to speak. [Antony.'] Plain love ! plain arrogance, plain insolence : Thou art a traitor. [ Ventidius] For showing you yourself, Which none else dares to do. Had I been so, I needed not have sought your abject fortunes, Come to partake your fate, to die with you. What hinder'd me to ha've led my conquering eagles To fill Octavia's hands ? I could have been A traitor then, a glorious happy traitor, And not have been so call'd. [Antony] Forgive me, soldier, I 've been too passionate. [Ventidius] Nay, kill me, sir, DRAMATIC READING HUMOUR. 155 Pray kill me : yet you need not : your unkindness Will leave your sword no work. [Antony.] Pr'y thee forgive me. [ Ventidius] No prince but you Could merit the sincerity I've used, Nor durst another man have ventur'd it ; But you, ere love misled your wandering eyes, Were sure the best and chief of human race : But Cleopatra [Antony.'] Nay go on, go on ! Thou durst not trust my passion ; but thou mayst : Thou only lov'st : the rest have flatter'd me. [kind word ! [ Ventidius.'} Heaven's blessing on your heart for that May I believe you love me ? Speak again. [Antony] Indeed I do: your praises were unjust; But I '11 deserve them : lead me as thou wilt, Lead me to victory ; thou know'st the way. [ Ventidius.'] And wilt thou leave this [Antony] Pr'y thee do not curse her, And I will leave her. [ Ventidius] That 's my royal master ! And shall we fight ? [Antony] I warrant thee, old soldier ; Thou shalt behold me once again in iron, And at the head of our old troops, that beat The Parthians, cry aloud, * Come, follow me ! ' [ Ventidius.] Oh now I hear my emperor : in that word Octavius fell. Gods ! let me see that day, And if I have ten years behind, take all ; I '11 thank you for the' exchange. [Antony.] Oh, Cleopatra ! [Ventidius] Again! [Antony] I ha've done ; in that last sigh she went. Csesar shall know what 'tis to force a lover From all he holds most dear. 156 DRAMATIC READING HUMOUH. [Ventidius.] Methinks you breathe Another soul ; your looks are most divine. [Antony. .] Oh, thou hast fir'd me ; and my soul in arms Mans every part about me. Once again That noble eagerness of fight has seiz'd me, That eagerness with which I darted upward To Cassius' camp : in vain the steepy hill Oppos'd my way ; in vain a war of spears Sung round my head, and planted all my shield ; I won the trenches, while my foremost men Lagg'd on the plain below. [ VentidiusJ] Ye gods, ye gods, For such another honour ! [Antony.'] Come on, my soldier ; Our hearts and arms are still the same. I long Once more to meet our foes, that thou and I, Like time and death, marching before our troops, May taste fate to them, mow them out a passage, And, entering where the foremost squadrons yield, Begin the noble harvest of the field. DRYDEN. 9. Passages from the Tragedy of 1 Remorse.' SCENE I. An Apartment in the Castle of Yaldez. SCENE II. The Dungeon of the Castle. Valdez, Ordonio, and Alvar. (J^ Ordonio must be troubled and disturbed in manner, his looks often wandering, his elocution often flurried. Valdez must have the characteristics of age in tone and gesture : Alvar is manly, firm, collected. [not [Ordonio] These are the dungeon keys. Monviedro knew That I too had receiv'd the wizard's message, * He that can bring the dead to life again.' But now he's satisfied I plann'd this scheme To work a full conviction on the culprit, And he intrusts him wholly to my keeping. [Valdez ] 'Tis well, my son. But have you yet discover'd What meant those speeches which the wizard made DRAMATIC READING HUMOUR. 15*7 ' Pride, and hypocrisy, and guilt, and cunning ? ' Then, when the wizard fix'd his eye on you, And you, I know not why, look'd pale arid trembled Why why, what ails you now ? [Ordonio.'] Me 1 what ails me 1 A pricking of the blood. . . It might have happen'd At any ot her time. . . . Why scan you me ? [ValdezJ] His speech about the corse, and stabs and mur- Borc reference to the' assassins. [derers, [Ordonio to himself.'] Dup'd ! dup'd ! dup'd ! The traitor Isidore ! [A pause : then aloud, and wildly.'] I tell thee, my dear father, I am right glad of this. [ Valdez.~\ True ! sorcery Merits its doom ; and this perchance may guide us To the discovery of the murderers. The picture gave their statures and their faces So plainly to me, that but once to meet them Would be to recognise. [Ordonio.} Yes ! yes ! we recognise them. I was benumb'd, and stagger'd up and down Through darkness without light dark dark dark ! My flesh crept chill, my limbs felt manacled, As had a snake coil'd round them. Now, 'tis sunshine, And the blood dances freely through its channels. [ Valdez.] These magic sights ! O that I ne'er had yielded To your entreaties. Neither had I yielded, But that I held it for a stratagem Which love had prompted, to remove the doubts Of wild Teresa fancies quelling fancies ! [and wherefore ? [Ordonio.'] Love ! love ! and then we hate ! and what ? Hatred and love ! fancies opposed by fancies ! What, if one reptile sting another reptile ? Where is the crime ? The goodly face of nature Hath one disfeatu'ring stain the less upon it. Are we not all predestin'd transciency, And cold dishonour ? Grant it, that this hand 158 DRAMATIC READING HUMOUR. Had given a morsel to the hungry worms Somewhat too early where's the crime of this ? [ ValdezJ] Wild talk, my son ! But thy excess of feeling \to himself. ~\ Almost I fear it has unhing'd his brain. \_0rdonio.~\ Say, I had laid a body in the sun ! Well, in a month, there swarm forth from the corse A thousand, nay, ten thousand sentient beings In place of that one man. Say, I had kill'd him . Yet who shall tell me that each one and all Of these ten thousand lives, is not as happy As that one life, which being push'd aside, Made room for these unnumber'd [ Valdez.~\ mere madness ! He must be sooth'd, he must be disenchanted. His fond, too fond affection still doth brood O'er Alvar's fate, and still burns to avenge it. [Ordonio.] Yes ! yes ! e'en like a child that too abruptly Rous'd by a glare of light from deepest sleep Starts up bewilder'd and talks idly. Father, What if the Moors that made my brother's grave E'en now were digging ours ? What if the bolt, Though aim'd, I doubt not, at the son of Valdez, Yet miss'd its true aim when it fell on Alvar ? Leave all to me : the wizard must show more : These keys will bring me to him. Alvar in a Wizard's gown. [Alvar ] And this place my forefathers made for man ! This is the process of our love and wisdom To each poor brother that offends against us. With other ministrations, thou, O Nature ! Healest thy wandering and distemper'd child : Thou pourest on him thy soft influences, Thy sunny hues, fair forms, and breathing sweets ; The melodies of woods, and winds, and waters, Till he relent, and can no more endure To be a jarring and a disso'nant thing Amid this general dance and minstrelsy ; DRAMATIC READING HUMOUR. 159 But, bursting into spirit, wins his way, His angry spirit heal'd and harmoniz'd By the benignant touch of love and beauty. Hark ! I hear footsteps : nearer now, and nearer. What if it were my brother coming hither ? Thus far he knows me not : since last he knew me, Manhood has swoln my chest, and taught my voice A hoarser note : besides, he thinks me dead, And what the mind believes impossible, The bodi'ly sense is slow to recognise. Ordonio enters with a goblet in his hand. [Ordonio.] Hail, potent wizard ! in my gayer mood I pour'd forth a libation to old Pluto, And as I brimm'd the bowl, I thought on thee. Thou hast conspir'd against my life and honour, Hast trick'd me foully ; yet I hate thee not. Why should I hate thee ? this same world of ours, 'Tis but a pool amid a storm of rain, And we the' air-bladders that course up and down, And joust and tilt in merry tournament; And when one bladder runs foul of another, The weaker needs must break. [Alvar.] I see thy heart. There is a frightful glitter in thine eye Which doth betray thee. Inly-torturd mau, This is the reve'lry of a drunken anguish, Which fain would scoff away the pang of guilt, And quell each human feeling. [Ordonio. .] Feeling ! feeling ! The death of a man the breaking of a bubble 'Tis true I cannot sob for such misfortunes ; But faintuess, cold, and hunger curses on me If willingly I e'er inflicted them ! Come, take the beverage ; this chill place demands it. Ordonio proffers the goblet. [Alvar."] Yon insect on the wall, Which moves this way and that its hundred limbs, W T ere it a toy of mere mechanic craft, It were an infinitely curious thing. 160 DRAMATIC READING HUMOUR. But it has life, Ordonio : life, enjoyment, And, by the power of its miracu'lous will, Wields all the complex movements of its frame Unerringly to pleasurable ends. Saw I that insect on this goblet's brim, I would remove it with an anxious pity. [Ordonio.'] What meanest thou ? [Alvar.] There's poison in the wine. [Ordonio.'] Thou hast guess'd right ; there's poison in the [wine ; There's poison in t which of us two shall drink it? For one of us must die. [Alvar." Whom dost thou think me ? [Ordonio.] The' accomplice and sworn friend of Isidore. [Alvar.] I know him not. [Ordonio.] Good! good! that lie! by heaven It has restor'd me. Villain ! thou shalt drink it : Now I'm thy master. [Alvar.] Why, what strange solution Hast thou found out to satisfy thy fears, And drug them to unnatu'ral sleep? My master! Alvar takes the goblet, and throws it to the ground. [Ordonio.] Thou mountebank ! [Alvar.] Mountebank and villain ! Then what art thou ? For shame, put up thy sword ! What boots a weapon in a wither'd arm ? I fix mine eye upon thee, and thou tremblest : I speak, and fear and wonder crush thy rage, And turn it to a motionless distraction. Thou blind self- worshipper ! thy pride, thy cunning, Thy faith in universal villainy, Thy shallow sophisms, thy pretended scorn For all thy human brethren out upon them ! What have they done for thee ? have' they giv^n thee Cur'd thee of starting in thy sleep ? or made [peace ? The darkness pleasant when thou wak'st at midnight ? Art happy when alone? Canst walk by' thyself DRAMATIC READING HUMOUR. 161 With even step and quiet cheerfulness ? Yet, yet thou mayst be sav'd [Ordonio.] Sav'd? sav'd? [Alvar.] One pang ! Could I call up one pang of true remorse ! [Ordonio.] Where gott'st thou that fool's word ? Curse on Can it give up the dead, or recompact [remorse ! A mangled body ? [Alvar.] Ay, but Alvar [Ordmaou] Alvar ! Still Alvar ! Alvar howl it in mine ear ! Heap it like coals of fire upon my heart, And shoot it hissing through my brain ! [Alvar.] Alas! That day when thou didst leap from off the rock Into the waves, and grasp'd thy sinking brother, And bore him to the strand, then, son of Valdez, How sweet and musical the name of Alvar ! Then, then, Ordonio, he was dear to thee, And thou wast dear to him : Heaven only knows How very dear thou wast. Why didst thou hate him ? Heaven, how he would fall upon thy neck, And weep forgiveness ! [Ordonio.] Spirit of the dead ! Methinks I know thee ! ha ! my brain turns wild At its own dreams ! off off fantastic shadow ! [Alvar.] I fain would tell thee what I am, but dare not. [Ordonio.'] Cheat ! villain ! traitor ! whatsoe'er thou art 1 fear thee, man ! Alvar throws off his ivizard's gown. [Alvar.] Does then this thin disguise impenetrably Hide Alvar from thee ? Toil and painful wounds, And long impriso'nment in unwholesome dungeons, Have marr'd perhaps all trait and lineament Of what I was ! But chiefly, chiefly, brother, My anguish for thy guilt Ordonio brother ! Nay, nay, thou shalt embrace me. 162 DRAMATIC READING HUMOUR. [Ordonio, drawing back and gazing at him.] Touch me not ! Touch not pollution, Alvar ! I will die. He attempts to kill himself ; Alvar prevents him : [Alvar.] We will find means to save your honour. Live, Oh live, Ordonio ! for our father's sake ! Spare his gray hairs, and you may yet be happy. [Ordonio.] horror ! not a thousand years in heaven Could recompense this miserable heart, Or make it capable of one brief joy! Live ! live ! why, yes ! 'twere well to live with you : For is it fit a villain should be proud ? My brother ! I will kneel to you, my brother ! Forgive me, Alvar ! Curse me with forgiveness ! [Alvar.] Call back thy soul, Ordonio, and look round thee ! Now is the time for greatness : think that heaven Nay hear me, brother, hear ! some secret poison Drinks up thy spirits. [Ordonio.] Let the' eternal justice Prepare my puni'shment in the obscure world, I will not bear to live to live ! O agony ! And be myself alone my own sore torment ' 1 stand in silence like a slave before thee, That I may taste the wormwood and the gall, And satiate this self-accusing heart With bitterer agonies than death can give. Forgive me, Alvar ! Oh ! couldst thou forget me ! He runs despairingly to a distant part of the dungeon, and covers his face with his hands. [Alvar.] Just Heaven instructs us with an awful voice, That conscience rules us e'en against our choice. Our inward monitress to guide or warn If listen'd to; but if repell'd with scorn, At length, as dire Remorse, she reappears, Works in our guilty hopes, and selfish fears ; Still bids, Remember ; and still cries, Too late ; And, while she scares us, goads us to our fate. COLERIDGE. DRAMATIC READING HUMOUR. 163 10. Gesler, and Albert the son of William Tell, {J^ Gesler's natural manner, haughty and sullen, is partially sub- dued by his fear at the opening of the scene, but it appears as his fears diminish. Albert, Avith the tones, the address, and simplicity of a child, is steady and determined. [Gesler, .] Alone, alone! and every step the mist Thickens around me ! On these mountain tracks To lose one's way, they say is sometimes death. What hoa ! holloa ! No tongue replies to me I What thunder hath the horror of this silence ! I dare not stop the day, though not half run, Is not less sure to end his course ; and night, Dreary when through the social haunts of men Her solemn darkness walks, in such a place As this, comes wrapp'd in most appalling fear ! I dare not stop, nor dare I yet proceed, Begirt with hidden danger. If I take This hand, it carries me still deeper to The wild and savage solitudes I'd shun, Where once to faint with hunger, is to die : If this, it leads me to the precipice. Curs'd slaves ! To let me wander from them ! Hoa ! Holloa ! My voice sounds weaker to mine ear; I've not The strength to call I had, and through my limbs Cold tremor runs, and sickening faintness seizes Upon my heart ! O, heaven, have mercy ! See not The colour of the hands I lift to thee ! Look only on the strait wherein I stand, And pity it ! Let me not sink ! Uphold, Support me ! Mercy ! mercy ! He leans as against a rock, slupified with terror and ex~ haustion Albert approaches as from a distance, using his pole while he advances. [Albert."] I'll breathe upon this level, if the wind Will let me. Ha! a rock to shelter me ! Thanks to 't. A man, and fainting ! Courage, friend, 164 DRAMATIC READING HUMOUR. Courage ! A stranger that has lost his way Take heart take heart ; you're safe. How feel you Givts him drink from a flask. [now ? [Ge.sler ] Better. [Albert.'] You have lost your way upon the hill ? [Gesler.] I have. [Albert.'] And whither would you go? [Gesler.] To Altorf. [Albert.] I'll guide -you thither. [Gesler.~\ You're a child. [Albert.] I know The way : the track I've come is harder far To find. [Gesler. ] The track you've come ! What mean you? Sure You have not been still farther in the mountains ? [Albert.'] I've travelled from Mount Faigel. [Gesler. ] No one with thee? [Albert.] No one but God. [Gesler.] Do you not fear these storms? [Albert.] God's in the storm. [Gesler.] And there are torrents, too, That must be cross'd. [Albert.] God's by the torrent, too. [Gesler.] You're but a child. [Albert] God will be with a child. [Gesler.] You're sure you know the way? [Albert.] 'Tis but to keep The side of yonder stream. [Gesler.] But guide me safe, I'll give thee gold. [Albert.] I'll guide thee safe without. [Gesler.] Here's earnest for thee. Here I'll double that, Yea, treble it, but let me see the gate Of Altorf. Why do you refuse the gold ? Take i't. [Albert] No. DRAMATIC READING HUMOUR. 165 [Gtisler.] You shall. [Albert.] I will not. [Gesler.] Why ? [Albert.] Because I do not covet it ; and, though I did, It would be wrong to take it as the price Of doing one a kindness. [Gesler.] Ha ! who taught Thee that ? [Albert.] My father. [Gesler.] Does he live in Altorf ? [Albert.] No, in the mountains. [Gesler.] How! a mountaineer ? He should become a tenant of the city ; He'd gain by i't. [Albert.] Not so much as he might lose by 't. [Gesler] What might he lose by 't ? [Albert.] Liberty. [Gesler.] Indeed ! He also taught thee that ? [Albert.] He did. [Gesler.] His name ? [Albert.] This is the way to Altorf, sir. [Gesler] I'd know Thy father's name. [Albert.] The day is wasting we Have far to go. [Gesler.] Thy father's name, I say? [Albert.] I will not tell it thee. [Gesler.] Not tell it me ! Why? [Albert.] You may be an enemy of his. [Gesler.] May be a friend. [ Albert.] May be ; but should you be An enemy Although I would not tell you 166 DRAMATIC READING HUMOUR. My father's name, I'd guide you safe to Altorf. Will you follow me? [Gesler.] Ne'er mind thy father's name : What would it profit me to know 't ? Thy hand ; We are not enemies. [Albert.'] I never had An enemy. [G ester.] Lead on. [Albert.] Advance your staff As you descend, and fix it well. Come on. [Gesler.] What, must we take that steep ? [Albert.'] 'Tis nothing. Come, I'll go before ne'er fear. Come on come on '. SHERIDAN KNOWLES. 11. Adrastus, King of Argos ; Crythes, Captain of the Guard ; Ion, a foundling brought up in the family oj the Priest of Apollo, and subsequently discovered to be the son ofAdrastus. {^ Adrastus must be proud, stern, authoritative iu manner, and sudden in passion : Crythes, restrained and cautious : Ion, youth- ful in manner, mild but firm, and his elocution smooth and graceful. [Adrastus.'] The air breathes freshly after our long night Of glorious revelry. I '11 walk awhile. [Crythes.'] It blows across the town; dost thou not fear It bear infection with it ? [Adrastus. ] Fear ! dost talk Of fear tome? Let the air blast me now ! I stir not ; tremble not ; these massive walls, Whose date o'erawcs tradition, gird the home Of a great race of kings, along whose line The eager mind lives aching, through the darkness Of ages else unstoried, till its shapes Of armed sovereigns spread to godlike port, And, frowning in the' uncertain dawn of time, Strike awe, as powers who ml'd an elder world, DRAMATIC HEADING HDMOUR. 167 In mute obedience. I, sad heritor Of all their glories, feel our doom is nigh ; And I will meet it as befits their fame ; Nor will I vary my selected path The breadth of my sword's edge, nor check a wish, If such unkingly yielding might avert it. [Crythes.] Thou a'rt ever royal in thy thoughts. [Adrnstus."] No more I would he private. [Exit Crtfthes.] Grovelling parasite ! Why should I waste these fate-environ'd hours, And pledge my great defiance to despair With flatterers such as thou ; as if my joys Requir'd the pale reflection cast by slaves In mirror'd mockery round my throne, or lack'd The aid of reptile sympathies, to stream Through fate's black pageantry. Let weakness seek Companionship : I '11 henceforth feast alone. Crythes re-enters. [Crythex.] My liege, forgive me. [Adrastus."] Well ! Speak out at once Thy business, and retire. [Crythes.'] I have no part In the presumptu'ous message that I bear. [Adrastus,] Tell it, or go. There is no time to waste On idle terrors. [Crythes. ] Thus it is, my lord : As they were burnishing their arms, a man Enter'd the court, and when they saw him first Was tending towards the palace ; in amaze We hail'd the rash intruder ; still he walk'd Unheeding onward, till the western gate Barr'd further course ; then turning, he besought Our startled band to herald him to thee, That he might urge a message, which the sages Had charg'd him to deliver. [Adrastus.] Ha ! the graybeards 168 DRAMATIC READING HUMOUR. Who, mid the altars of the gods, conspire Against the image of supernal power On earth? What sage is so resolv'd to play the That he would die for 't ? [orator [Crythes.] He is but a youth, Yet urg'd his prayer with a sad constancy Which could not he denied. [Adrastus.] Most bravely plann'd ! Sedition worthy of the reverend host Of sophist traitors ! 'Tis fit when burning to insult their king, And, warn'd the pleasure must be bought with life, Their valour send a boy to speak their wisdom. Thou know'st my last decree ; tell this rash youth The danger he incurs ; then let him pass, And own the king more gentle than his masters. [Crythes.] They have already told him of the fate Which waits his daring ; courteously he thank'd us, But still with solemn accent urg'd his suit. [Adrastus.] Tell him once more, if he persists, he dies Then, if he will, admit him. Should he hold His purpose, then do thou conduct him hither, And see the headsman instantly prepare To do his office. [Exit Crythes.] So resolv'd, so young 'Twere pity he should fall ; yet he must fall, Or the great sceptre which hath sway'd the fears Of ages, will become a common staff For youth to wield, or age to rest upon, Despoil'd of all its virtues. He must fall, Else they who prompt the insult will grow bold, And, with their pesti'lent vauntings through the city, Raise the low fog of murky discontent, [place, Which now creeps harmless through its marshy birth. To veil my setting glories. He is warn'd ; And if he cross yon threshold, he shall die. Re-enter Crythes, icith Ion, [Crythes.] The king ! DRAMATIC READING HUMOUR. 169 [Adrastus.] Stranger, I bid thee welcome ; We are about to tread the same dark passage, [swore, Thou almost on the instant. [To Crythes.] Is the Of justice sharpen'd, and the headsman ready ? [Crythes] Thou mayst behold them plainly in the court ; Even now the solemn soldiers line the ground, The steel gleams on the altar, and the slave Disrobes himself for duty. [Adrastus to Ion.'] Dost thou see them ? [/on.] I do. [Adrastus.] By heaven he does not change ! If, even now, thou wilt depart, and leave Thy traito'rous thoughts unspoken, thou art free. [Ion.'] I thank thee for thy offer ; but I stand Before thee for the lives of thousands, rich In all that makes life precious to the brave ; Who perish not alone, but in their fall Break the far-spreading tendrils that they feed, And leave them nuitureless. If thou wilt hear me For them, I am content to speak no more. [Adrastus.] Thou hast thy wish then. Crythes ! till yon Cast its thin shadow on the approaching hour, [dial I hear this gallant traitor. On the instant, Come without word, and lead him to his doom. Now leave us. [Crytkes.] What, alone? [Adrastux.] Yes, slave ! alone. He i's no assassin ! [Exit Cry the.*.] Tell me who thou art. What generous source owns that heroic blood [wars Which holds its course thus bravely? What great Have nurs'd the courage that can look on death, Certain and speedy death, with placid eye ? [/on.] I am a simple youth, who never bore The weight of armour, one who may not boast Of noble birth, or valour of his own. Deem not the powers which nerve me thus to speak i 170 DRAMATIC READING HUMOUR. In thy great presence, and have made my heart, Upon the verge of bloody death, as calm, As equal in its beatings, as when sleep Approach'd me nestling from the sportive toils Of thoughtless childhood to belong to me ! These are the strengths of Heaven ; to thee they Bid thee to hearken to thy people's cry, [speak, Or warn thee that thy hour must shortly come ! [warnings. [Adrastus.] I know it must; so mayst thou spare thy The envious gods in me have doom'd a race, Whose glories stream from the same cloud-girt founts, Whence their own dawn'd upon the infant world ; And I shall sit on my ancestral throne To meet their vengeance ; but till then, I rule As I have ever rul'd, and thou wilt feel. [Ion.] I will not further urge thy safety to thee ; It may be, as thou say'st, too late ; nor seek To make thee tremble at the gathering curse Which shall burst forth in mockery at thy fall But thou art gifted with a nobler sense I know thou art, my sovereign ! sense of pain Endur'd by myriad Argives, in whose souls, And in whose fathers' souls, thou and thy fathers Have kept their cherish'd state ; whose heart-strings, The living fibres of thy rooted power, [still Quiver with agonies thy crimes have drawn From heavenly justice on them. [Adrastus.'] How ! my crimes ? [/on.] Yes ; 'tis the eternal law, that where guilt is, Sorrow shall answer it ; and thou hast not A poor man's privilege to bear alone, Or in the narrow circle of his kinsmen, The penalties of evil ; for in thine A nation's fate lies circled. King Adrastus ! Steel'd as thy heart is with the usages Of pomp and power, a few short summers since Thou wast a child, and canst not be relentless. Oh, if maternal love embrac'd thee then, DRAMATIC READING - HUMOUR. Ill Think of the mothers who, with eyes unwet, Glare o'er their peri'shing children : hast thou shar'd The glow of a first friendship, which is born Midst the rude sports of boyhood ? think of youth Smitten amidst its playthings, let the spirit Of thy own inno'cent childhood whisper pity ! In every word thou dost but steel my soul. My youth was blasted ; parents, brother, kin All that should people infancy with joy Conspir'd to poison mine ; despoil'd my life Of innocence and hope all but the sword And sceptre dost thou wonder at me now ? [/OH.] I knew that we should pity - [Adrastus.'] Pity! dare To speak that word again, and torture waits thee ! I am yet king of Argos. Well, go on Thy time is short, and I am pledg'd to hear. [Ion.] If thou hast ever lov'd [Adrastus.] Beware ! beware ! [marble, [/on.] Thou hast ! I see thou hast ! Thou art not And thou shalt hear me ! Think upon the time When the clear depths of thy yet lucid soul Were ruffled with the troublings of strange joy, As if some unseen visitant from heaven Touched the calm lake and wreath'd its images In sparkling waves ; recal the dallying hope That on the margin of assurance trembled, As loth to lose in certainty too bless'd Its happy being ; taste in thought again Of the stolen sweetness of those evening-walks, When pansied turf was air to winged feet ; When circling forests, by ethereal touch Enchanted, wore the livery of the sky ; When thy heart, Enlarg'd by its new sympathy with one, Grew bountiful to all ! i 2 172 DRAMATIC READING HUMOUR. [Adrastus."] That tone ! that tone ! Whence came it? from thy lips? It cannot be The long-hush'd music of the only voice That ever spake unbought affection to me, And wak'd my sovil to blessing ! O, sweet hours Of golden joy, ye come ! Your glories break Through my pavilion'd spirit's sable folds ! Roll on ! roll on ! Stranger, thou dost enforce me To speak of things unbreath'd by lip of mine To human ear : wilt listen ? [Ton.] As a child. [AdrastusJ] Again ! that voice again ! thou ha'st seen As never mortal saw me, by a tone [me mov'd Which some light breeze, enamour'd of the sound, Hath wafted through the woods, till thy young voice Caught it to rive and melt me. At my birth This city, which, expectant of its prince, Lay hush'd, broke out in clamo'rous ecstacies ; Yet, in that moment, while the uplifted cups Foam'd with the choicest product of the sun, And welcome thunder'd from a thousand throats, My doom was seal'd. From the hearth's vacant space, In the dark chamber where my mother lay, Faint with the sense of pain-bought happiness, Came forth, in heart-appalling tone, these words Of me, the nursling * Woe unto the babe ! Against the life which now begins, shall life, Lighted from thence, be arm'd, and, both soon End this great line in sorrow ! ' [quench'd, Ere I grew Of years to know myself a thing accurs'd, A second son was born, to steal the love Which fate had else scarce rifled : he became My parents' hope, the darling of the crew Who liv'd upon their smiles, and thought it flattery To trace in every foible of my youth A prince's youth ! the workings of the curse ; My very mother Jove! I cannot bear To speak it now look'd freezingly upon me ! DRAMATIC READING HUMOUR. 173 [Ion,] But thy brother [Adraslus.~] Died. Thou hast heard the lie, The common lie that every peasant tells Of me, his master, that I slew the boy. 'Tis false ! One summer's eve, below a crag Which, in his wilful mood, he strove to climb, He lay a mangled corpse : the very slaves Whose cruelty had shut him from my heart, Now coin'd their own injustice into proofs To brand me as his murderer. [/