care - you know I am compliance itself — when I am not when I have my own no one more easily led thwarted; Abs. Sir, I must repeat it - in this I cannot obey you. Sir Anth. Now damn me! if ever I call you Jack again while I live! Abs. Nay, sir, but hear me. Sir Anth. Sir, I won't hear a word not a word! not one word! so give me your promise by a nod — and I'll tell you what, Jack — I mean, you dog if you don't, by Abs. What, sir, promise to link myself to some mass of ugliness! to Sir Anth. Zounds! sirrah! the lady shall be as ugly as I choose: she shall have a hump on each shoulder; she shall be as crooked as the crescent; her one eye shall roll like the bull's in Cox's Museum; she shall have a skin like a mummy, and the beard of a Jew she shall be all this, sirrah!—yet I will make you ogle her all day, and sit up all night to write sonnets on her beauty. Abs. This is reason and moderation indeed! Sir Anth. None of your sneering, puppy! no grinning, jackanapes! Abs. Indeed, sir, I never was in a worse humour for mirth in my life. Sir Anth. 'Tis false, sir, I know you are laughing in your sleeve; I know you 'll grin when I am gone, sirrah! Abs. Sir, I hope I know my duty better. Sir Anth. None of your passion, sir! none of your violence, if you please! It won't do with me, I promise you. Abs. Indeed, sir, I never was cooler in my life. Sir Anth. "Tis a confounded lie! - I know you are in a passion in your heart; I know you are, you hypocritical young dog! but it won't do. Abs. Nay, sir, upon my word – ? Sir Anth. So you will fly out! can't you be cool like me What the devil good can passion do? Passion is of no service, you impudent, insolent, overbearing reprobate! — There, you sneer again! don't provoke me! — but you rely upon the mildness of my temper―you do, you dog! you play upon the be overcome at last! — but mark! I give you six of a saint you then agree, without any condition, to do everything on earth that I choose, why- confound you! I may in time forgive you. -If not, zounds! don't enter the same hemisphere with me! don't dare to breathe the same air, or use the same light with me; but get an atmosphere and a sun of your own! I'll strip you of your commission; I'll lodge a five-and-threepence in the hands of trustees, and you shall live on the interest. -I'll disown you, I'll disinherit you, I'll unget you! and damn me! if ever I call you Jack again! [Exit. Abs. Mild, gentle, considerate father I kiss your hands! What a tender method of giving his opinion in these matters Sir Anthony has! I dare not trust him with the truth. -I wonder what old wealthy hag it is that he wants to bestow on me!-Yet he married himself for love! and was in his youth a bold intriguer, and a gay companion! Re-enter Fag Fag. Assuredly, sir, your father is wroth to a degree; he comes down stairs eight or ten steps at a time— muttering, growling, and thumping the banisters all the way: I and the cook's dog stand bowing at the door-rap! he gives me a stroke on the head with his cane; bids me carry that to my master; then kicking the poor turnspit into the area, damns us all, for a puppy triumvirate ! Upon my credit, sir, were I in your place, and found my father such very bad company, I should certainly drop his acquaintance. Abs. Cease your impertinence, sir, at present. - Did you come in for nothing more? Stand out of the way! [Pushes him aside, and exit. Fag. So! Sir Anthony trims my master; he is afraid to reply to his father then vents his spleen on poor Fag! When one is vexed by one person, to revenge one's self on another, who happens to come in the way, is the vilest injustice! Ah! it shows the worst temper -the basest Enter Boy Boy. Mr. Fag! Mr. Fag! your master calls you. Boy. Quick, quick, Mr. Fag! Fag. Quick! quick! you impudent jackanapes! am I to be commanded by you too? you little impertinent, insolent, [Exit kicking and beating him. kitchen-bred CHAPTER IX THE MUSIC OF SPEECH 40. The difference between emotional and unemotional utterance THOUGH inflection and pitch variation serve to express thought by showing the logical relation of ideas and the relative value of words in revealing meaning accurately. there is in impressive speech a melody made up of pitch intervals, inflections, and cadences not like that of speech in which ideas only are stated. We do not speak the lines Sunset and evening star, And one clear call for me, with the matter-of-fact directness we should use in saying, "It is getting dark; it's time for me to go home." Like. wise, emotional passages in narrative, descriptive, and oratorical prose are elevated in melody above the style of ordinary talk. The power of the following passage would be lost were it spoken in the prosaic, commonplace manner of everyday utterance. With a wan, fevered face, tenderly lifted to the cooling breeze. he looked out wistfully upon the ocean's changing wonders; on its far sails; on its restless waves, rolling shoreward to break and die beneath the noonday sun; on the red clouds of evening. arching low to the horizon; on the serene and shining pathway to the stars. Let us think that his dying eyes read a mystic meaning which only the rapt and parting soul may know. Let us believe that in the silence of the receding world he heard the great waves breaking on the farther shore and felt already upon his wasted brow the breath of the eternal morning. J. G. Blaine: Funeral Oration on Garfield.1 1 Used with the kind permission of the Superintendent of Documents, Washington, D.C. As speech becomes imbued with imagination and feeling it rises in cadence above that of discursive, matter-of-fact talk, and assumes something of the qualities and melody of song.1 The melody of speech through which imagination and feeling are expressed, and by means of which these faculties are awakened in the listener, may be considered under three aspects, namely: (1) Key, (2) Pitch intervals, and (3) Inflection. 1. Key. The prevailing and dominant pitch of the voice during the reading of a poem, or piece of prose, or in the delivery of an address, is called key. Fundamentally, all changes in key may be traced to changes in mental and emotional states. Excitement produces muscular tension, and consequently a higher pitch of the voice, while calm and controlled moods result in a less tense bodily condition and a lower tone of the voice. The temperament of the individual, the conditions under which he speaks, the character of the thought he utters and its effect upon him, all influence the key of the voice. a. The effect of temperament and physical constitution on the key of the voice. As individuals differ in temperament and physical make-up, so voices differ in their characteristic pitch. Thus we have tenor and baritone, soprano and contralto singers, and voices of high, middle, and low pitch in speakers.2 1 Poetry, and all literature and speech, the power of which is derived from imagination and emotion, has certain characteristics of song. Poetry, the nearest approach in literature to music, has rhythm, key, melody, and "concord of sweet sounds." Through these musical qualities its spirit is expressed, and without these it would not be poetry. The problem of rendering the sense and meaning of verse clearly without making it prosaic, and its imagination and emotion and beauty musically without singing it, is one of the most difficult tasks of the reader who aims at a simple, natural, and forceful style. 2 The voice of each individual should be used on the key and through the range of the scale that is most normal and easy for the particular voice. While the range of individual voices may be extended by training, there should be no forcing of the voice from its normal pitch and range in an effort |
