FLAV. But wherefore art not in thy shop to-day? Why dost thou lead these men about the streets?

2D CIT. Truly, sir, to wear out their shôes, to get myself into more work. But, indeed, sir, we make holiday, to see Ca'sar, and to rejoice in his triumph.

In the last sentence, the citizen drops his jesting, and speaks in earnest; and therefore with the straight slides.

Examples of sarcasm and irony.

2. "Now, sir, what was the conduct of your own allies to Poland? Is there a single atrocity of the French in Italy, in Switzerland, in Egypt if you please, more unprincipled and inhuman than that of Russia, Austria, and Prussia, in Poland? "O, but you 'regrêtted the partition of Poland!' Yês, regrêtted!—you regrêtted the violence, and that is all you

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did."

3. "They boast they come but to improve our state, enlarge our thoughts, and frêe us from the yoke of êrror! Yês, they will give enlightened freedom to oûr minds, who are themselves the slaves of passion, avarice, and pride! They offer us protêction! yês, sûch protection as vûltures give to lambs - covering and devouring them! Tell your invaders we seek nò change — and least of all such change as they would bring us!'

4. "Good Lord! when one man dies who wears a crown,

How the earth trembles, - how the nations gape,

-

Amazed and awed! - but when that one man's victims,

Poor worms, unclothed in purple, daily die

In the grim cell, or on the groaning gibbet,

Or on the civil field, ye pitying souls

Drop not one tear from your indifferent eyes!"

5. CASSIUS. Urge me no more! I shall forget myself; Have mind upon your health; tempt me no further.

BRUTUS. Away, slight man!

CAS. Is't possible?

BRU. Hear me, for I will speak.

Must I give way and room to your rash choler?

Shall I be frightened when a madman stares?

CAS. O ye gods! ye gods! Must I endure all this?
BRU. All this? Ay, more. Fret till your proud heart break;

Go show your slaves how choleric you are,

And make your bondmen tremble! Must I budge?
Must I observe you? Must I stand and crouch
Under your testy humor?

You shall digest the venom of your spleen,

Though it do split you; for, from this day forth,
I'll use you for my mirth, yea, for my laughter,
When you are waspish.

CAS. Is it come to this!

BRU. You say you are a better soldier :

Let it appear so; make your vaunting true,

And it shall please me well. For mine own part,

I shall be glad to learn of nobler men.

LENGTH OF SLIDES.

The length of the slides depends on the 'general spirit' or 'kind' of what is read.

PRINCIPLE.

If the general spirit is 'unemotional,' the slides are 'moderate.'

If the general spirit is 'bold,' 'joyous,' or 'noble,' the slides are 'long.'

If the general spirit is 'subdued or pathetic' or 'grave,' the slides are short.'

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Examples for the moderate' slide, or in the definite language of music, the "Third."

"Can I speak with you a móment?" "Certainly."

"The ancient Spartans were not less remarkable for their bravery in the field of battle, than for brevity and wit in thei answers. We have a memorable instance of their national spírit, in the reply of the old wàrrior who was told that the arrows of the Persian host flew so thick as to darken the sùn. 'So much the better,' was his answer; we shall enjoy the advantage of fighting in the shade.""

Examples for the 'long' slide, or the “Fifth."

"What but liberty

Through the famed course of thirteen hundred years,
Aloof hath held invàsion from your hills,

And sanctified their name? And will ye, will ye
Shrink from the hopes of the expecting world,
Bid your high hónors stoop to foreign ínsult,
And in one hour give up to infamy
The harvest of a thousand years of glóry?
Die all first? Yès, die by piècemeal!
Leave not a lìmb o'er which a Dàne can triumph!

"True courage but from opposition grows,
And what are fifty, what a thousand slâves,
Matched to the virtue of a single arm
That strikes for liberty? that strikes to save
His fields from fire, his infants from the sword,
And his large honors from eternal infamy?"

"Ye men of Sweden, wherefore are ye come?
See
ye not yonder, how the locusts swarm,
To drink the fountains of your honor up,
And leave your hills a desert? Wretched men!
Why came ye forth? Is this a time for sport?

Or are ye met with song and jovial feast,

To welcome your new guests, your Danish visitants?
To stretch your supple necks beneath their feet
And fawning lick the dust? Go, go, my countrymen,
Each to your several mansions, trim them out,
Cull all the tedious earnings of your toil,
To purchase bondage. O, Swedes! Swedes!
Heavens are ye men and will ye suffer this?-
There was a time, my friends, a glorious time!
When, had a single man of your forefathers
Upon the frontier met a host in arms,

His courage scarce had turned; himself had stood,
Alone had stood, the bulwark of his country."

Example for the 'short' slide, or the "Minor Third." "Dear, gentle, patient, noble Nell was dead. Her little bird, a poor, slight thing the pressure of a finger would have crúshed, was stirring nimbly in its cáge, and the strong Iheart of its child-mistress was mute and motionless forever!

"Sórrow was dead, indeed, in her; but pèace and perfect happiness were bòrn, — imaged —in her tranquil beauty and profound repose.

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Waking, she never wandered in her mind but once, and that was at beautiful music, which, she said, was in the air! God knows. It may have been.

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Opening her eyes at last from a very quiet sleep, she begged that they would kiss her once again. That done, she turned to the old màn, with a lovely smile upon her fáce, such, they said, as they had never séen, and never could forgét, and clung, with both her arms, about his neck. She had never murmured or complained; but with a quiet mind, and mánner quite unaltered, save that she every day became more earnest and more grateful to them, — faded like the light upon the summer's evening."

PITCH.

1. The standard pitch' or 'key-note.' 2. The relative pitch' or 'melody.'

The middle pitch is the natural key-note for 'unemotional,' 'bold,' and 'noble' pieces. A higher pitch is the natural key-note for animated and joyous,' 'subdued or pathetic,' and 'impassioned' pieces. A lower pitch is required for 'grave' pieces.

The middle or conversational pitch must be used for all 'kinds' when pupils have not the requisite compass or cultivation of voice to read naturally on a higher or a lower ‘key.'

But appropriate variety of pitch on the successive words and syllables is one of the most essential and beautiful parts of good reading. In perfect elocution, it adds to the eloquence of expressive emphasis the musical charm of natural melody.'

NATURAL MELODY

Is produced in part by that agreeable modulation of all the elements of expression, which the varied sense and feeling demand, yet it chiefly depends on a pleasing variation of the radical or opening pitch, on successive syllables.

PRINCIPLE.

1. Not more than two or three consecutive syllables should be given on the same tone of the musical scale.

2. Natural melody demands that this frequent change of pitch on the unemphatic syllables shall be only one tone at a time.

The unemphatic syllables form a kind of flexible ladder connecting the emphatic ideas, up and down which we must glide tone by tone, so as to be in the right place to give the longer slides on the emphatic words without an unmelodious break in the natural current of the voice, which should flow on smoothly through all changes (unless there is an abrupt break in the ideas), just as a good road runs on over ever-varying hills and vales without once losing its smooth continuity.