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Notice the slides in the following:

The bride kissed the goblet: the knight took it up,
He quaffed off the wine, and he threw down the cup.
She looked down to blush, and she looked up to sigh,
With a smile on her lips, and a tear in her eye.
He took her soft hand, ere her mother could bar,-
"Now tread we a measure!" said young Lochinvar.

So stately his form, and so lovely her face,
That never a hall such a galliard did grace;
While her mother did fret, and her father did fume,
And the bridegroom stood dangling his bonnet and plume;
And the bride-maidens whispered, ""Twere better by far
To have matched our fair cousin with young Lochinvar."
SIR WALTER SCOTT.

I had rather be a dog and bay the moon,
Than such a Roman!

SHAKESPEARE.

VOLUME.

The emphasis of volume is largeness or fullness of tone added to the forms of emphasis already noticed. It is never used alone. It expresses magnitude, vastness, deep

and noble emotion.

Hold the thought of the following in mind until the volume of voice comes naturally, not mechanically.

Around thee and above

Deep is the air and dark, substantial, black,
An ebon mass: methinks thou piercest it
As with a wedge! But when I look again,
It is thine own calm home, thy crystal shrine,
Thy habitation from eternity!

S. T. COLERIDGE.

Roll on, thou deep and dark-blue Ocean-roll!
Ten thousand fleets sweep over thee in vain;
Man marks the earth with ruin-his control
Stops with the shore;-upon the watery plain
The wrecks are all thy deed, nor doth remain
A shadow of man's ravage, save his own,
When, for a moment, like a drop of rain,
He sinks into thy depths with bubbling groan,
Without a grave, unknelled, uncoffined, and unknown.
LORD BYRON.

FORCE.

The emphasis of force is greater stress of voice on words or syllables. The emphasis of volume has breadth and vastness; the emphasis of force, strength, will, directness. It gives strength and decision to speech.

Study the thought of the following selection until you feel its fire and its force. Read it aloud repeatedly, endeavoring each time to speak to your audience, directly, earnestly, and with determination in your voice:

Once more unto the breach, dear friends, once more,
Or close the wall up with our English dead!

In peace there's nothing so becomes a man

As modest stillness and humility;

But when the blast of war blows in our ears,
Then imitate the action of the tiger:
Stiffen the sinews, summon up the blood,
Disguise fair nature with hard-favor'd rage;

Hold hard the breath, and bind up every spirit
To his full height. On, on, you noble English:

I see you stand like greyhounds in the slips,

Straining upon the start. The game's afoot:
Follow your spirit, and upon this charge

'God for Harry, England and Saint George!'

SHAKESPEARE.

Shylock [Aside]. How like a fawning publican he looks!

I hate him for he is a Christian;

But more for that in low simplicity

He lends out money gratis and brings down.

The rate of usance here with us in Venice.
If I can catch him once upon the hip,

I will feed fat the ancient grudge I bear him.
He hates our sacred nation; and he rails,
Even there where merchants most do congregate,
On me, my bargains, and my well-won thrift,
Which he calls interest. Cursèd be my tribe,
If I forgive him!

SHAKESPEARE.

THE PAUSE.*

The emphasis of pause is that lingering of the voice on an important word or words, or that pause before or after an important word, which is due to deep feeling. Mere mechanical pauses are the marks of the unskilled workman; pauses packed with thought and feeling are the marks of the artist.

As you read the following selection, think of the poet improvising at the organ, and imagine the music. Read slowly. Think ahead, and feel the beauty of the thought before you utter it.

* For emphasis of pause, read “The Ballad of Baby Belle,” by T. B. Aldrich.

A LOST CHORD

Seated one day at the Organ,
I was weary and ill at ease,
And my fingers wandered idly
Over the noisy keys;

I know not what I was playing,
Or what I was dreaming then;
But I struck one chord of music,
Like the sound of a great Amen.

It flooded the crimson twilight,

Like the close of an Angel's Psalm,
And it lay on my fevered spirit,
With a touch of infinite calm.

It quieted pain and sorrow,

Like love overcoming strife;
It seemed the harmonious echo
From our discordant life.

It linked all perplexed meanings
Into one perfect peace,
And trembled away into silence
As if it were loth to cease.

I have sought, but I seek it vainly,
That one lost chord divine,

That came from the soul of the Organ,
And entered into mine.

It may be that Death's bright angel
Will speak in that chord again,

It may be that only in Heaven
I shall hear that grand Amen.

ADELAIDE PROCTER.

DIVISION II

INTERPRETIVE READING THAT APPEALS TO THE

EMOTIONS

The steps in Division I. deal with the study of the thought and the mechanics of delivery that will make the thought clear to the understanding of the listener.

The steps in Division II. appeal not only to the understanding, but to the emotions of the listener.

The steps in Division II. are as follows:

I. Word pictures.

II. Atmosphere.

III. Tone color.

IV. Rhythm. Movement.

V. Personation.

CHAPTER I

Word Pictures

First, concentrate the mind on the literature studied in order to see the word pictures vividly. Give the imagination full play, because you cannot make others see vividly what you do not yourself see.

By expression of voice and face and body, try to interpret to others the picture that you see.

In locating the parts of a picture, place them a little to the right or left rather than directly front. Apply the laws of perspective in the composition of gesture pictures.

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