ページの画像
PDF
ePub

- -

and demands three lines to mark its relative time in reading. "Study" is emphatic in the first degree, and needs only two lines to mark its time. Thus analyze all the following ideas and selections; and mark, in reading them, the relative importance or emphasis of each, by the time' as well as by the force' of the voice. Further on in the piece above, we come to the great positive idea, "attention," which must be doubly emphasized; and as it is repeated for emphasis, it then demands four lines to mark its superlative importance.

[ocr errors]
[ocr errors]

6

6

6

There are few readers or speakers who make as good use of 'time' as of force.' Yet time' gives as expressive lights and shades as force,' and should be varied as much, according to the same principle. In reading 'grave,' subdued or pathetic,' and noble' sentiments, time is far more prominent than force, and is thus a nobler element of emphasis. Let the example be read many times, to fix in the reader's mind the principle, and the habit of applying it correctly.

2. "What polish is to the diamond, manner is to the individual. It heightens the value and the charm. The manner is, in some sense, the mirror of the mind. It pictures and represents the thoughts and emotions within. We cannot always be engaged in expressive action. But even when we are silent, even when we are not in action, there is something in our air and manner, which expresses what is elevated, or what is low; what is human and benignant, or what is coarse and harsh.

"The charm of manner consists in its simplicity, its grace, and its sincerity. How important the study of manner!"

This example demands 'slower' standard time than the one above, because the general spirit' is nobler. The emphatic quantity and pauses are proportionately longer.

3. "Such was Grace Darling, || one of the HEROINES ||| of humanity, — || whose name is destined to live || as long as the sympathies | and affections || of HUMANITY | endure. || Such calm | HEROISM ||| as hers, || so generously || exerted for the good of others, || is one of the NOBLEST ||| attributes of the soul of man. It had no alloy of blind | animal ||

[ocr errors]

passion, like the bravery of the soldier || on the field of battle, || but it was spiritual, || CELESTIAL, ||| and we may reverently add, | GODLIKE." ||||

Examples of the animated or joyous' kind, for 'fast' standard time, and 'short' standard pauses.

[THE VOICE OF SPRING."]

1 "I come! I come! ||| ye have called me | long! ||
I come o'er the mountains || with light and song! |
Ye may trace my step | o'er the wakening | earth, ||
By the winds || which tell | of the violet's || birth, |
By the primrose stars || in the shadowy grass, ||
By the green leaves || opening || as I pass. ||

"From the streams and founts I have loosed the chain,
They are sweeping on to the silvery main,

They are flashing down from the mountain brows,
They are flinging spray o'er the forest-boughs,
They are bursting fresh from their sparry caves;
And the earth resounds with the joy of waves!"

2. "Then fancy || her magical | pinions | spread wide, || And bade the young dreamer | in ecstasy || rise; || Now, far, far behind him || the green waters || glide, |

And the cot of his forefathers || blesses || his eyes. |

“The jessamine || clambers | in flower | o'er the thatch, | And the swallow || sings sweet || from her nest | in the

3.

wall;

All trembling | with transport, || he raises the latch, |
And the voices of loved ones || reply to his call.” ||

66

[ocr errors]

every

Every one is doubtful what course to take, one | but Cæsar ! || He || causes the banner || to be erected, || the charge to be sounded, the soldiers at a distance | to be recalled,

- all in a moment. He runs from place to

place; || his whole frame ||| is in action; || his words, || his looks, his motions, || his gestures, || exhort his men to remember their former valor. || He draws them up, and causes the signal to be given,—| all in a moment. He seizes a buckler from one of the private men, puts himself || at the head of his broken troops, || darts into the thick || of | the battle, rescues || his legions, || and overthrows ||| the enemy!"

'Grave' examples for 'slow' standard time.

1.

"But where, || thought I, | is the crew? || Their struggle has long been over; they have gone down | amidst

the roar of the tempest; caverns of the deep. ||

[ocr errors]
[ocr errors]

their bones lie whitening | in the Silence. ||| oblivion—|||| like the waves, || have closed over them; || and no one can tell || the story of their end. |

"What sighs have been wafted after that ship! || What prayers || offered up | at the deserted fireside of home! || How often has the mistress, || the wife, || and the mother || pored 1 over the daily news, || to catch some casual intelligence | of this rover of the deep! || How has expectation || darkened | into anxiety,—|| anxiety | into dread, — ||| and dread || into despair! | Alas! || not one | memento | shall ever return | for love || to cherish. || All that shall ever be known, | is, | that she sailed from her port, || and was never || heard of || more." ||||

[ocr errors]
[ocr errors]

[ocr errors]

Grave' example for very slow time' and very long pauses.'

2. "It must be so. || Plato, || thou reasonest well! || Else whence this pleasing hope, || this fond desire, || This longing ||| after immortality? ||||

[ocr errors]

Or whence this secret dread ||| and inward horror |||
Of falling into naught? |||| Why | shrinks the soul |
Back on herself, || and startles || at destruction?!|||

"T is the Divinity || that stirs | within us : ||

'Tis Heaven || itself ||| that points out an hereafter, ||
And intimates | Eternity || to man. ||

Eternity! thou pleasing,-|| dreadful thought!" ||||

'Pathetic' example for slow' standard time.

3. "Alas! || my noble boy! ||| that thou | shouldst die! |||
Thou, || who wert made | so beautifully fair ! |||
That death should settle | in thy glorious eye, ||
And leave his || stillness ||| in thy clustering hair! |||
How could he || mark thee |||| for the silent tomb, |||
My proud boy, || Absalom!" ||||

SLIDES.

In perfectly natural speech, the voice rises or falls on each unemphatic syllable through the interval of one tone only, but on the accented syllable of an emphatic word it rises or falls

MORE THAN ONE TONE.

This last is called the inflection or slide' of the voice. The 'slides' are thus a part of emphasis, and as they give the right direction and limit to 'force' and 'time,' they are the crowning part of perfect emphasis.

When contrasted ideas, of equal importance, are coupled, nothing but the contrasted slides can give the proper distinctive emphasis. The slides also furnish to elocution its most ample and varied lights and shades of emotional expression.

[ocr errors]

These slides are rising,' marked thus ('); or 'falling,' marked thus ('); or both of these blended, in the 'rising' circumflex and the falling' circumflex, marked respectively thus () and thus (^).

The rising' and 'falling' slides separate the great mass of ideas into two distinct classes; the first comprising all the subordinate, or incomplete, or as we prefer to name them, the negative ideas; the second comprising all the principal, or complete, or as we shall call them, the positive ideas.

The most important parts of what is spoken or written are those which affirm something positively, such as the facts and truths asserted, the principles, sentiments, and actions enjoined,

with the illustrations, and reasons, and appeals which enforce them.

All these may properly be grouped into one class, because they all should have the same kind of slide in reading.

This class we call 'POSITIVE ideas.'

So all the other ideas which do not affirm or enjoin anything positively, which are circumstantial and incomplete, or in open contrast with the positive, all these ideas may be properly grouped into another single class, because they all should have the same kind of slide.

This class we call NEGATIVE ideas.'

Grant to the words 'positive' and 'negative' the comprehensive meaning here given to them, and let the distinction between the two classes be clearly made in the preparatory analysis, and it will be vastly easier to understand and teach this most complicated and difficult part of elocution, the right use of the rising and falling slides.

For, then, the one simple principle which follows will take the place, and preclude the use of, all the usual perplexing rules, with their many suicidal exceptions.

PRINCIPLE FOR RISING OR FALLING SLIDES.

POSITIVE ideas should have the 'falling' slide; NEGATIVE ideas should have the rising' slide.

6

Examples for the rising and falling slides.

“The war must go òn. We must fight it thròugh. And if the war must go ón, why put off lònger the declaration of independence? That measure will strengthen us. It will give us character abroad.

“The cause will raise up àrmies; the cause will create nàvies. The people, the people, if we are true to them, will carry ús, and will carry themselves, gloriously thròugh this struggle. Sir, the declaration will inspire the people with increased coùrage. Instead of a long and bloody war for restorátion of privileges, for redréss of grievances, for chartered immúnities, held under a British king, set before them the glorious object of entire indepèndence, and it will breathe into them anèw the breath of life.

« 前へ次へ »