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To secure thorough stress, a good way is to make the hand and voice follow a line something like the following:

Examples:

Bid him forward, breast and back as either should be.
Strive and thrive! cry "Speed,” — fight on, fare ever
There as here! - BROWNING.

Ho! sound the tocsin from the tower,

And fire the culverin!

Bid each retainer arm with speed,

Call every vassal in!

- A. G. GREENE in "The Baron's Last Banquet."

"Forward, the Light Brigade!

Charge for the guns!" he said :

Into the valley of Death

Rode the six hundred. - TENNYSON.

Intermittent stress, or force applied to the syllable tremulously, or in little jerks, is used to denote any state of bodily agitation, such as shivering or trembling; or to extend these to their causes, feebleness, timidity, grief, alarm, terror, rage, etc.

A very good way to secure the intermittent stress is to shiver all over with the cold, actually making the whole body shiver. Use the sentence, "My! But it is cold!" After this has been done, drop the shivering from the body, but keep the shiver in the voice. After you have the stress upon the word COLD, you can easily extend it to revenge, feebleness, etc. Example:

Pity the sorrows of a poor old man,

Whose trembling limbs have borne him to your door,

Whose days are dwindled to the shortest span ;

Oh! give relief, and Heav'n will bless your store.

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You old Tyrant!
Not know my voice!

O time's extremity,

Hast thou so cracked and splitted my poor tongue
In seven short years, that here my only son
Knows not my feeble key of untun'd cares?
Though now this grained face of mine be hid
In sap-consuming winter's drizzling snow
And all the conduits of my blood froze up,
Yet hath my night of life some memory,
My wasting lamps some fading glimmer left,
My dull deaf ears a little use to hear.

All these old witnesses - I cannot err

Tell me thou art my son Antipholus. - SHAKESPEARE.

Wretch, touch him again at your peril! I will not stand by and see it done. My blood is up, and I have the strength of ten such men as you. By Heaven! I will not spare you, if you drive me on! I have a series of personal insults to avenge, and my indignation is aggravated by the cruelties practised in this cruel den. Have a care, or the consequences will fall heavily upon your head. DICKENS.

EXERCISES

48. Give Ex. 13 in median, thorough, and intermittent stress. 49. Give Ex. 13 with each kind of stress, thinking the several sentiments clear through the list. Take sorrow, then reverence, then command, then calling, etc. See if some one can guess the sentiment you have in mind by the way you give the exercise.

PUB. SPEAK.—7

LESSON XXV

GESTURE. THE CLENCHED HAND

ALL students have probably noticed that when people become very angry, and wish to make things very emphatic, they shake their fists at one another. This fact gives rise to one of the most powerful gestures that an orator can use, that is, the clenched hand.

The clenched hand is formed by folding all the fingers into the palm of the hand, and firmly locking them there

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by passing the thumb over the knuckles, - generally over the second joint, or knuckle, of the middle finger. (See Fig. 43.)

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Do not double the thumb under, as shown in

CAUTION. - Do not allow the thumb to be out at the side

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of the hand, as shown in Figure 45.

The clenched hand is used in hate, anger, revenge, defiance, and in many cases where it is desired that some

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thing shall be especially emphatic. It is a very strong gesture, and should not be used often.

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CAUTION. In the use of the Clenched Hand, do not forget the stroke. In many cases, the spring at the wrist will develop into a slight rebound, but do not neglect the stroke.

CAUTION. Do not strike sidewise across the body, as shown in Figure 46, but strike straight out, as in Figure 47. Examples:

I defy you!
You are a coward!

My lords, you cannot conquer America. What is your present situation there? We do not know the worst; but we know that in three campaigns we have done nothing and suffered much. Besides the suffering, perhaps total loss, of the northern force, the best appointed army that ever took the field, commanded by Sir William Howe, has retired from the American lines. He was obliged to relinquish his attempt,

and, with great delay and danger, to adopt a new and distant place of operations. We shall soon know, and in any event have reason to lament, what may have happened since.

As to the conquest, therefore, my lords, I repeat, it is impossible. You may swell every expense and every effort still more extravagantly; pile and accumulate every assistance you can buy or borrow; traffic and barter with every little pitiful German prince that sells and sends his subjects to the shambles of a foreign prince. Your efforts are for ever vain and impotent, — doubly so from this mercenary aid on which you rely. For it irritates, to an incurable resentment, the minds of your enemies, to overrun them with the mercenary sons of rapine and plunder; devoting them and their possessions to the rapacity of hireling cruelty! If I were an American, as I am an Englishman, I never would lay down my arms never, never, - never!

EXERCISES

- WILLIAM PITT.

NOTE. — In these exercises extend the forward foot its whole length or more, keeping both feet, however, flat on the floor. When making gestures to the left, have the left foot foward.

50. Give the Clenched Hand with the right hand toward the floor obliquely in front of you to the right; toward the wall; toward the ceiling. Repeat three times.

51. Repeat Ex. 50, except put the gesture in front of you.

52: Execute Ex. 50 and Ex. 51 with the left hand to the left and in front of you.

53. Execute gestures with both hands clenched toward the floor obliquely to the right in front, toward the wail, and toward the ceiling. Do the same directly in front; also to the left. Don't forget to change feet when you make the gestures to the left.

54. Try gestures with each hand, and with both, to the following counts, striking on the black figures :

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Be vigorous in your counting, as if you were angry.

55. Try the Clenched Hand, with one and both hands, in all sorts of positions and directions. Say aloud the words that come to your mind when you make some of these gestures.

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