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A Companion to Bakeb's Beading Club.

ELOCUTION SIMPLIFIED;

WITH

AN APPENDIX ON USPING, STAMMERING, STUTTERING,

AND OTHSB DEFECTS OF SPEECH.
BY

WALTER K. FOBES,

BOSTON SCHOOL OF ELOCUTION, BOSTON, MASS.

WITH AN INTRODUCTION

GEORGE M. BAKER,

ADTHOB or THB BBADUTO-CLUB SBBIB8, BTO.

J ^ -^ -J J

BOSTON :
LEE AND SHEPARD, PUBLISHERS

NEW YORK:
CHARLES T. DILLINGHAM.

OOFTSIOHT.

1877.
BT WALTEB E. FOBBl.

• •

I. ■w ^ » » • •« • • •

V W •,* •••••

v^*^~* '.*b* •»•••• • •

THIS LITTLE BOOK

IS DEDICATED TO

Prof. LEWIS B. MONROE,

IK xESTiMoinr or appseoiation <»■ his many quaufications as a

ISAOHEB OF THIS ABT, AND OF THE BESPEOT Am> AF-

ISOnON WITH WHICH HE WILL EYEB BE

XEOABDED BT HIS FBIEKD

Aia> PUPIL,

THE ▲X7THQ&.

^282o8

PEEFAOE.

" Why write this book ? " say you.
*^ Because it is needed," say L

There is no ^^ digest" of elocution that is both
methodical and practical, and that is low in price, now
in the market.

This book is an epitome of the science of elocution,
containing nothing that is not necessary for you to
know, if you wish to mske yourself a good reader or
speaker.

You who will thoroughly study and digest this book,
and then put in practice what you here have learned,
will have started on the road, the goal of which is
Oratory.

OONTElirTS.

FAOB

PREFACE ^

INTRODUCTION • • H

ACKNOWLEDGMENT IJ

Mbthod of Stupy 07 Elooutiok • • • • 15

PART I.

PHYSICAL GYMNASTICS 17

Attitude .•••••••• 17

Standing Position ••••••• 17

Speakers Position ••••••• 18

Sitting Position 18

Changing Position ••••••• 18

Poise of Body •••••••• 18

Biding on Toes . ••••••• 19

Holding the Book ••••••• 19

Note on Attitude ...•••• 19

Chest Expansion ..•••••• 19

Active and Passive Chest • • • • • 19

Arms at Side W

Fore-arm Vertical ••••••• 20

FuU-arm Percussion ••••••• 20

Hand Percussion ••«•••• 20

Body Movements •••••••• 21

Bend Forward and Back • • • • • 21

Bend Right and Left 21

Turn Bight and Left 21

Neck Movements ..•••••• 21

Bend Forward and Back • • • • • 21

Bend Right and Left ..••••• 21

Turn Rirfit and Left ...••• ^*

Note on Physical Gymnaitios • • • . • '

8 CONTENTS.

PART II.

PAOE

VOCAL GYMNASTICS 22

Bbeathing • • • • 22

Abdominal .•.•••••• 22

Costal 23

Dorsal 23

Puffing Breath 23

Puffing Breath, with pause . . • • . 23

Puffing Breath, breathe between . • . • 23

Holding the Breath 24

Tone 24

Glottis Stroke 24

Soft Tones , . . 26

Swelling Tones ••.••••• 25

Pitch .......... 25

Learn Scale 26

Chant Sentences ....... 26

Bead Sentences 26

Inflection 26

Major Falling 26

Mapr Rising 27

Major Bising and Falling 27

Minor Bising and Falling ..... 27

Circumflex « • • . 27

Monotone 27

Quality 28

Whisper 28

Aspirated . 28

Pure 28

Orotund .••...... 28

FoBCE ...••••••• 29

Gentle . 29

Moderate • • 29

Loud ..•••••••• 29

Stress ..•••••••• 29

Badical • 29

Median • 29

Terminal . SO

Thorough 30

Compound •••• 30

Tremolo ......... 30

Movement 30

Quick 30

Moderate ..•••...• 30

Slow 31

Articulation 31

Elementary Sounds .»...•• 31

Vowels 31

Consonants . 32

Summary of Physical and Vocal Gymnastxob . 33

CONTENTS, 9

PART in,

PAGE

ELOCUTION 36

Pleasant Quality ••••••• 36

Abticulation ••••••••• 38

SyUables . 38

Words 38

Accent .•...•••• 38

Phrases 39

Emphasis • • 39

Sentences • • • 39

Fulness and Poweb ...•••• 42

Inflection 44

Major Rising 45

Major Falling 45

Minor Bising . • 46

Minor Falling 47

Circumflex 47

Monotone • • • 48

Pitch ...•«.••.. 49

High 49

i^dle 50

Low ..••«••.•• 51

Very Low .•••...•• 62

Quality .•.••••••. 52

Whisper . • • • 53

Aspirate • . • • 53

Pure Tone 54

Orotund ,.•••.••. 55

Movement • • 56

Quick 56

Moderate . • • 57

Slow o 58

Very Slow 58

FOBCE ...••...••• 59

Oentle 59

Moderate 60

Loud ..••..•••• 61

Very Loud 61

Stbbss ..«••••••. 62

Radical 63

Median ••••••••• 63

Terminal ••••••••• 64

Thorough .•••••••• 65

Compound .•••••••• 65

Tremolo .•••••••• 66

Tbansition 66

Modulation ..•....•. 70

Style 77

Conversational 78

Narrative •• 79

Descriptive • • 79

10 '

CONTENTS.

Stylb {continued^. faob

Didactic 80

Public Address • 81

Declamatory ••• 82

Dramatic .•••••••• 83

PART 17-

HINTS ON ELOCUTION
Defsots of Spbsoh

85
03

• ••«••• • -•• • • •

-•••,•••• • • •

• • • • • « • ••" •

■»

mTEODTJOTION.

Rev. Dr. Hall of New York says, " There is one accom<
plishment in particular which I would earnestly recom-
mend to you: cultivate assiduously the. ability to read
well . I stop to particularize this, because it is a thing so
yery much neglected, and because it is such an elegant and
charming accomi)lishment. Where one person is really in-
terested by music, twenty are pleased by good reading.
Where one person is capable of becoming a skilful musician,
twenty may become good readers. Where there is one occa-
sion suitable for the exercise of musical talent, there are
twenty for that of good reading.

*<What a fascination there is in really good reading!
What a power it gives one! In the hospital, in the chamber
of the invalid, in the nursery, in the domestic and in the
social circle, amon^ chosen friends and companions, how it
enables you to minister to the amusement, the comfcM, the
pleasure, of dear ones, as no other accomplishment can ! No
instrument of man's devising can reach the heart as does
that most wonderful instrument, the human voice. It is
God's special gift to his chosen creatures. Fold it not away
in a napkin.

" Did you ever notice what life and power the Holy Scrip-
tures have when well read? Have you ever heard of the
wonderful efEects produced by Elizabeth Fry on the crimi-
nals of Newgate by simply reading to them the parable of
the Prodigal Son? Princes and peers of the realm, it is
said, counted it a privilege to stand in the dismal corridors,
among felons and murderers, merely to shai*e with them the
privilege of witnessing the marvellous pathos which genius,
taste, and culture could infuse into that simple story."

12 ••• •. II^TBODncTltfN,

• • • •, • • •

¥ • • • • •

ElocutiQn tijiius^tbe.vQk;e«to pbftj Hieimind, and to rightly
express tllQUgli^fiaiMliefliii^.^ It/ia^ jaocessary to those who
read or sfteak In'^TilJlic; to'perebns with defective speech; to
those with nasal, shrill, throaty, or husky voices ; to persons
with diseased throat, or liability to it, arising from wrong
use of voice.

The practice of the art of elocution is as necessary to the
reader or speaker as practice of the art of singing is to one
who intends to become a public singer. Any one attempt-
ing to sing for the public without previous practice would
be justly hissed from the stage : and a like fate overtakes
most speakers, who, without previous study of elocution,
attempt to speak in public ; that is, very few go to hear them.

CLERGYMEN

should learn to read impressively the Bible, Litany, hymns,
and sermons : for as Dr. Holland says, " When a minister
goes before an audience, it is reasonable to ask and expect
that he shall be accomplished in the arts of expression ; that
he shall be a good writer and speaker. It makes little
difference that he knows more than his audience, is better
than his audience^ has the true matter in him, if the art by
which he conveys his thought is shabby. It ought not to be
shabby, because it is not necessary that it should be. There
are plenty of men who can develop the voice, and so in-
struct in the atts of oratory that no man need go into the
pulpit unaccompanied by the power to impress upon the
people all of wisdom that he carries." The same writer
says of

STUDENTS.

" Multitudes of young men are poured out upon the
country, year after year, to get their living by public speech,
who cannot even read well. The art of public speech has
been shamefully neglected in all our higher training-schools.
It has been held subordinate to every thing else, when it is
of prime importance. I believe more attention is now paid
to the matter than formerly. The colleges are training tneir
students better, and there is no danger that too much atten-
tion will be devoted to it. The only danger is, that the
creat majority will learn too late that the art of oratory
lemands as much study as any other of the higher arts ; and

INTRODUCTION. 13

that, without it, they must flounder along through life prac-
tically shorn of half the power that is in them, and shut out
from a large success."

TEACHERS

should learn elocution so as to teach in a pleasing, effective
manner; and also to teach reading in schools, so that
children may learn to read in an easy, agreeable way, and
give thought to what they read ; thus leading a child in all
studies to get ideas from books, and not merely words with-
out meanmg.

PUBLIC SPEAKERS

should, by study of elocution, learn the best manner of
moving, persuading, and instructing their audiences; thus
adding to their own popularity, and consequently widening
their influence.

LAWYERS,

by practice of elocution, will find greater ease in speaking
to witness or jury, and thus be greatly aided in their work.

ACTORS AND PUBLIC READERS

lose both time and money by a neglect of elocution, the
practice of which is essential to success in their vocation.

SINGERS,

by study of elocution, can best obtain that perfect articula-
tion and elegant expression so necessary* to the successful
singer.

ALL PERSONS

who have a taste for reading should study elocution, as
reading aloud in the social or home circle is one of the
most instructive, pleasing, and healthful pastimes in which
we can indulge.

DEFECTIVE SPEECH,

as lisping, stammering, stuttering, &c., can be entirely cured
by a study and diligent practice of elocution.

l4 INTRODUCTION.

XTNPLBASANT VOICES,

either shrill, nasal, throaty, husky, or with any other dis-
agreeable quality, can be made agreeable by practice of
elocution.

To meet all these wants, this treatise has been prepared.
Embracing as it does a thorough exposition of the princi-
ples of elocution in an eminently practical form, adapted to
the requirements of the student, the professional man, and
the amateur, by a gentleman who has had the best of in-
struction (from those excellent teachers whose names are
given on the following page), himself a successful teacher
and reader, it seems to present the whole science in a nut-
shell, so that he " who runs may read " in reality, if he but
follow the instructions of this Manual. Here elocution is
not only simplified, but, in this neat and cheap form, placed
within the i-each of all.

GEORGE M. BAKER.

ACKNOWLEDGMENT.

I WOULD here acknowledge my indebtedness to Prof. Lewis
B. Monroe, Dean of Boston University School of Oratory,
for what I have learned of expression in elocution ; to Prof.
A. Graham Bell of Boston for valuable instruction in articu-
lation and inflection ; to Prof. Edward B. Oliver of Men
delssohn Musical Institute of Boston for his most excellent
instruction in tone.

The method of study of this book is the result of the
knowledge gained from these three superior instructors.
The plan of Part Three will be found to be that of Monroe's
Sixth Reader.

METHOD OF STUDY OF ELOCUTION.

Part First, a series of gymnastics to give strength and
elasticity to the muscles used in speaking, tc expand the
chest, and to get a correct position ox body, so that speaking
may be without effort, and yet powerful.

Part Second, a system oi vocal exercises for daily prac-
tice, to train l^e voice, and get command of tone, quality,
pitch, inflection, force, stress, articulation, and right manner
of breathing.

Part Third, the application of the vocal exercises to the
reading of short extracts, showing the effect when thus ap-
plied, and showing the difference between the seven styles,
— conversational, narrative, descriptive, didactic, public ad-
dress, declamatory, and emotional or dramatic.

There will be found references to select pieces in Baker's
** Reading Club and Handy Speaker," for practice in the
different styles of reading.

16 ACKNOWLEDGMENT.

Hoping this little book may be of benefit to many, it is
sent forth to help those who love the art, but with no
thought of recommending this book for self-instruction, and
substituting it for the instructio»a to be gained from a good
teacher of the art. If a good teacher is not to be had, use
this book.

WALTER K. FOBES.

Cambbipoe, Mass. I October* 1877.

ELOCUTION SIMPLIFIED.

PAET ONE.

PHYSICAL GYMNASTICS.

GrOETHE says, "All art must be preceded by a certain
mechanical expertness."

You find it so in the art of playing the piano : the fingers
must be made nimble, and the wrists elastic, before any thing
else can be well done. In the art of singing you have to
exercise the voice in many ways to get command of it. So,
in the art of elocution, it is necessary to practise the
mechanics of physical and vocal culture, that you may be
prepared to express properly your thought and feeling.

You need first a healthy body, elastic and strong in
muscles, and especially in those muscles used in the produc-
tion of voice. For tnis latter purpose I will describe as
clearly as I can Monroe's system of gymnastics, and for the
former recommend any other gymnastics that will give
health, strength, and especially elasticity.

ATTITUDE.

1. Standing Position. — Hamlet, so Shakspeare tells
us, ends a letter to Ophelia thus : —

" Whilst this machine is to him, Hamlet."

Your body is the machine by means of whose working you
express your mind and feelings. If you were to nm a steam-
engine, you would be very careful to place the machine in
such a position, that it would do the most work with the

18 ELOCUTION. *

least wear and tear. Yon must do the same with this
machine, your body. To get a correct standing position,
place yourself with back against a smooth wall in the room,
with shoulders flat, your back as nearly straight as you can
make it, and every part, from head to heel, touching the wall.
This gives you an upright position, but feels uncomfortable,
because the weight is too much on the heels. Sway the
whole body in its upright position forward, so that the
weight will come mostly on the balls of the feet ; and, in
doing so, do not bend any part except at the ankles. You
are now in a proper position for speaking. The head is
erect, shoulders thrown back, chest expanded, back nearly
straight, the weight of the bodj is about equal on ball and
heel of the feet, and your poise of body as it would be
naturally in the act of taking a step forward. This puts
every part of your body in the best condition for easy speak-
ing.

2. Speaker's Position. — This position should be as-
sumed before an audience when some other position is not
required for dramatic expression. It is the standing position,
with the weight upon one foot, and the other advanced. Let
the advance foot be about a heel's distance from the middle
of the foot behind, and form a right angle with it.

3. Sitting Position. — When you read in a sitting
position, the body should be as in speaker's position, and
feet also, the poise of body being forward.

4. Change of Position. — xou sometimes wish to turn
to address your audience at one side. To change gracefully
from the speaker's position, turn the foot in advance on the
ball, outward, until it bewmes parallel with the foot behind;
then take the weight on it, and turn the other foot till you
have correcjb speaker's position. If, as you stood at first,
facing the audience, your weight was on the right foot, you
will find yourself facing to the right; if the weight was
on left, you will face left. When facing the audience, to
change tne weight from one foot to the other, take one short
step either forward or back.

5. Poise of Body. — To get steadiness of body, to keep
a correct poise, and to prevent all unseemly swaying, when
standing to read or speak, assume standing position, and,
keeping feet flat on the floor, sway forward imtil the weight
conies entirely on the ball of the feet. Don't bend the body.
Then sway back to standing position. Then sway back-

* ELOCUTION, 19

vrard, keeping feet flat on the floor and the body straight,
until the weight is entirely on the heels ; from that sway for-
ward to position.

6. Rise upon the Toes. — For the same purpose as the
above. Assume standing position, and rise as high as possi-
ble on the toes very slowly; then sink slowly so as to come
back to standing position. Be very careful not to sway
backward in commg down, and you will find yourself in the
exact poise of standing position. Also do the same from
speaker's position, rising on one foot.

7. Holding the Book. — Hold your book in the left
hand, on one side of the bodv, so that your face will not be
hid from the audience. The top of the book should be
about even with the shoulder. Many, in reading, hold the
book in front of them; but that is not so pleasant to an
audience, and leads to a stooping position, a contracted chest,
and ill health.

Note. — All the foregoing exercises relate to position of body-
necessary for the most powerful, and at the same time the easiest,
action of the vocal organs; also to the attitudes most pleasing
to an audience when they look upon a reader or speaker. Prac-
tise them until they become habits, and so unconsciously you will
assume correct position when you stand.

CHEST EXPANSION.

For ]^arposes of speech, you need to use more breath than
for ordmary breathing or conversation. You therefore need
to make as much room as possible for good fresh air by
exercise to expand the chest. Elocution is beneficial to
health for this reason.

1. Active and Passive Chest. — Your chest in its
ordinary position is what, in elocution, is called passive chest.
The active chest is that assumed in the standing position,
where the chest is raised up slightly and expanded, with the
shoulders drawn back. Practise as an exercise the active
and passive chest, alternating from one to the other without
breathing, or moving the shoulders. The active chest must
be kept in all the physical and vocal gymnastics, and at all
time during speech. With practice it will soon become
established as a habit ; and your every-day attitude will be
more erect as a consequence.

2. Arms at Side. — Place your arms at the side, with

20 ELOCUTION, *

elbows bent, so that from elbow to hand the arms are hori-
zontal, and parallel with each other. Draw the elbows back,
clinch the fist with palms up, and make chest active, keep-
ing the back straight. Take a full breath, and hold it (see
*' Breathing"') ; then carry the arms at full length in front
of you, your nands open and as high up as the shoulders ;
then bring them back to the position you started ^m, with
hands clinched, palms up, and pull back with all your
strength, raising the chest slightly more ; then give out the
breath. After some practice you may do it twice upon one
breath, being sure to keep^the arms as close to the body as
you can ; for, if you spread your arms, you will strain the
muscles.

3. Fore-arm Vertical. — Assume standing position, and
bend the arms, placing them vertically, and parallel with
each other, at the side, with clinched hands as high as the
shoulder; turn the fist out from the shoulder, raise the
chest as much as you can, and, taking a full breath, hold it;
bring the arms forward so as to touch the elbows together,
if you can ; then draw them back to first position, and pull
downward and backward as hard as you can ; then give out
the breath. After some practice, do this twice on one breath,
being sure to keep the arms and hands close to the bodjr.

4. Full-arm Percussion. — In ordinary breathing, it is
seldom you fill your lungs to their fullest capacity; and
some of the air-cells are not filled, especially those at the
extreme edges of the lungs. This and the following exer-
cise are for the purpose of sending air into those portions
of the lungs not ordinarily filled. Assume standing posi-
tion; take a full breath, and hold it; then strike with the
right hand upon the top of the left chest a very quick and
very elastic blow, strikmg with fingers, and swinging the
arm freely from its position at the side; then strike with
left hand on right chest in same manner; repeat with each
hand, and then give out the breath. Never strike with the
fiat palm or clinched fist, as that is very injurious and un-
healthy.

5. Hand Percussion. — Assume standing position, and
place your hands on your chest, with elbows as high as the
shoulders; make chest active; take a full breath, and retain
it while you strike alternately eight light elastic blows with
each hand; then give out the breath.

ELOCUTION. 21

BODY MOVEMENTS.

The muscles of the waist are the front or abdominal, the
side or costal, the back or dorsal muscles. These muscles
are very important in speech ; and upon the strength and
elasticity of these, and the inner muscles acting in connec-
tion with them, depend the force and strength of your
voice. Three very simple movements are here given, which
will give some measure of strength and elasticity to these
muscles.

1. Body bend Forward and Back. — From standing
position bend forward, keeping the back straight, and bend-
ing only at the hip-joints ; touch the floor with your hands,
if you can ; then assume upright position, and bend back as
far as you can.

2. Bend Right and Left. — From standing position,
bend to right side as far as possible, bending only at the
waist, and stretching the costal muscles ; then assume up-
right position, and bend to left in same manner.

3. Turn Right and Left. — From standing position
turn the body on the waist, keeping the hips still, and
twisting the waist-muscles, first to the right, then to the left.

NECK MOVEMENTS.

The neck movements are necessary, because manjr of the
disagreeable qualities of the voice are due to inelasticity of
the muscles of the neck. The movements are in the same
directions as for the body.

1. Bend forward and back.

2. Bend right and left.

3. Turn right and left.

It is not necessary to describe them at length: but, ip
bending right and left, be careful to keep the head from
bending slightly backward or forward at the same time ; and,
in the turning of head, keep it erect.

Note. — This completes the physical gymnastics. Practise
them until the purpose for which they are intended has been
accomplished, and afterwards occasionally, to keep what you
have gained. Take each exercise two or three times in suc-
cession. When thoroughly learned, this will not take more than
five minutes. Practise them five minutes at morning and night.

22 ELOCUTION.

PAET TWO.

VOCAL GYMNASTICS.

You have no need to take any special exercise in walk-
ing for the ordinary purposes of life ; but, if you wished to
be a " walkist," you would need special practice to train and
develop the muscles for that purpose. You may be a good
singer, able to sing for your own amusement or that of
your friends, without specially training the singing-voice ;
but, if you wished to sing in public, you would, if you were
wise, train your singing-voice very carefully. As in these
cases, so with the voice m speaking. For all ordinaiy pur-
poses of speech, you need no special training of the speakmg-
voice; but when, as teacher, clergyman, lawyer, lecturer,
actor, public reader, or in any other capacity, you are called
upon to do more with the voice than others, you ought to
train and develop your vocal powers. For this pui'pose, the
following series of exercises are given for practice.

BREATHING.

As it is necessary that you should take in and give out
more breath in speaking than at other times, you ought to
be able to do this in a natural manner. If you will practise
these breathing-exercises until they are easy for you, the
breath in your reading or speaking will take care of itself.
Practise breathing in the open air, and take in and give out
the breath through the nose without makmg the slightest
sound in so doing.

1. Abdominal Breathing. — Take standing position
and active chest; place the fingers on the abdominal
muscles, and the thumbs on the costal muscles ; tiike a full
breath, making the abdominal muscles start first, and move
!>utward ; then let the muscles sink in as the breath comes

ELOCUTION, 23

out. Make as much movement of these muscles as you
can, both in and out; and be sure you keep the shoulders
from moving. Pay particular attention to the movement
of the abdominal muscles, letting all the rest (except the
shoulders^ move as may be easy to you. Practise this way
of breathing until you can do it easily; and, if it makes you
dizzy, do not be alarmed, but wait till the dizziness is en-
tirely gone before you tiy again.

2. Costal Breathing. — Assume standing position with
active chest ; place the fingers on the costal muscles, and
thumbs at the back; inhale a full breath, expanding as
much as possible the costal muscles and ribs. In giving^ out
tlie breatn, make them sink in as much as possible. Keep
shoulders still in breathing in and out, and let all other
muscles be free to move as mey may.

3. Dorsal Breathing. — Assume standing position with
active chest ; place the fingers at the back on dorsal muscles,
and thumbs on the side; take a full breath, trying to
expand the muscles under your fingers as much as you can.
idightly done, the abdominal and costal ihuscles, and the
ribs, will also expand ; the chest, if not already active, will
rise ; the shoulders will remain quiet. In giving out the
breath, let the chest be the last to sink. This is the way of
breathing in every healthy man, woman, and child. Any
manner of dressing the body that hinders free and easy
action of the abdominal, costal, and dorsal muscles, and
the ribs, leads to ill health, because it interferes with the
vital process of breathing ; and ill health is fatal to success
in any art.

4. Puffing the Breath. — Assume standing position,
with active chest ; take a full breath, and, roundmg the lips
as if you were about to say the word "who," blow the breath
out as you would in blowing out a light ; inhale again, and
repeat the puffing.

5. Puff and Pause. — Puff the breath as before, three
times, pausing about five or more seconds, holding the
breath between the puffs. In holding the breath, let there
be no pressure upon the limgs or throat, but control it by
keeping the waist-muscles still. (See " Holding Breath." )

6. Puff and Breathe. — Puff three times m the same
"way as before, breathing between the puffs, thus : place the
fingers of one hand on the upper part oi the chest, the fingers
of the other hand on the abdominal muscles ; keep the chest

24 ELOCUTION,

still, and make the abdominal muscles sink every time you

Euff out the breath, and expand, every time you take in
reath, betw.een the puffs. In this exercise breathe through
both nose and mouth. By practice of these three ways of
expelling breath you get command of it.

7. Holding the Breath. — When you hold your breath
for a longer or shorter time, or try to control it for any
purpose 01 speech, you should do so by means of the muscles
spoken of in " Dorsal Breathing," as being the ones used in
right manner of breathing. You must try to control the
breath by keeping the waist-muscles stiQ ; and there should
be no feeling of pressure or imeasiness on the lungs, or in the
throat or mouth. "If at first you don't succeed, try, try
again: time will bring you your reward: try, try again."
Get control of the waist-muscles so as to keep them still ;
and, while you hold them still, there is no possibility of the
breath getting out.

TONE.

A good tone in speech is as much to be desired as it is in
song. Some have it as a gift of nature ; and all can acquire
it, in a degree, by judicious practice. If you have an excel-
lent voice, you can make it still more excellent by practice;
and, if you have a poor voice, you can, by practice, make it
full, pleasant, and effective, and excel that one who has a
good voice, but makes no effort to improve it. The tone-
exercises here given are designed to give command of tone,
and develop purity and power. They should be practised
^yfQ minutes at a time, at four different times of the day,
and double that time if possible, in order to get the greatest
amount of good from them. Use any tones of your voice,
high or low, without being at all particular about an exact
musical pitch ; though, if you can practise with an organ or
piano, you will find it much more beneficial.

1. Glottis Stroke. — Assume standing position with
active chest ; take full breath, and whisper forcibly the word
"who" three times. Repeat the same. Now whisper
"who " twice, and speak it aloud the third time ; then whis-
per " who " once, and speak it aloud the second and third
time ; then speak " who *' aloud three times. Now speak
^ who " twice, and the third time say " oo *' as those letters
sound in the word woo ; then say " who " once, and " oo " the
second and third time ; then " oo " three times. You

ELOCUTION, 25

should make both the whisper and vocal sound very short
and sudden, without any feeling of contraction or effort in
the throat or mouth. It should seem to you as if the sound
came from the lips ; and, while you are energetic in the exer-
cise, it must be done with perfect ease. You have thus pro-
ceeded, from an easy, forcible whisper, to an easy, forcible
soimd, and have thus obtained what is called the " Glottis
Stroke/' After diligent practice on the above exercise, use
any of the short vowels (see " Articulation ") ; speaking each
vowel three times very shortly, as you did the vowel-
sound 00.

2. Soft Tones. — Assume standing position with active
chest, and take breath ; prolong very softly oo as long as
your breath will let you, being careful not to force the sound
to continue after you feel the slightest need of breath, and
also not to change the position of the mouth from begin-
ning to end of the sound. Repeat three times. In this
exercise you will probably hear the voice waver, and find it
diflBcult to keep it very soft, and yet distinct. Practice
will overcome this, and the exercise will be found very
beneficial. The ability to do it shows cultivation of voice.
After some time, use also the long vowels. (See " Articu-
lation.")

3. Swelling Tones. — Assume standing position with
active chest, and take full breath; then begin the vowel oo
very softly, and gradually swell it to a full tone, and then as
gradually diminish it to the gentlest sound. Be careful, as
in soft tone, as to breath, and position of mouth. After
some practice, you should be able to continue on one breath,
either the soft tone or swelling tone, twenty seconds ; which
is long enough for practical purposes, tjse same vov/els
as in soft tone.

PITCH.

It is necessary to all expressive reading that there should
be as much variation in pitch of voice — that is, as to high
and low tones — as possible, and not overdo. The pleasan test
<;juality of voice, without variation in pitch, is tiresome to the
listener. To get command of pitch, you must practise till
the high and low tones are as easy to make as the common
conversational tones. If you can sing the musical scale of
one octave m key of C, or B flat, you will find these exer-
cises more beneficial than if you cannot sing. If you cannot

26 ELOCUTION.

sing, take a relatively high or low pitch, as your ear may
guide you, and practise the chanting and reading of sen-
tences as well as you can.

1. Learn the Musical Scale. — Sing the scale in
music, using first the glottis stroke ; that is, speak each very
short as you go up and down the scale. Then practise soft
tone and swelling tone on each tone within compass of your
voice.

2. Chant Sentences. — Use one tone of voice, and take
any sentence, prolonging the words without reference to the
sense, without change of tone from beginning to end. When
you use a high tone, make it light and clear ; when you use
a low tone, make it full, free, and forcible. Chant on each
tone separately within the compass of the voice.

3. Read Sentences. — Use the same sentences as for
chanting, and, beginning on each tone of the voice, speak it
as you would in earnest conversation, in a way to give the
meaning of it. You will see that if you begin with high
pitch, although your voice varies in speaking, it will be a
relatively high pitch through the whole sentence ; and, if you
begin low, it will be relatively low. With high pitch, make
your voice light and clear; and with low pitch, full, free, and
forcible.

INFLECTION.

In inflection the voice slides up or down in pitch on a
word, and by so doing impresses your meaning on the lis-
tener. Inflections are infinite in number; but a few of them
practised will be of benefit in getting command over them.
When the voice slides up, it is called rising inflection ; if
down, a falling. If it slides both ways on the same word, it
is called circumflex ; and if it varies but little, and is very
like a chant in song, it is called monotone. A major inflec-
tion gives an effect of strength ; a minor, of feebleness.

1. Major Falling Inflection. — A falling inflection is
indicated by (") over the accented syllable of an emphatic
word. If you do not already know the difference between a
rising andf ailing inflection, suppose I say to you, " The book
is on the table," and you, not understanding what place I
said, should ask, " Where? " and I answer, " On the table."
Your question would be made with rising, and my answer
with falling inflection. Use any vowel-sounds, and practise
the falling inflection as you would hear it on the word ** table,"

ELOCUTION, 27

avoiding all motion of head, arms, or body, and making it
with much energy of voice, as if expressing strong determi-
nation.

2. Major Rising Inflection. — This is indicated by a O
over the emphatic word. Practise with any vowel-sounds
the inflection as you would hear it on " where," as above,
observing same directions as in major falling inflections.

3. Major Rising and Falling Inflections. — Practise
rising followed by falling, as oh, 6h, ah, iih, awe, awe, &c.,
using long and short vowels. Then falling followed by
rising, as 6h, <5h, kh, dh, a^e, a^e, &c., using Jong and short
vowels. Use these as if asking a simple unimportant ques-
tion, and giving a like answer ; then a question and answer
of earnestness; then of surprise; then of great astonish-
ment. In so doing, your voice will range higher and lower
in inflection than you otherwise would make it. Do not let
any of the inflections sound plaintive or feeble, but make
them strong and decisive.

4. Minor Rising and Falling Inflections. — Use the
same exercises as under major rising and falling, just men-
tioned ; with this difference, that you make them so as to
sound week, feeble, plaintive, or sad. They should be prac-
tised that you may oecome familiar with their sound, and
have them at command, so as to use them when needed for
expression, and avoid them when not.

5. Circumflex Inflection. — This inflection is indi-
cated by a mark (v A) or (^^) because it is a combination of
rising and falling inflection. The first is rising circumflex,
because it ends with the rising ; the second is falling cir-
cumflex, because it ends with falling inflection. It is used
in expression of doubt, irony, sarcasm; as in " The Merchant
of Venice," act 1, scene 3, Shylock says to Antonio,
" Hath a d6g mSney? Is it possible a cur can lend three
thousand ducats? " You will see, if read to express Shy-
lock's irony and sarcasm, that the words would be inflected,
as marked, with rising circumflex. Practise these circum-

*flex inflections with vowels as directed under major rising
and falling inflections. The falling circumflex being the
reverse of the rising, when once you are familiar with the
rising, can be easily made.

6. Monotone. — This comes as near to being one tone
of voice as it can be, and at the same time keep its expres-
siveness as reading. It is not really, as its name might mdi-

28 ELOCUTION.

cate, one tone, as that would be like chanting in singing ;
but it is variation of inflection within very small limit of
range in pitch. It is best practised as song, however. Pro-
long, on a low pitch, any of the long vowels, about five
seconds. The mark for monotone is (-) placed over a word.

QUALITY.

The quality of the voice is that which affects us agreeably
or disagreeably ; and we say it is gruff, or husky, or harsh,
or pleasant, &c. Four general and distinct qualities need to
be practised until they are at command of the mind.

1. Whisper. — Whisper the long and short vowels very
easily and quietly at first, vnthout the slightest feeling of
effort in throat or mouth, and perfectly free from hoarseness
or murmuring. As soon as you can make a clear whisper
heard across the room, whisper so as to be heard farther off,
and so proceed gradually, day by day, until you can whisper,
clearly and without effort, loud enough to be heard in a
large hall. Do not practise whispering more than three
minutes at a time.

2. Aspirate Quality. — This is what, in general, is
called undertone. It is a mixture of whisper and voice, and
is what you would be likely to use when in company you
speak to any one vidth a desire not to be overheard oy others.
Practise with vowels as in whisper.

3. Pure Quality. — Speak the long vowels in your con-
versational tone as pleasantly as you can, tossing the tone
lightly, as if speaking to some one across a large hall.
Speak each vowel three times on one breath. Practise them
first speaking shortly, then with prolonging of each tone
not over five seconds.

4. Orotund Quality. — This quality is seldom- to be
heard in uncultivated voices, but is much to be desired in a
speaker. It can only be acquired slowly and with much
practice. It will be easily recognized when heard, as it
possesses a fulness and richness of tone very pleasing. It
is not high, but seems low in pitch ; and, although it does not
sound loud, it seems to be effective, and reach a long dis-
tance. To acquire it, practise, as recommended in ** Pitch,"
the chanting and treading of sentences on the conversational
and lower tones of the voice; also swelling tone under
" Tone," on low pitch, using long vowels, especially oo, oh,
awe, ah.

ELOCUTION. 29

FORCE.

Force is the degree of loudness or softness we may give to
the voice. You should be able to speak gently without
feebleness or weakness of voice, and so as to be distinctly
heard in a large hall, and also to make the fullest and loud-
est voice without showing any effort to do so.

1. Gentle Force. — Chant and read sentences, as under
" Pitch," with the gentlest force you can, and yet make it
so as to seem to be clear and distinct. Do this on every
pitch you can, high or low.

2. Moderate Force. — Read and chant as above on the
middle and higher tones, with about the force of earnest
conversation.

3. Loud Force. — Read and chant as above, using only
the middle and lower tones of the voice, making the loudest
tones you can, without straining the throat. Force of voice
depends on the management of the muscles below the lungs;
and you should have perfect freedom from all effort on the
part of lungs, throat, or mouth, on any pitch, high, middle,
or low. If any effort is perceptible to you, it will be a feel-
ing of strength and power at the waist; and experience and
practice must teach you how much or how little effort to
make at that point. The loudest force, and at the same
time the purest quality, is secured when it seems to make it-
self without the slightest feeling of effort on your part.

STRESS.

Stress is the manner of applying force to a word or ac-
cented syllable. Prof. L. B. Monroe, in his book on vocal
culture, enumerates six kinds. The marks he uses to repre-
sent them exhibit clearly to the eye what the voice is re-
quired to do. With radical, terminal, and compound stress,
after facility is gained by use of stroke from the shoulder,
omit it, and do them forcibly without movement of any
part of the body.

1. Radical Stress. — So called, because the stress is
on the beginning of the word, and marked thus (>)• As-
sume standing position with active chest, and take oreath ;
touch the fingers to the shoulder, and- strike forward and
downward, stopping the hands half way, and clinching the
fist very tightly ; at the moment of stopping, speak th<

30 ELOCUTION, ,

vowel " ah " very shortly. You will nofice that the voice
issues full, and seems to suddenly vanish in a manner well
indicated by the mark above. Use any vowels, long or short,
with middle pitch of voice. Practise afterward without
any movement of the arms.

2. Median Stress. — So called, because the force is on
the middle of the word, marked thus (O). It is the same
as swelling tone, but is much shorter. Practise with long
vowels on middle tones of voice, making three short swells
on the same vowel in one breath.

3. Terminal Stress. — So called, because the force is on
the end of the word, and marked thus (<!)• Use the same
movement as in radical stress ; begin the sound softly when
the hand leaves the shoulder, stopping it suddenly as the
hands clinch. The voice seems to oe jerked out. Practise
also without arm-movements, using the same vowels as in
radical stress.

4. Thorough Stress. — So called, because the force is
loud from beginning to end, and marked thus (=3). Pro-
long about ten seconds long vowels, with a loud full voice
on middle pitch.

5. Compound Stress. — So called, because it is a union
of radical and terminal stress, and marked (^><). The force
is on both beginning and end of the word, and may be made
by striking twice in succession, continuing the voice from
radical to terminiEil without pause of voice between the
strokes.

6. Tremolo Stress. — This is a trembling of voice, and
marked thus ('****^). Prolong long vowels, making the voice
tremble while you do so.

MOVEMENT.

Movement is the degree of rapidity or slowness with
which you speak the articulate sounds. The danger in fast
movement is, that you will not articulate plainly ; and in
slow, that you will drawl.

1. Quick Movement. — Us'fe exercise of chanting and
reading sentences, as under "Pitch," using the middle tones
of voice; and repeat the words with the utmost possible
rapidity, with perfect articulation. In chanting, do not mind
the sense ; but, in reading, be particular to give the meaning
of the sentence.

2. Moderate Movement. — Use exercise as above
about as fast as ordinarv talkincr.

ELOCUTWn,

3. Slow Movement. — Use exercise as above, with very
slow movement of voice. In chanting, prolong each word
about alike; in reading, give good expression, and you will
see that the more important words usually take the long-
est time.

ARTICULATION.

Articulation is the utterance of the elementary sounds,
which, when combined, make language. You have been
using the sounds that make up speech, m combination, every
day ; but it is a good practice to make each element sepa-
rately. After you are able to make each sound distinctly,
you will find you can make yourself understood in a large
hall without using a loud voice. Your jaw, lips, and tongue
should move actively and easily. For this purpose use long
vowels, — No. 1, No. 8, No. 14, — speaking them in quick
succession, one after the other, making them distinct, and
making the jaw and lips move as much as you can with
ease. Continue to the extent of your breath. Then use the
same with jo, h, or m before them ; then with t, dy or n , then
^, gj or y. Continue this practice about five minutes at a
time, until the jaw, lips, and tongue will move with perfect

ease.

ELEMENTARY SOUNDS.

In the exercises here given, use the sound, not the name
of the letters which represents the sound, and practise sep-
arately the sounds represented by the Italic letters below.
The only correct wav to learn them is from the lips of a
competent teacher ; but you will do well, and improve, if you
try the best you can in your way.

VOWELS.

Long.

Short.

Diphthongs

•

e as

meet.

i as

in it.

81. i as in

pee.

31.

a •*

may.

e "

" met.

111. oi " "

oil.

ai "

air.

a "

" at.

81*. OM " "

out.

e "

her.

a "

" Cuba.

114. u " "

j(yu

a "

ah.

u "

" up.

10.

a "

awe.

11.

" on.

12".

oh.

13.

00 **

" foot.

12.

ore.

14.

00 "

woo.

QuDES, — 1-14 of the vowels, and r when it follows a vowel, ar«

by Prof. Bell called " Glides.''

ELOCUTION.

CONSONANTS OR ARTICULATIONS.

Breath.

Voice,

Nasaly

Place in MoutK

p as in pay.

& as in 6ay.

as in Tnay.

Lips.

wh '* " why.

w " " w?ay.

f " " fie.

V " " vie.

Lips and teeth.

th " " thin.

th •* " <^n.

Tongue " "

t •* " rie.

d " " die.

" " nigh.

Tip of tongue.

cA ** " cAew.

i " "jew.

Z " " /ay.

(( «

r •* " ray.

tt tt

« " ** see.

z " " zeal.

tt tt

sh " " shoe.

zA " *' azure.
y " " ye.

tt tt
Whole tongue.

k " " A:ey.

U " " ^0.

'ifl'

" " 8in«7.

Back of "

h " " ^e, Aa^

r, Aa, Ao, is a whispt

3red vowel, 1

taking the posi-

tion of the vowel following it.

Of the vowels, the numbers indicate positions of mouth ;
and, where numbers are alike, the positions are alike. Each
vowel-sound is made by unobstructed sounds issuing through
a certain position of mouth. The position is unchanged
with single vowels, and those have but one number. The
position changes in double vowels and diphthongs ; and those
have two numbers, — one large, one small. As each number
represents a position of mouth, you can easily see by com-
paring what sounds are made from combining others. The
number in the largest size type of the two represents the
position that is kept when the sound is prolonged : as in 8^
prolong the 8 or ah, and make ^ or ee very short ; and in ^14
make ^ very short, and prolong 14. The positions represented
by the small figures are called " Glides," oecause the position
is hardly assumed before the sound is finished. Diphthongs
are sounds made by combining vowel-sounds, as 8^ ah-ee.
Of the consonants, or, as well named by Prof. Bell, articula-
tions, — because two parts of the mouth have to come togeth-
er and separate in order to finish the element, thus obstructing
the breath or voice, — those in line across the page with
each other are alike in position of mouth ; those in first
column are made with breath only, passing out through the
mouth ; those in second column, with sound passing out
through the mouth ; those in third column are sound pass-
incT out through the nose. For instance, /?, 6, m, are in line
with each other; and, if you will make the three sounds rep-
resented by those letters, you will see that the same position
of mouth is assumed for each, and that p is breath forced

ELOCUTION,

out of mouth, h is sound out of mouth, m is sound passing
out of nose.

Practise these sounds of vowels and articulations until
you can make them forcibly and easily, with elastic move-
ment of jaw, tongue, and lips; and remember that force
depends on the stren^h and good control of muscles below
the l^ngs. Then unite them by placing articulations before
vowels, giving most force to the vowel, but make both clear
and distinct. Then use articulations both before and after
the vowel, still giving the vowel the most force, but mak-
ing the articulation that begins and ends equally distinct
and clear. To arrange these for your practice in this small
book would take too much space. You have above each
element of the English language clearly shown, and can
easily combine them as directed.

SUMMARY OF PHYSICAL AND VOCAL GYMNAS-

TICS.

PHYSICAL GYMNASTICS.

1. Standing Position.

2. Speaker^s "

ATTITUDE.

3. Sitting Position.

4. Change

5. Poise.

6. Rise on Toes.

7. Holding Book.

CHEST EXPANSION.

1. Active and Passive Chest.

2. Arms at Side.

3. Fore-arm Vertical.

4. Percussion. Full Arm.

5. " Hands on Chest.

BODY AND NECK MOVEMENTS.

1 . Body bend forward and back.

2. " " right and left.

3. " turn

4. Neck bend forward and back.
6. " " ri^ht and left.

6. " turn
VOCAL GYMNASTICS.
Note. — Be sure and keep ACTIVE CHEST in all vocal exercises.

BBEATHING.

1. Abdominal.

2. Costal.

3. Dorsal.

4. Puff.

5. Puff — Pause between.

6. " Breathe "

7. Holding Breath.

34 ELOCVTIOJS^

TONE.

Note. — In following exercises use first long, then short vowels,

1. Glottis stroke. Who, whisi)ered, followed by short vowels

quickly spoken.

2. Soft Tones. Use oo-oh-awe-ah first, then any other vowels.

3. Swell Tones. Use vowels as in Soft TQones.

PITCH.

1. Learn Musical Scale. Practise Tone Exercise on each tone

within compass of voice.

2. Chant sentences on each tone.

3. Bead sentences, beginning on each tone.

INFLECTION.

1. Major, fall from different pitches.

2. " rise "

3. " " and fall from different pitches.

4. Minor rise and fall.

5. Circumflex, rise and fall.

6. Monotone, different pitches.

QUALITY.

1. Whisi)er. | 2. Aspirate. | 3. Pure. | 4. Orotund.

FOBCE.

Note. — Use exercises under Pitch, Nos. 2 and 3, with different
degrees of force,

1. Gentle. | 2. Moderate. | 3. Loud.

STBESS.

1. Radical. I 3. Terminal. I 5. Compound.

2. Median. | 4. Thorough. | 6. Tremolo.

MOVEMENT.

Note. — Use exercises under Pitch, 2fos, 2 and 3, wiVi different
rates of movement,

1. Quick. I 2. Moderate. | 3. Slow.

ABTICULATION.

Note. — Use only sounds represented by Italicized letter's in the
words and letters below,

1, Elementary Sounds. I 3. Words. I 5. Sentences.

2. Syllables. 1 4. Phrases. |

Long Vowels. 1. meet. 3i. may, 6, air, 6. her. 8. ah. 10
awe. 121*. oh. 12. ore. 14. woo.

ELOCUTION. 35

Short Vowels. 2. it. 4. met. 5. at. 7. CJuba. 9. wp. 11. on.

13. foot.
Diphthongs. 8i. pze. 11^. oil. 8i*. owt. yl4, you.
Glides. 1. — 14.-r.
Articulations. Lips— p,6,m-tt>A,t(j. Lips and Teeth — f^v. Teeth

and Tongue — th (thin), th (then). Tip of Tongue — <,(i,n-;-

r-ch, jSyZshfZh. Tongue— y. Back of Tongue — k^g, ng»

Whispered Vowel — h.

36 ELOCUTION,

PAET THEEE.

ELOCUTION.

If you have faithfully practised Parts One and Two, you
have gained some control of voice, and can now begin elocu-
tion, or expression of thought and feeling. In each of the short
extracts you will find some thought and feeling to express ;
and if you will take pains to understand thoroughly what
you have to speak, and then speak earnestly as the thought
and feeling prompts you, you will certainljr improve. Speak
to some person ; and, if no one is present, imagme that there
is, and talk to them : for you need never speak aloud, unless
it is for some one besides yourself to hear. Your first en-
deavor as a speaker should be to make a pleasant quality of
voice, so that you may make good listeners of your audience.
The following exercises suggest pleasure, and let your voice
suggest the sentiment.

PLEASANT QUALITY.

1. A merrier man,
Within the limit of becoming nurth,
I never spent an hour's talk withal :
His eye begets occasion for his wit ;
For every object that the one doth catch,
The other turns to a mirth-moving jest,
Which his fair tongue (conceit's expositor) '
Delivers in such apt and gracious words, ,
That aged ears play truant at his tales.
And younger hearings are quite ravished,
So sweet and voluble is his discourse.

2. There's something in a noble boy,

A brave, free-hearted, careless one,
With his unchecked, unbidden joy.
His dread of books, and love of fun, —

ELOCUTION, 37

And in his clear and ready smile,
. 5 Unshaded by a thought of guile,

And unrepressed by sadness, —
Which brings me to my childhood back.
As if I trod its very track,

And felt its very gladness.

3. The scene had also its minstrels : the birds, those min-
isters and worshippers of Nature, were on the wing, filling
the air with melody ; while, like diligent little housewives,
they ransacked the forest and field for materials for their
housekeeping.

4. Let me play the fool :

With mirth and laughter let old wrinkles come;

And let my liver rattier heat with wine

Than my heart cool with mortifying groans.

Why should a man whose blood is warm within

Sit like his grandsire, cut in alabaster ?

Sleep when he wakes V and creep into the jaundice

By being peevish V

5. Across in my neighbor's window, witl^ its drapings of

satin and lace,
I see, *neath its flowing ringlets, a baby's innocent face.
His feet, in crimson slippers, are tapping the polished

glass;
And the crowd in the street look upward, and nod and

smile as they pass.

6. How sweet the moolight sleeps upon this bank I
Here will we sit, and let the sounds of music
Creep in our ears : soft stillness and the night
Become the touches of sweet harmony.

Look how the floor of heaven
Is thick inlaid with patens of bright gold I
There's not the smallest orb which thou bchold'st,
But in his motion like an angel sings.
Still Quiring to the young-eyed cherubim :
Such harmony is in immortal souls ;
But, whilst this muddy vesture of decay
Doth grossly close it in, we cannot hear it

38 ELOCUTION.

7. A cheerful man is pre-eminently a useful man. He
knows that there is much misery, but that misery is not the
rule of life. He sees that in every state people may be
cheerful ; the lambs skip, birds sing and fly joyously, pup-
pies play, kittens are fuU of joyance, the whole air is full of
careering and rejoicing insects; that everywhere the good
outbalances the bad, and that every evil that there is has
its compensating balm.

For other selections, see Baker's " Beading Club.**

\o.

Page.

Verse

all

ARTICULATION.

With pleasant quality you will make listeners ; but you
will soon weary them, unless you make them understand by
clear articulation. You have made the organs of articula-
tion elastic by practice of elementary sounds separately and
in combination. In combinations you have made syllables,
and these syllables make words, words make phrases, phrases
make sentences, sentences make up a discourse, address, ora-
tion, &c.

Syllables. — Every syllable contains a vowel, or its
'equivalent ; as in the following word, which is separated by
hyphens into syllables, — in-com-pre-hen-si-ble : you will
hear a vowel-sound in each, the last syllable having the
sound of I as an equivalent.

AVoRDS. — A word may have one or more syllables; and,
when it has two or more, one of them will receive slightly
more force than the others, as in the word "common."
Pronoimce it, and you will give more force to " com *' than
** mon." This force applied is called accent.

Accent. — In pronouncing words, you will notice that in

ELOCUTION, 39

the longest words, even while you make each syllable dis-
tinct, there is no perceptible pause until the word is finished.
In words of two or three syllables you will find accent as
above ; but words of four or more syllables have one ac-
cented, and perhaps two syllables besides, that receive less
force than the accented^ but more than the others. Pro-
nounce incomprehensibility. Properly done, you will hear
that you give *'6i/''the strongest accent, and "cow "and
"Aen" slight accent, but more than the remaining sylla-
bles, "in," "Jt>re," "<' "V' " 'y." The accent on "6i/" is
primary accent; and on the "cowi" and"Aen," secondary
accent.

Phrases. — Two or more words make a phrase ; and a
phrase gives you an idea, perhaps, needing a number of
phrases to make complete sense. You should speak phrases
just as you would a long word, without perceptible pause,
and with more force on prominent words nian others. Here
is a sentence composed of two phrases: "Fear the Lord,
and depart from evil.'* A poor reading of this would be,
" Fear (pause) the I^rd, (pause) and depart (pause) from
evil." A good reading would be, " Fear the Lord, (pause)
and depart from evil."

Emphasis. — As in words you have primary and second-
ary accent, so in phrases you have what is raiown as em-
phasis. In the sentence just given, the words that had most
force were " Lord " and " evil; " and less force, ^^fear" and
^^ depart;" and little or no force, "<Ae," ^^and" and ^''J^om,^^
You may call this primary and secondary emphasis, the
primary having, as in accent, most force.

Sentences. — These phrases, or groups of words some-
what connected in idea, make sentences ; and a sentence
gives complete sense. As syllables make words, and in
words you have an accented syllable ; as words make
phrases, and in phrases you have an emphatic word : so, in
sentences composed of phrases, you have an important
phrase; and this important phrase must be impressed upon
the mind of the listener more strongly than any other. This
is done by slightly added force and a trifle higher pitch ;
and, as you will readily see, the emphatic word of the im-
portant phrase is the emphatic word of the whole sentence.
Thus you have the structure of sentences ; and, if you pro-
portion your force well, you will not fail to give the mean
ing correctly. In the following sentence, the phrases ai

40 ELOCUTION,

separated by commas ; the emphatic words are in smau
CAPITALS ; the secondarily emphatic words are in Italics,
First miderstand what the sentence means, then speak it
as you would in earnest conversation, and you will be likely
to give it correctly.

" W.e ALL of us, in a great measure, create our own happi-
ness, which is not half so much dependent upon scenes and
CIRCUMSTANCES as laost people are apt to imagine.**

In this sentence the important phrase is, " create our own
happiness ; ** and the other phrases must be and are, by a
good reader, subordinated to this one. This subordination
of phrases to the principal one is made by lowering the pitch
slightly, and lessening the force slightly on the subordinate
phrases. It is naturally done if you'll talk the sentence
understandingly.

In the following sentences, —

1st, Sound each element of a word separately.

2d, Pronounce each word separately, with proper accent,
being careful to give each element correctly.

3d, Read in phrases, remembering that each phrase should
be pronounced as a long word, without pause, and with
emphasis.

4th, Read in sentences, subordinating all other phrases to
the principal phrase.

1. When sorrows come, they come not single spies,
But in battalions.

2. There's such divinity doth hedge a king,
That treason can but keep to what it would,
Acts little of his will.

3. Grandfather is old. His back, also, is bent. In the
street he sees crowds of men looking dreadfully young, and
walking dreadfully swift. He wonders where all the old
folks are. Once, when a boy, he could not find people
young enough for him, and sialed up to any young stranger
ne met on Sundays, wondering why God maae the world so
old. Now he goes to Commencement to see his grandsons
take their degree, and is astonished at the youth of the
audience. " This is new,** he says: " it did not use to be so
fifty years before."

ELOCVTION. 4]

4. Press on 1 surmount the rocky steeps;
Climb boldly o'er the torrent's arch :
He fails alone who feebly creeps;
He wins who dares the hero's march.

6. Where I have come, great clerks have purposed
To greet me with premeditated welcomes ;
Where I have seen them shiver and look pale,
Make periods in the midst of sentences,
Throttle their practised accent in their fears,
And, in conclusion, dumbly have broke ©ff,
Not paying me a welcome, trust me, sweet,
Out of this silence yet I picked a welcome ;
And in the modesty of fearful duty
I read as much as Irom the rattling tongue
Of saucy and audacious eloquence.

6. Be not lulled, my countrymen, with vain imaginations
•r idle fancies. To hope for the protection of Heaven, with-
out doing our duty, and exerting ourselves as becomes men,
is to mock the Deity. Wherefore had man his reason, if it
were not to direct him ? wherefore his strength, if it be not
his protection ? To banish folly and luxury, correct vice
and immorality, and stand immovable in tne freedom in
which we are free indeed, is eminently the duty of each
individual at this day. When this is done, we may ration-
ally hope for an answer to our prayers — for the whole
counsel of God, and the invincible armor of theAlmighty.

7. The (juality of mercy is not strained :

It droppeth as the gentle rain from heaven

Upon the place beneath. It is twice blessed, —

It blesseth him that gives, and him that takes.

'Tis mightiest in the mightiest : it becomes

The throned monarch better than his crown :

His sceptre shows the force of temporal power,

The attribute to awe and majesty.

Wherein doth sit the dread and fear of kings.

But mercy is above this sceptred sway :

It is enthroned in the hearts of kings ;

It is an attribute to God himself ;

And earthly power doth then show likest God's

When mercy seasons justice.

42 ELOCUTION,

FULNESS AND POWER.

Fulness of voice is necessary, that, when you are speaking
in a large hall, your voice may be powerful. Most persons
could make themselves heard, and, with good articulation,
understood; but yet they would lack power, because the
voice wants fulness. The extracts given below will suggest
to you the necessity of a full voice to express them well.
Observe these directions in trying to get a full, energetic
tone : —

1st, Correct speaker's position, take active chest, and
keep it.

2d, Take full breath, breathe often, and control it. (See
« Holding Breath.")

3d, Articulate perfectly.

4th, Use conversational and lower tones of" the voice.

5th, Fix the mind on some distant spot, and speak as if
you wished to make some one hear at that point.

6th, Remember to be very energetic, and yet have it seem
to a looker-on or listener to be done without the slightest
effort.

1. O'Brien's voice is hoarse with joy, as, halting, he

commands,
"Fix bay 'nets — charge 1" Like mountain-storm

rush on these fiery bands.
On Fontenoy, on Fontenoy ! hark to that fierce huzza 1
" Revenge ! remember Limerick ! dash down the Sas-

senagh ! "
Like lions leaping at a fold when mad with hunger's

pang.
Right up against the English line the Irish exiles

sprang. .
The English strove with desperate strength, paused,

rallied, staggered, fled :
The green hill-side is matted close with dying and

with dead.
On Fontenoy, on Fontenoy, like eagles in the sun,
With bloody plumes the Lrish stend: the field is

fought and won.

ELOCUTION. 43

2. Thou too sail on, O Ship of State I
Sail on, O Union strong and great I
Humanity, with all its fears.
With all its hopes of future years,
Is hanging breathless on thy fate.
We know what master laid thy keel,
What workmen wrought thy ribs of steel,
Who made each mast and sail and rope,
What anvils rang, what hammers beat,
In what a forge and what a heat
Were shaped the anchors of thy hope.

8. Oh I young Lochinvar is come out of the west :
Through all the wide border his steed was the best ;
And, save his good broad-sword, he weapon had none ;
He rode all unarmed, and he rode all alone.
So faithful in love, and so dauntless in war.
There never was knight like the young Lochinvar.

4. One song employs all nations : and all cry,
" Worthy the Lamb, for he was slain for us 1 "
The dwellers in the vales and on the rocks
Shout to each other ; and the mountain-tops
From distant mountains catch the flying joy;
Till, nation after nation taught the strain,
Earth rolls the rapturous hosanna round.

6. " But I defy him 1 — let him come I "

Down rang the massy cup.
While from its sheath the ready blade

Came flashing half way up ;
And, with the black and heavy plumes

Scarce trembling on his head.
There, in his dark, carved, oaken chair.

Old Rudiger sat — dead !

6. All hail to our glorious ensign I Coura^ to the heart,
«xid strength to the hand, to which in all tune it shall be
intrusted ! May it ever wave in honor, in unsullied glory,
and patriotic hope, on the dome of the capitol, on the coun-
try's stronghold, on the entented plain, on the Mave-rocked
topmast I

44 ELOCUTION.

7. Rejoice, yx>rt men of Anglers ! ring your bells I

King John, your king and England's, doth approach,

Commander oi this hot malicious day I

Their armors that marched hence so silver bright

Hither return all gilt with Frenchmen's blood ;

There stuck no plume in any English crest

That is removed by a staff of France ;

Our colors do return in those same hands

That did display them when we first marched forth ;

And, like a jolly troop of huntsmen, come

Our lusty English, all with purpled hands

Dyed in the dying slaughter of their foes.

INFLECTION.

Inflection is a slide of voice, either up or down in pitch,
or both, on the accented syllable of a word. You have
learned in previous pages what kinds there are. Major
inflections express strength : minor express weakness.

Rising inflections refer to something to come that shall
complete the sense. If you speak a phrase that needs another
to complete its meaning, you will use a rising inflection to
connect them. If you defer to another's will, opinion, or
knowledge, in what you say, you will use a rising inflection.
If you speak of two or more things, thinking of them as a
whole, and not separately, you use a rising inflection.

Falling inflections are used when a phrase or sentence is
complete in itself. If you state your own will, opinion, or
knowledge, you will use falling inflection. If you speak of
two or more things separately, wishing to make each one by
itself distinct in the hearer's mind, you will use falling
inflections.

Circumflex inflections, being composed of rising and fall-
ing inflections combined, are doubtful in meaning ; for if
rising means one thing, and falling means another, a combi-
nation must mean doubt. It expresses irony, sarcasm, &c.

Monotone is a varying of inflection witnin very narrow
limits, and comes as near to chanting as the voice can, and
still retain the expressiveness of inflection in speech. It
expresses any slow-moving emotions, as grandeur, awe,
solenmity, &c.

Practise the short extracts under each head until you are
lire you give the right inflection in the right place.

ELOCUTION. 45

MAJOR RISING INFLECTION.

1. Would the influence of the Bible, even if it were not
the record of a divine revelation, be to render princes more
tyrannical, or subjects more ungovernable ; the rich more
insolent, or the poor more disorderly ? Would it make worse
parents or jchildren, husbands or wives, masters or servants,
friends or neighbors ?

2. But why pause here? Is so much ambition praise-
worthy, and more criminal ? Is it fixed in nature that the
limits of this empire should be Egypt on the one hand, the
Hellespont and Kuxine on the other ? Were not Suez and
Armenia more natural limits ? Or hath empire no natural
limit, but is broad as the genius that can devise, and the
power that can win ?

3. Shine they for aught but earth,

These silent stars ? ^

And, when they sprang to birth,

Who broke the bars
And let their radiance out

To kindle space.
When rang God's morning shout

O'er the glad race ?
Are they all desolate.

These silent stars \
Huuff in their spheres by fate.

Which nothing mars Y
Or are they guards of God,

Shihing in prayer.
On the same path they've trod

Since light was there ?

MAJOR FALLING INFLECTIONS.

1. Stand up erect 1 Thou hast the form
And likeness of thy God : who more ?
A soul as dauntless mid the storm
Of daily life, a heart as warm
And pure, as breast e'er wore. .

46 ELOCUTION,

2. Methinks I hear hither your husband's drum;
See him pluck Aufidius down by the hair,

As children from a bear, the Voices shunning him ;
Methinks I see him stamp thus, and call thus, —
Cootie on, you cowards ! you were got in fear,
Though you were horn in Rome : nis bloody brow
With his' mailed hand then wiping, forth he goes,
Like to a harvest-man that's taisked to mow
Or all, or lose his hire.

3. Mahomet still lives in his practical and disastrous in-
fluence in the East. Napoleon still is France, and France
is almost Napoleon. Martin Luther's dead dust sleeps at
Wittenberg; but Martin Luther's accents still ring through
ihe churches of Christendom. Shakspeare, Byron, and
Milton, all live in their influence, — for good or evil. The
apostle from his chair, the minister from his pulpit, the
martyr from his flame-shroud, the statesman from his cabi-
net, the soldier in the field, the sailor on the deck, who all
have passed away to their graves, still live in the practical
deeds that they aid, in the lives they lived, and in the power-
ful lessons that they left behind them.

MINOR RISING INFLECTIONS.

1. " Let me see him once before he dies ? Let me hear
his voice once more ? I entreat you, let me enter."

«
2. Stay, lady, stay, for mercy's sake.
And hear a helpless orphan's tale t
Ah I sure my looks must pity wake :

'Tis want that makes my cheek so pale.
Yet I was once a mother's pride.

And my brave father's hope and joy ;
But in the Nile's proud fight he died,
And I am now an orphan-boy.

8. Thejr answer, " Who is Grod that he should hear us
While the rushing of the iron wheels is stirred ?
When we sob aloud, the human creatures near us
Pass bv, hearing not, or answer not a word.
Is it likely Grod, with angels singing round hinu
Hears our weeping, any more ? '*

ELOCUTION, 47

MINOR FALLING INFLECTIONS.

1. God forbid that we should outlive the love of our chil-
dren 1 Rather let us die while their hearts are a part of
our own, that our grave may be watered with their tears,
and our love linked with their hopes of heaven.

2. Her suffering ended with the day ;
Yet lived she at its close,
And breathed the long, long night away
In statue-like repose.

But, when the sun in all his state

Illumed the eastern skies,
She passed through glory's morning-gate,

And walked in paradise.

8. Father cardinal, I have heard you say

That we shall see and know our friends in heaven.

If that be true, I shall see my boy again ;

For since the birth of Cain, the first male child,

To him that did but yesterday suspire.

There was not such a gracious creature bom.

But now will canker-sorrow eat my bud,

And chase the native beauty from his cheek ;

And he will look as hollow as a ghost,

As dim and meagre as an ague's fit :

And so he'll die ; and, rising so again.

When I shall meet him in the court of heaven

I shall not know him : therefore never, never

Must I behold my pretty Arthur more.

CIRCUMFLEX INFLECTION.

1. Were I in England now (as once I was), and had but
this fish painted, not a holiday-fool there but would give a
piece of silver. There would this monster make a man : any
strange beast there makes a man. When they will not give
a doit to relieve a lame beggar, they will lay out ten to see
a dead Indian.

2. If to do were as easy as to know what were good to
io, chapels had been churches, and poor men's cottage

48 ELOCUTION.

princes* palaces. It is a good divine that follows his own
instructions. I can easier teach twenty what were good to
be done than be one of the twenty to follow mine own
teaching. The brain may devise laws for the blood ; but a
hot temper leaps over a cold decree : such a hare is mad-
ness the youth to skip o*er the meshes of good counsel the
cripple.

3. " Hold, there ! '* the other quick replies :
" 'Tis green : I saw it with these eyes,
As late with open mouth it lay,
And warmed it in the sunny ray.
Stretched at its ease, the beast I viewed,
And saw it eat the air for food."

" IVe seen it, sir, as well as you,
And must again affirm it blue :
At leisure I the beast surveyed,
Extended in the cooling shade."

" *Tis green, *tis green, sir, I assure ye ! '*
" Green ! " cries the other in a fury :
" Why, sir ! d'ye think I've lost my eyes? '*
" 'Twere no great loss," the friend replies ;
" For, if they always serve you thus,
You'll find them of but little use."

MONOTONE. .

1. When for me the silent oar

Parts the Silent River,
And I stand upon the shore

Of the strange Forever,
Shall I miss the loved and known ?
Shall I vainly seek mine own ?

2. Ye golden lamps of heaven, farewell, with all your

feeble light 1
Farewell, thou ever-changing moon, pale empress of

the night !
And thou, effulgent orb of day, in brighter flames

arrayed.
My soul, which springs beyond thy sphere, no more

demands thy aid.
Ye stars are but the shining dust of my divine abode,
The pavement of those heavenly courts where I shall

reign with God.

ELOCUTION, 49

o. Father of earth and heaven, I call thy name I
Round me the smoke and shout of battle roll ;
My eyes are dazzled with jthe rustling flame :
Father, sustain an untried soldier's soul.
Or life or death, whatever be the goal
That crowns or closes round this struggling hour,
Thou know'st, if ever from my spirit stole
One deeper prayer, *twas that no cloud might lower
On my young fame. Oh, hear, Grod of eternal power I

PITCH.

The general pitch of voice varies with the emotion. Some
feelings we are prompted to express in the high tones, as
joy ; some in the lower tones, as awe : but, without practice,
very few have command of the higher and lower tones; and,
when they attempt to read, they cannot give the requisite
variety to make it expressive. It is important that these
exercises should be studied until you can as easily read in
your highest and lowest tones as m your natural conversa-
tional or middle tones.

In high pilch, read in as high pitch as you can, and at the
tame time keep the tone pure, and you will find your voice
gradually gain m compass.

In middle pitch, read in your conversational tone, with
earnestness.

In low pitch, read somewhat lower than middle pitch,
and make as full a tone as you can.

In very low pitch, read as low in pitch as you can with
ease, and do not try to make it loud or full until you have
had considerable practice. Don't pinch or strain the throat:
if you do, the quality will be bad.

HIGH PITCH.

1. Merrily swinging on brier and weed,
Near to the nest of his little dame,
Over the mountain-side or mead,
Robert of Lincoln is telling his name,—
Bob-o-link, bob-o-link,
Spink, spank, spink 1
Snu^ and safe is that nest of ours
Hidden among the summer flowers :

Ohee, chee, chee I

50 ELOCUTION,

2. Oh I did you see him riding down,
And riding down, while all the town
Came out to see,* came out to see.
And all the bells rang mad with glee?

Oh ! did you hear those bells ring out,
The bells ring out, the people shout ?
And did you hear that cheer on cheer
That over all the bells rang clear ?

8. I am that merry wanderer of the night :
I jest to Oberon, and make him smile.
When 1, a fat and bean-fed horse, beguile,
Neighing in likeness of a silly foal.
And sometimes lurk I in a gossip's bowl,
In very likeness of a roasted crao ;
And, when she drinks, against her lips I bob,
And on her withered dew-lap pour the ale.

MIDDLE PITCH.

1. The honey-bee that wanders all day long
The field, the woodland, and the garden o'er,
To gather in his fragrant winter-store.
Humming in calm content his (juiet song.
Sucks not alone the rose's glowmg breast.
The lily's dainty cup, the violet's lips ;
But from all rank and noisome weeds he sipB
The single drop of sweetness ever pressed
Within the poison chalice. Thus, if we
Seek only to draw forth the hidden sweet
In all the varied human flowers we meet
In the wide garden of Humanity,
And, like the bee, if home the spoil we bear,
Hived in our hearts, it turns to nectar there.

2. Now the laughing, jolly Spring began to show her
buxom face in the bright morning. The buds began slowly
to expand their close winter folds, the dark and melancholy
woods to assume an almost imperceptible purple tint ; and
here and there a little chirping blue-bird hopped about the
orchards. Strips of fresh green appeared along the brooks,
now released from their icy fetters; and nests of little

ELOCUTION. 51

variegated flowers, nameless, yet richly deserving a name,
sprang up in the sheltered recesses of the leafless woods.

3. I know, the more one sickens, the worse at ease he is;
and that he that wants money, means, and content, is with-
out three good friends; that the property of rain is to
wet, and fire to burn ; that good pasture makes fat sheep,
and that a great cause of the night is lack of 'the sun;
that he that hath learned no wit by nature or art may
complain of good breeding, or comes of a very dull kindred.

LOW PITCH.

1. Mid the flower-wreathed tombs I stand,
Bearing lilies in my hand.
Comrades, in what soldier^ave
Sleeps the bravest of the brave ?

Is it he who sank to rest
With his colors round his breast ?
Friendship makes his tomb a shrine :
Garlands veil it ; ask not mine.

2. God, thou art merciful. The wintry storm,
The cloud that pours the thunder from its womb,
But show the sterner grandeur of thy form.
The li^tnings glancing through the midnight gloom,
To Faith's raised eye as calm, as lovely, come
As splendors of the autumnal evening star,
As roses shaken by the breeze's plume,
"Wlien like cool incense comes the dewy air,

And on the golden wave the sunset bums afar.

8. O thou Eternal One ! whose presence bright
All space doth occupy, all motion guide ;
Unchanged through Time's all-devastating flight;
Thou only God ! — there is no God beside !
Being above all beings I Three-in-one I
Whom none can comprehend, and none explore ;
Who fill'st existence with Thyself alone ;
Embracing all, supporting, ruling o'er;
Being whom we call God, and know no more 1

(

52 ELOCUTION.

VERY LOW PITCH.

1. When in the silent night all earth lies hushed
In slumber ; when the glorious stars shine out,
Each star a sun, each sun a central light
Of some fair system, ever wheeling on
In one unbroken round, and that again
Revolving round another sun ; while all,
Suns, stars, and systems, proudly roll along
In one majestic, ever-onward course,
In space un circumscribed and limitless, —
Oh ! think you then the undebased soul
Can calmly give itself to sleep, — to rest ?

2. Go stand upon the heights at Niagara, and listen in
awe-struck silence to that boldest, most earnest and elo-
quent, of all Nature's orators I And M'hat is Niagara, with
its plunging waters and its mighty roar, but the oracle of
God, the whisper of His voice who is revealed in the Bible
as sitting above the water-floods forever ?

3. The drums are all muffled ; tiie bugles are still ;
There's a pause in the valley, a halt on the hill ;
And the bearers of standards swerve back with a thrill

Where the sheaves of the dead bar the way :
For a great field is reaped, heaven's gamers to fill ;
And stem Death holds his harvest to-day.

QUALITY.

As ther^ are all kinds and qualities of emotions, so there
are all kinds and qualities of voice to express them. The
shade and varieties of these qualities are as infinite in niun-
ber as tiie emotions they express. We need, however,* in
practice, to make but four general divisions, — whisper, aspi
rate, pure, and orotund. The whisper expresses secrecy^
fear, and like emotions. It is seldom required in reading»
as the aspirate is expressive of the same, and you would bi
likely to use that instead of whisper. You should practise
the whisper until you can make it very clear, and free from
all impurity, or sound of throat, and full, so as to be heard
at a distance. In both whisper and aspirate leave the throat
free and open ; and be energetic, remembering that force is

ELOCUTION. 63

made by control of muscles at the waist, and not by effort
of throat or mouth. The clearer you can make a whisper,
the better quality you can make in pure and orotund. Pure
tone or quality is sound made with no disagreeable quality
being heard ; and is the same as pleasant quality, spoken of
as bemg necessary to make listeners. Pure quality is made
with ease, with no waste of breath, and is used for expres-
sion of agreeable feelings. Orotund is a magnified, pure
tone, and adds richness and power to the voice in speech. It
is the expression of intense feelings, usually slow in move-
ment, ais grandeur, sublimity, awe, &c. It can only be ob-
tained by much practice and much patience, allowing the
voice to grow in fulness, as it will in time, if practice con>
tinues.

WHISPER.

1. Deep stillness fell on all around :
Through that dense crowd was heard no sound

Of step or word.

2. How dark it is I I cannot seem to see
The faces of my flock. Is that the sea
That murmurs so ? or is it weeping ? Hush,
My little children ! God so loved the world.
He gave his Son : so love y6 one another.
Love God and man. Amen I

8. Hush ! 'tis a holy hour I The quiet room

Seems like a temple ; while yon soft lamp sheds
A faint and starry radiance through the gloom

And the sweet stillness down on bright young heads,
With all their clustering locks untouched by care.
And bowed, as flowers are bowed with night, in pray«r.

ASPIRATE.

1. Hush ! draw the curtain, — so !
She is dead, auite dead, you see.
Poor little laay 1 She lies
With the light gone out of her eyes ;
But her features still wear that soft,
Gray, meditative expression
Which you must have noticed oft

H ' ELOCUTION.

2. Lord of the winds ! I feel thee nigh ;
I know thy breath in the burning sky ;
And I wait with a thrill in every vein
For the coming of the hurricane.
And, lo ! on the wing of the heavy gales,
Through the boundless arch of heaven, he sails :
Silent and slow, and terribly strong.
The mighty shadow is borne along.
Like the dark eternity to come;
While the world below, dismayed and dumb,
Through the calm of the thick hot atmosphere
Looks up at its gloomy folds with fear.

3. 'Tis midnight's holy hour ; and silence now
Is brooding like a gentle spirit o'er
The still and pulseless world. Hark I on the winds
The bell's deep tones are swelling : 'tis the knell
Of the departed year. No funeral train
Is sweeping past : yet on the stream and wood,
With melancholy light, the moonbeams rest
Like a pale, spotless shroud ; the air is stirred
As by a mourner's sigh ; and on yon cloud,
That floats so still and placidly through heaven,
The spirits of the seasons seem to stand, —
Young Spring, bright Summer, Autumn's solemn form,
And Winter with its aged locks, — and breathe,
In mournful cadences that come abroad
Like the far wind-harp's wild and touching wail,
A melancholy dirge o'er the dead year,
Gone from the earth forever.

PURE.

A. Your voiceless lips, O flowers 1 are living preachers,
Each cup a pulpit, and each leaf a book.
Supplying to my fancy numerous teachers

In loneliest nook.

2. Ring out, wild bells, to the wild sky,
The flying cloud, the frosty light;
The j^ear is dying in the nisjht :
Ring out, wild bells, and let him die.

ELOCUTION, 55

King out the old ; ring in the new ;

Ring, happy bells, across the snow:

The year is going ; let him go :
Ring out the f alse, ring in the true.

5. Was it the chime of a tiny bell

That came so sweet to my dreaming ear,
Like the silvery tones of a fairy's shell,

That he winds on the beach, so mellow and clear,
When the winds and the waves lie together asleep,
And the moon and the fairy are watching the deep, —
She dispensing her silvery light,
And he his notes as silvery quite, —
While the boatman listens, and ships his oar.
To catch the music that comes from the shore ?
Hark ! the notes on mv ear that play
Are set to words : as they float, they say,
" Passing away, passing away 1 "

OROTUND.

1. Approach and behold while I lift from his sepulchre
its covering. Ye admirers of his greatness, ye emidous of
his talents and his fame, approach, and behold him now.
How pale ! how silent ! No martial bands admire the adroit-
ness of his movements, no fascinating throng weep and melt
and tremble at his eloquence. Amazing change 1 A shroud,
a coffin, a narrow subterraneous cabin, — this is all that now
remains of Hamilton. And is this all that remains of him ?
During a life so transitory, what lasting monument, then,
can our fondest hopes erect!

2. A seraph by the throne

In the full glory stood. With eager hand
He smote the golden harp-strings, till a flood
Of harmony on the celestial air
Welled forth unceasing : then with a great voice
He sang the " Holy, holy, evermore.
Lord God Almighty I " and the eternal courts
Thrilled with the rapture ; and the hierarchies,
Angel and rapt archangel, throbbed and burned
With vehement adoration. Higher yet

56 ELOCUTION.

Rose the majestic anthem without pause, —
Higher, with rich magnificence of sound,
To its full strength ; and still the infinite heavens
Kang with the " Holy, holy, evermore ! "

3. God, thou art mighty. At thy footstool bound,
Lie, gazing to thee, Chance and Life and Death.
Nor in the angel-circle flaming round.
Nor in the million worlds that blaze beneath.
Is one that can withstand thy wrath's hot breath.
Woe in thy frown ; in thy smile victory.
Hear my last prayer. I ask no mortal wreath :
Let but these eyes my rescued coimtry see ;
Then take my spirit, All-Omnipotent, to thee.

For examples of pure tone, see " Reading Club,'* No. 1, pag«^
W and 82; No. 2, page 63; No. 3, pages 11, 49; No. 4, pages 29, 36,
81.

For orotund, No. 1, page 42; No. 2, page 64; No. 3, page 26*
No. 4, page 61.

MOVEMENT.

By different emotions you are prompted to speak words in
quick or slow utterance^ as in joy or anger you would be
prompted to utter words quickly; while in majesty, sublim-
ity, awe, you would speak slowly. You should practise
movement, that you may be able to read rapidly and with
perfect articulation, and also to read slowly with proper
phrasing. In quick movement, read as fast as you can with
proper articulation, phrasing, and emphasis. In moderate
movement, read as in ordinary earnest conversation. In slow
and very slow movement, phrase well, as in these the em-
phatic words have the longest time given to them, the
secondarily emphatic ones less time, and the connecting
words the least time ; and it is a great art to proportion theni
rightly. If you do not do the latter, you will drawl.

QUICK MOVEMENT.

1. Boot, saddle, to horse, and away !
Rescue my castle before the hot day
Brightens to blue from its silvery gray:
Boot, saddle, to horse, and away I

ELOCUTION. 67

2. But hark ! above the beating of the storm
Peals on the startled ear the fire-alarm.
Yon eloomy heaven's aflame with sudden light ;
And heart-beats quicken with a strange affright.
From tranquil slumber springs, at duty's call,
The ready friend no danger can appall :
Fierce for the conflict, sturdy, true, and brave,
He hurries forth to battle and to save.

8. After him came, spurring hard,

A gentleman almost forespent with speed.
That stopped by me to breathe his bloodied horse.
He asked the way to Chester ; and of him
I did demand what news from Shrewsbury.
He told me that rebellion had bad luck.
And that young Harry Percy's spur was cold :
With that he gave his able horse the head,
And, bending forward, struck his armed heels
Against the panting sides of his poor jade
Up to the rowel-head ; and, starting so.
He seemed, in running, to devour the way,
Staying no longer question.

MODERATE MOVEMENT.

1. Yes, Tom's the best fellow that ever you knew.

Just listen to this : —
When the old mill took fire, and the flooring fell

through,
And I with it, helpless there, full in my view
What do you think my eyes saw through the fire.
That crept along, crept along, iiigher and nigher,
But Robin, my baby-boy, laughing to see
The shining? He must have come there after me,
Troddled alone from the cottage.

2. Oratory, as it consists in the expression of the coun-
tenance, graces of attitude and motion, and intonation of
voice, although it is altogether superficial and ornamental,
will always command admiration ; yet it deserves little ven-
eration. Flashes of wit, coruscations of imagination, and
gay pictures, — what are theyV Strict truth, rapid reason,
and pure integrity, are the only essential ingredients in
oratory. I flatter myself that Demosthenes, by his "action
action, action,'' meant to express the saina opinion.

58 ELOCUTION,

3. Waken, voice of the land's devotion!
Spirit of freedom, awaken all !
Ring, ye shores, to the song of ocean I

Rivers, answer ! and, mountains, call 1
The golden day has come :
Let every tongue be dumb
That sounded its malice, or murmured its fears.
She hath won her story ;
She wears her glory :
We crown her the land of a hundred years!

SLOW MOVEMENT.

1. Within this sober realm of leafless trees

The russet year inhaled the dreamy air,
Like some tanned reaper in his hour of ease
When all the fields are lying brown and bare.

2. As some tall cliff that lifts its awful form,
Swells from the vale, and midway leaves the storm,
Though round its breast the rolling clouds are spread,
Eternal sunshine settles on its head.

^. Father, guide me ! Day declines ;
Hollow winds are in the pines ;
Darkly waves each giant bough
O'er the sky's last crimson glow;
Hushed is now the convent's bell,
Which erewhile, with breezy swell,
From the purple mountains bore
Greeting to the sunset shore ;
Now the sailor's vesper-hymn

Dies away.
Father, in the forest dim

Be my stay!

VERY SLOW MOVEMENT.

1, Toll, toll, toll,

Thou bell by billows swung I
And night and day thy warning words

Repeat with mournful tongue 1
Toll for the queenly boat

Wrecked on yon rocky shore :
Seaweed is in her palace-halls ;

She rides the surge no more.

ELOCUTION. 59

2. Now o'er the drowsy earth still night prevails ;
Calm sleep the mountain-tops and shady vales,
The rugged cliffs and hollow glens.

The wild beasts slumber in their dens,

The cattle on the hill. Deep in the sea

The countless finny race and monster brood

Tranquil repose. Even the busy bee

Forgets her daily toil. The silent wood

No more with noisy form of insect rings ;

And all the feathered tribes, by gentle sleep subdued,

Roost m the glade, and hang their drooping wings.

3. My Fatlier, God, lead on !
Calmly I follow where thy guiding hand
Directs my steps. I would not trembling stand,

Though all before the way
Is dark as night : I stay
My soul on thee, and say.
Father, I trust thy love : lead on 1

FORCE.

Every emotion which you hav^you feel more or less in*
tensely, and that intensity is expressed through the force
of the voice. The degree of force with which you speak
will be according to the degree of intensity of emotion ; and
even in the gentlest tone you c€nv.^^press as forcibly as in
the loudest. According to your strength of body and mind,
and intensity of feeling, you have been accujstomed to ex-
press in a strong or feeble voice. Force needs to^ Ije pra^
tised to enable you to fill a large hall with your gentlest
tone, and to make very loud tones without straining of
throat. In gentle force, sustain the breath well, as in fulness
and power, observing directions there given ; and make your
tone soft and pure. In moderate force, be as energetic as in
earnest conversation. In loud and very loud force, observe
directions under " Fulness and Power."

GENTLE FORCE.

1. A noise as of a hidden brook
In the leafy month of June,
That to the sleeping woods all night
Singeth a qmet tune.

60 ELOCUTION.

2. O blithe new-comer! I have heard,

I hear thee, and rejoice:
O cuckoo ! shall I call thee bird,
Or but a wandering voice?

Thrice welcome, darling of the spring!

Even yet thou art to me
No bird, but an invisible thing,

A voice, a mystery.

8. Around this lovely valley rise
The purple hills of Paradise ;
Oh ! softly on yon banks of haze
Her rosy face the Summer lays;
Becalmed along the azure sky
The argosies of Cloud-land lie.
Whose shores, with many a shining rift,
Far ofE their pearl-white peaks uplift.

MODERATE FORCE.

1. Robert of Lincoln is gayly dressed.

Wearing a bright black wedding-coat:
White are his shotflders, and white his crest.
Hear him call, in his merry note,
Bob-o-link, bob-o-link,
Spink, spank, spink!
Look, what a nice new coat is mine!
Sure there was never a bird so fine.

Chee, chee, cheel

2. O young men and women ! there is no picture of ideal
excellence of manhood and womanhood that I ever draw
that seems too high, too beautiful, for your young hearts.
^Vhat aspirations there are for the good, the true, the fair,
and the holy! The instinctive affections — how beautiful
they are, with all their purple prophecy of new homes and
generations of immortab that are yet to be ! The high
instincts of reason, of conscience, of love, of religion, —
how beautiful and grand they are in the young heart I

3. She was a darling little thing :

I worshipped her outright.
When in my arms she smiling lay;
When on my knees she climbed m play;

ELOCUTION, 61

When round my neck her arms would cling,
As crooning songs I used to sing;
When on my back she gayly rode,
Then strong beneath its precious load;
When at my side, in sunmier days,
She gamboUed in her childish plays ;
When, throughout all the after-years,
I watched with trembling hopes and fears
The infant to a woman grow, —
I worshipped then, as I do now.
My life's delight.

LOUD FORCE.

1. Hark to the bugle's roundelay!
Boot and saddle! Up and away!
Mount and ride as ye ne'er rode before;
Spur till your horses' flanks run gore;
Ride for the sake of human lives ;

Ride as ye would were your sisters and wives
Cowering under their scalping-knives.
Boot and saddle! Away, away!

2. News of battle! news of battle!

Hark! 'tis ringing down the street,
And the archways and the pavement

Bear the clang of hurrying feet.
News of battle! — who hath brought it?

•News of triumph ! — who should biing
Tidings from our noble army,

Greetings from our gallant king!

3. And, lo ! from the assembled crowd
There rose a shout, prolonged and loud.
That to the ocean seemed to say,

** Take her, O bridegroom old and gray!

Take her to thy protecting arms.

With all her youth and all her charms."

VERY LOUD FORCE.

1. ** Now, men ! now is your time ! "
** Make ready! take aim! fire! "

62 ELOCUTION.

2. Up the hillside, down the glen,
Rouse the sleeping citizen,
Summon out the might of men !
Clang the bells in all your spires !
- On the gray hills of your sires
Fling to heaven your signal-fires !
Oh, lor God and Duty stand.
Heart to heart, and hand to hand,
Round the old graves of your land/

3. Now for the fight! now for the cannon-peal!

Forward, through blood and toil and cloud and fire!
Glorious the shout, the shock, the crash of steel,
The volley's roll, the rocket's blasting spire !
They shake ; like broken waves their squares retire.
On fliem, hussars! Now ^ve them rein and heel!
Think of the orphaned child, the murdered sire!
Earth cries for blood. In thunder on them wheel!
This hour to Europe's fate shall set the triumph seal.

STRESS.

In ex{»'essing your emotions, the voice is ejected in various
ways; perhaps in a jerky or trembling or flowing manner,
as may be, depending on the kind of emotion you feel.
This is called ** Stress; " and you have learned how, mechani-
cally, to make it. Radical Stress is used when you try to
impress upon others your exact meaning. Practise it with
that thought in your mind. Median Stress is used in
appeal to the best affections, and expresses agreeable emo-
tions. The swell comes on emphatic words. Terminal
Stress is used in expressions of anger, petulance, impa-
tience, and the like. Thorough Stress is used in calling to
persons at a long distance, but has little place in expression.
It is frequently substituted by bad readers or speakers for
Median or Terminal Stress. Compoimd Stress is used in
strong passion ; and being a compound of Radical and Ter-
minal Stress, and used with circumflex inflections, it com-
bines the meaning of them all, as sarcasm, irony, &c.,
mixed with anger, impatience, doubt, &c. Tremolo Stress
is used in excessive emotion; as joy, anger, sorrow, in
excess, would cause the voice to tremble. You should prac-
tise this in order to avoid it, as, when Tremolo does not

ELOCUTION, 63

proceed from real excess of feeling, it has a very ludicrous
effect. Practise the following exercises by thinking and
feeling the idea and emotion.

RADICAL STRESS.

1. Hark, hark! the lark sings mid the silvery blue:
Behold her flight, proud man, and lowly bow.

2. There is the act of utterance, a condition that exists
between you and myself. 1 speak, and you hear; but how?
The words issue from my lips, and reach your ears; but
what are those words? Volumes of force communicated to
the atmosphere, whose elastic waves carry them to fine
recipients in your own organism. But still 1 ask. How?
How is it that these volumes of sound should convey articu-
late meaning; and cany ideas from my mind into your own?

3. I caD upon you, fathers, by the shades of your ances-
tors, by the dear ashes which repose in this precious sojl, by
all you are and all you hope to be, — resist every object of
disunion ; resist every encroachment upon your liberties ; re-
sist every attempt to fetter your consciences, or smother
your public schools, or extinguish your system of public
mstruction.

MEDIAN STRESS.

1. The earth is the Lord's, and the fulness thereof;
The world, and they that dwell therein:

For he hath founded it upon the seas,
And established it upon the floods.

2. Oh divine, oh delightful legacy of a spotless reputa-
tion ! Rich is the inheritance it leaves ; pious the example it
testifies; pure, precious, and imperishable the hope which
it inspires. Can there be conceived a more atrocious injury
than to filch from its possessor this inestimable benefit; to
rob society of its charm, and solitude of its solace ; not only
to outlaw life, but to attaint death, converting the very
gi*ave, the refuge of the sufferer, into the gate of infamy
and of shame?

3. How sleep the brave who sink to rest
With all their country's wishes blest 1

64 ELOCUTION,

When Spring, with dewy fingers cold,
Returns to deck their hallowed mould,
It there shall dress a sweeter sod
Than blooming Fancy ever trod.
By fairy hands their knell is rung;
By forms unseen their dirge is simg:
There Honor walks, a pilgrim gray,
To deck the turf that wraps their clay;
And Freedom shall a while repair
To dwell a weeping hermit there.

TERMINAL STRESS.

1. 1*11 have my bond; I will not hear thee speak:
1*11 have my bond; and therefore speak no more:
I'll not be made a soft and dull-eyed fool,
To shake the head, relent, and sigh, and yield
To Christian intercessors.

If. N' r sleep nor sanctuary,

B< ing naked, sick, nor fane nor capitol,
Tl»^ prayers of priests, nor times of sacrifice,
Euibarkments all of fury, shall lift up
Their rotten privilege and custom 'gjainst
My hate to Marcius: where I find him, were it
At home upon my brother's guard, — even there.
Against the hospitable cannon, would I
Wash my fierce hand in his heart

3. A plague upon them! Wherefore should I curse them?
Would curses kill, as doth the mandrake's groan,
I would invent as bitter-searching terms.
As curst, as harsh, and horrible to hear,
Delivered strongly through my fixfed teeth,
With full as many signs of deadly hate.
As lean-faced Envy in her loathsome cave:
My tongue should stumble in mine earnest words;
Mme eyes should sparkle like the beaten flint;
My hair be fixed on end, as one distract;
Ay, every joint should seem to curse and baa;
And even now my burdened heart would break|
Should I not curse them.

ELOCUTION. 65

THOROUGH STRESS.

1. •* Ho, Starbuck and Pickney and Tenterden!

Run for your shallops, gather your men,
Scatter your boats on the lower bay! "

2. " Run! run for your lives, high up on the land!
Away, men and children! up quick, and be gone!
The water's broke loose! it is chasing me on! ''

3 They strike! Hurrah! the fort has surrendered!
Shout, shout, my warrior-boy.
And wave your cap, and clap your hands for joy!
Cheer answer cheer, and bear the cheer about.
Hurrah, hurrah, for the fiery fort is ours!
** Victory, victory, victory! "

COMPOUND STRESS.

1. Thou slave, thou wretch, thou coward,
Thou little valiant great in villany!
Thou wear a lion's hide! dofE it for shame.
And hang a calf's skin on those recreant limbs.

2. Hath not a Jew eyes? hath not a Jew hands, organs,
dimensions, senses, affections, passions? fed with the same
food, hurt with the same weapons, subject to the same dis-
eases, healed by the same means, warmed and cooled by the
same winter and summer, as a Christian is? K you prick
us, do we not bleed? if you tickle us, do we not laugh? if
you poison us, do we not die? and, if you wrong us, shall wo
not revenge?

3. Think you a little din can daunt mine ears?
Have I not in my time heard lions roar?

Uave I not heard the sea, puffed up with winds,
Rage like an angry boar, chafed with sweat?
Have I not heard great ordnance in the field,
And heaven's artillery thunder in the skies?
Have I not in a pitched battle heard
Loud 'larums, neighing steeds, and trumpet's clang?
And do you tell me of a woman's tongue.
That gives not half so great a blow to the ear
As will a chestnut in a farmer's fiXQ'i

66 ELOCUTION,

TREMOLO STRESS.

1. There's nothing in this world can make me joy:
Life is as tedious as a twice-told tale,
Vexing the dull ear of a drowsy man.

2 O men with sisters dear !

O men with mothers and wives I
It is not linen you're wearing out,

But himian creatures' lives.
Stitch, stitch, stitch,

In poverty, hunger, and dirt;
Sewing at once, with a double thread,

A shioud as well as a shirt.

3. Grief fills the room up of my absent child.
Lies in his bed, walks up and down with me,
Puts on his pretty looks, repeats his words,
Remembers me of all his gracious parts.
Stuffs out his vacant garments with his form:
Then have I reason to be fond of grief.

TRANSITION.

The changes from one kind of force to another, or one
pitch to anomer, or one movement to another, or one quality
to another, are many in expressive reading; and these changes
are called ** Transition." To practise it is very useful in
breaking, up monotony of voice, and adding expressiveness
to it. £i practice of these short extracts, you are showing
the benefit of practice in quality, pitch, movement, and force.
Put yourself into the thought and feeling, and vary the voice
as that, guided by common sense, may suggest to you.

See " Beading Club," No. 1, pp. 46, 54; No. 2, pp. 5, 101; No. 3^

1. 9, 70, 87; No. 4, pp. 26, 42, 75.

1. '* Make way for liberty ! " he^ cried, —
Made way for liberty, and died !

2. *' Peace be unto thee, father," Tauler said:

" God give thee a good day! " The old man raised
Slowly nis calm blue eyes: ** I thank thee, son;
But ail my days are good, and none are ill."

ELOCUTION. 67

3. " They come, they come! the pale-face come! "
The cnieftain shouted where he stood,

Sharp watching at the margui wood.
And gave the war-whoop's treble yell,
That like a knell on fair hearts feu
Far watching from their rocky home.

4. " Not yet, not yet: steady, steady! "
On came the foe in even line,

Nearer and nearer, to thrice paces nine.
We looked into their eyes. ** Ready! **
A sheet of flame, a roll of death !
They fell by scores: we held our breath:
Then nearer still they came.
Another sheet of flame,
And brave men fled who never fled before.

5. Did ye not hear it? — No: 'twas but the wind,
Or the car rattling o'er the stony street.

On with the dance ! let joy be imconfined !
No sleep till morn, when youth and pleasure meet
To chase the glowing^ hours with flying feet.
But hark ! — that heavy sound breaks m once more.
As if the clouds its echo would repeat;
And nearer, clearer, deadlier than before!
Arm, arm! it is — it is — the cannon's opening roar!

6. ** Together! " shouts Niagara his thunder-toned decree;
** Together! " echo back the waves upon the Mexic Sea;
*' Together! " sing the sylvan hills where old Atlantic

roars;
"Together!" boom the breakers on the wild Paciflo

shores;
*' Together! " cry the people. And ** together " it shall

be.
An everlasting charter-bond forever for the free !
Of liberty the signet-seal, the one eternal sign,
Be those united emblems, — the Palmetto aAd the Pine*

7. ** Ho, sailor of the sea!
How's my boy, — my boy? "
** What's your boy's name, good wife?
And in what good ship sailed he? "

68 ELOCUTION.

" My boy John, —
He that went to sea:
What care I for the ship, sailor?
My boy's my boy to me."

8. Out burst all with one accord:

'* This is Paradise for Hell!
Let France, let France's king.
Thank the man that did the thing! ''

What a shout! and all one word, —
"Herv^Riel!"

As he stepped in front once more,
Not a symptom of surprise
In the frank blue Breton eyes:

Just the same man as before.

9. He called his child, — no voice replied;

He searched, with terror wild:
Blood, blood, he foimd on every side,
But nowhere foimd his child.

** Hell-hound! my child's by thee devoured,*'

The frantic father cried ;
And to the hilt his vengeful sword

He plunged in (Jelert's side.

His suppliant, as to earth he fell,

No pity coiild impart;
But still his Gelert's dying yell

Passed heavy o'er his heart.

10. While the trumpets bray, and the cymbals ring,

*' Praise, praise to Bels]liazzar, Belshazzar the king! "
Now what cometh? Look, look! Without menace or

wall?
What pierceth the king like the point of a dart?
What drives the bold blood from his cheek to his heart?
** Chaldseans, magicians! the letters expound."
They are read ; and Belshazzar is dead on the ground !

11. Sir P. — 'Slife, madam! I say, had you any of these
little elegant expenses when you married me?

ELOCUTION. 69

Lady T, — Lud, Sir Peter! would you have me be out
of the fashion?.

Sir P, — The fashion, indeed! What had you to do
with the fashion before you married me?

Lady T, — For my part, I should think you would like
to have your wife thought a woman of taste.

Sir P. — Ay, there again! Taste I Zounds, madam I
you had no taste when you married me.

Lady T. — That's very true, indeed, Sir Peter; and,
after having married you, I should never pretend to taste
again, I allow.

12. " And what the meed? " at length Tell asked.
** Bold fool! when slaves like thee are tasked.

It is my will;
But that thine eye may keener be,
And nerved to such nice archery,
If thou succeed'st, thou goest free.

What! pause ye still?
Give him a bow and arrow there:
One shaft, — but one." Madness, despair.

And tortured love.
One moment swept the Switzer's face;
Then passed away each stormy trace.
And high resolve reigned like a grace

Caught from above.

13 Bass. — ^Why dost thou whet thy knife so earnestly?

Shy. — To cut the forfeit from that bankrupt there.

Gra. — Can no prayers pierce thee?

Shy, — No, none that thou hast wit enough to make

Gra. — Oh, be thou damned, inexorable dog,
And for thy life let justice be accused !
Thou almost mak'st me waver m my faith.
To hold opinion with Pythagoras,
That souls of animals infuse themselves
Into the trunks of men: thy currish spirit
Governed a wolf, who, hanged for human slaughter,
Even from the gallows did his fell soul fleet,
And, whilst thou lay'st in thy unhallowed dam.
Infused itself in thee ; for thy desires
Are wolfish, bloody, starved, and ravenous.

70 ELOCUTION.

Shy. — Till thou canst rail the seal from off my bond,
Thou but offend'st thy lungs to speak so loud.
Repair thy wit, good youth, or it will fall
To cureless ruin. — I stand here for law.

14. Ham. — Now, mother, what's the matter?

Queen. — Hamlet, thou hast thy father much offended

Ham. — Mother, you have my father much offended.

Queen. — Come, come, you answer with an idle tongue

Ham. — Gro, go, you question with a wicked tongiie.

Queen. — Why, now now, Hamlet?

Ham. — What's the matter now?

Queen. — Have you forgot me?

Ham. — No, by the rood, not so:
You are the queen, your husband's brother's wife;
And — would it were not so ! — you are my mother.

Queen. — Nay, then, I'll set those to you that can
speak.

Ham. — Come, come, and sit you down; you shall not
budge ;
You go not, till I set you up a glass
Where you may see the inmost part of you.

MODULATION.

** 'Tis not enough the voice be loud and clear:
'Tis MODULATION that must charm the ear."

A good reader oi^ speaker will vary his or her voice in the
elements of emotional expression (that is, pitch, quality,
movement, stress, force), on words, phrases, and sentences,
in such a manner that the listeners get a suggestion of the
meaning of a word by the sound of it. For instance, the
words bright^ glad, joyful, dull, sad, weak, may be pronounced
in such a manner as to suggest by the quality of voice used
their meaning ; and, in the same manner, phrases and whole
sentences may have variation in voice so as to suggest their
meaning. Tnis is modulation.

To modulate well, first, you must use your imagination, to
form a perfect picture in your own mind of what you wish to
describe, just as you would if you were an artist, and were
intending to paint an ideal picture; and, in reality, you are
an artist, for you paint with words and tones. Secondly,
you should unaerstaud the exact meaning of each word, and,

ELOCUTION, 71

when you speak it, make your manner of speaking it suggest
its meaning. Suppose you were to read Tennyson's ** Song
of the Brook." We wiU analyze as near as words may the
manner of reading each verse. Read the whole song, and
form the picture in imagination of the flow of the water, the
scenery along its course, the roughness or smoothness of the
water as described, the slowness or rapidity of its flow at
different points, how large or small the brook is, making the
picture as perfect as i# you would paint upon canvas the
whole scene.

THE BROOK.

1. I come from haunts of coot and hem;

2. I make a sudden sally,

3. And sparkle out among the fern

4. To bicker down a vsdley.

5. By thirty hills I hurry down,

6. Or slip between the ridges;

7. By twenty thorps, a little town,

8. And half a hundred bridges.

9. Till last by Philip's farm I flow

10. To join the brinuning river;

11. For men may come, and men may go,

12. But I go on forever.

13. I chatter over stony ways

14. In little sharps and trebles;

15. I bubble into eddying bays ; •.

16. I babble on the pebbles.

17. With many a curve mv banks I fret,

18. Bv many a field and fallow,

19. And many a fairy foreland set

20. With willow-weed and mallow.

21. I chatter, chatter, as I flow

22. To join the brimming river;

23. For men may come, and men may go,

24. But I go on forever.

25. I wind about, and in and out,

26. With here a blossom sailing,

27. And here and there a lusty trout.

72 ELOCUTION.

29. And here and there a foamy flake

30. Upon me as I travel;

31. With many a silvery waterbreak

32. Above the golden gravel;

33. And draw them all along, and flow,

34. To join the brimming river ;

35. For men may come, and men may go,

36. But I go on foreve*

37. I steal by lawns and grassy plots;

38. I slide by hazel covers ;

39. I move the sweet forget-me-nots

40. That grow for happy lovers.

41. I slip, I slide, I gloom, I glance,

42. Among my skimming swallows;

43. I make the netted sunbeams dance* *

44. Against my sandy shallows.

45. I murmur under moon and stars

46. In brambly wildernesses;

47. I linger by my shingly bars ;

48. I loiter round my cresses :

49. And out again I curve and flow
60. To join the brimming river;

51. For men may come, and men may go,

52. But I go on forever.

As a whole, this piece requires for quality of voice the
pure tone ; toTce, gentle ; movement, moderate ; pitch, middle ;
stress, median. The variations in modulation must be from
these, and will be mostly variations in quality, movement,
and pitch.

Lines 2 to 6. Movement, quick ; pitch, high ; with quality
changing on words sudden^ sparkle^ bicker^ hurry, slip, in such
a way as to suggest the meaning of the word.

Lines 7 to 12. Movement, moderate ; pitch, middle.

Lines 13 to 16. Movement, quick; pitch, high; the words
chatter, stony, sharps, trebles, bubble, babble, spoken with sug-
gestion of their meaning.

Lines 17 to 20. Movement, moderate; pitch, middle.

ELOCUTION. 73

Lines 21 to 24. Movement, quick; pitch, high; make
quality suggest on chatter^ brimming.

Lines 25 to 28. Movement, slow; pitch, middle; change
to suggestive quality on wind, blossom, lusty.

Lines 29 to 86. Movement, moderate; pitch, middle; sug
gestive quality on foamy, silvery, golden, brimming.

Lines 37 to 40. Movement, slow; pitch, low; suggestive
quality on steed, slide, move, happy.

Lines 41, 42. Movement, pitch, quality, all varied on
words slip, slide, gloom, glance.

Lines 43, 44. Movement, quick; pitch, high; suggestive
quality on dance, shallows.

Lines 45 to 48. Movement, slow; pitch, low; quality,
very slightly aspirate; suggestive quality on murmur, linger j
loiter.

Lines 49 to 52. Movement, moderate; pitch, middle; sug-
gestive quality on brimming.

This analysis is very hnperf ect, as it is impossible in words
to explain it. What modulation requires is, as a popular
author says, ** genius and sense " on your part, and you will
be enabled to do as here is imperfectly suggested. You will
do well to select some pieces, and analyze them, as here sug-
gested. In Longfellow's launch of the ship, in his poem
** Building of the Ship,'' picture the whole scene in imagina-
tion, the size and kind of ship, the number of the crowd, &c.

The following pieces are marked so that you may get a
general idea of what is required for emotional expression in
each. No marking can give you particulars of what is ne-
cessary, as the modulation of voice or variety in emotional
expression — the light and shadow in the coloring of your
word-picture — must depend upon your artistic '' sense and
genius." Imagine your picture, understand the meaning of
every word and suggest its meaning in tone, concentrate
yourself in the thought and feeling of the piece, and let your
voice be governed by that, and you will not go far wrong if
you have faithfully practised what has been recommended in
the previous pages of this book.

1. Pure quality, gentle force, slow movement, middle
pitck, median stress.

Those evening bells, those evening bells I
How many a tale their music tells
Of youth and home, and that sweet time
When last 1 heard tlieir soothing chime \

74 ELOCUTION,

Those joyous hours are passed away;
And many a heart that then was gay
Within the tomb now darkly dwells,
And hears no more those evening bells.

And so 'twill be when I am gone:
That tuneful peal will still ring on ;
While other bards shall walk these dells,
And sing your praise, sweet evening bells.

2. Orotund quality, with fulness and power, varying
middle and low pitch, moderate and quick movement,
median and radical stress mixed.

With storm-daring pinion and sun-gazing eye
The gray forest eagle is king of the sky.
From the crag-grasping fir-top where mom hangs its wreath,
He views the mad waters white writhing beneam.
A fitful red glaring, a nmibling jar.
Proclaim the storm-demon still raging afar:
The black cloud strides upward, the Bghtning more red,
And the roll of the thunder more deep and more dread;
A thick pall of darkness is cast o'er the air ;
And on bounds the blast with a howl from its lair.

The lightning darts zig-zag and forked through the gloom;
And the Dolt launches o'er with crash, rattle, and boom:
The giay forest eagle — where, where has he sped?
Does he shrink to his eyrie, or shiver with dread?
Does the glare blind his eye? Has the terrible blast
On the wing of the sky-kmg a fear-fetter cast?
No, no! the brave eagle, he thinks not of fright:
The- wrath of the tempest but rouses delight.

To the flash of the lightning his eye casts a gleam;
To the shriek of the "^ald blast he echoes his scream;
And with front like a warrior that speeds to the fi'ay.
And a clapping of pinions, he's up and away.
Away — on! away — soars the fearless and free;
What recks he the skies' strife? its monarch is he!
The lightning darts round him, undaunted his sight*
The blast sweeps against him, unwavered his flight :
High upward, still upward, he wheels, till his fonn
Is lost in the black scowling gloom of the storm.

3. Pure to orotund quality, gentle to moderate force,
^ moderate movement, middle pitch, radicsd and median sti'esi

ELOCUTION. \ 75

mixed. This contains many words that can be pronoimced
with a quality or variation suggesting their meaning.

Rhetoric as taught in our seminaries and hy elocutionists
is one thin^: genuine, heart-thrilling, soul-stirring eloquence
is a veiy different thing. The one is like the rose in wax,
without odor; the other like the rose on its native bush, per-
fuming the atmosphere with the rich odors distilled from the
dew of heaven.

The one is the finely-finished statue of a Cicero or Demos-
thenes, more perfect in its lineaments than the original,
pleasing the eye, and enrapturing the imagination : the other
is the living man, animated by intellectual power, rousing
the deepest feelings of eveiy neai*t, and electrifying eveiy
soul as with vivid lightning. The one is a picture of the
passions all on fire : the other is the real conflagration, pour-
ing out a volume of words that burn like liquid flames bui-st-
ing from the crater of a volcano.

The one attracts the admiring gaze and tickles the fancy
of an audience: the other sounds an alaim that vibrates
through the tingling ears to the soul, and drives back the
rushing blood upon the aching heart. The one falls upon
the multitude like April showers glittering in the sunbeams,
animating, and bringing nature into mellow life: the other
rouses the same mass to deeds of noble daring, and imparts
to it the terrific force of an avalanche.

The one mo^^s the cerebral foliage in waves of recumbent
beauty like a gentle wind passing over a prairie of tall grass
and flowers: ttie other strikes a blow that resounds through
the wilderness of mind like rolling thunder through a forest
of oaks. The one fails when strong commcitions and angry
elements agitate the public peace: the other can ride upon
the whirlwind, direct the tornado, and rule the storm.

4. Aspirated orotund quality, moderate force, very slow
movement, very low pitch, median stress.

Tread softly, bow the head, in reverent silence bow:
No passing bell doth toll, yet an immortal soul
Is passing now.

Stranger, however great, with lowly reverence bow:
There's one in that poor shed, one Dy that paltiy bed,
Greater than thou.

76 ELOCUTION.

Beneath that beggar's roof, lo ! Death doth keep his state.
Enter, no crowds attend; enter, no guards defend
This palace-gate. '

That pavement damp and cold no smiling courtiers tread:
One silent woman stands, lifting with meagie hands
A dying head.

No mingling voices sound, — an infant wail alone:
A sob suppressed, again that short deep gasp, and thei*
The parting groan.

Oh change ! oh wondrous change ! burst are the prison

bars:
This moment there, so low, so agonized; and. now
Beyond the stars !

Oh change, stupendous change! there lies the soulless clod:
The Sim eternal breaks, the new immortal wakes, —
Wakes with his God !

5. Pure quality, moderate force, quick movement, high
pitch, radical stress, suggestive quality on many words.

The Wind one morning sprang up from sleep,

Saying, *' Now for a frolic, now lor a leap,

Now for a mad-cap galloping chase:

I'll make a commotion in every place! " ^

So it swept with a bustle right tnrough a great town,

Creakmg the signs, and scattering down

Shutters, and whisking with merciless squalls

Old women's bonnets and gingerbread-stalls:

There never was heard a much lustier shout

As the apples and oranges tumbled about;

And the urchins, that stand with their thievish eyes

Forever on watch, ran off each with a prize.

Then away to the field it went blustering and humming^

And the cattle all wondered whatever was coming:

It plucked by their tails the grave matronly cows.

And tossed the colts' manes all about their brows ;

Till, offended at such a familiar salute,

They all turned their backs, and stood silently mute.

So on it went capering, and playing its pranks ;

Whistling with reeds on the oroad river's banks;

ELOCUTION, 77

PuflBng the birds as they sat on the spray,

Or the traveller giave on the king's highway.

It was not too nice to hustle the bags

Of the beggar, and flutter his dirty rags :

'Twas so bold, that it feared not to play its joke

With the doctor's wig and the gentleman's cloak.

Through the forest it roared, and cried gayly, '* Now,

You sturdy old oaks, I'll make you bow! "

And it made them bow without more ado,

And cracked their great branches through and through.

Then it rushed like a monster on cottage and farm,

Striking their dwellers with sudden alarm,

And they ran out like bees in a midsummer swarm.

There were dames with their kerchiefs tied over their caps

To see if their poultry were free from mishaps.

The turkeys they gobbled ; the geese screamed aloud ;

And the hens crept to roost in a terrified crowd:

There was rearing of ladders, and logs laying on,

Where the thatch from the roof threatened soon to be gone.

But the wind had passed on, and had met in a lane

With a school-boy who panted and struggled in vain ;

For it tossed him and twirled him, then passed, and he stood

With his hat in a pool, and his shoe in the mud.

STYLE.

What you have to say, where you have to say it, when you
have to say it, why you have to say it, and to whom you have
to say it, — on these depend how you shall say it, or your style.
Conversational style is as you would talk in earnest conver-
sation with a friend ; Narrative, as you would tell an anec-
dote or story to a company of friends; Descriptive, as you
would describe what you had actually seen; Didactic, as
you would state earnestly, decisively, but pleasantly, your
knowledge or opinions to others; Public Address, which
generally includes the Didactic, Narrative, and Descriptive,
IS spoken with design to move, to persuade, and instruct,
particularly the latter ; Declamatory is Public Address
magnified in expression, exhibiting more emotion, both in
language, and in quality, and fulness of voice; the Emo-
tional or Dramatic, in which the emotions and passions are
strongly expressed. In practising these different styles, the
(quality, pitch, force, and time must be regulated by your
thought and feeling, guided, as in transition, by connnoD

78 ELOCUTION,

sense, which will enable you to tell natural from unnatural
expression. Practise these few exercises under each head;
but you will do better to practise pieces such as are referred
to under each head in the ** Reading Club."

CONVERSATIONAL.

1. *' And how's my boy, Betty? " asked Mrs. Boflfin, sit-
ting down beside her.

* ' He's bad ; he's bad ! ' ' said Betty. * ' I begin to be afeerd
he'll not be yours any more than mine. All others belong-
ing to him have gone to the Power and the Glory; and I have
a mind that they're drawing him to them, leading him
away."

** No, no, nol " said Mrs. Boffin.

** I don't know why else he clinches his little hand, as if
it had hold of a finger that I can't see; look at it! " said
Betty, opening the wrappers in which the flushed child lay,
and showing his small right hand lying closed upon ms
breast. ** It's always so. It don't mind me."

2. Helen. — What's that you read?
Modus, — Latin, sweet cousin.
HeL — 'Tis a naughty tongue,

I fear, and teaches men to lie.

Modus, — To lie!

Hel, — You study it. You call your cousin sweet.
And treat her as you would a crab. As sour
'T would seem you think her: so you covet her!
Why, how the monster stares, and looks about!
You construe Latin, and can't construe that!

Modus, — I never studied women.

HeL — No, nor men;
Else would you better know their ways, nor read
In presence of a lady.

3. ** Now," said Wardle, " what say you to an hour on
the ice? We shall have plenty of time."

** Capital! " said Mr. Benjamin Allen.

** Prune! " ejaculated Mr. Bob Sawyer.

** You skate, of course. Winkle? " said Wardle.

'* Ye — yes; oh, yes! " replied Mr. Winkle. *' I — I am
rather out of practice."

" Oh, do skate, Mr. Winkle! " said ArabeUa. ** I like to
%ee it so much! "

ELOCUTION. 79

** Oh, it is so graceful! " said another young lady.

A third young lady said it was elegant ; and a fourth ex-
pressed her opinion that it was ** swan-like."

** I should be very happy, I'm sure," said Mr. Winkle,
reddening; ** but I have no skates." "

This objection was at once overruled. Trundle had got
a couple 01 pair, and the fat boy announced that there were
haK a dozen more down stairs; whereat Mr. Winkle ex-
pressed exquisite delight, and looked exquisitely uncomfort-
able.

See " Reading Club,'* No. 1, p. 56; No. 2, p. 49; No. 3, pp. 6, 38;
No. 4s pp. 94, 67.

NARRATIVE.

1. Tauler the preacher walked, one autumn-day,
Without the walls of Strasburg, by the Ehine,
Pondering the solemn miracle of life ;
As one who, wandering in a starless night,
Feels momently the jar of unseen waves.
And hears the thunder of an unknown sea
Breaking along an unimagined shore.

2. The illustrious Spinola, upon hearing of the death of a
friend, inquired of what disease he died. ** Of having noth-
ing to do," said the person who mentioned it. ** Enough,"
said Spinola, '*to kill a gener^J." Not only the want of
employment, but the want of care, often increases as well as
brings on this disease.

3. Sir Isaac Newton was once examining a new and very
fine globe, when a gentleman came into his study who did
not believe in a Grod, but declared the world we live in came
by chance. He was much pleased with the handsome globe,
and asked, ** Who made it?" — ** Nobody," answered Sir
Isaac: *' it happened there." The gentleman looked up in
amazement; but he soon understood what it meant.

See " Reading Club," No. 1, pp. 23, 73; No. 2, pp. 37, 44; No. 3|
pp. 9, 99; No. 4, pp. 26, 49, 89.

DESCRIPTIVE.

1. The mom awakes, like brooding dove,
With outstretched wings of gray;
Thin, feathery clouds close in above,
And build a sober day.

80 ELOCUTION.

No motion in the deeps of air,

No trembling in the leaves ;
A still contentment everywhere,

That neither laughs nor grieves.

A shadowy veil of silvery sheen

Bedims the ocean's hue,
Save where the boat has torn between

A track of shining blue.

Dream on, dream on, O dreamy dayl

The very clouds are dreams:
That cloud is dreaming far away,

And is not where it seems.

2. The broad moon lingers on the summit of Mount Olivet;
but its beam has long left the garden of Gethsemane, and the
tomb of Absalom, the waters of Kedron, and the dark abyss
of Jehoshaphat. Full falls its splendor, however, on the
opposite city, vivid and defined in its silver blaze. A lofty
w^l, with turrets and towers and frequent gates, undulates
with the unequal groimd which it covers, as it encircles the
lost capital of Jehovah. It is a city of hills, far more famous
than those of Rome ; for all Europe has heard of Sion and of
Calvary.

3. It was a fine autimxnal day: the sky was clear and
serene, and Nature wore that rich and golden livery which
we always associate with the idea of abundance. The forests
had put on their sober brown and yellow; while some trees
of the tenderer kind had been nipped by the frosts into bril-
liant dyes of orange, purple, and scarlet. Streaming files of
wild ducks began to make their appearance high in the air;
the bark of the squirrel might be heard from the groves of
beech and hickory nuts, and the pensive whistle of Qie quail
at intervals from the neighboring stubble-field.

See " Reading Club," No. 2, pp. 16, 39; No. 3, pp. 28, 97; No. 4,
pp 19,36,92.

DIDACTIC.

1. To teach — what is it but to learn
Each day some lesson fair or deep,
The while our hearts toward others yearn, —
The hearts that wake toward those that sleep?

ELOCUTION. 81

To leam — what is it but to teach
By aspect, manner, silence, word,

The while we far and farther reach
Within thy treasures, O our Lord?

Then who but is a learner aye?

And who but teaches, weU or ill?
Receiving, giving, day by day, —

So grows the tree, so flows the rill.

2. All professions should be liberal ; and there should be
less pride felt in peculiarity of employment, and more in ex-
cellence of achievement. And yet more: in each several pror-
fession no master should be too proud to do its hardest work.
The painter should grind his own colors ; the architect work
in the mason's yard with his men ; the master-manufacturer
be himself a more skilful operative than any man in his
mills ; and the distinction between one man and another be
onlv in experience and skill, and the authority and wealth
which these must naturally and justly obtain.

&. Now, my oo-mates and brothers in exile,

Hath not old custom made tliis life more sweet
Than that of painted pomp? Are not these woods
More free from peril tnan the envious court?
Here feel we but the penalty, of Adam,
The seasons' difference; as, the icy fang
And churlish chiding of the winter's wind,
Which, when it bites and blows upon my body,
Even till I shrink with cold, I smile, ana say,
This is no flattery: these are counsellors
That feelingly persuade me what I am.
Sweet are die uses of adversity.
Which, like the toad, ugly and venomous.
Wears yet a precious jewel in his head;
And this our life, exempt from public haimt,
Finds tongues in trees, books in the running brooks,
Sermons in stones, and good in every thing.

See " Beading Club," No. 1, p. 82; No. 2, pp. 88, 76; No. 3, p. 59.

PUBLIC ADDRESS.

1. Let not, then, the young man sit with folded hands,
calling on Hercules. Thine own aim is the demigod : ii

82 ELOCUTION.

was given thee to help thyself. Go forth into the world
trustful, but fearless. Exalt thine adopted calling or profes-
sion. Look on labor as honorable, and dignify the task
before thee, whether it be in the study, office, counting-room,
work-shop, or furrowed field. There is an equality in all,
and the resolute will and pure heart may ennoble either.

2. While you are gazing on that sun which is plunging
into the vault of the west, another observer admires nim
emerging from the gilded gates of the east. By what incon-
ceivable power does that aged star, which is sinking fatigued
and burning in the shades of the evening, re-appear at the
samq instant fresh and humid with the rosy dew of the
morning V At every hour of the day the glorious orb is at
once rismg, resplendent as noonday, and setting in the west;
or rather our senses deceive us, and there is, properly speak-
ing, no east or west, no north or south, in the world.

3. In all natural and spiritual transactions, so far as they
come within the sphere of human agency, there are three
distinct elements: there is an element of endeavor, of
mystery, and of result; in other words, there is something
for man to do, there is something beyond his knowledge and
control, there is something achieved by the co-operation of
these two. Man sows the seed, he reaps the harvest; but
between these two points occurs the middle condition of
mysteiy . He casts the seed into the ground ; he sleeps and
rises night and day; but the seed springs and grows up, he
knows not how: yet, when the fruit is ripe, immediately he
putteth in the sickle, because the harvest is come. That is
all he knows about it. There is something for him to do,
something for him to receive; but between the doing and
receiving there is a mystery.

See " Reading Chib," No. 1, p. 83; No. 2, pp. 77, 79; No. 3, pp
74, 91; No. 4, pp. 35, 53.

DECLAMATORY.

1. You speak like a boy, — like a boy who thinks the old
gnarled oak can be twisted as easily as the young sapling.
Can I forget that I have been branded as an outlaw, stig-
matized as a traitor, a price set on my head as if I had been
a wolf, my family treated as the dam and cubs of the hill-
fox, whom all may tonnent, vilify, degrade, and insult; the

ELOCUTION. 83

•
very name which came to me from a long and noble line of
martial ancestors denounced, as if it were a spell to conjure
up the devil with?

2. I have been accused of ambition in presenting this
measure, — inordinate ambition. If I had thought of my-
self only, I should have never brought it forward. I know
well the perils to which I expose myseK, — the risk of alien-
ating faithful and valued friends, with but little prospect of
makmg new ones (if any new ones could compensate for the
loss of those we have long tried and loved) , and the honest
misconception both of friends and foes. Ambition I — yes,
I have ambition; but it is the ambition of being the humble
instrument in the hands of Providence to reconcile a divided
people, once more to revive concord and harmony in a dis-
tracted land; the pleasing ambition of contemplating the
glorious spectacle of a free, united, prosperous, and fraternal
people.

3. Tell me, ye who tread the sods of yon sacred height, is
Warren dead? Can you not still see him, not pale and pros-
trate, the blood of his gallant heart pouring out of his ghastly
wound, but moving resplendent over the field of honor, with
the rose of heaven upon his cheek, and the fire of liberty in
his eye? Tell me, ye who make your pious pilgrimage to
the snades of Vernon, is Washington indeed shut up in that
cold and narrow house? That which made these men, and
men like these, cannot die. The nand that traced the charter
of Independence is indeed motionless ; the eloauent lips that
sustained it are hushed : but the lofty spirits tnat conceived,
resolved, and mamtained it, and which alone, to such men,
*' make it life to live," — these cannot expire.

See " Reading Club,*' No. 1; pp. 66, 75; No. 3, pp. 60, 68, 84;
No. 4, pp. 40, 65.

DRAMATIC OR EMOTIONAL.

1. Vain pomp and glory of this world, I hate ye !
I feel my heart new opened. Oh, how wretched
Is that poor man that hangs on princes' favors 1
There is betwixt that smile we would aspire to,
That sweet aspect of princes and their ruin,
^More pangs and fears than -wars or women have;
And, when he falls, he falls like Lucifer,
Never to hope affain.

84 ELOCUTION,

2. What would you have, you curs !

That like nor peace nor war? The one affriglits you;
The other makes you proud. He that trusts you,
Where he should find you lions finds you hares ;
Where foxes, geese, xou are no surer, no,
Than is the coal of fire upon the ice,
Or hailstone in the sun.

3. To-morrow, and to-morrow, and to-morrow.
Creeps in this petty pace from day to day,
To the last syllable of recorded time ;
And all our yesterdays have lighted fools

The way to dusty death. Out, out, brief candle!
Life's but a walking shadow; a poor player.
That struts and frets his hour upon the stage,
And then is heard no more : it is a tale
Told by an idiot, full of sound and fury,
Signifymg nothing.

See " Reading Club," No. 1, p. 8 ; No. 2, p. 28 ; No. 3, p. 60;
Ko. 4, p. 14.

ELOCUTION, 85

PAET FOUR

HINTS ON ELOCUTION.

If you have practised and studied the previous pages of
this book, you will have gained an elementary knowledge of
the science of elocution. Carlyle says, *' The grand result
of schooling is a mind with just vision to dis- practice
cem, with free force to do: the grand school-
master is Practice." To make an artist of yourself in elo-
cution requires much practice and much patience. As Long-
fellow says, "Art is long, and time is fleeting; '* and the
ai*t of elocution is no exception to that truth.

You must have health, strength, and elasticity of body;
and, to get and keep these, obey the laws of life as to exer-
cise, rest, pure air, good food, and temperance in all things.
Avoid all stimulants, or tobacco in any form. Practise any
gymnastics that shall help to make you strong jy^^^/^^
and sprightly, but especially the physical gym-
nastics here ^ven, as they are designed to benefit the
muscles used m speaking.

When you stand to speak, the first thing that strikes your
audience is the position you assume. Therefore be careful
to assume and keep the speaker's position until some other
position is needed for expression ; and return to „ ..._
the speaker's position, as the one which is an
active position, but gives the idea of repose and confidence,
without that disagreeable seK-consciousness which to an
audience is disgusting. While you are speaking, avoid all
swaying or motion of body, unless it means something.

Do not bow too quickly, but do it with dimity, and
respect to your audience, first with a general, quick glance
of the eye about you. Bend the body at the hip- j^^. ^
joints ; let the back bend a little, and the head *"^'

more than the body. Do not bow too low, nor be stiff i^
your movements.

8G ELOCUTION.

How to hold the book has been shown m Part One ; and

^. . ,. you will find that to be the position that strikes

^b^r the audience most f avorablyT and gives an im-

pression of ease, which goes a great way towards

making the audience enjoy your reading.

When you speak, it is ior the purpose of making your-
self understood. And to do this you must articulate per-
^^. , fectly ; that is, give a clear and correct utter-
1i^ ance of every element in a word. You must also
pronounce properly, — that is, accent the proper
syllable in a word; and, to find out what the proper syllable
is, refer to Webster's or Worcester's large Dic-
tion^^^ tionary (Worcester being preferable), and find
out for yourself. You must also give the right
phrasing, subordinating all other phrases to the principal

EmvhoHa ^^®' ^^^ remembering that the emphatic word of
* your sentence is th© emphatic word of the impor-
tant phrase. The emphatic word is usually brought out by
inflection and added force ; but it may be made emphatic by
particular stress, or a pause before it or after it, or both be-
fore and after, or by a change of quality. Your own common
sense will tell you when these may be proper and effective
and natural.

You must also make your audience hear you; and this re-
quues, not a loud, high-pitched voice, but — unless dramatic
• expression requires otherwise — your middle or

andp^er, conversational pitch, with fulness of voice, that
shall give you power. Your own mind will regu-
late this for you, if you will direct your attention to the
persons in the back part of the hall, and speak in middle
pitch, so that they may hear. Many speakers make the
mistake of using a high pitch, and render their
pitch!^^ speech very ineffective by so doing. You will
call to mind the fact, that, when we say we can-
not hear a speaker, it is not that we do not heai* the sound
of his voice, but that we cannot understand the words.
Bearing this in mind, you will see that perfect articulation
is what is wanted, and that fulness added to your voice in
middle pitch will make the voice reach, will require less
effort, and will produce better effect.

Having made yom* audience understand and hear, you

Feeling, ^^^^ "len make them feel. To do this as public

reader, actor, clergyman, lawyer, teacher, orator,

EL0CJ7TI0N,

f
»

lecturer, you must yourself feel what you have to s^
forgetting every thing else in your subject, concentrd
whole being in your utterance and action. Then [
be effective, and you will carry your audience with you.
And you will fail in proportion as you fail to lose your own
personality in your subject. *' The heart giveth grace unto
every art ; *' and of no art is this more true than of elocution.
You may have all the graces of elocution which practice will
give you; yet, in the effect these wiU produce, — if the will,
acting alone, not being guided by mind and heart, prompts
the utterance, — something will be lacking, of which learned
and unlearned alike will be conscious.

**()ne touch of nature makes the whole world kin," and
cultivated and uncultivated alike will feel it; and this
** touch of nature" you will show if you enter ^„^,^,^
into what you have to say vdth mind, heart, and
soul. Your voice will vary in all the elements of emotional
expression, and you will be natural.

When speaking in puUic, do not try to remember the first
rule of elocution. Leave it all behind you when you come
before the audience. Speak from your tnought and feeling,
and be sure you are thoroughly familial* with what you have
to say. Be sure you understand it yourself before -, ^ . ,
you try to make others understand. You can ^f^S^
lead words, calling them off mechanically, or
you can speak words from memory very mechanically,
and not have a clear idea of the meaning the
words convey while you speak them. But do not ^^^^JSiing,
do this. Always think the thought, as you read
or speak, in the same manner as you would if speaking ex-
tempore. You can express your tnought clearly by thinking
it as you speak ; but at the same time there may Thought
l>e no expression of emotion. You may have without
thought without feeling; but you must impress J^^^*'"ff'
your thought by feeling. When you read, your mind gets
the thought tlirough me words, and from that thought
comes feeling; but, when you speak your own thoughts, the
feeling creates the thought. In readmg, you think, and then
feel ; but, in speaking your thought, you feel, and then think.
WTien you read, then, or speak m)m memory, if you will let
thought create feeling before you speak, you will avoid me-
chanical reading and speaking, and be effective in conveying
the thought and feeling both together.

8Gy^ ELOCUTION.

You can convey emotion without a definite thought; and
this is as bad as either words without meaning, or thought
V, ,. -v without feeling. This arousing the feelings with^
^'Z^M. out guidmg them by definite thought is the prov-
ince of the art of music. Elocution is superior
to music for the reason that it guides both thought and feel-
ing, for certainly it is better that mind and feeling should
work together, than either alone.

The elements of emotional expression are alike in speech

and song. In each you have quality, time, force, and pitch.

EmotUm The variation of these elements makes expression

in song or of feeling; and each sound you make contains all

speech, tj^ese elements. It has a certain quality; it has

more or less of force; it is relatively high or low in pitch, it

. takes a longer or shorter time. The more you

^^ression. ^^^ ^ *^® elements of emotional expression, the

better the effect, provided the variation is caused

by the variation ^f your feeling, and not by any artificiality,

or. seeming to express what you do not feel.

The quality of voice, its purity or harshness, its aspira-
Quaiity. *^o^» ^^"> ^^ ^^7 ^*^ ^® ^mdi of feeUng; the
Farce ^^^^^ ^^ force Will vary according to the inten-
P'tch ^^^ ^^ feeling; the pitch will be according to
* * what we may call the height or depth of your
"*^' feeling ; the movement, or time, will be according
as the emotion is quick or slow. After having cultivated the
voice well in these elements of emotional expression, your
own common sense ought to be your best guide in the appli-
cation of them to reading and speaking. You, for the time
being, should be the author of what you read. ** Put your-
self in his place,'' and express as you feel that he felt while
writing it.

It is possible for you to feel intense emotion, and not be

capable of properly expressing it, so as to make others feel

Feeling it. You may not have had training that will give

without you command of sound and motion, those chan-

expresswn. ^^^ q£ expression through which the body is

made to obey mind and soul, and express their thought and

Noexpres- feeling. It is impossible to express, even with

sion without the best cultivation, what, at the moment of utter-

feeung. a,nce, you do not feel: therefore you must sink

your own personality in your subject; and, according to youi

corxjeption, so will you express.

ELOCUTION. 89

All apparent effort must be avoided; that is, in the ex>
pression of the strongest passion or emotion, you must not
give the audience the slightest indication of want
of power. You will give that impression if you j^^^f
try to express more than you actually feel. In
emotional expression it must seem as if it overflowed because
of excess, and you could hardly control it; but you must
never lose control of it. This control will give the audience
the impression that you feel more than you express, and is
what is called reserved power. If — your well of emotion
not being overflowingly full — you use a force-pump, or, in
other words, your will-power, to make it overflow, you will
fail in expression.

How are you to get this, you ask. By study and long
practice. As you plainly see, it involves a perfect command
over the feelings; and "he that ruleth his own How to fiat
spirit is greater than he that taketh a city.*' reserve
Conquer yourself. All art, elocution included, is P*^'"^'-
but a means of expression for man's thoughts and feelings;
and, if you have no thought or feeling to express, art is use-
less to you.

Do not let your audience be reminded that you breathe at
all. Take breath quietly through nostrils or mouth, or both.
Form the habit of keeping the chest, while speak- „ _,. .

.. 1 1 • 11 1 • Breathing.

mg, active, as recommended m all vocal exercises ;
and the breath will flow in unobstructed whenever needed.
Breathe as nearly as possible as you would if you were not
speaking, that is, do not interfere with right action of the
lungs. The instant you feel a want of breath, take it: if
you do not, you will injure your lungs ; and what you say,
leeling that want of breath, will lack power. The more
breath you have, so that it does not feel uncomfortable and
can be weU controlled, the more power you will have: there-
fore practise breathing until you breathe rightly and easily.

If your general health is good, your throat will be well;
and therefore pay attention to the general health of the
whole body, and the throat will take care of itself. ^_-_a
If, when you come before an audience, your trmibie.
throat and mouth are dry, use only clear, cold
water, not ice-water : that is too cold. Avoid candy or
throat-lozenges ; for the use of either of these is worse than
if you used nothing at all. If you have a cold or sore throat,
you had better not use your voice; but, if you must use it.

90 ELOCUTION,

keep it clear by clear water. A healthy throat will not need
even water: it will moisten itself after a little use, if at first
it is dry.

Deliberate movement and frequent pausing are very ex-
pressive in some cases. Where it is applicable may be de-

Paminq ^^^^^^ ^Y what you have to express. Pausing
in its appropriate place makes emphasis strong.
Let the pause be regulated, however, by the feeling, and not
all by the punctuation. Express according to your concep-
n„„^.„^,.^„ tion of the thought. Punctuation may be a
guide to you m obtainmg the right idea ; but it is
no guide to correct expression. Pausing, generally, comes
naturally either before or after, or botli before and after, the
emphatic word or phrase.

Speak or read poetry with the same care and attention to
phrasing that you would give to prose, and you will avoid all

Poetni drawling, monotony, or sing-song. In order that
the rhyme in poetiy may be presei'ved, the pix)-
nunciation of a word may be changed from common usage, if,
by so doing, you do not obscure the meaning; but never sac-
rifice the meaning for the sake of the rhyme. In good
poetry, which includes blank verse, the metrical movement
will show itself without any attempt on your part to make it
prominent.

You may feel, when you first come before an audience, a
shrinking, or faintness of feeling, such as is known to actors
c, . . ,, as ** staff e fright." It probably arises from a very
sensitive, nervous organization; and, other things
being equal, persons of this character make the best speakers.
As to the real cause of this feeling, as Lord Dundreary says,
** It's one of those things no fellah can find out." But,
whatever its cause, you can overcome it by strong will-power
and self-possession ; and, after a time, you will become used to
appearance in public, and that vrill establish the ** confidence
of habit. ' ' Some of the best orators and actors that ever lived
have had '* stage fright; " and some of them, so far as we
know, never had it. So you must not flatter yourself that
this is a certain indication of your power. It takes much
more than a tendency to *' stage fright " to make a powerful
speaker.

Whether you are reading irom a book or paper, reciting
from memory, or speaking extempore your own thought, you
should do all as you would the latter, so that a blind man,

ELOCUTION, 91

who could not judge which you were doing except by the
sound of your voice, would be unable to tell. In Reading,
committing to memory for recitation, you will Speahiiig.
remember more easily if you will pick out the em- ^<^*^^^^'
phatic words of the sentences in their order, and commit
them, as they contain an outlme of the succession of thought
and meaning.

The look upon the face, the gestures of the arm, the atti-
tude of the body, all speak the language of emotion as
plainly to the eye as elocution proper does to the jction.
ear. This action will be prompted by the feelings,
as the voice is ; and it will be expressive or not, it will be
appropriate or not, it will be gi-aceful or not, according as
you have natural or acquired ability. Natural ability will
be much aided by a knowledge and practice of gestme as a
language , and much may be acquired by any one with prac-
tice.

I have said nothing of action in the previous pages, as
this book treats of expression through the voice, or elocu-
tion. A few words here upon the subject will not be out of
place. When you read, you should ordinarily make your
voice express much, and use gesture sparingly, but, if you
feel prompted to make gestures, never do so while the eye
rests on the book. Look either at the audience, j^j,

or as may be indicated by the gesture. When ^ ,

.,»' -. . '^ o Gesture.

you recite, or speak extempore, you can add much

to the expression by look, gesture, and attitude. * " ^*
In natural expression the face will first light up, and show
feeling; and the attitude and gesture follow more or less
quickly, according to the feeling; and then comes speech.
And all these must express alike. For the face to be expres-
sionless, or to express one thing while the speech and gesture
say another thing, is in effect ludicrous.

Kemember that all motions and attitudes have meaning;
and, when no other gesture or attitude is called for to express
some feeling, stand perfectly still in the speaker's Motion
position before mentioned, that being an active, witiwut
and at the same time a neutral position. Don't ^^^^*^ff'
move, unless you mean something by it. Don't sway the
body, or nod the head, or shrug the shoulders, or move the
feet, or make motions or gestures, unless the proper expres-
sion call for it, and your emotion prompts.

The eye is particularly effective in expression, as there the

92 ELOCUTION.

emotion first shows itself; and by it you can get and keep
y. the attention of your audience. In reading, keep

' your eye off the book as much as possible, and on
your audience. In recitation or extempore speaking, look
at your audience. The eye leads in gesture, and, in many
cases, looks in the direction of the gesture. In personation
of character, as in dramatic scenes, your eye must look at
those to whom you are supposed to be speaking, as, in com-
mon conversation, you usually look at the person to whom
you speak. Never look in an undecided way, as if you did
not have a purpose in looking, but look in the face and eyes
of your audience when emotional expression does not require
you to look elsewhere.

When you don't wish to use your arm for gesture, let it
hang naturally at the side. When the emotion calls for
Qe^tare ^^^^^^^t i^ake it with decision, and let the gesture
continue as long as you utter words explaining
the meaning of the gesture. Giesture always comes before
words, more or less quickly, as may be the kind of emotion.
Usually, if the words are quickly spoken, the gesture will be
quickly made, and the words will be spoken almost at in-
stant of the gesture. If the words move slow, the gesture
will move slow, and there may be a perceptible pause be-
tween the gesture and words. No stated rules for
^^g^ivS-i^^ gesture can be g^ven ; for they are as infinite in
number and variety as the emotions they express.
You will find, however, that gesture may be regulated, as
emotional expression of voice is, by means of your intensity
of thought and feeling, guided by common sense, and aided
by genius. Gesture is a science and art, which, as in speech
and song, has elements of emotional expression; and these
elements correspond in each. You have m gestm*e (as said
of the others) quality or kind of gesture, force or intensity
in gesture, time or the degree of movement hi gestm*e, and
pitch, or relative height and depth; and all these have a
meaning something like the corresponding elements of song,
or speech, or other arts. Long and hard study and practice
will be necessary to perfection in this, as in all arts. A
graceful habit of gesture, an appropriate expression of eye
and face, vmjted to a voice full-toned, musical, and varying
in all shades of emotional expression, — what is there more
captivating to eye and ear, more pleasing to the senses,
more instructive to the mind, more moving to the emotions.

if only it is, as Mendelssdhn'.siys ol^'allupJi p^ipissive of
lofty thought? ' ' Every art €da &eTErte ItSeii 'SfbSvre " a 'mere
handicraft only by being devoted to the expression of lofty
thought."

DEFECTS OF SPEECH.

Defects of speech cannot be spoken of at great length in
this book. A thorough study of articulation in Parts One
and Two will cure any of them where there is no defect in
the mouth. The letter s is more often defective than any
other letter, it being pronounced like th in thin, or whistled.
In the first the tongue is too far forward: in the last it is
drawn too far back. Cure by imitating somebody who
makes it correctly. R is often defective by substituting w
for it; as, wun for run. Sometimes it is defective by being
made with the whole tongue, something as .y is made; as,
yun for run: and cure may be had by imitating the correct
soimd. Other defects of letters or elementary soimds are
less common, and need not be mentioned here.

Too precise speech is a defect, and results from trying to
give too much force to the consonant sounds, and not a due
proportion to the vowel sounds. It sounds like
affectation on the ^art of the speaker, and may "^S!***
be corrected by givmg more force to the vowels,
and particular attention to phrasing. (See ** Articulation,"
Part Three.)

Slovenly speech is a defect, and is opposite in kind and
effect from the above. The consonants are not
pronounced; and, to remedy it, practise to give ^eecK
consonants more force and precision, and pay at-
tention to phrasing and emphasis.

Speaking too rapidly is a defect, and results from too rapid
thought. Put a restraint upon thought, — that
is, control it, — and make the tongue move slower ^^^,
in consequence, being careful to phrase and em-
phasize weU.

Speaking too slowly is also a defect, opposite in kind from
rapid speech, and is caused by the mind moving
too slowly in thinking. The remedy is to think ^^Sk!
faster, and urge the tongue to move quicker.

When you have too slow thought and too rapid speech, you
have stuttering; for the tongue keeps moving all the time
while the thought is coming, and it repeats syllables or

94 .'".:."'i c ELOGVfii>N,

*". •-

*7ords..\M2£fc8[: Jifl^cttiTijpljof ;ttp5 Stutterer move faster, and

St^tSinf' ^^ ^^W'^*^^^^^^^^* ^^ each of these last
three defects, let the person who wants to cuie it
*' know what you wish to say before vou attempt to say it."

Stammering is caused by too mucn effort on the part of
the person to make articulate sounds, and is usually the tc^
Stamm 'n ^^^ ^^ imitating some one who stammerevl, or
formed gradually by habit of incorrect breathing,
and from physical weakness. Stammerers make the attempt
to speak, and the lips or tongue or jaw become immovable,
or the words stick in their mroat; and, because this takes
place, they make great effort to overcome it. The more
effort they make, the harder it is for them ; and sometimes
this leads to contortions and ierkings of body and limbs that
are pamful. To cure this takes a longer or shorter time, de-
pending on the state of health, the length of time the habit
has been in forming, the amount of jerking of limbs to
which the stammerer is subject, and the care taken by the
stammerer to practise much. A stammerer can be cured by
teaching articulation thoroughly. (See Parts One and Two
of this book; also Monroe's Fourth Reader.) Show every
element separately, and the position the mouth takes to
make it; then combine into syllables, then into words, then
into phrases. Show the stammerer, that, the less the effort
made, the easier will be the speaking. Impress upon the
stammerer's mind, ''Make no effort to speak,'' and the
habit is to be overcome by long-continued practice and a
thorough and complete training in articulation. When read-
ing, be sure and read in phrases; that is, speak a phrase, as
a long word, without pause. Stammerers, being usually
feeble in health, should practise the physical and vocal gym-
nastics (Parts One and Two), and particulaiiy the breathing
exercises. When you have given the stammerer confidence,
and he or she finas that tadking is as easy as walking or
singing, the cure is certain. There may be times of excita-
bility or nervousness when stammering will return ; but these
times will be less and less frequent as health gets better and
confidence grows, and finally will not return. Remember,
stammerer, ** make no effort." Be lazy, and even, at first,
slovenly in speech, and cure is certain.

THE END.

STANDARD ELOCUTIONARY BOOKS.

PnTE-MINUTB DECLAMATIONS. Selec/ed and adapted b)
Walter K. Fobes, teacher of elocution and public reader; autboi
of *' Elocution Simplified." Cloth. 50 cento.

FIVB-MINUTB RECITATIONS. By Walter K. Fobbs. Cloth.
50 cents.
Pupils in public schools on declamation days are limited to five roinutea
each for the deliverv of " pieces." There is a great complaint of the scarcity
of material for such a purpose, while the injudicious pruning of eloquent
extracts has often marred the desired effects. To obviate these difficulties,
new ** Five-Minute " books have been prepared by a competent teacher.

ELOCUTION SIMPLIFIED. With an appendix on Lisping, Stam-

mering, and other Impedimento of Speech. By Walter K. Fobes,

graduate of the ** Boston School of Oratory." 16mo. Cloth. 50 cents.

Paper, 30 cents.

** The whole art of elocution is succinctly set forth in this small volume,

which might be judiciously included among the text-books of schools." —

Jfew Orleans Picayune,

ADVANCED READINGS AND RECITATIONS. Bv Austin

B. Fletcher, A.M., LL.B., Professor of Oratory, Brown University,

and Boston University School of Law. This lx>ok has been already

adopted in a large number of Universities, Colleges, Post-graduate

Schools of Law and Theology, Seminaries, etc. 12mo. Cloth. (1.50.

"Professor Fletcher's noteworthy compilation has been made with rare

rhetorical judgment, and evinces a sympathy for the best forms of litera«

ture, adapted to attract readers and speakers, and mould their literary taste.'*

— Prop. J. W. Churchill, ^nc/orer Theological Seminary,

THE COLUMBIAN SPEAKER. Consisting of choice and ani.

mated pieces for declamation and reading. By Looms J. Campbell,

and Orin Root, Jun. 16mo. Cloth. 75 cento.

Mr. Campbell, as one of the editors of ** Worcester's Dictionaries," the

popular "Franklin Readers," and author of the successful little work,

"Pronouncing Hand-Book of 3,000 Words," is well known as a thorough

scholar. Mr. Root is an accomplished speaker and instructor in the West;

and both, through experience knowing the need of such a work, are well

qualified to prepare it. Jt ia a genuine success.

VOCAL AND ACTION-LANGUAGE, CULTURE AND
EXPRESSION. By E. N. Kirby, teacher of elocution in the Lynn
High Schools. 12mo. English cloth binding. Price, $1.25.
" Teachers and studento of the art of public speaking, in any of ito forms,

will be benefited by a liberal use of this practical hand-book." — A o/.

Churchill,

KEENE'S SELECTIONS. Selection for reading and elocution. A
hand-book for teachers and studento. By J. W. Keens, A.M.. M.D.
Cloth. $1.
*' An admirable selection of practical pieces."

LITTLE PIECES FOR LITTLE SPEAKERS. The primary
school teacher's assistant. By a practical teachei^ 16mo. Illustrated.
75 cents. Also in lx>ards, 60 cento. Has had an immense sale.

THE MODEL SUNDAY-SCHOOL SPEAKER. Containing
selections, in prose and verse, from the most popular pieces and dialogues
for Sunday -scliool exhibitions. Illust. Cloth. 75 cento. Boards, 60 ceutt*
** A book very much needed.'*

>»

Special terms to teachers and clius9%»

YA WSJb