MEDIAN STRESS. The moan of doves in immemorial elms, The broad ambrosial aisles of lofty lime The splendor falls on castle walls, Hurrah! hurrah! for Ivry, and King Henry of Navarre! THOROUGH STRESS. I'm with you once Ye guards of liberty, To show they still are free! COMPOUND STRESS. Dost thou come here to whine? To outface me, by leaping in her grave? What! weep ye, when ye but behold Our Cæsar's vesture wounded? Look you here! Here is himself, marred as you see, with traitors! What! to attribute the sacred sanctions of God and nature to the massacres of the Indian scalping-knife? TREMOR. Laughing. Joyous. Oh! then I see!-Queen Mab hath been with you! Joy, joy forever! my task is done! The gates are passed, and Heaven is won! Weeping. Sobbing. Oh, I could weep the spirit from my eyes! I have killed my son. I have killed him-but I loved him-my dear son. THE EMPHATIC TIE. The Emphatic Tie-so named by Doctor Rush-may well be considered under the head of Special Force; although it involves also, and as much, the elements of Time, Pitch, and Quality. What the Emphatic Tie is, will be more clearly told by illustration than by definition. Take this sentence from Browning (I follow his punctuation): My thumb which yesterday a scorpion nipped(It swelled and blackened)-lo! is sound again!and the clear presentation of the thought depends on the reader's making the syntax plain. The principal clause, 'My thumb is sound again,' has its subject at the very beginning of the sentence, and its predicate at the very end, with two entire clauses between them. The reader's problem is, to bring together, to the ear, those widely separated but closely related parts. It is accomplished by the employment of a kind and degree of emphasis-especially on the word of suspension and the word of resumption-that would be altogether unnecessary and misplaced, were the words of the broken construction in uninterrupted sequence: hence the name, Emphatic Tie. To the average ear, perhaps the most obvious factor of the Tie is the enlarged force of utterance; but more time is also given, and melody and quality are so managed as to make the clause sound 'all of a piece.' The interrupting clauses are spoken in slur,—that is, with light syllabic touch and purposely accelerated movement, or Flight of the Voice, as Doctor Rush called it. The melody of the slurred portion or portions is usually the double-waverising sweep,, pointing away from its own passage to the main thought. In the example, there are two interpolated clauses. These are both to be slurred, but must not be run together confusedly; each should have its own sweep of melody. The clause inclosed in marks of parenthesis might be slurred more than the other; or, it might well be given higher pitch, fuller volume, and slower time than even the principal clause, on account of its descriptive and dramatic value. Purpose and principle are always the same, but in their practical working-out often go by the rule of contraries. The last remark is more strikingly illustrated in the following sentence, from Everett's oration on Lafayette. One can never think of that French boy, eighteen years of age, just married, rolling in wealth, and basking in the sunshine of court favor, sending up from the Tuileries of Paris his shout for us and our cause, without the deepest emotion. 'One can never think of that French boy without the deepest emotion,' is syntactically the principal clause; but, oratorically, the interpolated deterrent circumstances and the conduct in contradiction of them demand to be brought directly into the foreground. The clause just quoted, should be read 'all of a piece', with natural quality, moderate movement, and conversational melody and force; but the circumstances should be given with larger volume, stronger force, higher pitch, and slower time, with a specializing rising-wave inflectional or melodic outline on 'age,' 'married,' 'wealth,' and 'favor'; while 'sending up from the Tuileries of Paris his shout for us and our cause' should be rendered with full orotund quality, a rising sweep of melody, animated but stately movement, wellmarked rhythm, and the closing word, 'cause,' held on the monotone. If this scheme of rendition is followed, there is quite a wide interval of pitch to descend discretely, from 'cause', in order to give 'without' its appropriate pitch, at the level of 'boy.' The transition in quality, force, and time is equally remarkable. 1. EXAMPLES OF THE EMPHATIC TIE. So, with passionate heroism, of which tradition is never weary of tenderly telling, Arnold von Winkelried gathers into his bosom the sheaf of foreign spears. So, Nathan Hale, disdaining no service that duty demands, perishes untimely, with no other friend than God and the satisfied sense of duty. -George William Curtis. 2. 3. 4. At midnight, in his guarded tent, The Turk lay, dreaming of the hour --Fitz-Greene Halleck-Bozzaris. Anon out of the earth a fabric huge -Milton-Paradise Lost. In a few days, that city, which had once been the seat of commerce, the model of magnificence, the common storehouse of the wealth of nations, and one of the most powerful states in the world, left behind no trace of its splendor, of its power, or even of its existence. 5. 6. Who'd these fardels bear, And makes us rather bear those ills we have, -Shakespeare-Hamlet. Yea, the fir trees rejoice at thee, and the cedars of Lebanon, saying, 'Since thou art laid down, no feller is come up against us.' -Isaiah. 7. 8. 9. Art thou that traitor angel, art thou he Who first broke peace in Heaven, and faith, till then -Milton-Paradise Lost. Had I been any god of power, I would Have sunk the sea within the earth, or ere It should the good ship so have swallowed, and -Shakespeare-The Tempest. Cannon to right of them, Cannon to left of them, Cannon behind them Volley'd and thunder'd; Storm'd at with shot and shell, While horse and hero fell, They that had fought so well, Came thro' the jaws of Death, Back from the mouth of Hell, -Tennyson-The Charge of the Light Brigade. The following paragraph, from Thackeray's lecture on George III., presents a fine study in this connection. The entire passage inclosed in parenthesis should be read in a rapid, cursory, glancing manner, yet clearly and distinctly; it is an extended flight of the voice. The melody is nearly monotone. Each item of the first bracketed sentence, except the closing one, should receive the rising-wave or double wave-rising (or) outline on its terminal word. Each clause of the second sentence, except the closing one, may end with the poetic monotone or the contour. Complete cadences should not be made on 'struggle' and 'theater.' The last syllable of each of these two words should receive a rising second, equivalent to the continuative hook: except this |