8. Clasping the standard to his heart, He raised one dying peal, That rang as if a trumpet blew,— 'Olea for Castile!' -George H. Boker-Count Candespina's Standard. What's he that wishes so? My cousin Westmoreland? No, my fair cousin: To do our country loss; and if to live, The fewer men, the greater share of honor. God's will! I pray thee, wish not one man more. Nor care I who doth feed upon my cost; It yearns me not if men my garments wear; I am the most offending soul alive. No, 'faith, my coz, wish not a man from England: Then will he strip his sleeve, and show his scars, But he'll remember, with advantages, What feats he did that day. Then shall our names, Familiar in his mouth as household words,- This day shall gentle his condition: And gentlemen in England, now abed, Shall think themselves accursed they were not here, -Shakespeare-King Henry V. TREMOR; TREMULOUS, OR INTERMITTENT STRESS. Tremor is a rapid wavering, or trembling, pitch variation of the voice, pervading the syllabic concrete; which, although it strikes the ear as a syllabic unit, is made up of minute points, or tittles, each a concrete, rippling out in close succession. Tremor is not in reality a distinct and independent stress, but a collateral or auxiliary form, heard in association with the other stresses, added to, blending with, and coloring them; so that we have Median Stress, with Tremor; Final Stress, with Tremor, etc. Tremor is a sign of weakness, abandon, and lack of control, whether caused by pain, exhaustion, sickness, or age; or by excess of emotion, as of joy, anger, grief, anxiety, longing, fondness, etc. The ordinary Tremor is produced by rapid alterations in the tension of the vocal bands. The shuddering, shivering Tremor of horror, disgust, and physical cold, is due to the spasmodic action of the diaphragm, in addition to the action of the bands. Each tremulous impulse, or tittle, is a brief concrete, having its own radical and vanish, and its own rising or falling inflection. If the concrete and discrete movements of the tittles are upon minor intervals, the plaintive Tremor of weeping, sorrow, sympathy, or penitence is heard; if the interval of the tittles is diatonic, we hear the mirthless suggestion or mockery of a laugh; and if the concretes have the interval of third, fourth, or fifth, and the syllabic units are separated by the discrete interval of second or wider major step, we hear the laughing Tremor of gaiety, banter, joy, triumph, pleasure, glee, or delight. The radical pitch succession of the tremor tittles, as united in the syllabic impulse, produces the syllabic inflections that belong to speech,-slides and waves, rising and falling. 1. EXAMPLES OF TREMOR. Final and Median Stress, with Plaintive Tremor. 2. Ah! then and there was hurrying to and fro, Bright Radical and Springing Median Stress, with Joyous Tremor. Last, came Joy's ecstatic trial. He, with viny crown, advancing, First to the lively pipe his hand addressed; Whose sweet, entrancing voice he loved the best. To some unwearied minstrel dancing; As if he would the charming air repay, 3. Idem. 4. With the blue crystal at your lip! O happy crew! My heart with you Sails and sails, and sings anew! T. Buchanan Read-Drifting. Idem. Laughing Utterance at intervals. Oh! then I see!-Queen Mab hath been with you! She comes, In shape no bigger than an agate stone On the forefinger of an alderman, Drawn by a team of little atomies, Over men's noses, as they lie asleep: Her wagon-spokes made of long spinners' legs; The cover, of the wings of grasshoppers; The traces, of the smallest spider's web; 5. The collar, of the moonshine's watery beams; And in this state, she gallops, night by night, Through lovers' brains, and then they dream of love: -Shakespeare-Romeo and Juliet. Dark Orotund and Oral Qualities; Chromatic Inflection and Melody; Strong Tremor of Grief. Alas! my noble boy! that thou shouldst die! Cold is thy brow, my son, and I am chill, As to my bosom I have tried to press thee. How was I wont to feel my pulses thrill Like a rich harp-string, yearning to caress thee, -N. P. Willis-Absalom. |