ishing stress" : "Low pitch": "Semitone," throughout, with occasional "chromatic third" and "fifth.") "And now my soul is poured out upon me: the days of affliction have taken hold upon me. My bones are pierced in me, in the night season and my sinews take no rest. He hath cast me into the mire; and I am become like dust and ashes. I cry unto thee, and thou dost not hear me: I stand up, and thou regardest me not. Thou art become cruel to me with thy strong hand thou opposest thyThou liftest me up to the wind; thou causest me to ride upon it, and dissolvest my substance. For I know that thou wilt bring me to death, and to the house appointed for all living!" self against me. Condolence. [Cromwell, to Wolsey on his downfall.] ("Pure tone": "Subdued" force: Gentle "vanishing stress": "Middle pitch":"Semitone," throughout, with occasional "chromatic third" and "fifth.") "O my lord, Must I then leave you? must I needs forego Pathetic Supplication and Intercession. 1. [King Henry VI. at the deathbed of Cardinal Beaufort.] ("Effusive orotund": "Subdued" force: "Median stress : "Low pitch":"Semitone," throughout, with occasional "chromatic third.") "O Thou eternal Mover of the heavens, Look with a gentle eye upon this wretch! 2. Penitential Supplication and Entreaty. [The Psalmist's self-humiliation and contrition.] 66 ("Pure tone, pectoral quality":"Subdued" force: Soft, but earnest vanishing stress": 'Very low pitch”: "Semitone," throughout, with occasional "chromatic third" and 'fifth.") 66 "Have mercy upon me, O God, according to thy loving kindness according unto the multitude of thy tender mercies, blot out my transgressions! Wash me thoroughly from mine iniquity and cleanse me from my sin. For I acknowledge my transgressions; and my sin is ever before me. Against thee, thee only, have I sinned, and done this evil in thy sight. Hide thy face from my sins, and blot out all mine iniquities! Deliver me from blood-guiltiness, O God, thou God of my salvation!" CHAPTER VIII. "TIME." The chief characteristics of utterance, which are subjects of attention in vocal culture, are the quality " of the voice, as sound, merely, and its effects in "expression," as produced by "force," "melody," or "pitch," and time," - properties equivalent to those which are comprehended, in music, under the heads of "quality," "dynamics," (force,) " melody," and "rhythm," (the effect of the union of" accent," or comparative force, and "time," on the sequence of sounds.) The subject of "time" is that which remains to be discussed, as the ground of practical exercises in elocution. The study of time, as a measure of speech, will lead to the primary classification of single vowel sounds, as long or short, in duration, according to their character and expression, as elements of language. The contrast, in the duration of the " tonic element," or vowel sound, a, in the words male and female, will furnish examples; the a in the former being much longer, or, in other words, occupying a much larger space of time, in utterance, than the a in the latter. The technical designation of this property of vocal sounds, is "quantity," — implying quantity of time, or duration. The a of male, is accordingly termed a " long," the a in female, a "short quantity." -Such is the usual distinction recognized in prosody, and applied to versifica tion. Syllables, when regarded in connexion with the "quantities" of their component elements, and classified for the purposes of elocution, have been arranged by Dr. Rush, under the following denominations: 1st. " 'Immutable," or such as are, from the nature of their constituent sounds, incapable of prolongation. These are immutably fixed to the shortest "quantity" exhibited in an elementary sound, and cannot, even when accented, and uttered in solemn or in poetic expression, be prolonged, in any degree, without positive mispronunciation or destruction of the peculiar accent of the language; as the i, for example, in the word sick, or in the verb convict. "Immutable" syllables terminate with an abrupt, or atonic element, preceded by a short " tonic," as in the above examples. The propriety of the designation "immutable" will be apparent, on referring to the following examples, in the utterance of which, although there is the utmost intensity of emotion, the elements ic oppose an insuperable resistance to any attempt to heighten the expression of passion by prolonging the sound of the syllable or word in which they predominate. Hotspur, [exclaiming on his father's illness, and consequent absence from the camp at Shrewsbury.] "Sick now! droop now! This sickness doth infect The very life-blood of our enterprise.” Catiline, [indignantly defying the Roman senate.] "Tried and convicted traitor! - Who says this? Who'll prove it, at his peril, on my head?" 2d. “ Mutable” syllables are such as are constituted like the preceding, but are capable of a slight degree of prolongation. Their "time," therefore, is mutable, or admits of gradation, according to the length or shortness of sound, in their constituent elements, as pronounced with more or less emotion of a nature which requires slow, rapid, or moderate utterance of the words or phrases in which they occur. The monosyllable yet, or the accented syllable of the word beset, uttered in the tone of any vivid emotion, will furnish an example. An instance occurs in the scene of the combat between Fitz James and Roderic Dhu, when the latter makes the taunting exclamation, "Not yet prepared?"and another in Blanche's dying warning, "The path's beset, by flood and fell!” "sub 3d. "Indefinite" syllables, or those which contain, or terminate with, a tonic element, or with any tonic" but b, d, or g. The "quantity" of the predominating element in such syllables, even when it is not positively long, admits, without offence to the ear, of a comparatively indefinite prolongation; as the a in the words man, unmannerly, pronounced with emotion. The time occupied in the enunciation of such sounds, is properly determined by the degree of feeling which they are, for the moment, used to express; as we perceive in the different tones of the following examples: the first in Hamlet's admiring exclamation, "What a piece of work is a man!" and Lady Macbeth's indignant and reproachful interrogation ad dressed to her husband, when he stands horror-stricken at the vision of the ghost of Banquo, "Are you a man?" The power and beauty of vocal" expression," are necessarily dependent, to a great extent, on the command which a reader or speaker possesses over the element of " quantity." Poetry and eloquence derive their audible character from this source, more than from any other. The music of verse is sacrificed, unless the nicest regard be paid to quantity," as the basis of rhythm and of metre ; and, with the exception of the most exquisite strains of well-executed music, the ear receives no pleasure comparable to that arising from poetic feeling, imbodied in the genuine melody of the heart, as it gushes from the expressive voice which has the power of "Untwisting all the chains that tie Milton, in his Paradise Lost, affords innumerable examples of the majestic grandeur of long "quantities" in epic verse; and without the just observance of these, the reading of the noblest passages in that poem, becomes flat and dry. The same is true, still more emphatically, of the magnificent language of the poetic passages of Scripture, in those strains of triumph and of adoration, which abound in the book of Psalms, and in the prophets. The necessity, on the other hand, of obeying the law of "immutable quantity," even in the grandest and most emphatic expression, is an imperative rule of elocution. A false, bombastic swell of voice, never sounds so ridiculous as when the injudicious and unskilful reader or speaker attempts to interfere with the conditions of speech, and to prolong, under a false excitement of utterance, those sounds which nature has irrevocably determined short. We have this fault exemplified in the compound of bawling, drawling, and redoubled "wave," which some reciters contrive to crowd into the small space of the syllable vic, in the conclusion of Moloch's war-speech, "Which if not victory is yet revenge." The fierce intensity of emotion, in the true utterance of this syllable, brings it on the ear with an instantaneous ictus, and tingling effect, resembling that of the lash of a whip applied to the organ. A similar case occurs in Shy |