'Kind souls, what, weep you when you but behold [By assumed astonishment.] 'What, shall one of us, That struck the foremost man of all this world But for supporting robbers, shall we now For so much trash as may be grasped thus? [By astonishment.] 'Did I not meet thy friends? and did not they Put on my brows this wreath of victory, Ibid. iv. 3. And bid me give't thee? Did'st thou not hear their shouts ? ' [By grief.] Ibid. v. 3. 'Shall they hoist me up And show me to the shouting varletry Of censuring Rome ?'-Anthony and Cleopatra, v. 2. [By pride and indignation.] 'Shall our coffers then Be emptied to redeem a traitor home? Shall we buy treason? and indent with fee'rs When they have lost and forfeited themselves? ' [By indignation.] The above divisions of questions, while sufficiently broad for elocutionary purposes, must not be taken as exhaustive, for there are a number of accidental divisions, each having a law of its own, and these we must now consider. 105. In Extended Questions the inflection should not be carried beyond what has been aptly termed the Point of the question. Additional clauses that do not in themselves convey interrogation should be regarded as separate sentences, and inflected accordingly. Although the note of interrogation comes at the end of the sentence, the question virtually ends in the following examples with the italicised words : 'And is this all the world has gain'd by thee, Thou first and last of fields, king-making victory? 'Would'st thou have that Which thou esteem'st the ornament of life, And live a coward in thine own esteem; Letting "I dare not " wait upon "I would," Like the poor cat i' the adage? '—Macbeth, i. 7. Wilt thou upon the high and giddy mast And in the visitation of the winds, Who take the ruffian billows by the top, Curling their monstrous heads, and hanging them That, with the hurly, death itself awakes?' 2 Henry IV. iii. 1. Will you put out mine eyes, These eyes that never did nor never shall So much as frown on you?'-King John, iv. 1. 'And can eternity belong to me, Poor pensioner on the bounties of an hour?' YOUNG, Night Thoughts. 'Hast thou a charm to stay the morning star From his steep course, so long he seems to pause COLERIDGE, Hymn before Sunrise. 'Princes, potentates, Warriors, the flower of heaven! once yours, now lost, If such astonishment as this can seize Eternal Spirits! Or have ye chosen this place After the toil of battle to repose Your wearied virtue, for the ease you find Paradise Lost, bk. i. 106. Parenthetical interruptions in the course of a question will sometimes dramatically require the inflection due to the nature of their own sentence: 'And reckon'st thou thyself with Spirits of Heaven, Hell-doom'd! And break'st defiance here and scorn Where I reign king, and to enrage the more, Thy king and lord?'—Paradise Lost, ii. 107. When a question is Alternative, the rising inflection on the final syllable will be overruled: Will you with these infirmities she owes, Unfriended, new-adopted to our hate, Dower'd with our curse, and stranger'd with our oath, Take her, or leave her?'—King Lear, i. 1. "To be, or not to be?'-Hamlet, iii. 1. 'Fathers, pronounce your thoughts; are they still fix'd To hold it out and fight it to the last? Or are your hearts subdu'd at length, and wrought, By time and ill success, to a submission?' ADDISON, Cato. 'I' the name of truth, Are ye fantastical, or that indeed Which outwardly ye show?'-Macbeth, i. 3. That takes the reason prisoner ? '—Ibid. 'Did you by indirect and forced courses As soul to soul afforded?'-Othello, i. 3. 6 108. But or used alternately must not be confounded with 'or' used when no choice is offered. 'Do men gather grapes of thorns (100) or figs of thistles? 'Shall I seem crest-fallen in my father's sight? Before this out-dared dastard?'—Richard II. i. 1. 109. When a question is dependent, it loses its interrogative quality, and its inflection is merged into that of the sentence in which it is embodied. Hence (a) A Question dependent upon an Assertion will take a falling inflection: I ask him why he wept.'-Sterne. (b) A Question dependent upon an Imperative will require a falling inflection: Tell me, my soul, can this be death?' POPE, Dying Christian. 'Ask of thy mother earth why oaks are made Why Jove's satellites are less than Jove?' F POPE, Essay on Man. 'Say ye, who preach Heaven shall decide Say, was Heaven's justice here?-SCOTT, Marmion. 'Say from whence You owe this strange intelligence? or why (c) And if a Question forms a member of another Question, the inflection of the main question overrules that of the subordinate: What philosopher has allowed himself to be daunted by the cynical inquiry,' Is it worth while?' Will you for ever, Athenians, do nothing but walk up and down the city, asking one another what news?' Note that what news?' if isolated, would, as a question asked by an interrogative (99, c), be read with a falling inflection: What news? 110. The test of the Dependence of a Question.Very frequently the 'dependence' of a question is a point to be determined by the taste of the speaker; and it must always be borne in mind that, in the mouth of a skilful, impassioned speaker, form will frequently be made subservient to dramatic feeling. Under this view, 'Can this be death?' and ' Was Heaven's justice here?' in the above examples, may be released from the grammatical government of tell and say, and be read as principal sentences. 111. A Question repeated because the person addressed has not clearly apprehended what has been asked, may be considered as governed by an assertion or imperative understood, as if the speaker said, 'I |