SUMMARY OF RESULTS OF ELOCUTIONARY ANALYSIS.*

Among the elements of vocal expression revealed by the simplest analysis, are the following:

1. Force; the degree of loudness or softness.

2. Time; the movement, or rate of utterance, whether fast or slow.

3. Pitch; the key-note, or musical tone, whether low or high.

4. Slides; changes in pitch, during the utterance of a single vowel or syllable. The change may be very slight, passing through about a semi-tone, or it may sweep through a whole octave or more.

5. Stress; change in force, during the utterance of a single vowel or syllable.

6. Quality; purity or impurity in tone.

7. Volume; the size, so to speak, of the voice.

Thus we hear of a "thin voice," and Shakespeare tells us of a "big, manly voice," which elocution-. ists call "orotund."

In the employment of these elements, as we have already to some extent seen,† there is a principle of imitation and of analogy. "The sound should seem an echo to the sense," says Pope. This principle has a multitude of applications.

1. A loud utterance naturally characterizes descriptions of loud sounds. Thus:

The wakeful trump of doom must thunder through the deep
With such a horrid clang as on Mount Sinai rang,

When the red fire and smouldering clouds outbrake.-MILTON.

A soft voice belongs to descriptions of what is soft, gentle, or quiet. Thus:

Oft in the stilly night, ere Slumber's chain has bound me,
Fond Memory brings the light of other days around me;

The smiles, the tears, of boyhood's years;

The words of love then spoken;

The eyes that shone, now dimmed and gone;

The cheerful hearts now broken.-MoORE.

2. Slowness of motion should generally be expressed by slowness of speech. Thus:

Hear the tolling of the bells, iron bells!

And who, tolling, tolling, tolling,

In that muffled monotone, etc.-POE.

* See the foot-notes to MACBETH, passim.

+ Thus, in reading the dialogue between Lady Macduff and her son, the voice may be modifled in a slight degree to suit those characters.

There are two mechanical methods of securing slowness in speech. One is by long pauses between sounds, syllables, words, and sentences. The other is by prolonging the phonetic elements. In the slowest passages, the two methods are combined.

Rapid motion is expressed by quick utterance. Thus:
Hurrah! the foes are moving! Hark to the mingled din
Of fife and steed and trump and drum and roaring culverin !
The fiery duke is pricking fast across St. André's plain
With all the hireling chivalry of Guelders and Almayne.
Now, by the lips of those ye love, fair gentlemen of France,
Charge for the golden lilies! Upon them with the lance!-
A thousand spurs are striking deep, a thousand spears in rest,
A thousand knights are pressing fast behind the snow-white crest!
And in they burst, and on they rushed, while, like a guiding star,
Amidst the thickest carnage blazed the helmet of Navarre !-MACAULAY.

For ex

The impression of distance is given by prolonging the sound. ample, notice the effect of protracting the word far in the following line: * So seemed, far off, the flying fiend.-MILTON.

3. In pitch, the voice naturally glides into the low (not necessarily soft) notes in speaking of deep, grave tones. Thus:

Oh, it is monstrous, monstrous!

Methought the billows spoke and told me of it;

The winds did sing it to me; and the thunder,

That deep and dreadful organ-pipe, pronounced

The name of Prosper: it did bass my trespass.-SHAKESPEARE.

But in describing the fine, high-pitched note of the musquito, we involuntarily change to a higher key, as, forgetting ourselves, we think of the penetrating musical sound. The voice of a child, as we saw in Macbeth, Act IV., Scene 2, is high (not necessarily loud) in pitch. Thus:

You must wake and call me early, call me early, mother dear;
To-morrow 'll be the happiest time of all the glad new year;
Of all the glad new year, mother, the maddest, merriest day!

For I'm to be queen of the May, mother, I'm to be queen of the May!-TENNYSON. 4. In respect to quality, we may observe that purity, sweetness, and smoothness in objects, require corresponding vocal qualities: i. e., there is no prominence of consonant sounds, and there is an absence of husky, hoarse, nasal, or guttural tones. Thus:

"Sweet day, so cool, so calm, so bright,

Bridal of earth and sky,

The dew shall weep thy fall to-night;

For thou, alas, must die!

"Sweet rose, in air whose odors wave,

And color charms the eye,
Thy root is ever in its grave,
Thou too, alas, must die!

Another case in which great slowness of speech is required, is where the thought is very much condensed, and the mind needs considerable time to appreciate the full meaning, as was remarked of the passage where Lady Macbeth enters reading the letter. Thus, "Now if the fall of them be the riches of the world, and the diminishing of them the riches of the Gentiles, how much more their fullness!"-Rom. xi. 12. On the contrary, where the writer does not plough deep, there the voice is nimble, and gets over the ground fast. Thus: "Certainly my conscience will serve me to run from the Jew, my master. The fiend is at mine elbow, and tempts me, saying to me, 'Gobbo, Launcelot Gobbo, good Launcelot, or good Gobbo, or good Launce lot Gobbo, use your legs, take the start, run away.' My conscience says, 'No, take heed, honest Launcelot; take heed, honest Gobbo; or, as aforesaid, honest Launcelot Gobbo, do not run; scorn running with thy heels, etc."-SHAKESPEARE.

"Sweet spring, of days and roses made,

Whose charms in beauty vie;

Thy days depart, thy roses fade;

Thou, too, alas, must die!

"Only a pure and holy soul

Hath charms that never fly!

While days depart and seasons roll,

This lives, and cannot die!"

What is impure, noisy, or rough, is best described with corresponding impurity or harshness of voice, the consonant sounds being given forcibly, and, sometimes, with a loud hissing, wheezing, snarling, whining, or growling, or as if the utterance were choked with emotion. For instance, Lear, in the howling of the storm, exclaims:

Blow, wind, and crack your cheeks! Rage! Blow!
You cataracts and hurricanoes, spout

5. In stress, the voice sometimes swells and sinks in unison with the sound described. Thus in Webster:

"It was the last swelling peal of yonder organ, 'Their bodies rest in peace, but their name liveth evermore.' I catch the solemn sound; I echo that lofty strain of funeral triumph, 'Their name liveth evermore.""

Here on each long sound the voice makes a sort of crescendo and diminuendo, styled by elocutionists median stress.

In Campbell we have,

But when the gun's tremendous flash is o'er.

Here an explosive tone marks the word gun; a burst of sound instantly waning. So on the word flash. This is termed initial or radical stress. "And when the voice of the trumpet sounded long, and waxed louder and louder, Moses spake."

Here on the diphthong in the word louder, the last part of the sound may be the most forcible, constituting the final or vanishing stress.

6. As to volume, vast objects should have full volume; i. e., large, not always loud, voice. Thus:

The Bunker Hill monument is completed. Here it stands. Fortunate in the natural eminence on which it is placed, higher, infinitely higher in its objects and purposes, it rises over the land and over the sea; and, visible, at their homes, to three hundred thousand citizens of Massachusetts, it stands, a memorial of the past, and a monitor to the present and all succeeding generations.-WEBSTER.

Contrast with this, Shakespeare's description of Queen Mab:

Oh, then I see Queen Mab hath been with you!

She is the fairies' midwife, and she comes

In shape no bigger than an agate stone,

Contrast Byron's,

On the forefinger of an alderman,
Drawn by a team of little atomies
Athwart men's noses as they lie asleep, etc.

Roll on, thou deep and dark blue ocean, roll!

with Burns's lines to a mouse,

Wee sleekit, timorous, cowerin beastie,
Oh what a panic 's in thy breastie! etc.

7. Again, in the matter of slides, there is, to say the least, a curious analogy between straightforward thoughts and straight slides; as also between crooked, indirect thoughts, and that winding which is called the 66 circumflex" slide. The voice in mockery, irony, sarcasm, often seems to wriggle through several notes up and down, or down and up. Thus: The gracious Duncan

But besides this evident propriety in making voice correspond with sense, there is a deeper analogy, a more wonderful responsiveness; in short, a possibly perfect adaptation between sound and feeling. Cowper says, "There is in souls a sympathy with sounds." This truth underlies the whole art of vocal expression. It perhaps finds its highest illustration in the miracles wrought by Beethoven's genius; but it lies at the very threshold of elocution. Its philosophy need not now be discussed: but let him who would become a good reader or speaker, give his days and nights, first, to the scientific analysis which shall enable him to discern the precise mental act or state to be expressed, and the appropriate voice that may body it forth; and, secondly, to the reducing of his theory to practice, till correct vocal delivery becomes spontaneous.

With a view to putting the student on the right path for original investigation and independent practice, and not, by any means, with the idea of presenting a complete system, we suggest the following brief statement of such correspondences, and

SUGGESTIONS IN REGARD TO VOCAL EXPRESSION.

TRANQUILLITY is usually of medium force, or a little less; rather slow movement; middle pitch tending to low; pure quality; moderate or slight volume; gentle and median stress; * moderate slides (i. e., slight transitions in the pitch of a single sound). Thus:

Stress is compound," where the initial and the final are combined; "thorough," where the whole sound is very loud; and "intermittent" where the voice trembles.

"I've seen the moon climb the mountain's brow;
I've watched the mist o'er the river stealing;
But ne'er did I feel in my breast, till now,

So pure, so calm, and so holy a feeling."

So the remarks of Duncan and Banquo on the pleasant situation and surroundings of the castle. (Macbeth, Act I., Scene 6.)

CHEERFULNESS is usually of medium force, or a little greater; quick movement; middle pitch, or a little higher; pure quality; moderate or slight volume; initial stress, sometimes median; moderate or longer slides, often rising. Thus:

Pleasant was the journey homeward:
All the birds sang loud and sweetly
Songs of happiness and heart's ease.
Sang the blue-bird, the Owaissa,
"Happy are you, Hiawatha,

Having such a wife to love you!"

Sang the robin, the Opechee,

"Happy are you, laughing water,

Having such a noble husband!"-LONGFEllow.

MIRTH, if the degree of fun be considerable, and the person be demonstrative, is usually of rather loud force; quick movement; high pitch; pure quality, except in imitation of impure; moderate or small volume; initial stress; extensive, often circumflex, slides. Thus:

Falstaff. Harry, I do not only marvel where thou spendest thy time, but also how thou art accompanied; for though the camomile, the more it is trodden on, the faster it grows, yet youth, the more it is wasted, the sooner it wears. That thou art my son, I have partly thy mother's word, partly my own opinion; but chiefly, a villanous trick of thine eye, and a foolish hanging of thy nether lip, that doth warrant me. If then thou be son to me, here lies the point! why, being son to me, art thou so pointed at? Shall the blessed sun of heaven prove a micher, and eat blackberries? a question not to be asked. Shall the son of England prove a thief, and take purses? a question to be asked. There is a thing, Harry, which thou hast often heard of, and it is known to many in this land by the name of pitch. This pitch, as ancient writers do report, doth defile; so doth the company thou keepest. For Harry, now I do not speak to thee in drink, but in tears; not in pleasure, but in passion; not in words only, but in woes also! And yet there is a virtuous man, whom I have often noted in thy company, but I know not his

name.

Prince Henry. What manner of man, an it like your majesty?

Falstaff. A good portly man, in faith, and a corpulent; of a cheerful look, a pleasing eye, and a most noble carriage! and, as I think, his age some fifty, or, by 'r-lady, inclining to three And now I remember me, his name is Falstaff! If that man should be lewdly given, he deceiveth me; for, Harry, I see virtue in his looks.-SHAKESPEARE.

score.

In this passage, however, mirth may be imitative, and a tone of mock seriousness, and the coarse voice of Falstaff, might be adopted. The degree to which imitation should be carried, and the vocal expression varied to hit that which is burlesqued, parodied, or laughed at, will differ with different readers. Usually, attempts to personate are failures.

HUMOR is more quiet than mirth, and is more under control. It usually has moderate force; moderate or quick movement; moderate pitch; pure quality; slight volume; initial, but not explosive, stress; moderate slides. Thus:

I am not without suspicion that I have an undeveloped faculty of music within me. For,