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extreme feebleness from age, exhaustion, sickness, fatigue grief, and even joy, and other feelings, in which ardor or extreme tenderness predominates.

In the reading or the recitation of lyric and dramatic poetry, this function of voice is often required for full, vivid, and touching expression. Without its appeals to sympathy, and its peculiar power over the heart, many of the most beautiful and touching passages of Shakspeare and Milton become dry and cold. Like the tremula of the accomplished vocalist, in operatic music, it has a charm, for the absence of which nothing can atone; since nature suggests it as the genuine utterance of the most delicate and thrilling emotion.

The perfect command of " tremor," requires often-repeated practice on elements, syllables, and words, as well as on appropriate pas· sages of impassioned language.

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1. The Tremor of Age and Feebleness.

("Pure Tone:""Subdued" force of Pathos: Tremulous utterance,

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throughout.)

STANZA FROM A POPULAR BALLAD.

Pity the sorrows of a poor old man,

Whose trembling limbs have borne him to your door, Whose days are dwindled to the shortest span ;—

Oh! give relief; and Heaven will bless your store!"

2. Exhaustion and Fatigue.

("Aspirated pectoral and oral Quality:"" Suppressed" force: "Tremor" throughout.)

FROM "AS YOU LIKE IT."-Shakspeare.

Adam, [to Orlando.] "Dear master, I can go no farther: Oh! I die for food! Here lie I down, and measure out my grave. Farewell! kind master.”

("Pure Tone:""Subdued" force of Pathos: Occasional “tremor" of Tenderness.)

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Orlando, [to Adam.] Why, how now, Adam!—no greater heart in thee? Live a little; comfort a little; cheer thyself a little. For my sake be comfortable; hold death awhile at the arm's end: I will here be with thee presently.

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Well said! thou look'st cheerily and I'll be with thee quickly. Yet thou liest in the bleak air: Come, I will bear thee to some shelter. Cheerly, good Adam!"

3. Sickness.

KING JOHN, [ON THE EVE OF HIS DEATH, TO FAULCONBRIDGE.]-Shakspeare. ("Aspirated pectoral Quality:" "Suppressed" force: Gasping and tremulous utterance.)

"O cousin, thou art come to set mine eye: My heart hath one poor string to stay it by, Which holds but till thy news be uttered; And then all this thou seest, is but a clod And module of confounded royalty."

4. Excessive Grief.

EVE, [TO ADAM, AFTER THEIR FALL AND DOOM.]-Milton.

("Aspirated pectoral and oral Quality :" "Impassioned" force:

Weeping utterance: "Tremor," throughout.)

"Forsake me not thus, Adam: witness heaven
What love sincere, and reverence in my heart
I bear thee, and unweeting have offended,
Unhappily deceived: thy suppliant,

I beg, and clasp thy knees; bereave me not,
Whereon I live, thy gentle looks, thy aid,
Thy counsel in this uttermost distress,
My only strength and stay: forlorn of thee
Whither shall I betake me, where subsist?"

5. Extreme Pity.

("Pure Tone:" "Impassioned" force: Weeping and tremulous

utterance.)

FROM THE TEMPEST.- Shakspeare.

Miranda, [to her father.] "Oh! I have suffered
With those that I saw suffer! a brave vessel,
Who had, no doubt, some noble creatures in her,
Dashed all to pieces. Oh! the cry did knock

Against my very heart! Poor souls! they perished.

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
The freighting souls within her!”

6. Joy and Admiration.

[ALONZO'S EXCLAMATION, ON BEHOLDING HIS SON FERDINAND, WHOM HE HAD SUPPOSED DROWNED.]-Shakspeare.

("Pure Tone:" "Impassioned expulsive" force: "Tremor" of joy, throughout.)

"Now all the blessings

Of a glad father compass thee about!"

("Pure Tone:""

Miranda.

Impassioned expulsive" force: Ecstatic "tremor of joy, wonder, and love.)

"Oh! wonder!

How many goodly creatures are there here !

How beauteous mankind is! Oh! brave new world,
That has such people in 't!"

The various modes of "stress" have been so copiously illustrated, that it seems unnecessary to add special exercises, at the close of this chapter. Before proceeding to the next subject, however, the student will derive much benefit from reviewing the examples of the different forms of "stress," and practising them in conjunction with the elementary sounds and combinations, and with the addition of the following words, as classified for this purpose.

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Push Church

velvet zest pleasure you war lily

Pipe Tent Cake Fife Cease He Thin pulp tat cark fief assess hail thank hush chaste рор tut casque fitful stocks hand thaw harsh chat

Words comprising elements of opposite character and forma

tion.

Awe An Arm End Eve In Ooze Up Ice In Old On add ah! ebb eel if fool

all

us

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Teachers who are instructing classes will find great aid in the use of the black board, for the purpose of visible illustration, in regard to the character and effect of the different species of " stress. Exercises such as the following, may be prescribed for simultaneous practice in classes.

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To commence with a definite idea of the mode of stress in each instance, set out from the standard of a given emotion decidedly marked, and let the degree of emotion and the force of utterance be increased at every stage. Thus, let▷ represent the "radical stress on the sound of a, in the word all, in the following example of authoritative command: "Attend ALL!" the " vanishing stress "on the same element, in the following example of impatience and displeasure: “I said ALL, ́ -not one or two." the "median stress" on the same element, in reverence and adoration : "Join ALL ye creatures in His praise '"' the "compound stress,' in astonishment and surprise: " What! ALL? did they ALL fail?" the "thorough stress," in defiance: "Come one— come ALL!" the "tremor" of sorrow: "Oh! I have lost you ALL!”. The practice of the examples and the elements should extend to the utmost excitement of emotion and force of voice. Ocular references may seem, at first sight, to have little value in a subject which relates to the ear. But notes and characters, as used in music, serve to show how exactly the car may be taught through the eye; and even if we admit the comparatively indefinite nature of all such relations, when transferred to the forms of speech and of reading, the suggestive power of visible forms has a great influence on the faculty of association, and aids clearness and precision of thought, and a corresponding definiteness and exactness in sound.

CHAPTER VI.

"MELODY."

THE word "melody" may be applied to speech in the same general sense as in the technical language of music, to designate the effect produced on the ear, by the successive notes of the voice, in a passage of music or of discourse.

The use of this term presupposes, both in music and in speech, a certain "pitch," or initial note, whether predominating in a passage, or merely commencing it, and to which the subsequent sounds stand in the relation of higher or lower or identical.

The term "melody," used as above, does not necessarily imply a melodious or pleasing succession of sounds, or the reverse. It has regard merely to the fact just mentioned, that the successive sounds to which this term is applied, are comparatively higher or lower on the musical scale, or in strict unison with the first sound of a series. In this technical sense, the word "melody" applies to speech as well as to music.

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