IV. THE GUTTURAL is a deep under-tone, used to express hatred, contempt, and loathing. It usually occurs on the emphatic words; as, 1. 2. Thou slave, thou wretch, thou coward! Thou cold-blooded slave! Thou wear a lion's hide? Doff it, for shame, and hang A calf-skin on those recreant limbs. Thou stand'st at length before me undisguised, V. THE TREMULOUS TONE, or tremor, consists of a tremulous iteration, or a number of impulses of sound of the least assignable duration. It is used in excessive grief, pity, plaintiveness, and tenderness; in an intense degree of suppressed excitement, or satisfaction; and when the voice is enfeebled by age. The Tremulous Tone should not be applied throughout the whole of an extended passage, but only on selected emphatic words, as otherwise the effect would be monotonous. In the second of the following examples, where the tremor of age is supposed to be joined with that of supplicating distress, the tremulous tone may be applied to every emphatic syllable capable of prolongation, which is the case with all except those of pity and shortest; but even these may receive it in a limited degree. 1. 2. O love, remain! It is not yet near day! Pity the sorrows of a poor old man, Whose trembling limbs have borne him to your door, O give relief, and Heaven will bless your store. RATE. RATE refers to movement, and is QUICK, MODERATE, or SLOW. I. QUICK RATE is used to express joy, mirth, confusion, violent anger, and sudden fear; as, 1. 2. The lake has burst! The lake has burst! Down through the chasms the wild waves flee: Away to the eager awaiting sea! And there was mounting in hot haste the steed, The mustering squadron, and the clattering car And swiftly forming in the ranks of war. II. MODERATE RATE is used in ordinary assertion, narration, and description; in cheerfulness, and the gentler forms of the emotions; as, 1. When the sun walks upon the blue sea-waters, 1 Exercise on Rate-For a general exercise, select a sentence, and deliver it as slow as may be possible without drawling. Repeat the sentence with a slight increase of rate, until you shall have reached a rapidity of utterance at which distinct ; articulation ceases. Having done this, reverse the process, repeating slower and slower. This exercise will enable pupils to acquire the ability to increase and diminish rate at pleasure, which is one of the most important elements of good reading and speaking. 2. I have sinuous shells of pearly hue Within, and they that luster have imbibed In the sun's palace-pōrch, where, when unyoked, Its polished lips to your attentive ear, And it remembers its august abodes, And murmurs as the ocean murmurs there. III. SLOW RATE is used to express grandeur, vastness, pathos, solemnity, adoration, horror, and consternation; as, 1. 2. 3. The curfew tolls the knell of parting day; The lowing herd winds slowly o'er the lea; Roll on, thou deep and dark-blue ocean-roll! When, for a moment, like a drop of rain, O thou Eternal One! whose presence bright Being above all beings! Mighty One, Whom none can comprehend and none explōre! MONOTONE V. MONOTONE ONOTONE consists of a degree of sameness of sound, or tone, in a number of successive words or syllables. It is very seldom the case that a perfect sameness is to be observed in reading any passage or sentence. But very little variety of tone, or, in other words, the MONOTONE, is to be used in reading either prose or verse which contains elevated descriptions, or emotions of solemnity, sublimity, or reverence. The monotone usually requires a low tone of the voice, loud or prolonged force, and a slow rate of utterance. It is this tone only, that can present the conditions of the supernatural and the ghostly. The sign of monotone is a horizontal line over the words to be spoken without inflection. EXERCISES. 1. Lord, thou hast been our dwelling-place in all generations'. Before the mountains were brought forth, or ever thou hadst formed the earth and the world, even from everlasting to everlasting, Thou art God'. 2. Then the earth shook and trembled'; the foundations, also, of the hills moved, and were shaken', because he was wroth'. There went up a smoke out of his nostrils, and fire out of his mouth devoured'. He bowed the heavens, also, and came down, and darkness was under his feet'; and he rode upon a cherub, and did fly'; yea, he did fly upon the wings of the wind'. 3. Man dieth, and wasteth away': yea, man giveth up the ghost', and where is he? As the waters fail from the sea, and the flood decayeth and drieth up', so man lieth down, and riseth not'; till the heavens be no more, they shall not awake', nor be raised out of their sleep'. 4. 6. High on a throne of royal state, which far Or where the gorgeous East, with richest hand, Showers on her kings barbaric pearl and gold', How reverend is the face of this tall pile, And terror on my aching sight': the tombs And monumental caves of death look cold, And shoot a chillness' to my trembling heart`. Are melted into air, into thin air; And like the baseless fabric of this vision', The cloud-capp'd towers, the gorgeous palaces, And, like this unsubstantial pageant, faded' Leave' not a rack' behind'. 7. In thoughts from the visions of the night, when deep sleep falleth on men, fear came upon me, and trembling, which made all my bones to shake'. Then a spirit passed before my face': the hair of my flesh stood up'. It stood still, but I could not discern the form thereof: an image was before mine eyes': there was silence, and I heard a voice saying, Shall mortal man be more just than God'? Shall a man be more pure than his Maker'? |