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And, pretty child, sleep doubtless' and secure That Hubert, for the wealth of all the world, Will not offend thee.

Arth.

O Heaven! I thank you, Hubert.

Hub. Silence; no more: go closely' in with

me:

Much danger do I undergo for thee.

Shakespeare.

The Thorough Stress is used for calling or proclaiming, and is necessary whenever a sustained volume of sound is required. The seventh verse of the "Battle of Hohenlinden" will afford practice of Thorough Stress.

BATTLE OF HOHENLINDEN.

ON Linden, when the sun was low,
All bloodless lay the untrodden snow,
And dark as winter was the flow
Of Iser rolling rapidly.

But Linden saw another sight,
When the drum beat at dead of night,
Commanding fires of death to light
The darkness of her scenery.

By torch, and trumpet fast arrayed,
Each horseman drew his battle-blade ;
And furious every charger neighed
To join the dreadful revelry.

1 Doubtless for fearless, as doubt for fear a little before.

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Then shook the hills with thunder riven;
Then rushed the steed to battle driven;
And louder than the bolts of heaven,
Far flashed the red artillery.

And redder yet those fires shall glow
On Linden's hills of blood-stained snow;
And darker yet shall be the flow
Of Iser rolling rapidly.

'Tis morn, but scarce yon lurid sun
Can pierce the war-clouds, rolling dun,
Where furious Frank and fiery Hun
Shout in their sulph'rous canopy.

The combat deepens. On, ye brave,
Who rush to glory, or the grave!
Wave, Munich, all thy banners wave!
And charge with all thy chivalry!

Few, few shall part where many meet!
The snow shall be their winding-sheet,
And every turf beneath their feet

Shall be a soldier's sepulchre.

TRANSITIONS.

Campbell.

Transitions or variations in Pitch, Force, Quality, and Time are the reader's most powerful means to interest, charm, and convince.

Due prominence or subordination is thus given to every thought, according to its relative importance.

We recommend to students whose reading is monotonous, the practice of "Transitions."

PAUSING.

There can be no correct reading, and certainly no effective reciting, without many, and sometimes long, pauses.

The law which regulates pausing is the sense. "A good reader must often pause where no grammarian could put a point."

Sterne thus satirizes the critic who would bind emotional expression by grammatical rule:

"How did Garrick speak the soliloquy last night?' 'Oh, against all rule, my lord; most ungrammatically! Betwixt the substantive and the adjective, which should agree together in number, case, and gender, he made a breach, || stopping as if the point wanted settling. And after the nominative, which your lordship knows should govern the verb, he suspended his voice in the Epilogue a dozen times,-three seconds and three fifths by a stop-watch, my lord, each time!' 'Admirable grammarian! But in suspending his voice, was the sense suspended likewise? Did no expression of attitude or countenance fill up the chasm? Was the eye silent? Did you narrowly look?' 'I looked only at the stop-watch, my lord!' 'Excellent observer!'"

TONES AND ARTICULATIONS.

"Artistic excellence in any form of art is rarely attained in after-life if the foundation is not laid in childhood."

This is especially true of reading.

From their tenderest years pupils should be trained to articulate distinctly.

All intelligent reading must be preceded by comprehension.

If the reader cannot take the thought into his own mind, how can he give it to the mind of another?

Many ill effects arise from giving children language to read which they do not comprehend. If a child compose a sentence, it will never fail to give its meaning to another, and its inflections and pauses will be artistically correct. Let it understand, as thoroughly, every exercise in reading and recitation it is called upon to give, and the same artistic excellence will mark its delivery.

VOWELS AND CONSONANTS.

To develop the voice and gain control of the organs of speech, we recommend the practice of the following exercises. The first contains the extremes of vowel sounds.

EXERCISES.

1st. Open the throat, as in gaping, and give ä as in father.

Extend the lips sideways, as when smiling, and give the vowel è.

Purse the lips forward, and give ōo as in ooze.

2d. Inflate the lungs thoroughly, then give each of the following sounds with the Median Stress; i.e., begin the sound softly, and grad

ually increase the volume of the tone to the full power of the voice, then as gradually diminish it: ē, ā, ah, aw, ō, ōo.

3d. Give the above sounds with the Radical Stress.

The student of expression is reminded that to understand and feel what is to be expressed is not sufficient. A perfect control of all the agents of expression is also required, and this control is only acquired by faithful practice.

PRONUNCIATION.

To pronounce elegantly, one must give correctly the sound of every vowel and the power of every consonant, together with the proper accentuation.

We do not think it necessary to discuss the subject of pronunciation to any great extent in this book, but only to give directions by which the pupil may acquire a thorough knowledge of this important part of elocution.

The student must appeal constantly to the best dictionaries. As, however, pronunciation is more a matter of habit than knowledge, we recommend students to make lists of words which they mispronounce or fail to give with sufficient distinctness of articulation.

Students should carefully observe and give the intermediate sound of a in such words as last, past, etc. We often hear the sound of ă as in at inelegantly substituted. Another common fault is iving the sound of u in such words as duke, news, tc., like ōo.

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