be so distinctly marked that the attention would be at once attracted to the different styles, and the meaning understood. (desc.) And hark! the deep voices replying From the graves where your fathers are lying. (per.) 'Swear, Oh! swear." (per.) "Have you forgotten, General," the battered soldier cried "The days of eighteen hundred twelve, when I was at your side. Have you forgotten Johnson, that fought at Lundy's Lane; It's true I'm old and pensioned, but I want to fight again.' The voice of old age, "piping and whistling in its sound," is easily given if the practice upon the elements has been thorough; even ventriloquism, or ventriloquial power may be acquired by the practice of personation; change of pitch; exploding of elements, etc. The exercise on the elements for this purpose, is what Prof. Bronson calls "swallowing the elements." And then began the sailors jests: (per.) "What thing is that, I say? A long-shore meeting-house adrift Is standing down the bay!" * * * * * * * * * (desc.) We reached the deck. There Randall stood; (per.) "Another turn, men, so!" (desc.) Calmly he aimed his pivot gun; (per.) "Now, Tenny, let her go!" (des.) Brave Randall leaped upon the gun, And waved his cap in sport; (per.) "Well done! Well aimed! I saw that shell Go through an open port." (nar.) I remember once, riding from Buffalo to Niagara Falls, and I said to a gentleman: "What river is that sir?" "That,” said he, "is Niagara River." (Give "said he," in a whisper at first in the practice, until the pitch can be changed naturally.) Suddenly some one cries out from the bank, (des.) "The rapids are below you!" (First voice again.) Ha ha ha! are not such fools to get into them. Young man, ahoy there! (First voice again.) We have heard of the rapids, but we The selection from which this extract is taken is excellent for the practice of transition and personation, and any one who has heard Mr. Gough, will acknowledge the power of this principle. In reading a colloquy between two or more persons, recognize the fact that the faces of the speakers must be turned towards each other; and as you change from the utterances of one to the other, turn the face slightly or boldly, as the character of the colloquy may indicate. These exercises in personation are so frequent in the selections, that further examples do not seem necessary. THE STUDY OF EXPRESSION. The practice of reading or reciting aloud, selections containing different emotions and passions, secures variety of expression. The student should try to personate the passion, or enter so fully into the meaning of the quotation that he will vary the pitch, force, and voice to correspond with the emotion. The following extracts from Shakespeare and Milton are so forcible and natural, that the student may succeed in giving them well by practice, without the assistance of the living model. The organs of speech should be so disciplined as to adapt themselves naturally and easily to all the changes, even the most abrupt and frequent, that are required in continuous reading or speaking. This comprehends the particulars in the above analysis and secures variety of expression, which is the great object to be gained by the student of elocution. LAUGHTER ON SEEING A Buffoon. A Fool, a Fool! I met a Fool i' th' forest, A motley Fool. A miserable world! As I do live by food, I met a Fool, Who laid him down and bask'd him in the sun, In good set terms, and yet a motley Fool. "Good morrow, Fool," quoth I. "No, sir," quoth he, And then he drew a dial from his poke, And, looking on it with lack-lustre eye, Thus we may see," quoth he, "how the world wags: 'Tis but an hour ago since it was nine, And I did laugh, sans intermission, An hour by his dial. -O, noble fool! A worthy fool! Motley's the only wear.-As you Like it. INVOCATION OF THE GODDESS OF MIRTH. But come, thou goddess fair and free, In heaven yclep'd Euphrosyne, And by men, heart-easing Mirth; With two sister Graces more, To ivy-crown'd Bacchus bore. Haste thee, nymph, and bring with thee Jest, and youthful jollity, Quips, and cranks, and wanton wiles, Nods, and becks, and wreathed smiles, Such as hang on Hebe's cheek, And love to live in dimples sleek; Sport, that wrinkled Care derides, And Laughter holding both his sides. Come, and trip it as you go, On the light fantastic toe; And in thy right hand lead with thee The mountain-nymph, sweet Liberty.— Milton's L'Allegro. JOY EXPECTED. Ah, Juliet! if the measure of thy joy Be heap'd like mine, and that thy skill be more To blazon it, then sweeten with thy breath This neighbor air, and let rich music's tongue JOY APPROACHING TO TRANSPORT. Oh! joy, thou welcome stranger, twice three years It warms my veins, and plays about my heart, A fiery instinct lifts me from the ground, And I could mount.- Dr. Young's Revenge. JOY APPROACHING TO FOLLY. Come, let us to the castle. News, friends; our wars are done, the Turks are drown'd. How does my old acquaintance of this isle? Honey, you shall be well desired in Cyprus, I have found great love amongst them. O my sweet, I prattle out of fashion, and I dote In mine own comforts.-Othello. JOY BORDERING on Sorrow. O, my soul's joy! If after every tempest come such calms, May the winds blow till they have waken'd death; Olympus-high, and duck again as low As hell's from heaven! If it were now to die, My soul hath her content so absolute, Succeeds in unknown fate.- Othello. DELIGHT ON VIEWING A STATUE. Leon.-See, my lord, Would you not deem it breath'd? and that those veins Paul. My lord's almost so far transported that He'll think anon it lives. Leon. ( sweet Paulina, Make me to think so twenty years together; No settled senses of the world can match The pleasure of that madness.- The Winter's Tale. DELIGHT IN LOVE What you do Still betters what is done. When you speak, sweet, I'd have you buy and sell so; so give alms; Pray so; and, for the ord'ring your affairs, To sing them too: When you do dance, I wish you A wave o' th' sea, that you might ever do Nothing but that; move still, still so, And own no other function. Each your doing, So singular in each particular, Crowns what you are doing in the present deeds, PROTESTATION IN LOVE. O, hear me breathe my life Before this ancient sir, who, it should seem, Hath some time loved: I take thy hand; this hand, As soft as dove's down, and as white as it, Or Ethiopian's tooth, or the fann'd snow, That's bolted by the northern blasts twice o'er.- Winter's Tale. PITY FOR A DEPARTED FRIEND. Alas, poor Yorick! I knew him, Horatio: a fellow of infinite jest, of most excellent fancy: He hath borne me on his back a thousand times. And now, how abhorred my imagination is! my gorge rises at it: Here hung those lips that I have kissed I know not how oft. Where be your gibes now? Your gambols? Your songs? Your flashes of merriment, that were wont to set the table on a roar? Not one now, to mock your own grinning? Quite chop-fallen? Now, get you to my lady's chamber, and tell her, let her paint an inch thick, to this favor she must come; make her laugh at that.—Hamlet. HATRED CURSING THE OBJECT HATED. Poison be their drink! Gall, worse than gall, the daintiest that they taste! |