SPEECH AND SONG. 253 



things is really beneficial, not from any occult virtue that there is 

 in them, but because the solids give strength, while the liquids 

 moisten and lubricate the throat. That is the whole secret of 

 the cordials and elixirs in which many vocalists place their 

 trust. 



A useful example of the proper care of the voice is to be found 

 in a very unexpected quarter. The Emperor Nero, as is well known, 

 believed himself to be a great artist, a notion of which those about 

 were not likely to disabuse him. His dying words, " Qualis artifex 

 pereo ! " show that he had at least one feature of the artistic tem- 

 perament. He sought fame by many paths in poetry, fiddling, 

 driving, and other branches of the fine arts to say nothing of his 

 scientific experiments on the bodies of his nearest relations. The 

 imperial virtuoso was particularly vain of his voice, which I can 

 well imagine to have been soft and sweet, qualities which often 

 enough accompany a cruel nature. He was proportionately care- 

 ful of so precious a possession. His system is worth quoting. In 

 addition to such general measures as attending to his liver, and 

 abstaining from such fruits and other food as he fancied to be in- 

 jurious to his voice, we are told that at night he used to lie on his 

 back with a small plate of lead on his stomach. This was proba- 

 bly for the purpose of checking the tendency to abdominal breath- 

 ing, which has already been referred to as the less perfect way in 

 respiration for singers. In order to spare his voice all unnecessary 

 fatigue, he gave up haranguing his troops and ceased even to ad- 

 dress the Senate. As in later times there were keepers of the king's 

 conscience, Nero gave his voice into the keeping of a phonascus. 

 He spoke only in the presence of this vocal director, whose duty 

 it was to warn him when his tones became too loud, or when he 

 seemed to be in danger of straining his voice. To the same func- 

 tionary was intrusted the formidable duty of checking the em- 

 peror's eloquence when it became too impetuous ; this he did by 

 covering the imperial orator's mouth with a napkin. It must have 

 needed no small measure of courage to apply this effectual method 

 of " closure " to the arch-tyrant of history when intoxicated with 

 the exuberance of his own vocalization. 



While laying stress on the necessity of proper cultivation in 

 order to make the singer capable of giving the greatest pleasure 

 to his hearers with the least amount of fatigue to himself, I vent- 

 ure to add that many singers who are admirably trained have 

 rather a tendency to " o'erstep the modesty of nature " in their 

 delivery. It was said of Flaubert's Salammbo, that it might be 

 Carthaginian, but it was not human ; in the same way I am dis- 

 posed to say of certain highly " artistic " vocal displays which one 

 is sometimes condemned to hear, that it may be song but it assur- 

 edly is not music. When listening to such tremendous perform- 



