77 



ORATORY. 



ORATORY. 



II. Time. The degrees of duration of the voice represented by the 

 terms long, short, and the rate by quick and slow, are among the most 

 effective means of expression ; rage, mirth, raillery, and impatience 

 affecting a quick time; and slowness of time being the symbol of 

 sorrow, grief, respect, veneration, dignity, apathy, contrition, and all 

 other sentiments which embrace the idea of deliberation. A slow time 

 of discourse, if not made by long quantities on single syllables, would 

 be offensive from its pauses ; these two forms of time therefore neces- 

 sarily involve each other. Slowness of time and long quantity are 

 generally joined with the element of the wave, since the return, or 

 contrary flexure of intervals, is one of the means for producing an 

 extension of time without destroying the equable concrete of speech, 

 or, in other words, without passing into song. The wave of a tone 

 will be perceived in the dignified and appropriate utterance of the 

 syllables marked in italics in the following lines : 



" Pardon me, thou bleeding piece of earth. 

 That I am meek and gentle with these butchers." 



" Hail, ioljr light, offspring of heaven, flrrtJoru, 

 Or of the eternal, ro-etf-rnal beam, 

 May I express thee, mblamed .' " 



III. The use of pa toe for the more conspicuous display of sense and 

 sentiment, by separating certain words or aggregates of words from 

 each other, is of great consequence in elocution, but cannot be gone 

 into at length in this article. To these pauses the grammatical points 

 are by no means a sufficient guide. [PUNCTUATION.] 



IV. A comprehensive account of Melody would properly represent it 

 as produced by a variation in the time, pauses, force, and pitch of the 

 voice, since the well-appointed uses and dispositions of these accidents 

 make up the agreeable impression of speech ; but we use it here as 

 relating solely to the successions of radical pitch. Under this head it 

 may be remarked that a predominant* of the monotone is suited to 

 feelings of dignity, grief, tenderness, solemnity, and serious admonition ; 

 that the alternate phrate well describes the earnest excitement neces- 

 sarily produced by the rapid succession of incident ; and that a pro- 

 yretaii/n gradually rising and falling through the whole conipait of the 

 vuice corresponds with a wide variation of force in the sentiment. For 

 illustrations of these modes see Dr. Rush's ' Philosophy of the Voice,' 

 pp. 112, 144. 



V. Pitch. Discrete pitch is illustrated by the word mutt in the 

 following passage. As it is a syllable which does not admit of pro- 

 longation, it is raised discretely a third above the preceding : 



"If I miul contend, laid he, 

 Bert with the best, the sender, not the sent." 



We have an example of a concrete rising fifth on bmu-, and of a 

 ducrete third on mar-, in the following : 



And beau, tjr im. mor- tal a- wakes from the tomb. 



If we suppose that the following words are spoken interrogatively, 

 and that they express surprise, the concrete rising fifth must be given 

 to the emphatic syllables : 



Giro Brutus a statue with his ancestors? 



If, on the other hand, the line be read as a command, the direction 

 of the concretes will be downwards. 



On the word L-nutc, in the following clause, not only does the voice 

 descend concretely a third or a fifth, but the descent begins discretely 

 a third above the preceding word : 



We know what we worship, for salvttion is of the Jews, 



As the diatonic melody is suited to plain narration and description, 

 so will the emphasis be the more strongly marked in proportion to the 

 wider extent of the intervals, whether of concrete or discrete pitch, 

 which are employed. It may also be remarked in general, that the 

 upward concretes denote interrogation, doubt, or what is concessive, 

 ; 'ional, hypothetical; the downward concretes denote what is 

 strong, certain, authoritative, as also, wonder, admiration, surprise, and 

 exclamation, when not conjoined with an interrogative meaning. 



VI. The wave is a very frequent element of expression, and performs 

 high functions of speech. In its minor forms it is used to give length 

 and emphasis to syllables and dignity to utterance : in its wider 

 interval!) it is admirably expressive of irony and derision. Thus the 

 irony of the following passage can be brought out only by the indirect 

 wave of a fifth in both places in which it occurs : 



Bat It is foolish in ns to compare Drnsns Afrlcanut and ourselves with 

 Clodius : ill our other calamities were tolerable, but no one can patiently bear 

 ths death of Clodiui. 



VII. The semitonet. These are vised for the expression of complaint, 

 pity, grief, plaintive supplication, and other sentiments congenial with 

 these. The intonation by the concrete is universally the symbol of 

 nature for animal distress. It affects generally a slow time and long 

 quantity in utterance, and is therefore most commonly heard in the 

 form of the wave. The iuterjective exclamations of pain, grief, love, 

 and compassion, are prolongations of the tonic elements on this 

 interval ; but it may be executed on the short time of immutable 

 syllables, such as cup. The appropriate utterance of the following 

 line will exhibit the wave of the semitone on the most important 

 syllables, poor and old being distinguished by direct unequal waves of 

 the same interval. It must be taken as an isolated line, and not in 

 conjunction with the verse of which it forms part : 



Pi- tv 



the sor- rows of a poor 



old 



JLJ 



VIII. The tremor. When the tremulous function is made through 

 the second, third, fifth, or octave, or through the wave of these 

 intervals, it joins the sentiment of derision, mirth, joy, or exultation, 

 to that of interrogation, surprise, command, or scorn, conveyed by the 

 smooth concrete of those intervals. In short, it is the introduction 

 into speech of what is transferable in the function of laughter, and it 

 adds thereto all the meaning and force of its satisfaction. Thus 



44 Thou art the ruins of the Noblest man, 

 That ever liTed in the tide of times." 



There is a sentiment of exultation and a superlativeness of com- 

 pliment in this eulogy, which cannot be properly expressed by the 

 smooth movement of the concrete; but if the first syllable of the 

 emphatic word no/jlat be uttered with the tremulous intonation of 

 the wave of the third or second, this will give the vocal consum- 

 mation to the feeling which suggests the exceeding measure of the 



The chufklf is an example of a somewhat similar application. 



When the tremor is formed of a single tonic, in the semitone or its 

 waves, it constitutes the function of crying ; and when employed in 

 the syllabic intonation of the chromatic melody, it sets a more marked 

 distinction on those emphatic words which express the sentiments of 

 tenderness, grief, supplication, and other connatural states of feeling. 

 This may be illustrated on the emphatic syllables of the line just 

 quoted : " Pity the sorrows," &c. 



IS. The application of the different degrees of Force to the purposes 

 of expression is almost too obvious to require illustration. Thus the 

 dietance of a person spoken to is pictured by loudness, and nearness by 

 abatement of force ; secrecy muffles the voice against discovery, and 

 doubt adopts the subterfuge of an undertone. Certainty and anyer 

 assume force and strength. All sentiments which are unbecoming or 

 disgraceful smother the voice into softer degrees, in the desire to 

 conceal even the voluntary utterance of them. Joy is loud, and so are 

 bodily pain, fear, and terror. 



Such are some of the uses of force when applied to phrases, or to 

 one or more sentences, in order to distinguish them from adjacent 

 phrases or sentences in discourse. There are other applications of it, 

 to single words, to syllables, and to certain parts of the concrete move- 

 ment, into which, though of some consequence, it is not within the 

 purport of this article to enter. They will be found described in Dr. 

 Rush's ' Philosophy of the Voice." 



The common idea of Jtmphans, it may be remarked, is that of mere 

 force ; but it is more correctly denned to be the expressive but 

 occasional distinction of a syllable, and consequently of the whole 

 word, by one or more of the specific modes of time, quality, force, 

 and pitch. Most of these have been illustrated under the above 

 heads. 



X. Rhythm is one of the applications of force and quantity. It may 

 be defined to be the metrical arrangement of speech. It is not mainly 

 dependant on custom or on the genius of any language whatever, but 

 arises from the very manner in which speech is produced, and is as 

 involuntary as the throb or remission of the pulse, or the inhaling and 

 respiration of the breath. In the formation of speech there is a 

 regular action and reaction of the organs which produce it. To form a 

 heary syllable, or one which has accentual stress upon it, these organs 

 are necessarily placed in a certain position ; and from their very nature 

 it is necessary that, before they form another heavy syllable, they 

 should recover their first position ; but the time which is occupied in 

 this recovery of their position is not always lost to the purposes of 

 speech, for it may be filled up with one or more syllables, which have 

 no stress, and .which are therefore very properly denominated tight; 

 if it is not filled up in this way it is a pause or rest. To illustrate this, 

 let us take the words 



One, two, three, four, five. 



These monoysllables, if distinctly and deliberately pronounced, have 

 two peculiarities ; each has the organic stress or emphasis, and each 



