READING AND ELOCUTION. 



91 



and modiii-viil blazons, bat it is wholly wanting in all tho 



liii^ii.T ,jii ilitios of freshness, originality, or fidelity to nature. 



The typical Hy/.antimt craft was tho gorgooua cooloaioatioal 



mosaic work, ropreaenting coloaaal solitary figures in largo 



ni bright colour on a background of gold. It please* 



nil childish and half-developed minds by its glitter and its 



brilliancy, but it cannot please any higher taste, because of ita 



lifelosaneaa and its conventionality of representation. 



Meanwhile, after the seat of tho Empire was removed to tho 

 East, Borne itself, with Italy and the West, had been overrun 

 by tho Teutonic barbarians of Germany the Goths and others 

 hod settled down in every part of tho old provinces, from 

 Urit.iin to Carthage, and from Spain to Venice. Thus in these 

 countries the Roman civilisation died away to a groat extent, 

 being wholly lost in England, largely overwhelmed in Gaul, and 

 much diluted even in Italy itself. Accordingly, Constantinople, 

 as the seat of that part of tho Empire which still retained its 

 independence and carried on the traditions of Greek and Roman 

 culture, became the natural centre of civilisation, of literature, 

 and of art. A brisk traffic in pictures, jewellery, and metal- 

 work was carried on by Venice and Amalfi between Constanti- 

 nople and Rome. From the East, Byzantine paintings were 

 imported into Italy and the Western countries during tho early 

 middle ages (A.D. 500 to 1200), and Byzantine models were 

 copied at Rome by the half-barbarised Romans, whoso own art 

 had all but utterly died out during the Teutonic invasions. Of 

 course, these Western copies of Byzantine art were even more 

 wooden, lifeless, and conventional than their Eastern originals. 

 They often show all the worst types of art that art which is a 

 mere degradation of higher styles, and is wanting even in the 

 natural freshness and originality of the veriest savage sketches. 



But as the effects of the Teutonic invasions began to pass 

 away, as the conquerors and the conquered began to fuse into 

 a single people, new industrial centres arose in Italy, and with 

 them arose a new and more genuinely native art. Italy, 

 indeed, had suffered less than any other part of tho Empire 

 from the barbarian invaders, and throughout the middle ages it 

 remained far more civilised than any other part of Western 

 Europe. In architecture tho new movement produced the style 

 known as Romanesque, with ita graceful rounded arches directly 

 recalling the old Roman modes, but more distinctly subordi- 

 nated to the necessities of Christian worship and of modern 

 life. In painting the movement produced yet more important 

 results results which have had immense weight in tho whole 

 subsequent development of art. Tho name of Giotto (A..D. 

 1276 1336) is closely connected with this revolution. 



The accompanying engraving (which represents a triptych, 

 if not by Giotto himself, at least by some member of the school 

 that he founded) will give a very good idea of the characteris- 

 tics of the new style. The devotional spirit remains the chief 

 spring of all art, but Giotto ventured to introduce a freedom of 

 treatment, a comparative correctness of drawing, and a truth- 

 fulness to life, which were wholly wanting in tho Byzantine and 

 early Italian paintings. Giotto's draperies were still a little 

 stiff, his attitudes were still a little angular and unreal, his 

 features were still a little devoid of emotional expression, but 

 in every respect he shows a great advance upon any previous 

 artist since tho older Roman period. In the side panels of this 

 triptych we can see in part a survival of the Byzantine treat- 

 ment, with its solitary figures in partially conventional attitudes, 

 and its ornamental rather than truly pictorial character ; and 

 this survival is very marked in tho decorative presentation of 

 tho floors, the halos around the heads, and the general nature 

 of tho accessories. But in tho figure of the monk who occupies 

 the central panel of the triptych wo have a real and immense 

 advance upon anything that Italian art had previously produced. 

 The fall of the drapery in every case, the pose of the hands, the 

 faces of the personages, are all free from the Byzantine stiffness 

 and conventionality. The engraving, however, cannot give any 

 idea of one among Giotto's chief excellences his admirable 

 colouring. Disregarding the purely decorative colours of the 

 older school, Giotto ventured to introduce a new system, which 

 endeavoured to dispense to some extent with gilding and dark 

 heavy hues, and to substitute for them a purer, more luminous, 

 and more natural scale of tints. If we judge Giotto's work- 

 manship by a modern standard, wo shall be compelled to admit 

 that his pictures often show us heavy and ungainly figures, 

 oblique eyes, and cumbrous drapery ; but if we compare him 



with thoao who went before him, we cannot fail to recognise 

 hnn as a great and genuine genius. HU advance In movement, 



i, truth to Nature, and dramatic effect, constitutes bin 

 the real beginner of tho modern school, and bis abandonment 

 of tho old system of colouring enabled him to gire the proper 

 expression to his novel conceptions. His powers, indeed, were 

 almost universal, for he was not less remarkable as a sculptor 

 and an architect than as a painter. Giotto's life was mainly 

 spent in Florence, and through his influence Florence became 

 the chief artistic centre of mediaeval Italy. Works of the 

 school which ho founded are to be met with, however, not only 

 in Florence, but in Pisa, Padua, Siena, and cany other Italian 

 towns. Our own National Gallery possesses a few examples. 

 But, in fact, the style of painting introduced by Giotto was so 

 dependent upon church architecture that it can hardly be 

 judged with fairness except in the original positions. 



READING AND ELOCUTION. XVL 



ANALYSIS OP THE VOICE (continiwd). 

 IX. JUST 8TBE88. 



THE next characteristic of good reading and speaking is jnat 

 " stress." This word is meant to designate a peculiar modifica- 

 tion of force, which distinguishes speech from music. A long- 

 drawn musical sound has its most forcible part in consequence 

 of " swell " and "diminish" at the middle portion of the note. 

 The tones of speech, on the contrary although, in a few oases, 

 they approach to this mode of voice usually hare the chief 

 force of each sound at the opening or the closing part. In music, 

 the increase of force is comparatively gradual ; in speech and 

 reading it is f requently abrupt. To these distinctive modes of 

 voice the term " stress " is applied. 



To understand the application of this term in detail, it be- 

 comes necessary to advert to the mode of creating vocal sounds. 

 In vocal music the result is obtained by full " inspiration " 

 (inhaling or drawing in the breath), and comparatively slight 

 " expiration " (giving forth the breath). In this mode, much 

 breath is drawn in, much retained or withheld, and little given 

 out at a time ; and thus are produced those smooth, pure, and 

 gradually-increasing tones which are appropriate to music all 

 the breath that is given forth being converted into sound, and 

 none escaping that is not vocalised. In notes of very short 

 duration, singing and speech are, it is true, brought nearer to 

 a resemblance. But this resemblance is more apparent than 

 real ; as may be observed in the execution of every good singer, 

 which, in the most rapid passages, still produces the genuine 

 effect of song, as differing from speech. The resemblance is 

 owing solely to the brevity of sound, in such cases, which does 

 not afford time for broad and marked distinctions to be drawn 

 by tho ear. 



The modes of voice which constitute speech, or are exemplified 

 in reading, are the following : 



I. RADICAL STRESS. This form of force includes two modes 

 "explosion " and " expulsion." 



1. " Explosion " is an abrupt and instantaneous burst of voice 

 as, for example, in violent anger. 



This being an instinctive, unconscious, involuntary, impulsive 

 emotion, does not allow time or disposition for any intentional 

 or deliberate effect, but makes the creation of vocal sound seem 

 an irrepressible, spontaneous, electric production of nature, 

 lying equally out of the reach of the understanding and the 

 will. This tone has its contrast in the deep, calm, and regular 

 swell of the tone of reverence, or the ample rolnme, and deliberate 

 force, of conscious authority and command, in which the speaker 

 is self-possessed and self-directed, and controls his vocal effects 

 for purposes understood or felt. 



Contrast, for instance, the following angry shoot of Douglas 

 when enraged by the defiance of Marmion, with the oxsmplss 

 of reverential invocation and authoritative command wL oh occur 

 in tho subsequent paragraphs. 



Example of "Explosion." 



UP DRA'WBRIDGE ! GROOM ! What, WABBKE, HO' I 

 Let the PORTCU'LLIS FALL ! 



The sounds of all the accented rowels, in this style, fall upon 



