(3) Distress and despair: "On the Frontier" (page 427); "The Miser Fitly Punished" (page 438); "The King's Despair" (page 536); “Antony over Caesar's Body" (page 553); "Richard III. is Conscience-stricken" (page 638). (4) Tenderness, pity, love, confession of weakness, expostulation: "Murillo's Trance" (page 299, near end); "Ode to My Little Son" (page 521); "Cardinal Wolsey's Soliloquy" (page 641); "Tamora Pleads for Her Vanquished Sons" (page 646); “The Dying Alchemist" (page 434). (d) Circumflex Inflexions. There are two circumflex inflexions, the risingfalling and the falling-rising. The circumflex is used when two mental attitudes are combined that require opposite inflexions, as, for instance, when doubting or entreating is associated with assertiveness or command. (1) The falling-rising circumflex expresses assertion or command followed directly by an appeal or an anticipation of the hearer's opinion. Thus, "Go there, please." (2) The rising-falling circumflex first questions or appeals, then asserts. Thus: "Who can be wise, Л loyal Λ amazed, temperate, and furious, loyal and neutral in a moment?" (3) The rising-falling circumflex is used in irony, mockery, scorn, retort. Thus, Irony: "Oh Л Λ Λ yes! He's a fine fellow! A perfect gentleman, he!" -Mocking retort: "Madam, you have my father much offended." Selections to exemplify the rising-falling inflexion in irony and mocking retort may be found in -“Caesar's Passage of the Rubicon" (page 305); "Peace with France" (page 323); "The Antagonism of Vices" (page 325); "Catiline's Defiance" (page 501); "Shylock to Antonio" (page 570); "Hotspur's Defense" (page 599). No attempt has been made in this chapter to cover the whole ground of vocal inflexions. They occur in human speech with such frequency, and the tone-intervals embraced by them exhibit such a variety of halves and wholes, minors and majors, that an exhaustive treatise would not only be tedious but perplexing. Drills (1) Let the student speak the following sentence changing the mental attitude and emotions in the succession given below, and noticing the inflexions on the word "die": "If you do this, you shall die." To do this well, one must feel deeply. (a) Intervals of whole tones: Simple assertion: "If you do this, you shall die" (drop of voice). Command or threat: (deeper drop). Inquiry: (slight rise). Amazement and inquiry: (higher rise). Friendly warning: (slight rise-fall). Amazement and incredulity (combined): (higher rise-fall). Friendly warning and appeal (combined): fallrise). (b) Intervals of semi-tones: Grief: (slight drop). Despair: (deeper drop). Anxiety: (slight rise). Fright: (higher rise). An instance of how the question of inflecting a single phrase may arouse keen interest is seen in the passage of Lady Macbeth's quick response to Macbeth's anxious question, "But if we fail?" Her reply is, "We fail." Actors and critics differ widely as to what mental attitude she spoke this in, amazement, mockery, or simple assertion. (2) The student should demonstrate all the varieties of inflexion of which the following are capable, and after each utterance state what particular mental attitude or emotion his inflexion portrays: "We fail."-"He will strike you."-"Oh!" Shaftesbury maintains that eleven thousand different inflexions may be given to the single word "oh". III Monotone The monotone (do not confound this with the fault, called monotony) is a studied avoidance of inflexions, except at the very beginning and very close of a passage. It is used whenever a very impressive, a solemn, or a weird effect is to be produced. Hence it is rarely employed; indeed, a too frequent use would destroy its effect. Thus, (a) In solemn declaration: Holy, Holy, Holy Lord God of Sabaoth; the earth is full of Thy glory!" (b) For weird effect: "High on a throne of royal state, which far (c) High-pitched monotone is used to imitate cries or calls of multitudes. The high tone must be continued to the very close. A drop on the final word or syllable must be carefully avoided. The vowel sounds are considerably distended, the effect being heightened by a vocal quaver or tremolo. The high-pitched monotone is the nearest approach to the singing voice practiced by elocutionists. "They cried, 'Make way for liberty!" Selection: "Sardanapalus to the Battle" (page 407). (d) Low-pitched monotone is employed when excessive grief or agony is united with deep thought; also in impersonation of ghosts. "It will have blood; they say, blood will have blood; Stones have been known to move, and trees to speak; Augurs and understood relations have, By maggot-pies and choughs, and rooks, brought forth The secret'st man of blood." "I am thy father's spirit; Doomed for a certain term to walk the night." Quality By quality (tone-color or timbre) is meant that characteristic of tone which distinguishes one voice from another, as the sound of the violin is distinguished from that of the flute or of the cornet. Quality and pitch are not inter-related; for a voice may have a full, round quality, even though high-keyed; it may be thin and penetrating, and yet low-pitched. The quality of some voices is full, round, resonant; of others, thin, piping, penetrating; of others, "wooden", dull, thud-like; of others, raspy, snarling, shattering; of others cracked; of others nasal; of others, hollow. Diversity of quality is due chiefly to the difference in mouth-formation, tongue-position, voicedirection, soft-palate-elevation. By changing or shifting one or more of these, a speaker can cause his voice to assume a variety of qualities. The pitch of the voice is governed by the rate of vocalcord vibrations, the more rapid the vibration, the higher the pitch. Each tone, however, is the resultant not of a single vibration, but of a combination of vibrations,—a main one, called the "prime", or "fundamental", which determines the pitch, and which extends the full length of the vibrating body, and others that are superposed upon the "prime" at division points (one-half, one-third, one-fourth, etc.) of its length. These latter are called "partials", "overtones" or "harmonics", and it is they, more particularly, their number, their relative position, and their relative degree of loudness, that determine the quality of the tone. Kinds of Quality Vocal quality is classified by elocutionists as: Pure, Orotund, Guttural, Falsetto, Asthenic, Aspirate, Pectoral, Nasal, Oral. (1) PURE QUALITY of tone is produced when the mouth organs are in the same relative position as in ordinary, unemotional conversation. The term "pure tone", as here employed, does not imply a tone necessarily free from defects, but one that is unaf |