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5. ¿ "Oh stay," the maiden said, "and rest
Thy weary head upon this breast!"

A tear stood in his bright blue eye, j
But still he answered, with a sigh,
Excelsior!

6. "Beware the pine-tree's withered branch!
Beware the awful avalanche!"

This was the peasant's last good-night,
A voice replied, far up the height,
7 Excelsior!

7. At break of day, as heavenward
The pious monks of St. Bernard
Uttered the oft-repeated prayer,
n A voice cried through the startled air,
Excelsior!

8. A traveller, by the faithful hound,
Half buried in the snow was found,

Still grasping in his hand of ice
That banner with the strange device,
Excelsior!

9. There in the twilight cold and gray,
Lifeless, but beautiful, he lay,

And from the sky, serene and far,
A voice fell, like a falling star,
q Excelsior!

THE CHARGE OF THE LIGHT BRIGADE.

1. a Half a league, half a league,

Half a league onward,

All in the valley of Death

Rode the six hundred.

¿Moderate pitch. Low; prolonged. High and loud; long quality; personation. 7 High pitch; head tone; ventriloqinal; requiring much practice. 2 Moderate; narrative. * High; quick; increase. o Moderate; narrative; slow. p Moderate; slow time. q High pitch; terminating low; diminish.

a Narrative; pure voice; increase.

b"Forward, the Light Brigade!

Charge for the guns!" he said:

c Into the valley of Death

Rode the six hundred.

2. d "Forward, the Light Brigade!"
Was there a man dismay'd?

Not tho' the soldier knew

Some one had blunder'd:
Theirs not to make reply,
Theirs not to reason why,
Theirs but to do and die,
Into the valley of Death
Rode the six hundred.

3. e Cannon to right of them,
Cannon to left of them,
Cannon in front of them

Volley'd and thunder'd;
Storm'd at with shot and shell,
Boldly they rode and well,

Into the jaws of Death,

Into the mouth of Hell

Rode the six hundred.

4. f Flash'd all their sabres bare,

Flash'd as they turn'd in air,
Sabring the gunners there,
Charging an army, while

All the world wonder'd:

Plunged in the battery-smoke

Right thro' the line they broke;

Cossack and Russian

Reel'd from the sabre-stroke

Shatter'd and sunder'd.

Then they rode back, but not,

Not the six hundred.

Personation; orotund; high; bold. e Low pitch; aspirate, on the word "death." d Orotund; high; increase through the stanza. e Bold; orotund; measured. f Guttural; full of passion and action, as if in battle.

5. Cannon, to right of them,
Cannon to left of them,

Cannon behind them

Volley'd and thunder'd;
Storm'd at with shot and shell,
While horse and hero fell,

They that had fought so well
Came thro' the jaws of Death
Back from the mouth of Hell,
All that was left of them,
Left of six hundred.

6. h When can their glory fade?
O the wild charge they made!

All the world wonder'd.
Honor the charge they made!
Honor the Light Brigade,

Noble Six Hundred!

EXAMPLES IN VERY QUICK TIME.

Throw the

1. Quick-man the boat. John, be quick. Get some water. powder overboard. "It cannot be reached." Jump into the boat, then. Shove off. There goes the powder. Thank heaven, we are safe.

2.

At length, o'er Columbus, slow consciousness breaks,

“LAND!. LAND!" cry the sailors; "LAND! LAND!"-he awakesHe runs,-yes! behold it! it blesseth his sight!

The land! O! dear spectacle! transport! delight!

This selection contains a compendium of the principles of Elocution, by a master of the art. It requires variety of voice, pitch, force and time in its delivery. The student will analyze it:

HAMLET'S INSTRUCTIONS.

SHAKESPEARE.

Speak the speech, I pray you, as I pronounced it to you, trippingly on the tongue; but if you mouth it, as many of your players do, I had as lief

Orotund; moderate. h Pure tone: joyous; long quality; orotund on the last words.

the town crier spoke my lines. Nor do not saw the air too much with your hand, thus; but use all gently: for in the very torrent, tempest, and (as I may say,) whirlwind of your passion, you must acquire and beget a temperance that may give it smoothness. O, it offends me to the soul, to hear a robustious, periwig-pated fellow tear a passion to tatters, to very rags, to split the ears of the groundlings; who, for the most part, are capable of nothing but inexplicable dumb shows and noise. I would have such a fellow whipped for o'erdoing Termagant; it out-herods Herod: pray you avoid it.

Be not too tame neither, but let your own discretion be your tutor: suit the action to the word, the word to the action, with this special observance, that you o'erstep not the modesty of nature; for anything so overdone is from the purpose of playing, whose end, both at the first, and now, was and is, to hold, as 'twere, the mirror up to nature, to show virtue her own feature, scorn her own image, and the very age and body of the time; his form and pressure. Now, this overdone, or come tardy off, though it make the unskillful laugh, cannot but make the judicious grieve; the censure of which the one, must, in your allowance, o'erweigh a whole theater of others. O, there be players that I have seen play, and heard others praise, and that highly, —not to speak it profanely, that, neither having the accent of Christian, nor the gait of Christian, pagan, or Turk, have so strutted, and bellowed, that I have thought some of Nature's journeymen had made men, and not made them well, they imitated humanity so abominably.

DEFINITION OF ELOQUENCE.

WEBSTER.

When public bodies are to be addressed on momentous occasions, when great interests are at stake, and strong passions excited, nothing is valuable in speech, farther than it is connected with high intellectual and moral endowments. Clearness, force and earnestness are the qualities which produce conviction. True eloquence indeed does not consist in speech; it cannot be brought from far. Labor and learning may toil for it, but they toil for it in vain words and phrases may be marshaled in every way, but they cannot compass it: it must exist in the man, in the subject, and in the occasion. Affected passion, intense expression, the pomp of declamation, all may aspire after it; they cannot reach it: it comes, if it come at all, like the outbreaking of a fountain from the earth, or the bursting forth of volcanic fires, with spontaneous, original, native force.

EMPHASIS.

As in pronunciation we mark certain syllables with stress of voice which we call accent, so in reading we distinguish certain words by stress of voice, which is called emphasis. It is of three kinds, abrupt or radical, median or smooth, and vanishing Emphasis. By radical, we mean the sudden, emphatic force which is given to the first part of sound in speaking or reading; by median, that smooth or even sound applied to the middle of words; and vanishing, that last or ending sound. It is given with a sudden jerk or snap of the voice, on the last syllable of words in expressing revenge, scorn, defiance, anger, contempt.

Sometimes we have the radical and vanishing emphasis united; we distinguish that emphasis as compound.

We append a few selections and extracts for practice in Emphasis, and at the same time, would remind the student that this department of our subject cannot be learned from books. It is that natural variation in the utterance of sentences which exhibits thought, and gives the agreeable variety to the speech of those who understand its application. It is more than stress of voice. It requires feeling. It requires feeling. The greatest emphasis is frequently exhibited, when there is least voice. It is both expressive and impressive utterance.

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To apply Emphasis correctly, in reading or speaking, it is necessary to understand thoroughly the sentiments uttered, and to enter fully into the spirit of them. This is the only suggestion or rule that we give for Emphasis, and we are assured that the student will rarely fail in its application, if he observe this rule.

Let the student enter into the spirit of each quotation and selection, and emphasis will take care of itself.

THE AMERICAN BOY.

SON.

a Father, look up, and see that flag!
How gracefully it flies!

Those pretty stripes, they seem to be
A rainbow in the skies.

a Pure voice; high pitch; childlike; median emphasis.

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