The British Constitutional System of Canada, T. D. M'Gee, The Schoolmaster and the Conqueror, British Colonial and Naval Power, The Dominion of Canada-Part I., PRACTICAL ELOCUTION. BY PROFESSOR LEWIS B. MONROE, DEAN OF THE SCHOOL OF ORATORY, BOSTON, MASS. WHATEVER aids a pupil to understand a piece will help him to read it. Thought and emotion compel expression; rules too often fetter it. Three things can be done by the teacher with advantage : 1. Give the pupils practical exercises to increase their command of voice. 2. Talk with them in a way to inspire them with the spirit of what they read. 3. Give them a good example. It is recommended that a short exercise from the Introduction be given before each lesson in reading. 1.-STANDARD DIRECTIONS. 1. STAND OR SIT IN A GOOD POSITION. Body upright, chest expanded, shoulders thrown back, and head erect. 2. HOLD THE BOOK PROPERLY. Support the book in the left hand, with three fingers underneath,—the thumb and little finger extended above to keep the leaves down. Elbow free from the body, and forearm elevated at an angle of thirty to forty-five degrees. 3. BREATHE BEFORE THE LUNGS ARE EMPTY OF AIR, and before necessity or fatigue forces the lungs to respire too great a volume at once. 4. KEEP THE EYE AND MIND IN ADVANCE OF THE TONGUE. That is, look ahead on the page, and see and understand clearly what you are going to say, before you speak. 5. THINK THE THOUGHTS, AND FEEL THE EMOTIONS. Unless this be done, the reading will be as profitless to the reader as it will be dry, mechanical, and meaningless to the hearer. 6. BE IN EARNEST. Always throw yourself into the spirit of what you read, and try to do your best. 7. MAKE YOURSELF HEARD, UNDERSTOOD, and felt. do not overstrain the voice nor pitch its tones too high. To do this, however, Be correct but not over-nice in the enunciation. Do not mistake theatrical bluster for expres sive reading. 8. LISTEN TO OTHERS. Give strict attention while others are reading, and try particularly to see wherein they do well. You will thus gradually make their merits your own. 9. STUDY THE READING LESSON. Prepare your reading exercise as carefully as you would for a recitation in history or geography. It is a mistake to suppose that the productions of the great masters of thought and expression can be read properly without such study. II. ESSENTIAL POINTS IN PRACTICE. 1.-PLEASANT QUALITY OF TONE. THE tone of voice in ordinary reading should be sweet, musical, and sprightly. Practise the following examples for the cultivation of such a tone. Read as a person naturally speaks when in a happy, buoyant state of mind : 1. Give us, O give us, the man who sings at his work! He will do more in the same time, he will do it better, he will persevere lònger. One is scarcely sensible of fatigue while he marches to músic. The very stars are said to make harmony as they revolve in their spheres. Wondrous is the strength of cheerfulness, altogether past calculation its power of endurance. Efforts, to be permanently useful, must be uniformly joyous; a spirit all sunshine, graceful from very gladness, beautiful because bright. 2. What hò, my jovial mates! come on! we'll frolic it 3. There is nothing like fùn, is there? I haven't any myself, but I do like it in others. Oh, we need it! We need all the counterweights we can muster, to balance the sad relations of life. God has made sunny spots in the heart; why should we exclude the light from them? 5. Insects generally must lead a jovial life. Think what it must be to lodge in a lily. Imagine a palace of ivory and pearl, with pillars of silver and capitals of gold, and exhaling such a perfume as never arose from human The marks on the vowels indicate the slides or inflections of the voice. They are, the rising slide ('); the falling slide (); the rising circumflex (V), indicating a fall fol lowed by a rise; and the falling circumflex (^), indicating a rise followed by a fall. cènser. Fancy, again, the fun of tucking one's self up for the night in the folds of a ròse; rocked to sleep by the gentle sighs of summer àir; nothing to do when you awake but to wash yourself in a déw-drop, and fall to eating your bedclothes. 6. There's a good time coming, boys, A good time coming: We may not live to see the day, 2.-ARTICULATION. Having made sure of a pleasant quality of voice, the pupil may next give his attention to cutting out his words with neatness and precision. Open the mouth sufficiently, and put life into the action of the jaw, tongue, and lips. Pupils who have a tendency to mumbling indistinctness-and it is a good exercise for all-should exaggerate the movement of the organs of articula tion, working the muscles of the mouth with extreme but elastic motions. The words may be practised one at a time; then in phrases; then in complete sentences, slowly at first, afterwards with increasing rapidity. When perfection is attained there will be no excessive movements,-nothing to interfere with a becoming expression of the features. 1. Lovely art thou, O Péace! and lovely are thy children, and lovely are the prints of thy footsteps in the green valleys. 2. Steel clanging sounded on steel. Helmets are cleft on high; blood bursts and smokes around. As the troubled noise of the ocean when roll the waves on high; as the last peal of the thunder of heaven-such is the noise of battle. 3. Like leaves on trèes the life of man is found,- They fáll successive, and successive rìse: So generations in their course decay; So flourish thése, when those have passed awày. 4. To an American visiting Europe, the long voyage he has to make is an excellent preparative. From the moment you lose sight of the land you have left, all is vacancy until you step on the opposite shore, and are launched at once into the bustle and novelties of another world. 5. What wak'st thou, Spring?-Sweet voices in the woods, Thou bringest back, to fill the solitudes, The lark's clear pipe, the cùckoo's viewless flute, 6. In looking forward to future life, let us recollect that we have not to sustain all its toil, to endure all its sufferings, or encounter all its crosses, at ònce. One moment comes laden with its own little burden, then flies, and is succeeded by another no heavier than the last if one could be sustained, so can another, and another. 3.-FULNESS AND POWER. Fulness and power of voice are required for many purposes of expressive reading, and are also indispensable when speaking in a large space or addressing persons at a distance. The tone of ordinary conversation lacks the requisite strength and dignity. The following examples are given for practice in a full free tone. Such exercises are very beneficial, not only to the voice, but to the health, as they bring into action most of the muscles of the trunk, and give a wholesome stimulus to the vital organs. Observe the following directions, in the order named : 1. Take a good standing position. 2. Inhale a deep breath quietly and promptly through the nostrils. 3. Control the breath by a slight effort of the muscles of the waist and abdomen, somewhat as in lifting. 4. Open the mouth and project the lips. 5. Fix the eye and the mind on some distant point, and aim the tone at that point. 6. Do not spend too much breath. 1. Hò! strike the flag-staff deep, Sir Knight-hò! scatter flowers, fair maids Hò! gunners, fire a loud salute-hò! gallants, draw your blades. 2. Awake, Sir King, the gates unspår! 3. Ye crags and peaks, I'm with you once again! 4. 5. To show they still are free. Methinks I hear And bid your tenant welcome home again! O sacred forms, how proud you look! Ye are the things that tower, that shine; whose smile Of awe divine. Again to the battle, Achaians ! Our hearts bid the tyrants defiance; Our land-the first garden of Liberty's tree- The pale, dying crescent is daunted, And we march that the footprints of Mahomet's slaves And the sword shall to glòry restore us. |