2. [OTIS, AGAINST "WRITS OF ASSISTANCE."] ("Quality" and force, as in Example 1: "Stress erate.) more delib "Let the consequences be what they will, I am determined to proceed. The only principles of public conduct which are worthy of a gentleman or a man, are, to sacrifice estate, health, ease, applause, and even life, at the sacred call of his country." 3. [SWISS DEPUTY'S REPLY TO CHarles of BurguNDY.] ("Aspirated Pectoral Quality:" "Impassioned" force: Increased "You may, if it be God's will, gain our barren and rugged mountains. But, like our ancestors of old, we will seek refuge in wilder and more distant solitudes; and when we have resisted to the last, we will starve in the icy wastes of the glaciers. Ay, men, women, and children, we will be frozen into annihilation together, ere one free Switzer will acknowledge a foreign master!" 4. [CAMPBELL'S WAR-SONG OF THE GREEKS.] ("Orotund Quality:" "Impassioned" force: "Stress" still more vehement.) "We've sworn, by our country's assaulters, Or that dying, our deaths shall be glorious." Stern Rebuke. KING HENRY V. [TO LORD SCROOP, ON THE DETECTION OF HIS TREASON.] -Shakspeare. ("Aspirated Pectoral Quality:" "Impassioned" force: Vehement 66 stress.") "But oh! What shall I say to thee, Lord Scroop, thou cruel, Thou that didst bear the keys of all my counsels, That knew'st the very bottom of my soul, That almost might'st have coined me into gold, Contempt and Mockery. QUEEN CONSTANCE, [TO THE ARCH-DUKE OF AUSTRIA.] —Shakspeare. ("Aspirated oral, and guttural Quality:" "Impassioned" force: Violent "stress.") "Thou slave! thou wretch! thou coward! Thou little valiant, great in villany! Thou ever strong upon the stronger side! Thou Fortune's champion, that dost never fight But when her humorous ladyship is by To teach thee safety!" Astonishment and Horror. MACDUFF, [ON DISCOVERING THE murder of DuncAN.]-Shakspeare. (Extremely "Aspirated pectoral Quality:" "Impassioned" force: Excessive" stress ") "Oh! horror! horror! horror!-Tongue nor heart, Cannot conceive, nor name thee! "Confusion now hath made his masterpiece! Most sacrilegious murder hath broke ope The Lord's anointed temple, and stole thence The life o' the building. "Approach the chamber, and destroy your sight With a new Gorgon!" Fierce and Stubborn Will. SHYLOCK, [REFUSING TO LISTEN TO ANTONIO.]-Shakspeare. ("Aspirated, pectoral and guttural Quality :" "Impassioned" vehemence: Excessive "stress.") "I'll have my bond; I will not hear thee speak: I'll have my bond; and therefore speak no more. I'll not be made a soft and dull-eyed fool, I'll have no speaking! I will have my bond." Peevish Impatience. Hotspur, (irritated against HenRY IV.]—Shakspeare. "Why, look you, I am whipped and scourged with rods, Nettled, and stung with pismires, when I hear Of this vile politician Bolingbroke!" IV. 66 COMPOUND STRESS." This designation is applied to that form of "stress" which throws out the voice forcibly on the first and the last part of a sound, but slights, comparatively, the intermediate portion. It is, then, the application of a "radical" and a "vanishing" stress on the same sound, without an intervening "median.” It is the natural mode of "expression," in the utterance of surprise, and sometimes, though less frequently, of other emotions, as contempt and mockery, sarcasm and raillery. 66 In the instinctive uses of the voice, this function seems specially designed to give point and pungency to the "radical" and "vanish, or opening and closing portions of sounds which occupy a large space of time, and traverse a wide interval of the "scale." The explosive" force at the commencement of such sounds, and the partial repetition of "explosive" utterance at their termination, seems to mark distinctly to the ear the space which they occupy, and thus intimate their significant value in feeling. We see an analogous proceeding which addresses itself to the eye, when the workman, desirous of obtaining a perfectly exact measure, makes a deep indentation with the end of his rule, at each end of a given line, or distance, upon the object which he is measuring. Such indentations may illustrate the design or the effect, of the pungent points of sound, in compound stress:" they are distinct and impressive marks, and utter an important meaning. 66 The use of this form of "stress" belongs appropriately to feelings of peculiar force or acuteness. But on this very account, it becomes an indispensable means of natural expression and true effect, in many passages of reading and speaking. The difference between vivid and dull or flat utterance, will often turn on the exactness with which this expressive function of voice is exerted. The careful and repeated practice of "compound stress," on elements, syllables, and words, should accompany the repetition of the following examples. To give these last, however, their true character and full effect, the imagination must be wholly given up to the supposed situation of the speaker; so as to receive a full sympathetic impression of the feeling to be uttered. Vivid emotion only, can prompt true expressive tone. QUEEN CONSTANCE, [WHEN CONFOUNDED WITH THE INTELLIGENCE OF THE UNION OF LEWIS AND BLANCHE, AND THE CONSEQUENT INJURY TO HER SON, ARTHUR.]-Shakspeare. ("Aspirated, guttural, and oral Quality:" "Impassioned" force.) Gone to swear a peace! "Gone to be married! False blood to false blood joined! Gone to be friends! Be well advised, tell o'er thy tale again: ད་ 2. Surprise, Perplexity, and Contempt. t [THE EXAMPLES OF COMPOUND STRESS OCCUR IN THE WORDS WHICH THE SERVANT REPEATS AFTER CORIOLANUS. HE HAS ENTERED, POORLY CLAD, AND UNRECOGNIZED, THE MANSION OF AUFIDIUS, AND IS ILL RECEIVED BY THE DOMESTICS, WHOM HE TREATS WITH HARSHNESS AND DISDAIN.] — Shakspeare. Servant. "Where dwellest thou? Coriolanus. Under the canopy. Serv. Under the canopy! Cor. Ay! Serv. Where's that? Cor. I' the city of kites and crows. Serv. I' the city of kites and crows!-(What an ass it is!) -Then thou dwellest with daws too? Cor. No: I serve not thy master." 1 The disdainful and repulsive manner of Coriolanus, causes all his replies to become striking examples of the most abrupt "radical stress." The short and snappish reply of petulance, always takes this form. It is not till provocation or irritation has stung its subject to the pitch of intolerable excitement, that utterance assumes the "vanishing stress." This species of "stress" is produced by a marked force of utterance, placed distinctively on each part of a sound to which the "radical," "median," and "vanishing" forms of stress, would apply separately. It exhibits all of these, in succession, on one and the same sound. The "thorough stress" is the natural mode of utterance in powerful emotion of that kind which seems as it were, to delight in full and swelling expression, and to dwell upon and amplify the sounds of the voice. As far as vocal effect can be an exponent of feeling, this peculiarly characterized force, which omits no prominent portion of a sound, but pervades and obtrudes each one, would seem the appropriate language of all emotions which, in poetic phraseology, are said to "fill the soul," "swell the bosom,' "fire the heart," 66 or delight and charm the fancy." "Thorough stress," is accordingly, the characteristic mode of "expression" in the utterance of rapture, joy, triumph, and exultation, lofty command, indignant emotion, disdain, excessive grief, or whatever high-wrought feeling seems for the time to wreak itself on expressive sound. It is obviously the language of extreme or impassioned feeling only. It abounds, accordingly, in lyric and dramatic poetry. It is found, however, in all vehement declamation in which the emotion is sustained by reflective sentiment, as in the excitement of virtuous indignation and high-souled contempt. "Thorough stress is one of the most powerful weapons of oratory, as well as one of the most vivid effects of natural feeling. If indiscriminately used, it becomes ineffective, as savoring of the habit and mannerism of the individual, rather than of just and appropriate energy. In such circumstances, it becomes rant; and when joined, as it sometimes is, to the habit of "mouthing," it can excite nothing but disgust in a hearer of well-regulated taste. Juvenile readers, however, in some instances, from diffidence, and students, from their enfeebling mode of life, are apt to fall far short of the requisite degree of this expressive function of the voice. To obtain the full command of it in all its applications, and to preserve it always from excess, much careful practice on appropriate examples, and on letters, syllables, and words, becomes indispensable, as a preparatory discipline in elocution. |