Ner. It is your music, madam, o. the house. Por. Nothing is good, I see, without respect; Methinks it sounds much sweeter than by day.

Ner. Silence bestows that virtue on it, madam.
Por. The crow doth sing as sweetly as the lark,
When neither is attended; and, I think,

The nightingale, if she should sing by day,
When every goose is cackling, would be thought
No better a musician than the wren.

How many things by season season'd are
To their right praise and true perfection !—
Peace! Now the moon sleeps with Endymion,
And would not be awak'd!

Shakespeare.

SUMMARY OF RULES FOR GOOD SPEAKING.

Articulation.-Audibility, or extent of carrying power of voice, depends upon full utterance of vowels. Recognizability of words, or the intelligible expression of meaning, depends upon the care with which the consonants are rendered, in their relation to vowels in the formation of words.

Each syllable in a word should be clearly rendered; accented syllables with proper stress: unaccented syllables should not be slurred. The lungs should be kept well supplied with breath, which should be taken at frequent intervals, considerably through the nasal passages.

Mere vocal force should never overpower the consonant influences. Aspirates should be carefully given or avoided, as occasion requires.

Modulation. The tones of voice and rate of movement must be varied to suit each variety or modification of meaning.

Parenthetical clauses must be marked by a distinct change in tone.

Tones of voice to be adapted to increasing importance of meaning as words (or sentences) are spoken, and climax is reached. Illustrative passages should be modulated to show their importance. Movement of voice should not be necessarily slow, but deliberate, allowing of the complete utterance of a word so that it should be recognized as spoken. In beginning to speak the voice may be pitched at its natural level, and then varied as required by meaning.

Inflection.-Accented syllable of the principal emphatic word in a clause should be inflected in such a way as to show the relation of that clause to others in the same sentence.

Upward inflection in incomplete, suspensive, conditional, and negative clauses, downward on complete clauses and clauses that complete the meaning.

First part of an antithesis to be read with upward, second with downward turn of voice. Determinate questions to be spoken with downward inflection, as containing both question and answer; indeterminate questions, asking for information, with upward.

Words, ironical or of indirect or implied meaning, to be spoken with circumflex inflections.

Emphasis. The following should be emphasized :-
Words that express the subject of sentence.

Words that qualify same.

Words that suggest distinction, comparison, antithesis, and important modification of meaning.

Words that determine the particular form of a sentence,

such as interrogative, conditional, &c.

Pause should be frequently made without breaking continuity of sentence, or separating words (such as the adjective immediately qualifying substantive, or adverb from verb) that belong to the same grammatical group. But each noun or adjective (except an adjective immediately before noun) in a series may be marked by slight pause. Many emphatic words should be followed by a pause-also parentheses. The suspensive inflection, being used to denote words to follow, allows of frequent pauses for breath-taking.

Pause should be judiciously distributed in reading poetry, especially to create variety in blank verse.

Rhythm must be strongly marked in reading poetry.

The rhythmical accent must agree as far as possible with the grammatical accent, so as to allow of the usual pronunciation of words. Sing-song to be avoided by a judicious distribution of the rhetorical emphasis.

Rhyme. The accented syllable in the rhyming word, or the word itself if a monosyllable, should be spoken with considerable stress of voice.

Gesture.—Head well up, shoulders back, chest forward, left foot forward bearing principal weight of body. Strength of gesture from shoulder, grace of gesture and curve by flexibility of wrist. Gesture should not be too frequent or continuous. It must be prepared for, so that when the emphatic word comes the movement should be immediate and spontaneous. Gesture should be adapted to character of speech, whether declamation, soliloquy, argument, description, or actual embodiment of character and passion.

Communications to be addressed to MR. OHLSON, at the Birkbeck Institute, Chancery Lane, London, W.C.

W. H. & L. COLLINGRIDGE, 148 & 149, Aldersgate Street, London, E.C.