Helm nor hauberk's twisted mail, These lines, I say, demand an elevation of voice, and an expression of the utmost rage and resentment; but in this expression we must attend more particularly to the caution of Shakspeare, "that in the very torrent, tempest, and "I may say, whirlwind of our passion, we must "acquire and beget a temperance that may give "it smoothness. The personification of pride, in Pope's Essay on Man, is not preceded by any other passion, and may therefore be allowed a forcible expression. Ask for what end the heavenly bodies shine, Earth for whose use : Pride answers, "'Tis for mine. This passage admits of a certain splendour in the pronunciation expressive of the ostentation of the speaker, and the riches and grandeur of the objects introduced. Many other figures of Rhetoric might be adduced; but as few of them deserve the appellation, and none seem to have any thing to entitle them to a peculiarity of pronunciation, I shall at present content myself with those I have given, and hope the reader will not find the directions I have added entirely useless. 237 MODULATION AND MANAGEMENT OF THE VOICE. ONE of the most difficult things in reading and speaking, where the subject is varied and impassioned, is the modulation and management of the voice; and this perhaps of all the parts of elocution is the least capable of being conveyed by writing; but general rules and useful hints may certainly be given, which will put the pupil in a capacity of feeling his own powers, and of improving himself. Such rules and hints we shall endeavour to lay down in as clear and summary a manner as possible. The first object of every speaker's attention is to have a smooth, even, full tone of voice: if nature has not given him such a voice, he must endeavour as much as possible to acquire it; nor ought he to despair; for such is the force of exercise upon the organs of speech, as well as every other in the human body, that constant practice will strengthen the voice in any key we use it to; that key therefore, which is the most natural, and which we have the greatest occasion to use, should be the key, which we ought the most diligently to improve. Every one has a certain pitch of voice, in which he is most easy to himself and most agreeable to others; this may be called the natural pitch this is the pitch in which we converse; and this must be the basis of every im provement we acquire from art and exercise. In order, therefore, to strengthen this middle tone, we ought to read and speak in this tone as loud as possible, without suffering the voice to rise into a higher key: this, however, is no easy operation it is not very difficult to be loud in a high tone; but to be loud and forcible, without raising the voice into a higher key, requires great practice and management. The best method of acquiring this power of voice is to practise reading and speaking some strong, animated passages in a small room, and to persons placed at as small a distance as possible: for, as we naturally raise our voice to a higher key when we speak to people at a great distance, so we naturally lower our key as those we speak to come nearer when, therefore, we have no idea of being heard at a distance, the voice will not be so apt to rise into a higher key when we want to be forcible; and consequently exerting as much force as we are able in a small room, and to people near us, will tend to swell and strengthen the voice in the middle tone. A good practice on this tone of voice will be such passages as Macbeth's challenge to Banquo's ghost, or any other that are addressed immediately to a person near us: What man dare I dare: Approach thou like the rugged Russian bear, Instructions for acquiring low Tones of Voice. As few voices are perfect,-those which have a good bottom often wanting a top, and inversely,-care should be taken to improve by practice that part of the voice which is most deficient: for instance; if we want to gain a bottom, we ought to practise speeches which require exertion, a little below the common pitch; when we can do this with ease, we may practise them on a little lower note, and so on till we are as low as we desire; for this purpose, it will be necessary to repeat such passages as require a full, audible tone of voice in a low key; of this kind are those which contain hatred, scorn, or reproach; such as the following from Shakspeare, where Lady Macbeth reproaches her husband with want of manliness: O proper stuff! This is the very painting of your fears: Authoris'd by her grandam. Shame itself! Or when Lady Constance, in King John, reproaches the Duke of Austria with want of courage and spirit: -Thou slave! thou wretch! thou coward! Upon my party! thou cold-blooded slave; Or where the Duke of Suffolk, in Henry the Sixth, curses the objects of his hatred: -Poison be their drink, Gall, worse than gall, the daintiest meat they taste; Instructions for acquiring high Tones of Voice. WHEN We would strengthen the voice in a higher note, it will be necessary to practise such passages as require a high tone of voice; and if we find the voice grow thin, or approach to a squeak upon the high note, it will be proper to swell the voice a little below this high note, and to give it force and audibility, by throwing it into a sameness of tone approaching the monotone. A passage in the Oration of Demosthenes on the Crown will be an excellent praxis on this tone: What was the part of a faithful citizen? of a prudent, an active, and honest minister? Was he not to secure Eubœa, as our defence against all attacks by sea? was he not to make Boeotia our barrier on the midland side? the cities bordering on Peloponnesus our bulwark on that quarter? was not he to attend with due precaution to the importation of corn, that this trade might be protected through all its progress up to our own harbour? was he not to cover those districts which we commanded, by seasonable detachments, as the Proconesus, the Chersonesus, and Ténedos? to exert himself in the assembly |