SOLILOQUY.

In Soliloquy the speaker must proceed as if talking to himself, and never as if talking to another. The eye, though apparently looking with intensity, should have an expression which denotes that the attention is directed to thoughts within and not to things without.

1. To die-to sleep

EXAMPLES.

To sleep?-perchance to dream-aye, there's the rub!
For, in that sleep of death, what dreams may come,
When we have shuffled off this mortal coil,

Must give us pause! There's the respect,
That makes calamity of so long life:

For who would bear the whips and scorns of time,
The oppressor's wrong, the proud man's contumely,
The pangs of despised love, the law's delay,
The insolence of office, and the spurns
That patient merit of the unworthy takes-
When he himself might his quietus make
With a bare bodkin?

2. Beautiful!

How beautiful is all this visible world!
How glorious in its action and itself!

But we, who name ourselves its sovereigns, we,
Half dust, half deity, alike unfit

To sink or soar-with our mixed essence, make
A conflict of its elements.

3. Oh, my offense is rank, it smells to heaven!
It hath the primal eldest curse upon't-
A brother's murder.-Pray, alas! I can not,
Though inclination be as sharp as 't will;
My stronger guilt defeats my strong intent,
And like a man to double business bound,
I stand and pause where I shall first begin,
And both neglect. What if this cursed hand
Were thicker than itself with brother's blood,
Is there not rain enough in the sweet heavens
To wash it white as snow?

RECITING POETRY.

In reciting poetry, you must neither sing it, shout it, nor drawl it; nor must you ignore the meter and the rhyme, but render it so that meter, rythm, and rhyme, without being prominently brought forward, are made sensible to the listener's ear.

If at any time the reader is in doubt how a passage of poetry should be delivered, let him reduce it to conversation, and speak it in the most familiar conversational

manner.

The greatest difficulty in reciting poetry consists in giving that measured flow which distinguishes it from prose, without falling into a chanting pronunciation.

In reciting poetry, inflection, pitch, force, pause, quantity, quality and all other elements of vocal expression, must, with slight modifications just referred to, be used as if the meaning and sentiment were expressed in prose.

STYLE.

Style signifies peculiarities of modulation and of manner, appropriate or otherwise, to the sentiment and to the subject, also to the object of discourse, to the audience addressed, and to the circumstances under which addressed. Nature gives the style; natural peculiarities, it is true, may, by education and the force of circumstances, be somewhat modified, but can not be greatly changed. The style of persons of different temperaments will be very different. There are no rules by which a practical knowledge of style, and the ability to exemplify various styles, can be acquired.

No plainer or better advice can be given on this subject. than that of Hamlet to the players: "Let your own discretion be your tutor; suit the action to the word, and the

word to the action, with this special observance: that you overstep not the modesty of nature." If faithfully observed, this simple direction will profit the student more than any or than all the elocutionary rules that have been published on the subject of style.

In Argument, the style must be characterized by directness and earnestness.

In Description, the speaker must proceed in precisely the same manner that he would if he were actually describing the thing spoken of.

In Narration, he must proceed as if narrating some part of his own experience.

In Persuasion, he must use those tones, looks, and gestures only which he knows are appropriate to persuasion. In Exhortation, he must appeal, beseech, and implore, as the case may require.

In the Dramatic, and in Pieces of a Mixed Character, he must vary the style to suit the sentiment and character of the passage. When the student understands the principles and rules which have been discussed sufficiently well to be able to give a correct, practical exemplification of each of them, he ought to select passages for himself suitable as exercises in cadence, pause, parenthesis, antithesis, climax, amplification, repetition, and transition; also in pitch, force, stress, movement, quantity, in personation, in style, etc.

NATURALNESS.

The end and aim of art is to imitate nature, and no art is worthy of criticism that expresses itself falsely. Perhaps the greatest difficulty which most intelligent students of elocution have to overcome, consists in the inability to be natural in delivering the language of the author, as if the reader or speaker gave spontaneous expression to his own

thoughts and feelings. Naturalness is the gift of unconsciousness; of doing things without knowing or thinking how we do them.

The manner of delivery described by the word natural is the manner into which we unconsciously fall when we are really interested in the subject we are talking about, when our attention at the moment is exclusively fixed on what we wish to express, or when we say what we mean and mean what we say.

Few persons who are characterized by this manner of delivery fail to engage attention, awaken interest, and affect those whom they address; indeed, it is difficult to withdraw our attention from a speaker who is addressing us on a subject that interests us if he be deeply in earnest and perfectly natural. To break up habits of artificial delivery, take a few of such passages as you are most liable to give in a conventional or artificial tone and manner from which you desire to free yourself, and speak them deliberately and in a direct, simple, conversational tone and manner, just as if speaking to a friend near you; continue to repeat each passage in this way with the greatest care, until you can give it precisely as if the thoughts and words of the passage had been suggested to your mind for the first time the moment before their utterance.

IMITATION.

The facility with which any one acquires skill in any department of the art of elocution, will depend greatly upon his power to remember distinctly, and to imitate correctly, sounds, gestures, movements, facial expressions, etc.

From the first lesson on the elementary sounds to the last lesson in dramatic expression, the progress of the student of elocution in learning the art, will, other conditions being equal, be according to his power of imitation.

The clearest explanations of general principles are useless unless accompanied by proper examples and illustrations. It is chiefly through the force of examples, acting upon the imitative faculty of our nature, that we learn to do whatever we acquire the ability to do.

The first words the child learns to speak are learned by imitation of the words as spoken by its mother. In teaching the elementary sounds, pronunciation, etc., the teacher gives the sounds or words to be pronounced, and practices his pupils in the exercise until, by imitation, they can give them according to his standard. Modulation, emphasis, action,-in short, almost every thing belonging to the practical part of elocution or of any art,-has to be acquired by imitation. Cultivate your power of imitation in every way sanctioned by good taste that your inclinations may direct. Avail yourself of every opportunity of hearing eloquent speakers of every class,-clergymen, lawyers, lecturers, or politicians, study their delivery, their source of power, points of excellence, their faults, defects, and distinguishing characteristics.

Whatever you notice in voice or manner that greatly pleases or deeply impresses you, that, as soon as possible, recall and imitate as perfectly as you can. Whenever you

notice a very graceful or expressive posture or movement, or hear words spoken in a very pleasing tone, or a tone that impresses you as being significant of some feeling or some trait or peculiarity of character, re-produce these movements or the tones, and practice them until you can command them at pleasure. When the object of your practice is perfect imitation of something, your attention at the time must be exclusively directed to it; but when reciting, declaiming, or speaking, let your attention be given entirely to the thought and sentiment, and not at all to the words, voice or manner.

Assiduously cultivate your power of imitation when engaged in practicing upon suitable examples for self-improve