COMPOUND STRESS.

This 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 railery.

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.

1.

EXTREME SURPRISE.

Gone to be married! Gone to swear a peace!
False blood to false blood joined! Gone to be friends!
Shall Lewis have Blanche, and Blanche these provinces?
It is not so; thou hast misspoke, misheard, -

Be well advised, tell o'er thy tale again:

It can not be;· -thou dost but say 't is so.

2.

SURPRISE, PERPLEXITY, AND CONTEMPT.

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.

Smile on my lords;

3.

I scorn to count what feelings, withered hopes,
Strong provocations,-bitter, burning wrongs,
I have within my heart's hot cells SHUT UP,

To leave you in your lazy dignities.

But here I stand and scoff you :- here I fling
Hatred and full defiance in your face.

I know thee not, nor ever saw till now
Sight more detestable than him and thee.

4.

Whence these chains?

Whence the vile death, which I may meet this moment?
Whence this dishonor, but from thee, thou false one?

There is no great difference between Thorough and Compound Stress, so we do not give it prominence. When the Compound Stress is applied on short quality, it resembles very much the Radical, if indeed it does not constitute it.

When an effort is made to apply it on short quantity, it becomes unavoidably Explosive Stress. It does seem that the Median, Vanishing, and Compound possess similar expressive powers; but the Vanishing has it a degree or two stronger than the Median, and the Compound a degree or two stronger than the Vanishing, and the Thorough a degree or two stronger than the Compound, rising regularly in intensity in the order in which they are here named.

The following may serve to illustrate this mode of stress:

Bidding me depend

Upon thy stars, thy fortune, and thy strength?
And dost thou now fall over to my foes?

Thou wear'st a lion's hide. Doff it, for shame,
And hang a calf's skin on those recreant limbs.

Tremor Stress is referred to by some authors, but as it is applicable only where Tremor quality of voice is used, we do not see the necessity of making it a special subject of practice, except under Tremor quality. For review, repeat the element long "o" and long "e" several times, with increasing force with each stress.

In Elocution, Time is the measure or duration of sound heard in speech. It is long or short, slow or quick, rapid or moderate. By long quantity we mean a slow measured fullness of the voice, to express smoothness, and dignity of feeling.

Time and Stress, properly combined and marked, possess two essential elementary conditions of agreeable discourse, upon which other excellences may be engrafted. If either be feebly marked, other beauties will not redeem it. A well-marked stress, and a graceful extension of time, are essential to agreeable speech. They give brilliancy and smoothness. All subjects of a serious, deliberate, and dignified character, require a great extension of syllabic quantity. Long quantity is used for Grandeur and Solemnity of description, Reverential Awe, Earnest Prayer, Veneration, Solemn Denunciation, Threatening and Deep Pathos. Long quantity is generally executed by the Median Stress.

(Give long quantity on the Italic words.)

1.

Nine times the space that measures day and night
To mortal men, he with his horrid crew

Lay vanquished.

2.

Join voices all ye living souls. Ye birds

That singing, up to heaven's gate ascend,

Bear on your wings, and in your notes His praise.

3.

Before the sun, before the heav'ns Thou wert.

4.

We have err'd and strayed from Thy ways, like lost sheep. We have done those things which we ought not to have done, and we have left undone those things which we ought to have done, and there is no health

in us. But Thou, O Lord! have mercy upon us miserable offenders. Spare Thou those, O, God, who confess their faults. Restore Thou those who are penitent, according to Thy promises declared unto mankind in Christ Jesus our Lord. And grant, O, most merciful Father, for his sake, that we may hereafter live a godly, righteous, and sober life, to the Glory of Thy holy name.

5.

Then the earth shook and trembled: the foundations of Heaven moved and shook, because he was wroth. There went up a smoke out of his nostrils; and fire out of his mouth devoured: coals were kindled by it. He bowed the heavens, also, and came down; and darkness was under his feet; and he rode upon a cherub, and did fly; and he was seen upon the wings of the wind; and he made darkness pavilions round about him, dark waters, and thick clouds of the skies. The Lord thundered from heaven, and the Most High uttered his voice; and he sent out arrows and scattered them; lightning, and discomfited them. And the channels of the sea appeared; the foundations of the world were discovered at the rebuking of the Lord, at the blast of the breath of his nostrils.

We urge the student to spend much time on exercises like the above, as more fail in this element of expression than in any other.

6.

SLOW TIME LONG PAUSES AND QUANTITY -BREATHING FULL AND

TRANQUIL.

O thou that rollest above, round as the shield of my fathers! whence are thy beams, O sun! thy everlasting light? Thou comest forth in thy awful beauty: the stars hide themselves in the sky; the moon, cold and pale, sinks in the western wave. But thou thyself movest alone who can be a companion of thy course? The oaks of the mountains fall; the mountains themselves decay with years; the ocean shrinks and grows again; the moon herself is lost in the heavens; but thou art forever the same, rejoicing in the brightness of thy course. When the world is dark with tempests, when thunders roll and lightnings fly, thou lookest in thy beauty from the clouds, and laughest at the storm. But to Ossian thou lookest in vain; for he beholds thy beams no more; whether thy yellow hair floats on the eastern clouds, or thou tremblest at the gates of the west. But thou art, perhaps, like me, for a season: thy years will have an end. Thou wilt sleep in thy clouds, careless of the voice of the morning.

7.

MODERATE TIME.

The farmer's calling is full of moral grandeur. He supports the world, is the partner of Nature, and peculiarly a "co-worker with God." The sun, the atmosphere, the dews, the rains, day and night, the seasons- - all the natural agents- are his ministers in the spacious temple of the firmament. Health is the attendant of his toils. The philosophy of Nature exercises and exalts the intellect of the intelligent farmer. His moral

powers are ennobled by the manifestations of supreme love and wisdom in every thing around him—in the genial air, the opening bud, the delicate flower, the growing and ripening fruit, the stately trees-in vegetable life and beauty, springing out of death and decay; and in the wonderful succession and harmony of the seasons.

8.

QUICK TIME BRISK MOVEMENT, SHORT QUANTITY.

I come! I come! - ye have called me long:
I come o'er the mountains with light and song!
Ye
e may trace my step o'er the wakening earth,
By the winds which tell of the violet's birth,
By the primrose stars in the shadowy grass,
By the green leaves opening as I pass.

From the streams and founts I have loosed the chain :
They are sweeping on to the silvery main, —•
They are flashing down from the mountain brows, —
They are flinging spray o'er the forest boughs,
They are bursting fresh from their sparry caves;
And the earth resounds with the joy of waves!

QUICK TIME-INCREASE

9.

HIGH PITCH

PURE.

Still sprung from those swift hoofs, thundering South,
The dust like the smoke from the cannon's mouth,
Or the trail of a comet, sweeping faster and faster,
Foreboding to traitors the doom of disaster.

The heart of the steed and the heart of the master
Were beating like prisoners assaulting their walls,
Impatient to be where the battle-field calls;

Every nerve of the charger was strained to full play,
With Sheridan only ten miles away!

Under his spurning feet, the road
Like an arrowy Alpine river flowed;

And the landscape sped away behind,
Like an ocean, flying before the wind;

And the steed, like a bark fed with furnace ire,
Swept on, with his wild eyes full of fire; -
But, lo! he is nearing his heart's desire!
He is snuffing the smoke of the roaring fray,
With Sheridan only five miles away!

10.

Read this example in slow time, then quick, then very quick.

How does the water come down at Lodore?

Receding and speeding,

And shocking and rocking,

And darting and parting,
And dripping and skipping,

And whitening and brightening,