5. Emphasis by speaking at a very slow rate.

All down the long and narrow street he went
Beating it in upon his weary brain,

As tho' it were the burthen of a song,

EMPHASIS BY MEANS OF QUALITY

1. Emphasis by changing the quality of the voice.

Then Annie with her brows against the wall
Answer'd, "I cannot look you in the face;
I seem so foolish and so broken down.

When you came in my sorrow broke me down;
And now I think your kindness breaks me down;
But Enoch lives; that is borne in on me:
He will repay you: money can be repaid;
Not kindness such as yours."

EMPHASIS BY MEANS OF FORCE

1. Emphasis by added force of the voice.
When, if they quarrell'd, Enoch stronger-made
Was master: then would Philip, his blue eyes
All flooded with the helpless wrath of tears,
Shriek out, I hate you, Enoch."

९९

In using the foregoing illustrations from Tennyson's Enoch Arden" I have assumed that most students are familiar with the poem and are sufficiently conversant with the context to understand the application made in each instance. The cases cited serve to show some of the ways by which emphasis is secured through pitch, time, quality, and force. They are not intended to suggest the only means by which emphasis may be secured;

neither are they given for the purpose of suggesting to the student a mode of applying emphasis whereby he will say, "This word needs to be emphasized, therefore I will pause before it or will change the quality of my voice or use a marked vocal inflection." They are cited for the purpose of showing how important a prerequisite vocal training is for the correct use of vocal emphasis.

The lines quoted above under the head of "Emphasis by Means of Quality" show the necessity for complete vocal responsiveness. In the conversation between Philip and Annie, where she refers to her sorrow and his kindness and to the fact that money can be repaid but not kindness such as his, it would be quite possible to have the emphasis located upon the right words and yet for the voice to respond so imperfectly as to convey a meaning very different from what the passage warrants. Particularly noticeable is this in the words of Miriam Lane,

You Arden, you! nay,- sure he was a foot
Higher than you be.

What is true of these very marked cases of vocal emphasis is true to a greater or less extent in all emphasis whatsoever.

The four vocal elements, therefore, may be regarded by the student as the tools by which he is enabled to accomplish the very important work of emphasis. If these tools are rendered serviceable and adequate to his needs, the difficult problems of expression through the medium of the voice will be simplified a hundredfold and his task reduced to the single necessity of keeping the mind thoroughly and constantly awake.

PRACTICAL EXERCISES IN EMPHASIS

EXERCISE I. Express the thought or emotion contained in each passage quoted from "Enoch Arden" under the heads of emphasis by means of pitch, time, quality, and force. Give no attention to what words are to be made prominent. Center the mind entirely upon the thought contained in each. If the lines are not so familiar that you know the context, refer to the text of the poem. First study the lines very carefully by considering their relation to other parts of the poem; then try to express accurately the thought and feeling which they contain. The exercise presupposes sufficient practice in the use of the vocal principles presented in the last four chapters to render the voice reasonably responsive.

EXERCISE II. Read with very careful discrimination the lines that follow. Assimilate fully the thought contained in each quotation and try to express it accurately. If the context is not familiar in 1 and 2, refer to the text of "Julius Cæsar" and of Macbeth before attempting the exercise.

1. From "Julius Cæsar":

ACT IV, SCENE III

CASSIUS. I said, an elder soldier, not a better:
Did I say

BRUTUS.

९९ better"?

I did send

To you for gold to pay my legions,

Which you denied me: was that done like Cassius ?
Should I have answer'd Caius Cassius so?

When Marcus Brutus grows so covetous,

To lock such rascal counters from his friends,
Be ready, gods, with all your thunderbolts;
Dash him to pieces!

ACT I, SCENE I

MARULLUS. You blocks, you stones, you worse than

senseless things!

you hard hearts, you cruel men of Rome,
Knew you not Pompey? Many a time and oft
Have you climb'd up to walls and battlements,
To towers and windows, yea, to chimney-tops,
Your infants in your arms, and there have sat
The live-long day, with patient expectation,
To see great Pompey pass the streets of Rome.

Be gone!

Run to your houses, fall upon your knees,
Pray to the gods to intermit the plague

That needs must light on this ingratitude.

ACT II, SCENE I

BRUTUS. It must be by his death and for my part,

:

I know no personal cause to spurn at him,

But for the general. He would be crown'd:

How that might change his nature, there's the question: It is the bright day that brings forth the adder;

And that craves wary walking.

And, gentle friends,

Let's kill him boldly, but not wrathfully;
Let's carve him as a dish fit for the gods,
Not hew him as a carcass fit for hounds.

This shall make

Our purpose necessary and not envious:
Which so appearing to the common eyes,
We shall be call'd purgers, not murderers.

2. From "Macbeth":

ACT I, SCENE VII

MACBETH. If it were done when 't is done, then 't were

That made you break this enterprise to me?

When you durst do it, then you were a man ;

And, to be more than what you were, you would

Be so much more the man.

MACBETH.

LADY MACBETH.

If we should fail?

We fail!

But screw your courage to the sticking-place,

And we 'll not fail.

MACBETH.

I am settled, and bend up

Each corporal agent to this terrible feat.

Away, and mock the time with fairest show:

False face must hide what the false heart doth know.

ACT II, SCENE II

LADY MACBETH. That which hath made them drunk hath made me bold;

What hath quench'd them hath given me fire.

LADY MACBETH. Alack, I am afraid they have awaked,

And 't is not done. The attempt and not the deed

Confounds us.