the emotions of reproach, defiance, astonishment, indignation, contempt, or any other stern emotion, adopt the falling inflection. EXAMPLES. Has he not deceived? Has he not even manifested a total disregard for the welfare of those whom it was his duty to protect? Is this not a well-known fact? and can you deny it? Will you pretend that any thing false, that any thing even aggravated, has been alleged against him? 74. Can I forget that I have been branded as an outlaw? stigmatized as a traitor? my wife and family treated as the dam and cubs of the hill-fox, whom all may villify, torment, degrade, and insult? 75. Banished from Rome! What's banished, but set free From daily contact of the things I loathe ? 76. Tried and convicted traitor! Who says this? I did send To you for gold to pay my legions, Which you denied me. Was that done like Cassius? 77 Whence and what art thou, execrable shape? Who first broke peace in heaven? 78. Are you going, sir? Hence! be off! Must I bid twice\? 79. In Shakspeare's Richard II., the king, descanting on the state of princes, says, I live with bread, like you; feel want, taste grief, need friends. Subjected thus, how can you say to me, I am a king? 80. This last clause contains the sentiments of reproof, displeasure, and conclusive denial, and is there fore properly uttered on the downward inflection. 81. REMARKS. In some expressions, it is not easy to decide whether the phrase is to be considered as an exclamation or an interrogation, since these modes of expression have many accidents in common at their points of affinity; and consequently we may not be able to make these points of near resemblance, so inseparably involved as they sometimes are, a matter of exact discrimination, although, in their more remote relationships, they are distinguishably dif ferent. EXAMPLES. 82. Banished! I thank you for it. How! leap into the pit our life to save? "What! leave the combat out?" exclaims the knight. What! durst not tempt him? 83. Let Stanley charge, with spur of fire, With Chester charge and Lancashire, Or victory and England's lost. Must I bid twice? Hence, varlets! fly! Leave Marmion here alone to die. 84. The words "Must I bid twice?" may be considered as an exclamatory phrase, used merely for the purpose of giving utterance to a strong feeling of impatience and indignation. If so, the words must be uttered with such a degree of abrupt force and downward inflection, as will entirely destroy the interrogative intonation. CONCLUDING REMARKS ON INFLECTION. 85. Many sentences have the grammatical construction of a question, but contain sentiments that overrule the interrogative intonation. They are properly called "appealing questions;" not put in the doubt of inquiry, or with any anxiety as to a reply, but denoting the belief of the interrogator, when he uses this form of expression as a triumphant mode of assertion or contradiction. EXAMPLE. 86. Alexander. Still, what are you but a robber—a base, dishonest robber? Robber. And what is a conqueror? Have not you, too, gone about the earth like an evil genius, blasting the fair fruits of peace and industry, plundering, ravaging, killing, without law, without justice, merely to gratify an insatiable lust for dominion? -- 87. The above passage is not to be read as if the robber made the inquiry of Alexander whether he did or did not go about the earth like an evil genius, expecting at the same time that Alexander would make a reply, either admitting or denying the fact; but it must be read with the same inflection as if the robber had boldly and exultingly asserted the fact; as in the following manner : 88. Sir, you yourself have gone about the earth like an evil genius, blasting the fair fruits of peace and industry, — plundering, ravaging, killing, without law, without justice,merely to gratify an insatiable lust for dominion. This is a notorious fact, and you cannot deny it. 89. A phrase constituted interrogatively must be uttered with the downward inflection, when the previous sentence is so expressed as to make the phrase, though grammatically an interrogation, rather a logical conclusion from the premises that have been asserted or admitted. Thus Antony, over the body of Cæsar, says, 90. He hath brought many captives home to Rome, Again, 91. You all did see that, on the Lupercal, I thrice presented him a kingly crown, Which he did thrice refuse. Was this ambition\? 92. Here, then, we have two strong appealing questions, which, though addressed in the form of interrogatories, cannot be uttered as such; for they are not put in the doubt of an inquiry, or with any solicitude as to a reply. Their spirit is really inferential that Cæsar was not ambitious. 93. The above cases may properly enough be termed an interrogative syllogism, of that species called by logicians an enthymeme; an argument of two propositions only-the minor and the conclusion. Thus, 94. Cæsar thrice refused a kingly crown; Therefore Cæsar was not ambitious. 95. If the syllogism were completed by the addıtion of the major term, it would read thus, 96. The ambitious man would not refuse a kingly crown; But Cæsar thrice refused a kingly crown; Therefore Cæsar was not ambitious. 97. Almost every feeling and thought, every mental energy and passion, may be uttered when the language used is in the form of an interrogation; and when this occurs, the intensity of expression overrules the interrogative intonation. REMARKS ON STRESS. 98. INFLECTION is but one of the important elements in the expressive agency of speech. The next important element is STRESS, which has reference to the force of voice and the time employed in pronouncing a word. By a well-timed and a wellregulated stress, the speaker is enabled to give utterance to the finest as well as to the sternest emotions, and to express the most intricate subtleties of thought in all the infinite range and diversified states of our being. 99. When a word is spoken as if it were the continuation, not the close, of utterance, and without any intensity of expression, the voice rises, as if by an instinctive impulse, through what, in the musical scale, is called a "tone." If the word be spoken with such force as to indicate a high degree of excitement, it may be noticed that the voice passes through several intervals or degrees of the scale; and the passage of the voice from the inferior to the superior extreme of this tone, or from one interval of the scale to the other, is denominated the "con crete movement." 100. Let "a," as an alphabetical element, be pronounced according to the above description, and two sounds will be heard continuously successive. The first will be the nominal sound of the letter as it issues from the mouth with a certain degree of fulness, and the last sound noticed will be that of the element "e," gradually diminishing to its close. |