Led you to Duncan. Oh, these flaws and starts, (Impostors to true fear,) would well become A woman's story at a winter's fire, Authoriz'd by her grandam. Shame itself! Of the same kind are the speech of Lady Constance in King John, when she reproaches the Duke of Austria with want of courage and spirit, beginning, Thou slave! thou wretch! thou coward! and that of the Duke of Suffolk in Henry the Sixth, when he curses the objects of his hatred : Poison be their drink, Gall, worse than gall, the daintiest meat they taste; Another excellent praxis is the speech of King John to Hubert, where he takes him aside and tempts him to undertake the death of Prince Arthur: Come hither, Hubert. O, my gentle Hubert, Lives in this bosom, dearly cherished. Hub. I am much bounden to your majesty. K. John. Good friend, thou hast no cause to say so yet. But thou shalt have-and creep time ne'er so slow, Yet it shall come for me to do thee good. I had a thing to say-but let it go; The sun is in the heav'n, and the proud day, Hub. So well, that what you bid me undertake, K. John. Do I not know thou wouldst? Good Hubert, Hubert, Hubert, throw thine eye On that young boy: I'll tell thee what, my friend, And wheresoe'er this foot of mine doth tread, Hub. And I'll keep him so, That he shall not offend your majesty. I could be merry now. Hubert, I love thee; Shakspeare's King John, Act III. Scene 3. So much of this fine passage is quoted, because almost every part of it affords an opportunity of practising to speak with force and energy in a low tone of voice: for the whole scene may be considered as only an earnest whisper; but as this whisper must be heard by the whole audience in a theatre, it is necessary, while we lower the pitch, to add to the force of the voice. This, however, is no easy operation, and none but good readers and consummate actors can do it perfectly. If we would strengthen the voice in a high note, it will be necessary to practise such passages as require a high tone; and if we find the voice grow thin, or approach to a squeak, it will be proper to swell it on a somewhat lower note, and to give it force and audibleness, by throwing it into a sameness of tone approaching the monotone. No praxis is so well adapted to improve the higher notes of the voice as those passages which consist of a series of questions, all requiring the rising inflection at the end. Such is the following from the Oration of Demosthenes on the Crown, translated by Leland: What was the part of a faithful citizen? Of a prudent, an active, an honest minister? Was he not to secure Eubœa, as our defence against all attacks by ر ر ノ sea? Was he not to make Bœotia our barrier on the ر midland side? The cities bordering on Peloponnesus, our bulwark on that quarter? Was he not to attend ر with due precaution to the importation of corn, that this trade might be protected through all its progress ر up to our own harbours? Was he not to cover those districts, which we commanded, by seasonable detach / ر ر ments, as the Proconesus, the Chersonesus, and Tene ر / dos? To exert himself in the assembly for this pur pose? While with equal zeal he laboured to gain others to our interest and alliance, as Byzantium, ر ر Abydos, and Eubœa? Was he not to cut off the best ر and most important resources of our enemies, and to supply those, in which our country was defective? ر And all this you gained by my counsels and my administration. Although it is very necessary that a voice, which is deficient in the higher notes, should be strengthened in them, it must yet be observed that the middle and lower are those which an orator should chiefly cultivate, since these are the most impressive. One of the most difficult points in the modulation of the voice, is to pitch it on the proper note, at the beginning of a speech or discourse. Experience shews us that we can raise our voice at pleasure to any pitch of which it is capable ; but the same experience tells us, that it requires infinite art and practice, to bring it down to a lower key, when it is once raised too high. It ought, therefore, to be a first principle with every public speaker, to begin rather under the common level of his voice, than above it. Nor should he begin too loud; for the attention of the audience, at the commencement of a lecture or oration, will make almost the lowest and softest accents audible, if they be only enunciated clearly and distinctly: and if his voice have any natural strength, and the subject any thing of passion, a louder and a higher tone will insensibly steal upon him. If this rule be right, it is easy to perceive, how much care is requisite in the application of a direction, which is very commonly given in books on Elocution, namely, |