tone of voice, and a sameness nearly approaching

to a monotone.

There is not in speaking any such thing as an absolute monotone, that is, an emission of sound which remains on precisely the same note, and does not slide either from high to low, or from low to high; for, as was stated in Chapter II., the essential distinction between musical and speaking sounds is, that, while the former continue for some given time on one precise point of the musical scale, the latter are perpetually sliding either upwards or downwards. But, although speaking and reading admit not of a perfect monotone, they admit of an approach to it: and it is this, which is so appropriate to the poetical description of what is sublime or awful. Of this we have an instance in Milton's L'Allegro:

Hence, loathed Melancholy,

Of Cerberus and blackest Midnight born,

In Stygian cave forlorn,

'Mongst horrid shapes, and shrieks, and sights

unholy!

Find out some uncouth cell,

Where brooding darkness spreads his jealous

wings,

And the night raven sings;

There under ebon shades, and low-brow'd

rocks,

As ragged as thy locks,

In dark Cimmerian desert ever dwell.

In repeating this passage we shall find the

darkness and horror of the cell wonderfully augmented by pronouncing the eighth line,

There under ebon shades, and low-brow'd rocks, in a low and almost unvaried tone, marking the rising and falling inflections as lightly as possible. In order to perceive the propriety of this method of reading the line, it is only necessary to read it with the same pitch of voice as the rest of the sentence, and with the inflections strongly marked; thus,

There under ebon shades, and low-brow'd rocks; and the inferiority of the latter method must be evident to every one of any taste or judgment in reading.

H

CHAPTER IX.

THE CIRCUMFLEXES AND GRACE-NOTES.

ALTHOUGH spoken sounds may in general be said to consist of one or other of the two slides or inflections of voice, explained in Chapter II., it is yet demonstrable, that there are, besides these, two other modifications of spoken sound, formed by a combination of the two simple or primary. These are called the Circumflexes. If the voice be so inflected as to begin with the falling and end with the rising inflection on the same syllable, the sound, which is thus produced, is called the rising circumflex; if it begin with the rising and end with the falling inflection, the sound produced is then called the falling circumflex. They are marked thus,

The circumflexes are always used to express strong emphasis, irony, contempt, reproach, sneer, or raillery. Thus, if the word slave, in the following passage from Cowper, be pronounced with a simply rising inflection, no emphasis at all will be expressed on it; if it be pronounced with a curved inflexion or half-circumflex, it will be emphatical, but not sufficiently so; if it have a complete circumflex, it will then strongly express how deeply a slave is an object of pity and compassion, and how abhorrent to the speaker's feelings is the state of degradation in which he is retained.

I would not have a slave to till my ground,
To carry me, to fan me while I sleep,
And tremble when I wake, for all the wealth
That sinews bought and sold have ever earn'd.

In the following passage the word Clodius has the rising circumflex to express irony; for Cicero does not mean to say, that the merits of Clodius were really superior to those of Drusus Africanus and others; in fact, he broadly insinuates, that they were not only not equal, but much inferior.

But it is foolish in us to compare Drusus Africanus and ourselves with Clodius; all our other calamities were tolerable; but no one can patiently bear the death of Clodius.

Were the word Clodius in both these instances to be pronounced simply with the rising inflection, the sense expressed would be, that it really was foolish to compare others with Clodius, and that his death really was an intolerable calamity. The use of the rising circumflex, instead of the simple rising inflection, makes all the difference that is required.

In the following passage the word you has the falling circumflex to express bitter reproach.

So then you are the author of this conspiracy against me. It is to you that I am indebted for all the mischief that has befallen me.

One or other of the circumflexes is very commonly used when a speaker takes up his own words and puts them in a different form, or in dialogues, where the words of one speaker are repeated in a sneering, contradictory manner by another.

EXAMPLES.

Then he, who had received the one talent, came and said, Lord, I knew thee, that thou art a hard man, reaping where thou hast not sown, and gathering where thou hast not strawed; and I was afraid, and went and hid thy money in the earth; lo, there thou hast that is thine. His lord answered and said unto him, Thou wicked and slothful servant! thou knewest that I reap where I sowed not, and gather where I have not strawed; thou oughtest, therefore, to have put my money to the exchangers, and then, at my

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