Thou ever strong upon the stronger side! To teach thee safety! thou art perjured too, Thou wear a lion's hide! doff it for shame And hang a calf's skin on those recreant limbs. 7. I remember a mass of things, but not distinctly; a quarrel, nothing wherefore. O that men should put an enemy in their mouths to steal away their brains! that we should with joy, pleasure, revel, applause, transform ourselves into beasts! I will ask him for my place again; he shall tell me I am a drunkard: Had I as many mouths as Hydra, such an answer would stop them all. To be now a sensible man, by and by a fool, and presently a beast! O strange! every inordinate cup is unblessed, and the ingredient is a devil. 8. What though the field be lost? 9. In arms not worse, in foresight much advanced, Who now triumphs, and in the excess of joy, Banished from Rome! what's banished, but set free From daily contact of the things I loathe ? It breaks my chain ! Smile on, my lords "Tried and convicted traitor!" Who says this? But here I stand and scoff you :-here I fling "Traitor!" I go—but I return. This-trial! Or make the infant's sinews strong as steel. This day's the birth of sorrows!-This hour's work ILL HUMOR. Under this head we may enumerate Dissatisfaction, Peevishness, Discontent, Impatience, Petulance, Repining, Vexation and Chagrin. The elements essential to the expression of these sentiments are the Guttural harshness of voice and the Wave of the Semitone. The Radical or Vanishing Stress prevails according as the utterance is hurried or more slow; and on emphatic syllables of long quantity the use of the Double and Unequal Wave heightens the effect of the expression. Impatience sometimes raises the voice to Loudness, and the Falsette even may be heard in the whine of peevishness. As these sentiments never occur in grave delivery, we shall illustrate them by but a single example. Troilus. What, art thou angry, Pandarus? What, with me? Pandarus. Because she is kin to me; therefore she's not so fair as Helen; an she were not kin to me, she would be as fair on Friday, as Helen is on Sunday. But what care I? I care not an she were a blackamoor, 'tis all one to me. Troi. Say I, she is not fair? Pan. I do not care whether you do or no. She's a fool to stay behind her father: let her to the Greeks-and so I'll tell her the next time I see her-for my part, I'll meddle nor make no more in the matter. Pan. Pray you speak no more to me;-I will leave all as I found it, and there's an end. SCORN, SNEER, CONTEMPT, &c. Dignified Scorn, and the Sheer require for their expression Long Quantity, a good degree of Force, and, on the emphatic words, the Vanishing Stress or Aspiration, com bined with the Concrete Rise or Fall through a Third or Fifth, or with the Single Waves, either Direct or Inverted. In the stronger expression of these sentiments, as also in Derision, Scoffing, Mockery, and Execration, the Vanishing Stress, the Aspiration, the Guttural Emphasis and the Tremor may all be combined on the Downward Concrete or the Waves, which may be extended through an Octave. And the effect will be greatly heightened, if, instead of the Equal and Single Waves, the Unequal Double Waves be employed. When however the Aspiration or the Guttural force is given on the Waves, it must be understood to be confined to its last constituent. EXAMPLES. 1. Satan beheld their plight, And to his mates thus in derision called: "O friends, why come not on those victors proud? And breast, (what could we more?) propounded terms As they would dance: yet for a dance they seemed 2. Gaoler, look to him ;-Tell not me of mercy ;— MIRTH, RAILLERY. Mirth and Raillery require Quick Time and Short Quantity, Loudness, and the Concrete Rise of the Second, combined with the Radical Stress. If these sentiments become excessive, they may raise the voice to the Falsette, either by a Concrete rise of the Octave, or by the Direct Wave of the same interval.-The combination of the Tremor also heightens the effect. EXAMPLE. A fool, a fool!-I met a fool i' the forest, A motley fool, a miserable varlet; As I do live by food, I met a fool, Who laid him down, and basked him in the sun, In good set terms, and yet a motley fool Good morrow, fool, quoth I; no, sir, quoth he, And then he drew a dial from his poke, And looking on it with lack-lustre eye, Thus may we see, quoth he, how the world wags; An hour by his dial.-O noble fool! JOY, TRIUMPH, &c. Joy and Delight are more dignified in their expression, employing a longer Quantity, the Median Stress, and the Alternate Phrase of Melody.—Rapture, Triumph or Exultation adds to these elements the Tremor. |