And, "This to me!" he said; "An 't were not for thy hoary beard, On the earl's cheek the flush of rage O'ercame the ashen hue of age; Fierce he broke forth: "And dar'st thou, then, To beard the lion in his den, The Douglas in his hall? And hop'st thou hence unscathed to go? No! by Saint Bride of Bothwell, no! Up drawbridge, groom! What, warder, ho! The following spirited and indignant response to a Southern member of Congress who had spoken contemptuously of Northern laborers, charging them with being seditious, is an excellent example of great force. It is much like the extract from Patrick Henry. Moderate pauses: The gentleman, Sir, has misconceived the spirit and tendency of Northern institutions. He is ignorant of Northern character. He has forgotten the history of his country. Preach insurrection to the Northern laborers? Who are the Northern laborers? The history of your country is their history. The renown of your country is their renown. brightness of their doings is emblazoned on its every page. The Where is Concord, and Lexington, and Princeton, and Tren ton, and Saratoga, and Bunker Hill, but in the North? And what, Sir, has shed an imperishable renown on the names of those hallowed spots, but the blood, and the struggles, the high daring, and patriotism, and sublime courage of Northern laborers? The whole North is an everlasting monument of the freedom, virtue, intelligence, and indomitable independence of Northern laborers. Go, Sir, go preach insurrection to men like these! The poet Halleck, in his poem upon Marco Bozzaris, wishing to show that the death of his hero, which was on the battlefield while fighting for his country's freedom, was a happy one, enumerates, by way of contrast, the various conditions in which death would be terrible. The extract requires moderate force, slow speed, long pauses, low pitch, median stress, and, except the last four lines, pure tone: Come to the bridal chamber,- Death! That close the pestilence are broke, The groan, the knell,-the pall,—the bier, Of agony, are thine! From this enumeration he passes to set forth the positive glory of his hero, when the pitch becomes higher, the speed more rapid, the tone purer, and the stress is rounded out into the full median: But to the hero, when his sword The thanks of millions yet to be. We tell thy doom without a sigh; For thou art Freedom's now and Fame's,- That were not born to die! In Shakspeare's Julius Cæsar, Cassius, in a private interview with Brutus, endeavors to prepare the mind of the latter for the assassination of Cæsar, without distinctly proposing it. He strives to show that Cæsar, though now master of Rome and of the world, was deficient in those qualities so highly valued by the Romans,-physical courage and endurance, and the serene stoicism that never gave way under the most intense suffering or in the face of the most appalling danger. The extract requires a high degree of force, though not the highest, and contains examples of vanishing and compound stress'; with impure tone, where contempt and kindred feelings are expressed. Pay special attention to emphases and inflections, and consult the principles laid down under these heads: I cannot tell what you and other men I had as lief not be as live to be In awe of such a thing as I myself. I was born free as Cæsar; so were you; For, once, upon a raw and gusty day, The troubled Tiber chafing with her shores, And swim to yonder point?"-Upon the word, And bade him follow; so, indeed, he did. Did from the flames of Troy upon his shoulder Is now become a god; and Cassius is A wretched creature, and must bend his body, And, when the fit was on him, I did mark How he did shake: 't is true, this god did shake: So get the start of the majestic world The battle of Bunker Hill, in the early part of the Revolutionary War, was an event of the utmost importance. It tried the courage of the Americans. The recently armed farmers and mechanics were, for the first time, brought face to face with hostile British veterans. Well might they have faltered in circumstances so critical. The British marched upon their slender fortification, with all the implements and advantages of a well furnished and well disciplined army. It was a trying ordeal! Just at this awful moment General Warren addressed the troops, and the poet supposes the following to have been his appeal. The stanzas require great force; thorough stress at the beginning, and median in the last stanza; comparatively high pitch; pure tones, especially in the last stanza, but impure in the last lines of the first stanza, and through the second; moderate speed; and strongly marked inflections and emphases: Stand! the ground 's your own, my braves! Will ye look for greener graves? Hope ye mercy still? What's the mercy despots feel! Fear ye foes who kill for hire? Who have done it! - From the vale Let their welcome be ! In the God of battles trust! |