44 Nay. cursed be thou since, against his, thy will Still threatening to devour me, opens wide- 7. If it will feed nothing else, it will feed my revenge. He hath disgraced me, and hindered me of half a million; laughed at my losses, mocked at my gains, scorned my nation, thwarted my bargains, cooled my friends, heated my enemies. And what's his reason? I am a Jew! Hath not a Jew eyes? Hath not a Jew hands, organs, dimensions, senses, affections, passions? Is he not fed with the same food, hurt with the same weapons, subject to the same diseases, healed by the same means, warmed and cooled by the same summer and winter, as a Christian is? If you stab us, do we not bleed? If you tickle us, do we not laugh? If you poison us, do we not die? And if you wrong us, shall we not revenge? If we are like you in the rest, we will resemble you in that. If a Jew wrong a Christian, what is his humility? Revenge. If a Christian wrong a Jew, what should his sufferance be by Christian example? Why, revenge. The villainy you teach me, I will execute; and it shall go hard, but I will better the instruction. ASPIRATE QUALITY. The agitating character of certain emotions disturbs the play of the vocal organs, preventing the purity of tone of tranquility, causing aspirated quality or redundant breath, added to vocal sound-producing a positive impurity of tone, which has a grating effect on the ear. Fear, horror, disgust, aver sion, and discontent, generally take this quality. To master it, begin with the whispering exercises. EXAMPLES. I. Hark! I hear the bugles of the enemy! They are on their march along the bank of the river! We must retreat instantly, or be cut off from our boats! I see the head of their column already rising over the height! Our only safety is in the screen of this hedge. Keep close to it-be silent-and stoop as you run! For the boats Forward! 2. All heaven and earth are still-though not in sleep, All is concentrated in a life intense, Where not a beam, nor air, nor leaf. is lost, But hath a part of being, and a sense Of that which is of all, Creator and Defence. 3. 45 Soldiers! You are now within a few steps of the enemy's outpost! Our scouts report them as slumbering in parties around their watch-fires, and utterly unprepared for our approach. A swift and noiseless advance around that projecting rock, and we are upon them !—we capture them without the possibility of resistance! One disorderly noise or motion may leave us at the mercy of their advanced guard. Let every man keep the strictest si lence, under pain of instant death! 4. How ill this taper burns!-Ha! who comes here? I think it is the weakness of mine eyes That shapes this monstrous apparition. It comes upon me!-Art thou any thing? Art thou some god, some angel, or some devil, That mak'st my blood cold, and my hair to stare? 5. Alack! I'm afraid they have awaked, and 'tis not done! The attempt, and not the deed, confounds us. Hark! I laid their daggers ready. We could not miss them! TREMOR QUALITY. The first step towards this quality is in the convulsive catch of sobbing. By degrees, this increases in frequency; and the cry becomes, at last, the rapid iteration of the tremor. The use of the tremor increases the force of the expression of all other intervals; for, since crying is the ultimate voice of distress, and its tremulous characteristic is adopted as the means for marking a very great intensity of feeling, tremulous speech is the utmost practicable crying on words. When mirth or sorrow is in the mind, it is hard to 'restrain its habitual expression. It is apparent in extreme feebleness, from age, exhaustion, sickness, fatigue, grief, and even joy, and other feelings, in which ardor or extreme tenderness predominates. EXAMPLES. I. Pity the sorrows of a poor old man Whose trembling limbs have borne him to your door; Oh, give relief, and heaven will bless your store! 2. Thou art the ruins of the noblest man 3. I'll not march through Coventry with them, that's flat; No eye hath seen such scare-crows! 4. My mother! when I learned that thou wast dead, I heard the bell tolled on thy burial day; Adieus and farewells are a sound unknown. Thy maidens grieved themselves at my concern, By expectation every day beguiled- 5. O my dear father!- Restoration, hang Thy medicine on my lips; and let this kiss Have in thy reverence made! Had you not been their father, these white flakes Had challenged pity of them. Was this a face To be exposed against the warring winds? To stand against the deep, dread-bolted thunder? Of quick, cross lightning? -to watch, (poor perdu,) To hovel thee with swine, and rogues forlorn, 6. Have mercy upon me, O God, according to thy loving kindness: according to the multitude of thy tender mercies, blot out my transgressions! Wash me thoroughly from mine iniquity and cleanse me from my sin. For I acknowledge my transgressions; and my sin is ever before me. Against thee, thee only, have I sinned, and done this evil in thy sight. Hide thy face from my sins, and blot out all mine iniquities! Deliver me from bloodguiltiness, O God, thou God of my salvation! 7. Bear with me, good boy, I am much forgetful. I should not urge thy duty past thy might, I will be good to thee. This is a sleepy tune: O murderous Slumber! That plays thee music?- -Gentle knave, good night! 8. My boy refused his food, forgot to play, 9. And now my soul is poured out upon me; the days of affliction have taken hold upon me. My bones are pierced in me, in the night season: Falsette. Natural voice. He hath cast me into the mire; and am and my sinews take no rest. become like dust and ashes. I cry unto thee, and thou dost not hear me: I stand up, and thou regardest me not. Thou art become cruel to me: with thy strong hand thou opposest thyself against me. Thou liftest me up to the wind; thou causest me to ride upon it, and dissolvest my substance. For I know that thou wilt bring me to death, and to the house appointed for all living! PITCH. Pitch is that place or degree of elevation which any note or sound has in a scale of music, or in a scale of the compass of the voice. Much exercise on the following table should be taken, in order to familiarize the ear and the organs of the voice in this most important function. The following diagram will represent to the eye an important vocal practice. Produce the full vowel elements with the upward and downward movements of the speaking voice as indicated by the figures. The speaking voice, in good elocution, seldom rises higher than a sixth above the lowest note of its compass. Supposing the lowest note which can be made with a full intonation to be F, the following scheme will show the relative pitch of keys, adapted to the expression of different kinds of senti ments. |