CHAPTER XXXIII.

Emphasis.

258. EMPHASIS is the distinctive utterance of one or more words, by means of which they are made to impress the hearer with the full effect of their various degrees and peculiarities of meaning. The word emphasis means, literally, "speaking into," and implies a recognition of that power which spoken language or true eloquence possesses, of entering into both ear and mind, or heart, as occasion requires.

As accent acts among syllables, so emphasis acts among words, the former serving to give distinctness and unity to words, the latter to give distinctness and unity to the thoughts or emotions of sentences, by pointing out and enforcing the peculiar meaning of many of the words which compose them.

Emphasis may, then, be regarded as the peculiar distinction of individual words, for the purpose of enforcing their thought and passion through the agency of the more impressive of the vocal elements, comprehended under the several heads of pitch, time, force, quality, etc., or of their combinations.

The object of emphasis being to elevate words into importance, it may be applied throughout the current of language to single words, as they stand related in sense to several words in succession; or it may be employed on solitary interjections; or on one or two words forming an exclamation, for the purpose of enforcing their sentiment or passion.

259. It now remains to inquire what gives a word emphatic value, or what constitutes its claim to emphasis or unusual distinction.

First.-Words are emphatic when they possess a mean ing which points out or distinguishes something as distinct or opposite to some other thing. This opposition constitutes an antithesis, which may be either expressed or understood. As an example of the antithesis expressed, we have the following couplet from Pope:

"Tis hard to say, if greater lack of skill
Appears in writing, or in judging ill.”

Writing and judging are both emphatical, standing directly contrasted. An antithesis understood is exemplified by the following:

"Approach, and read, for thou canst read, the lay,
Grav'd on the stone, beneath yon aged thorn."

Here the words thou canst are emphatical, as they are opposed to I can not, which are understood. In some cases, the antithesis is not so obvious, as in the following, in which Marcus Brutus, in Addison's "Cato," expresses his indignation at the behavior of Cæsar:

"I am tortured even to madness, when I think

Of the proud victor."

That is, not only when I hear and speak of him, but even when I think of him. Also, in the following lines:

'Twas base and poor, unworthy of a man,
To forge a scroll so villainous and loose,--
And mark it with a noble lady's name."

Here the antithesis to man understood is some baser creature. That is, it might be worthy of some baser creature, but not of a manly man.

260. Whenever the contrariety or antithesis is expressed, we have no difficulty in knowing which are the emphatic words, but when it is only understood, it is more difficult to distinguish. The best means of determining the emphasis in such sentences, is to take the word we suppose to be emphatic, and try whether it will admit of those words. being supplied which an emphasis on it would suggest. If we find that this paraphrasing the sentence serves to bring the meaning out clearly, as it seems to be intended by the author, we may be sure the emphasis is well placed.

We may, then, take this as a general rule: Whenever words are contrasted with, contradistinguished from, or op posed to, other words, they are always emphatical; emphasis through antithesis is the most frequent form.

Antithetic emphasis is called single when a contrast is limited to two points, thus:

"You were paid to fight Alexander, not to rail at him."

It becomes double or triple emphasis when the contrasts are double or triple, as in the following examples:

"I would rather be the first man in that village,

Than the second in Rome."

"He raised a mortal to the skies.

She drew an angel down."

The emphasis of an expressed antithesis is never so strong as that of an antithesis understood, because, in the latter case, the point unexpressed is only made obvious by the strong enforcement of its contrary expressed, which seems to suggest it.

Second.-Words may also be emphatic when they express strong emotion, or enforce an idea which does not imply contrast, but in which the "peculiar eminence of the thought is solely considered." Of these, we have examples in all strong interjections or exclamations, as in the following examples, the appropriate expression of which has been. aiready described:

"Ye Gods! ye Gods, must I endure all this!”

"Angels and ministers of grace defend us!"

261. We also have innumerable instances of the absolute emphasis in words used to announce, designate, or particularize a subject, as thus:

"Well, honor is the subject of my story!"

"It is my design to give an account of the Italian Opera, and of the progress it has made upon the English stage."

There are also many words with simply more than an ordinary meaning, used to state, modify, qualify, etc., which do not suggest contrast, and which yet demand a certain amount of vocal coloring.

Third.-Emphasis may be used to supply an ellipsis, and complete to the ear the grammatical construction, or to suggest other words. the meaning of which is implied as belonging to the sense of the word to be emphasized. In this case, the emphasis, by the peculiar significance it gives the word, colors it or charges it, as it were, with the significance of those the mind would supply in paraphrasing to develop the meaning. Thus, in the admiring exclamation of Hamlet:

What a piece of work is a man!”

The word what should, by strong or proper emphasis, express the additional meaning of the word wonderful, and the sentence paraphrased would read thus:

"What a wonderful piece of work is a man!"

Examples of ellipsis:

God knows when we shall meet again.

God only knows if we shall ever meet again.

By proper emphasis, the words omitted are, by strong suggestion, in the peculiar mode employed, brought before the mind.

Fourth.-Words become emphatic when they are used to mark the syntactical relations that are somewhat obscured by intervening words or clauses. In the following lines. from Collins's "Ode to the Passions," the words in italics receive emphasis to mark their grammatical relationship:

"When cheerfulness, a nymph of healthiest hue,
Her bow across her shoulder flung,

Her buskins gemmed with morning dew,

Blew an inspiring air,—that dale and thicket rung,
The hunter's call, to Faun and Dryad known."

Here the phrases inspiring air, and hunter's call, are in apposition; but there is an intervening clause, the verb of which might seem to take call as its object. To avoid a reading that would put this construction upon the language hunter's call, and the phrase with which it is so closely related must both be emphasized. In this case, the second phrase seems to refer the ear back to the former, and thus to preserve the connection.