Chapter XIX: Part THREE: Platform Practice (8)

Hop, and Mop, and Drop so clear, Pip, and Trip, and Skip that were To Mab their sovereign dear, Her special maids of honor; Fib, and Tib, and Pinck, and Pin, Tit, and Nit, and Wap, and Win, The train that wait upon her.

EMPHASIS

Determine the exact sense and express it pointedly. The primary or central emphasis takes an absolute fall from a pitch above the general level; the secondary emphasis takes a circumflex inflection--a fall and a slight rise. Primary, Hebrew Letter Yod; secondary Gujarati Vowel Sign li. In the question, the main part of the inflection is usually rising instead of falling. The effect of suspense or of forward look requires the slightly upward final turn to the inflection. Note this in passages 4, 5, and 6.

1

In 1825 the gentleman told the world that the public lands "ought _not_ to be treated as a _treasure_." He now tells us that "they _must_ be treated as _so much treasure_." What the deliberate opinion of the gentleman on this subject may be, belongs not to me to determine.

2

Compare the two. This I offer to give you is _plain_ and _simple;_ the other full of perplexed and intricate _mazes_. This is mild; that _harsh_. This is found by experience _effectual for its purposes_; the other is a _new project_. This is _universal_; the other calculated for _certain colonies only._ This is _immediate in its conciliatory operation_; the other _remote, contingent_, full of _hazard_.

3

As Cęsar _loved me_, I _weep_ for him; as he was _fortunate_, I _rejoice_ at it; as he was _valiant_, I _honor_ him; but as he was _ambitious_, I _slew_ him. There is _tears_ for his _love_; _joy_ for his _fortune_; _honor_ for his _valor_; and _death_ for his _ambition_.

4

One moment he stood erect, strong, confident in the years stretching peacefully out before him; the next he lay wounded, bleeding, _helpless_, doomed to weary weeks of torture, to silence and the grave.

5

For no cause, in the very frenzy of wantonness and wickedness, by the red hand of Murder he was thrust from the full tide of this world's interest, from its hopes, its aspirations, its victories, into the visible presence of death; and he _did not quail_.

6

There was no flinching as he charged. He had just turned to give a cheer when the fatal ball struck him. There was a convulsion of the upward hand--his eyes, pleading and loyal, turned their last glance to the flag--his lips parted--he fell _dead_, and at nightfall lay with his face to the stars. Home they brought him, fairer than Adonis over whom the goddess of beauty wept.

7

But the gentleman inquires why _he_ was made the object of such a reply. Why was _he_ singled out? If an attack has been made on the _East, he_, he assures us, did not _begin_ it; it was made by the gentleman from _Missouri_. Sir, I answered the gentleman's speech because I happened to _hear_ it; and because, also, I chose to give an answer to that speech which, if _unanswered_, I thought most likely to produce _injurious impressions_.

MELODY

Give musical tone and a fitting modulation, or tune, avoiding the so- called singsong. Note the occasional closing cadence. Observe the rhythmic movement, with beat and pause.

1

You think me a fanatic to-night, for you read history not with your eyes, but with your prejudices. But fifty years hence, when Truth gets a hearing, the Muse of History will put Phocian for the Greek, and Brutus for the Roman, Hampden for England, Fayette for France, choose Washington as the bright consummate flower of our earlier civilization, and John Brown the ripe fruit of our noonday, then, dipping her pen in the sunlight, will write in the clear blue, above them all, the name of the soldier, the statesman, the martyr, Toussaint L'Ouverture.

2

Have you read in the Talmud of old, In the Legends the Rabbins have told Of the limitless realms of the air, Have you read it,--the marvelous story Of Sandalphon, the Angel of Glory, Sandalphon, the Angel of Prayer?

3

You remember King Charles' Twelve Good Rules, the eleventh of which was, "Make no long meals." Now King Charles lost his head, and you will have leave to make a long meal. But when, after your long meal, you go home in the wee small hours, what do you expect to find? You will find my toast--"Woman, a beautiful rod!" Now my advice is, "Kiss the rod!"

4

Then here's to our boyhood, its gold and its gray! The stars of its winter, the dews of its May! And when we have done with our life-lasting toys, Dear Father, take care of Thy children, the Boys!

FEELING

Have great care not to put any strain upon the throat. Breathe low. Be moderate in force.

1

O mighty Cęsar! dost thou lie so low? Are all thy conquests, glories, triumphs, spoils, shrunk to this little measure? Fare thee well.

2

Yes, I attack Louis Napoleon; I attack him openly, before all the world. I attack him before God and man. I attack him boldly and recklessly for love of the people and for love of France.

3

I am asked what I have to say why sentence of death should not be pronounced on me according to law. I am charged with being an emissary of France! and for what end? No; I am no emissary.

4

I see a race without disease of flesh or brain,--shapely and fair,--the married harmony of form and function,--and as I look, life lengthens, joy deepens, love canopies the earth.

TONE COLOR

Use the imagination to see and hear. Suit the voice to the sound, form or movement of your image, or to the mood of mind indicated. Read with melody and pause. Take plenty of time.

1

There's a lurid light | in the clouds to-night, In the wind | there's a desolate moan, And the rage of the furious sea | is white, Where it breaks | on the crags of stone.

2

The Sun's rim dips; the stars rush out: At one stride | comes the dark; With far-heard whisper, | o'er the sea, Off shot | the specter-bark.

3

Is this a time to be gloomy and sad; When our mother Nature | laughs around; When even the deep blue heavens | look glad, And gladness breathes from the blossoming ground?

4

The breeze comes whispering in our ear, That dandelions | are blossoming near, That maize | has sprouted, that streams | are flowing, That the river is bluer | than the sky, That the robin | is plastering his nest | hard by; And if the breeze kept the good news back, For other couriers | we should not lack; We could guess it all | by yon heifer's | lowing,-- And hark! how clear | bold chanticleer, Warmed | by the new wine | of the year, Tells all | by his lusty | crowing!

VARIETY--IN PITCH, TIME, FORCE, COLOR, AND MODULATION

1

Ring out, wild bells, to the wild sky; Ring out the false, ring in the true.

2

Good work is the most honorable and lasting thing in the world.

3

O Thou that rollest above, round as the shield of my fathers, whence are thy beams, O Sun, thy everlasting light!

4

I am thy father's spirit, Doomed for a certain term to walk the night, And for the day confined to fast in fires, Till the foul crimes done in my days of nature Are burnt and purg'd away.

5

"Well, gentlemen, I am a Whig. If you break up the Whig party, where am _I_ to go?" And, says Lowell, we all held our breath, thinking where he _could_ go. But, says Lowell, if he had been five feet three, we should have said, Who _cares_ where you go?

GESTURE

Have the action simple and unstudied, expressing the dominant purpose rather than illustrating mere words or phrases. Avoid stiltedness and elaboration. Try to judge where and how the gesture would be made.

I

Nor do not _saw the air_ too much with your _hand, thus_, but use all gently; for in the very torrent, tempest, and, as I may say, the whirlwind of passion, _you must acquire and beget a temperance_ that may give it smoothness.

2

In my native town of Athens is a monument that crowns its central hills--a plain, white shaft. _Deep cut into its shining side is a name_ dear to me above the names of men, that of a brave and simple man who died in brave and simple faith. Not for all the glories of New England--from Plymouth Rock all the way--would I exchange the heritage he left me in his soldier's death.

3

Sir, when I heard the gentleman lay down principles which place the murderers of Alton side by side with Otis and Hancock, with Quincy and Adams, _I thought those pictured lips_ (pointing to the portraits in the Hall) would have broken into voice to rebuke the recreant American,--the slanderer of the dead.

4

Suppose I stood at the foot of Vesuvius, or Ętna, and, seeing a hamlet or a homestead planted on its slope, I said to the dwellers in that hamlet, or in that homestead, "_You see that vapor which ascends from the summit of the mountain._ That vapor may become a dense, black smoke, that will obscure the sky. _You see the trickling of lava from the crevices in the side of the mountain._ That trickling of lava may become a river of fire. _You hear that muttering in the bowels of the mountain._ That muttering may become a bellowing thunder, the voice of violent convulsion, that may shake half a continent."

5

And what have we to oppose them? Shall we try argument? Sir, we have been trying that for the last ten years. Have we anything new to offer upon the subject? Nothing. We have held the subject up in every light of which it is capable; but it has been all in vain. Shall we resort to entreaty and humble supplication? What terms shall we find which have not been already exhausted? Let us not, I beseech you, sir, deceive ourselves longer.

CHARACTERIZATION

1

Learn from real life. Don't go by the spelling. Don't overdo the dialect.

'E carried me away
To where a dooli lay,
An' a bullet come an' drilled the beggar clean.
'E put me safe inside,
An' just before 'e died:
"I 'ope you liked your drink," sez Gunga Din.

2

Sergeant Buzfuz began by saying that never, in the whole course of his experience,--never, from the very first moment of his applying himself to the study and practice of the law, had he approached a case with such a heavy sense of the responsibility imposed upon him.

3

I'm a walkin' pedestrian, a travelin' philosopher. Terry O'Mulligan's me name. I'm from Dublin, where many philosophers before me was raised and bred. Oh, philosophy is a foine study! I don't know anything about it, but it's a foine study!

4

It is de ladies who do sweeten de cares of life. It is de ladies who are de guiding stars of our existence. It is de ladies who do cheer but not inebriate, and, derefore, vid all homage to de dear sex, de toast dat I have to propose is, "De Ladies! God bless dem all!"

5

What tho' on hamely fare we dine, Wear hoddin' gray, an' a' that; Gie fools their silks, and knaves their wine-- A man's a man, for a' that.

For a' that, an' a' that, Their tinsel show, an' a' that, The honest man, though e'er sae poor, Is king o' men for a' that!

6

A keerless man in his talk was Jim, And an awkward hand in a row, But he never flunked, and he never lied,-- I reckon he never knowed how. He seen his duty, a dead-sure thing,-- And he went for it thar and then; And Christ ain't agoing to be too hard On a man that died for men.