repetition of the same words may not too much cloy the ear and injure the melody of the verse. Thus, in the lamentation of Orpheus for his beloved Eurydice, in Virgil's Georgics, b. iv. v. 465. Te dulcis conjux; te solo in littore secum, Thée, his lov'd wife, along the lonely shores; Gibbon's Rhetoric, p. 210. This beautiful repetition requiring a tender plaintive tone, does not admit of much variety, nor does it stand in need of it. Every thee ought to have the rising inflexion, and a pause after it. The first, his lov'd wife, may have a pathetic monotone; and the second may have the falling inflexion on lov'd, and the rising on wife, which will form a variety and add to the pathos. Some variety and pathos may also arise from pronouncing the second and fourth thee, with the voice sliding higher and a pause longer than at the first and third. Thus the beautiful repetition of the word fall'n in Dryden's Ode requires such a variety only as is consistent with the harmony. Every fall'n ought to have a long pause after it, with such an inflexion as the verse requires; and the tone of voice, with respect to its height, ought to be more elevated on the last than on any of the former. He chose a mournful muse, He sung Darius, great and good, And welt'ring in his blood. Lord Kaims, in his Elements of Criticism, tells us, that the line fall'n, fall'n, fall'n, fall'n, represents a gradual sinking of the mind, and therefore is pronounced with a falling voice by every one of taste without instruction. It is not easy to understand what his lordship means by the falling voice, with which he says this line is to be spoken. If he means that the voice is to fall gradually lower upon every succeeding word, we need but try this pronunciation, immediately to discover the impropriety of it; but by the falling tone it is probable was meant a tone of pity, which increases as we repeat the words, but which by no means requires that the voice should drop into a lower key upon every succeeding word: this would entirely overturn the melody of the stanza, for the sake of something like a childish echo to the sense. truth is, in pronouncing this repetition properly, we must assume a low plaintive tone, pronounce the first fall'n with the rising inflexion approaching to a monotone, the second nearly in a monotone with the falling inflexion, the third with the falling inflexion, and the fourth with the rising, without any monotone at all. The fifth fall'n, which begins the sixth line, must have the rising inflexion sliding very high, that the voice may fall gradually upon the succeeding words, and form a cadence. The There is a similar repetition in the first stanza of this ode, which requires a variety of emphasis in the pronunciation, very important to the sense and harmony of the whole. Háppy, happy, happy páir! None but the brave, None but the brave, None but the brave deserves the fair. The first line must be pronounced with the same inflexions as the fifth line of the last example, but in a quite opposite tone of passion; that, in a low mournful tone; this in a high, gay, and lively one. The second line must have the falling inflexion with emphatic force on the word brave: the third line must have a stronger emphasis, with the falling inflexion on none; and the last line a still more forcible emphasis, with the same inflexion on but: and this diversity will be found absolutely necessary to prevent a too great sameness in the pronunciation. Prolepsis. PROLEPSIS, or Anticipation, is a figure, by which the speaker suggests an objection to what he is advancing, and returns an answer to it. This figure affords an orator a favourable opportunity of altering his voice and manner, and by this mans of throwing a greater variety into his pronunciation. The nature of the figure dictates the manner of deliveringit. When we propose an objection against ourselves, candour requires a certain fairness and openness of manner, which may show we do justice to the opinion of our adversary, and want to conceal nothing from our judges. This frankness of manner is best expressed by a clear open tone of voice, somewhat higher and louder than the general tone of the discourse, nearly as if we were calling out to a person at a distance; after which the answer must begin in a low firm tone, that the objection and answer may be the more clearly distinguished, and that what we oppose to the objection may have more the appearance of cool reason and argument. An excellent example of this figure is in Cicero's Oration for Archias. How many examples of the bravest men have the Greek and Latin writers left us, not only to contemplate but to imitate! These illustrious models I have always set before me in the government of the state, and have formed my conduct by contemplating their virtues. But it will be asked, were those great men who are celebrated in history distinguished for that kind of learning which you so highly extol? It would be difficult, I grant, to prove this of them all; but what I shall answer is nevertheless certain. I own, then, that there have been many men of excellent dispositions, and distinguished virtue, who, without learning, and by the almost divine force of nature herself, have attained to great wisdom and worth; nay, farther, I will allow that nature without learning is of greater efficacy towards the attainment of glory and virtue than learning without nature; but then I affirm, that when to an excellent natural disposition are added the embellishments of learning, there always results from this union something astonishingly great and extraordinary. Before the prolepsis in this passage, as generally in every other where it occurs, the voice falls into a low tone, as having concluded some branch of the discourse: this gives it a better opportunity of striking into the higher tone proper to the objection; and when this is pronounced, the voice falls into a lower tone, as it begins the answer, and rises again gradually with the importance of the subject. But, grant that others can, with equal glory, The two first lines of this passage require a plain, high, open tone of voice; and the two last a lower tone, accompanied with a slight expression of reproach for supposing any one could be equal to Cato. Pope affords us another instance of this figure; The words "You think this cruel" must be pronounced in a high, loud tone of voice, and the rest in a lower and softer tone. We have a striking instance of this figure in Pope, where, speaking of the daring flights of the ancients, he says, : I know there are to whose presumptuous thoughts Essay on Criticism, v. 169, The objection and answer in this passage are so little distinguished by the author, that unless we distinguish them by a different tone of voice, an auditor would not well conceive where the objection ends and the answer begins. In reading this passage, therefore, we must pronounce the two first lines in a high, open, declarative tone of voice, and commence the third in a low |