Oh! that I had him,

With six Aufidiuses, or more, his tribe,

To use my lawful sword.

If the words here marked in italics, be pronounced with the vanishing stress, they will exhibit that Irish provincialism, which was said to characterize in a degree, this species of intonation.

This form of stress is often used for the hasty energy of a question. For since the wider spaces of the scale are the symbols of interrogation, the reach of the interval is more clearly impressed by this full and emphatic boundary, than by the feebler termination of the natural vanish.

Perhaps a cause of the peculiar expression of the vanishing emphasis, may be found in this :-From the ordinary habit of the voice in the simple concrete, it is difficult to produce a final fulness and force, without giving rapidity of time to the execution: and this adapts it to the active sentiment, which the vanishing stress is employed to represent.

Of the Compound Emphasis.

A DEGREE of emphatic distinction by stress, stronger than that of any of the preceding modes, may be applied to syllables of indefinite time; for these, under the direction of vehement feeling, may receive their force from both the radical and vanishing stress: as in the following urgent call.

Arm warriors arm for fight, the foe at hand,
Whom fled we thought, will save us long pursuit

This day.

The imperative words here marked in italics, require the use of this double form of stress, either on a wide downward interval, or on an unequal direct wave, with a wide downward constituent. It is however more particularly appropriate to the forcible expression of interrogative sentiments. The reason of this is given in the thirty-seventh section; and

I here cite an example, from the scene of Hamlet's violence towards Laertes, at the grave of Ophelia.

Dost thou come here to whine?

To outface me by leaping in her grave?

The intense spirit of these questions call for the Thorough interrogative intonation; and the emphatic importance of the word whine, requires the rising octave with the compound stress upon it. For thus the radical abruptness on i sets forth the threatening rage of the prince, whilst the vanishing stress on n conspicuously denotes the inquiry, by marking the extent of the interrogative interval.

This is not the place to speak of the aspiration which may be joined with the compound stress, for the expression of that contempt or scorn which the question may contain.

On the whole, I confess that the discrimination of this mode of emphasis, in the current of pronunciation, is not so easy, as that of the preceding. Still it does exist as a mode of force. Its effect is peculiar to itself: and by deliberate analysis it is clearly resolvable into the above named constituents.

Of the Thorough Emphasis.

IN detailing the assignable forms of force, I gave those of the Thorough stress, and the Loud concrete, as distinguishable from the rest and from each other.

But I do not feel disposed to insist upon the importance of these distinctions, for the practical purposes of elocution. They exist however, and exert their influence upon the ear, and understanding. Yet they are not either in nature or degree so distinguishable from the radical and the compound stress, and from each other, as to require the special exemplification which has been made of those other forms. Any peculiarity which may be found in the two functions under consideration, is relative to the time of syllables:

for when a syllable is not so short as to require the emphasis of the radical stress, nor of sufficient length to admit of the protracted modes of force, the required distinction may be effected by the loud concrete: as in the marked syllable below.

This knows my Punisher: therefore as far
From granting he, as I from begging peace.

Of the Aspirated Emphasis.

In the section on aspiration, one of the expressive effects of that function, was shown in the earnestness that it spread over a whole sentence to which it was applied. But the same expression is sometimes carried in a single word; thus constituting the aspirated emphasis. Many words claim this emphasis from the essential energy of their meaning; and these, in some cases have the literal symbol of aspiration, as havoc, horror, huzza. A similar remark may be made with regard to some of the interjections. I need not quote instances of aspirated utterance in the exclamations of passion, nor in the pure breathing of a sigh: the pages of the drama are full of examples.

In the following dialogue from Julius Caesar, the effect of aspiration, in marking an earnest sentiment, is sufficiently obvious, on the word fear, which is set in italics.

Brutus. What means this shouting? I do fear the people
Choose Cæsar for their king.

Cassius.

Ay, do you fear it?

Then must I think you would not have it so.

And again, in the Tent scene, the earnest repugnance of Cassius is manifested in the aspiration of the word chastise

ment.

Brutus. The name of Cassius honors this corruption,

And chastisement does therefore hide his head.

Cassius. Chastisement!

When aspiration is combined with the vanishing stress on a simple concrete, or on any of the forms of the wave, it communicates an expression of sneer, or contempt, or scorn.

The aspiration may be applied to syllables of every variety of time; to all the modes of force; and to all intervals of intonation.

Of the Emphatic Vocule.

WHEN an emphatic word terminates with an abrupt element, and is followed by a pause, that slight issue of sound which we have called the Vocule, generally receives a continuation of force from the emphatic word: and this, by its extraordinary increase becomes the mark of high vocal excitement.

There are some occasions on which this vocule may be used with a view to press into a syllable all the power of emphasis. But it comes so close to affectation, that I hesitated about its classification, as a fault, or an assistant enforcement of speech.

I will not say absolutely, it should be heard in the following lines, from the close of the third scene, in the third act of Othello. But if the word hate be pronounced with the force required by the sentiments of the Moor, the emphatic vocule will be very apt to follow the organic opening of the atonic abrupt element.

Yield up, O love, thy crown, and hearted throne
To tyrannous hate! swell, bosom, with thy fraught.

Of the Guttural Emphasis.

THE sentiments of disgust, aversion, execration, and horror, give their expression to an emphatic word, by joining the guttural vibration to other modes of distinction. It is most frequent on the daily occasions for revolting interjectives;

but is sometimes found engrafted on the common current of syllabic utterance. It might be properly used on the word detestable, in the following lines, from that dreadful malediction upon Athens, at the opening of the fourth act of Shakspeare's Timon: taking care to accent the second syllable, which does not bear a stress, in the measure of the line.

Nothing I'll bear from thee

But nakedness, thou detestable town!

When this guttural vibration is compounded with the highest powers of stress and aspiration, it produces the most impulsive blast of speech.

Of the Temporal Emphasis.

WHEN the quantity of an emphatic syllable is long, and admits of indefinite extension; when the word conveys merely a discriminative meaning, without any peculiar sentiment or passion; or when the distinction has the sole purpose of an emphatic tie, the impression may be made by the influence of time alone, as in the following address:

Hail holy Light, offspring of Heaven first-born,

Or of the Eternal, coeternal beam,

May I express thee unblamed?

Or more conspicuously, in Abdiel's warning to Satan.

For soon expect to feel

His thunder on thy head, devouring fire.

Then, who created thee lamenting learn,

When who can uncreate thee thou shalt know.

In this example, the long quantities of the accented syllable of thunder, and devouring, are given as instances of the emphatic tie; by which the apposition of two subjects, notwithstanding the intervening clause, is shown in its true