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the sentence being made interrogative only by inflection.

You were coming home?

92. Questions by Interrogatives are those asked by interrogative pronouns or adverbs.

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Who saw the Duke of Clarence ?'-2 Henry IV. iv. 4.

How doth the king?'-Ibid.

93. With regard to their Quality, questions are either

Pure, or
Mixed.

94. A Pure Question contains in it nothing more than the MEANING (§ 83) of the speaker:

Are you hungry?

Can this be done?

95. A Mixed Question combines with the meaning some emotion (anger, fear, anxiety, contempt, scorn, indignation, pride, mirth, humour, &c.) which struggles to modify the answer.

Is this a dagger which I see before me,

The handle toward my hand?'-Macbeth, ii. 1. [Inquiry, combined with fear and perplexity.]

'Hath not a Jew eyes? Hath not a Jew hands, organs, dimensions, senses, affections, passions? 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 winter and summer as a Christian is?' Merchant of Venice, iii. 1. [Statement combined with anger, indignation, and other excited mental states.]

96. With regard to their Intensity, questions may be considered as

Indifferent,
Earnest, and

Vehement.

97. The influence of Intensity on the length of the Inflection. As the intensity of the speaker varies, so will the length of the inflection. Thus a question asked with indifference will demand intervals of a third; with earnestness, a fifth; with vehemence, an octave: and the inflection of the question will be either Rising or Falling as determined by its other leading characteristics of Meaning, Form, and Quality.

98. Considerations in dealing in Questions.—From the foregoing observations it is evident that every question has four leading characteristics :

First, its Meaning.
Secondly, its Form.

Thirdly, its Quality, and
Fourthly, its Intensity.

And with every question these four characteristics will have to be considered, and their respective influences weighed, before the following rules can be applied.

99. Real Questions, whether Pure or Mixed, take a rising inflection, except when asked with interrogatives. These last follow the same rule as assertions, because their interrogative nature is sufficiently marked by the introductory word.

(a) By Inversion :

'Be these sad signs confirmers of thy words?'

King John, iii. 1.

'Is execution done on Cawdor? '—Macbeth, i. 4.
'Calls your worship? '—As You Like It, i. 1.
'Can you tell if Rosalind, the duke's daughter, be
Banished with her father? '—Ibid.

'Were you made the messenger?'-As You Like It, i. 2.

'Is yonder the man ? '—Ibid.

'Are you native of this place? '—Ibid. iii. 2.

(b) By Inflection:

"You wrestle to-morrow before the new duke? '

As You Like It, i. 1.

'Sister, you'll go with us?'-King Lear, v. 1.

'There's one gone to the harbour? '—Othello, ii. 1.

(c) By Interrogatives:

'What dost thou mean by shaking of thy head?

Why dost thou look so sadly on my son ?

What means that hand upon that breast of thine ?
Why holds thine eye that lamentable rheum,

Like a proud river peering o'er his bounds!'

'Who comes here?'-Macbeth, i. 2.

King John, iii. 1.

'Whence cam'st thou, worthy thane?—Ibid.
'Good sir, why do you start; and seem to fear
Things that do sound so fair?'-Ibid. i. 3.

'What, Pindarus! Where art thou, Pindarus?'

Julius Cæsar, v. 3.

100. Pseudo Questions take the inflection of the sentence to which they are equivalent.

101. The Assertive Question will accordingly take

a falling inflection:

'Judge me, you Gods! wrong I mine enemies?

'Talbot. Ha, ha, ha!

Julius Cæsar, iv. 2.

Countess. Laughest thou, wretch? '-1 Henry VI. ii. 3.

• What judgment shall I dread, doing no wrong?' Merchant of Venice, iv. 1.

'When in swinish sleep

Their drenched natures lie, as in a death,
What cannot you and I perform upon

The unguarded Duncan? what not put upon
His spongy officers; who shall bear the guilt

Of our great quell? '—Macbeth, i. 7.

'Did not great Julius bleed for justice' sake?
What villain touch'd his body, that did stab,
And not for justice?'
Julius Cæsar, iv. 3.

'I did send

To you for gold to pay my legions,

Which you denied me: was that done like Cassius?

Should I have answer'd Caius Cassius so ? '—Ibid.

'Though Nature hath given us wit to flout at Fortune, hath not Fortune sent in this fool to cut off the argument?'

As You Like It, i. 2.

What wound did ever heal but by degrees?'

Othello, ii. 3.

'What is a man,

If his chief good, and market of his time,

Be but to sleep and feed?'- Hamlet, iv. 4.

102. The Imperative Question will likewise take a

falling inflection:

Will you be patient? Will you stay awhile?'

Julius Cæsar, iii. 2.

'Come I too late?'-Coriolanus, i. 6.

'Will you play upon this pipe? '—Hamlet, iii. 2.

103. The Exclamatory Question will likewise take a

falling inflection:

'Hear'st thou, Mars?'-Coriolanus, v. 6.

'What hands are here? ha! they pluck out mine eyes.'

'Did heaven look on,

And would not take their part ?'-Ibid. iv. 3.

'O mighty Cæsar! dost thou lie so low?
Are all thy conquests, glories, triumphs, spoils,

Macbeth, ii. 2.

Shrunk to this little measure?'-Julius Cæsar, iii. 1.

'Brutus. Away, slight man!

Cassius. Is't possible?'-Ibid. iv. 3.

'O hateful error, melancholy's child!

Why dost thou show to the apt thoughts of men

The things that are not ? '-Ibid. v. 3.

'O my sweet master! O you memory

Of old Sir Rowland! why, what make you here?
Why are you virtuous? Why do people love

you?

And wherefore are you gentle, strong and valiant?
Why would you be so fond to overcome

The bonny priser of the humorous duke?'

As You Like It, ii. 3.

'Which way shall I fly

Infinite wrath and infinite despair ?'-Paradise Lost, iv.

'Forlorn of thee,

Whither shall I betake me, where subsist ?'-Ibid. x.

104. The only exception to this law is in the case of Pseudo-assertive Questions, which, when Mixed, will be affected by the dominant passion, and take a rising inflection :

'Dost thou think

I'll grace thee with that robbery, thy stolen name

Coriolanus in Corioli ?'-Coriolanus, v. 6.

[Overruled by hate.]

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