remains perceptible in his utterance, the least approach to the partial impurity of tone arising from the languid drawling usually connected with "nasal and guttural qualities," the feeble thinness of a mere "oral" tone, or the hollow murmur of the "pectoral" style. A clear and perfectly pure, ringing voice, corresponding to what the musician terms 66 head tone," is the standard of practice in this

branch of elocution.

Example.

RURAL HOLIDAY.- Milton.

"Sometimes, with secure delight,
The upland hamlets will invite,
When the merry bells ring round,
And the jocund rebecs sound,

To many a youth and many a maid,
Dancing in the checkered shade,

When young and old come forth to play,
On a sunshine holiday,

Till the livelong daylight fail."

5.-"Humorous," or Playful, Style.

Perfect purity of tone is indispensable to the utterance of fanciful and humorous emotion, unless in the few instances in which, for mimetic or enhanced effect, a peculiar and characteristic voice is assumed, on purpose. Humor, in its genuine expression, not only enlivens and kindles tone, but seems as it were to melt it, and make it flow into the ear and the heart, as the full, clear, sparkling stream gushes into the reservoir. The playful and the mirthful style of utterance, seems to be voice let loose from all restraints which would impose upon it any rigidness, dryness, or hardness of sound.

Humor goes beyond mere gaiety or exhilaration, in the unbounded scope which it gives to the voice: its tones are higher, louder, and quicker in " movement."

Humor excels even gaiety, in effusive purity of tone, which seems to come ringing and full from the heart, with all the resonance of head and chest combined, 66 - flooding," as the poet says of the skylark, "the very air with sound."

Destitute of such utterance, the reading of some of the finest passages of Shakspeare, of Scott, or of Irving, becomes cold and torpid, or excites only aversion and disgust. The lighter strains of Cowper, and innumerable passages in all the truest and best of our poets, demand this highest form of mirthful utterance.

The faults usually exemplified in regard to this tone, are similar to those which were mentioned in speaking of the gay and brisk style

of expression, and are owing principally to the causes then indicated. The remedy must also be of the same description with that which was then suggested. Humor demands, however, not a mere fulness but an actual exuberance and overflow of feeling, in order to give it expression. An approach to the style of laughter, should be perceptible in the quality with which it inspires the voice.

The following exercises should be practised with all the playful, half-laughing style of voice, which naturally belongs to this vivid effusion of blended humor and fancy. The practice of the elements, in the same style, in sounds, and words, will be of the greatest service for imparting the entire and free command of the appropriate tone of humor; and even a frequent repetition of the act of laughter will be found highly useful, as a preparative for this style of expression, by suggesting and infusing the perfect purity of tone which naturally belongs to hearty and joyous emotion.

Example.

MERCUTIO'S DESCRIPTION OF QUEEN MAB.- Shakspeare.
"Oh! then, I see queen Mab hath been with you.
She comes

In shape no bigger than an agatę stone,
On the forefinger of an alderman,
Drawn by a team of little atomies

Athwart men's noses, as they lie asleep;

Her wagon-spokes made of long spinners' legs;
The cover, of the wings of grasshoppers;
The traces, of the smallest spider's web,
The collars, of the moonshine's watery beams:
Her whip of cricket's bone; the lash of film;
Her wagoner, a small gray-coated gnat;
Her chariot is an empty hazel-nut,

Made by the joiner squirrel, or old grub,
Time out of mind the fairies' coachmakers.
And in this state she gallops, night by night,
Through lovers' brains, and then they dream of love;
O'er lawyers' fingers, who straight dream on fees;
O'er ladies' lips, who straight on kisses dream:

Sometimes she gallops o'er a courtier's nose,
And then dreams he of smelling out a suit;
And sometimes comes she with a tithe-pig's tail,
Tickling a parson's nose, as 'a lies asleep,
Then dreams he of another benefice:

Sometimes she driveth o'er a soldier's neck,
And then dreams he of cutting foreign throats,
Of breaches, ambuscadoes, Spanish blades,
Of healths five fathom deep: and then anon
Drums in his ear; at which he starts and wakes;
And, being thus frighted, swears a prayer or two,
And sleeps again."

A call is the highest and intensest form of "pure tone," and, when extended to a vast distance, becomes, it is universally known, similar to music, in the style of its utterance.

A high note is required, in order to reach to remote distance; and perfect purity of tone, is also indispensable, as a condition of the easy emission of the prodigious force of voice which calling demands, and which, in continuous effort, it must sustain. It is the "maximum, or highest degree, of vocal force. But if unaccompanied by perfectly pure quality of sound, it pains and injures the organs. Its true mode is a long-sustained and exceedingly powerful singing tone. In this form, its use in strengthening the organs, and giving firmness, compactness, and clearness to the voice, is very great.

The student, in practising the call, as a vocal exercise, must see to it that the utmost purity of tone is kept up; as the exercise will otherwise be injurious. The more attentive he is to sing his words, in such exercises, the more easy is the effort, and the more salutary the result. The style of utterance, in this exercise, is that of vigorous, sustained, and intense "effusion," but should never become abruptly "explosive."

The following example should be practised on the scale indicated, not on the stage, but in historical fact, as when the herald stood on the plain, at such a distance as to be out of bow-shot, and called out his message, so as to be fully audible and distinctly intelligible to the listeners on the distant city-wall.

The elementary tables of sounds, and words, should be repeatedly practised, in the form of calling, till the student can command a full, clear, ringing, and musical call, or any form of sound which admits this function of the voice.

66

Rejoice, you men of Angiers! ring your bells: King John, your king and England's, doth approach;— Open your gates, and give the victors way!"

"OROTUND QUALITY."

"Pure tone" is properly the perfection of vocal sound executed by human organs, in the form of music or of speech, in unimpassioned expression. Purity, as a quality of voice in utterance, is, so to speak, the investing property of the sounds in which gentle and moderate emotions are conveyed to the ear. But this quality does not extend beyond the limits of solemnity, on the one hand, or of gaiety and humor, on the other. Its boldest effect is exhibited, as already mentioned, in the mechanical act of calling, which, although sometimes accompanied by intense emotion, is not, by any means, necessarily so attended. The call may be uttered, as among laborers at work, for a merely mechanical purpose of convenience.

In

But when we advance in the gradations of feeling, and come to the stage of impassioned utterance, and, more particularly, to that in which deep and forcible emotions are combined, mere purity of tone is not adequate to the effect which is to be produced on the ear. the utterance of contemplative repose, nothing beyond pure quality of voice is needed, to give expression to feeling so gentle in its mood. Energy would, in such circumstances, seem violence: it would disturb the quiet of the scene.

Not so when passion rouses or inspires the soul. The intense excitement of feeling then demands that volume and force should predominate in expression. Purity of tone must, indeed, even in such cases, be preserved, to constitute that utterance which, while it assumes an intense energy, still indicates, in the pure quality of the vocal sound, the delight which the soul feels in the consciousness of powerful action. But the properties of voice which, in these circumstances, predominate in the utterance, and fall most impressively on the ear, are volume and energy, combined with ample resonance. We have a striking example of the species of voice under consideration, in the imagined rallying-shout of Satan to his fallen host, while they lie weltering on the infernal lake, when, in the colossal image of the poet," he called so loud, that all the hollow deep of hell resounded:"

"Princes! potentates!"

"Awake! arise! or be forever fallen!"

The human voice, here superadding intense emotion to the mere physical act of shouting and calling, becomes, as it were, translated to a sphere of superhuman force and grandeur.

In the "orotund quality" of utterance, volume and purity of tone, to the greatest extent of the one, and the highest perfection of the other, are blended in one vast sphere of sound, expressive of the utmost depth, intensity, and sublimity of emotion, and attended by the fullest resonance of the pharynx and the chest, as well as the larynx.

The voice, in the above case, inspired, expanded, and impelled, by the huge conception of the poet's imagination, becomes gigantic in its utterance. The force of the mental associations, imparts the impulsive energy, and their conscious sublimity the " pure tone," of the highest joy. Blend these two properties, and the result is what Dr. Rush has so appropriately termed "orotund utterance.

The quality of voice to which we now refer, is mentioned by Dr. Rush as the highest perfection of the cultivated utterance of the public speaker. It is also justly regarded by him as the natural language of the highest species of emotion. It characterizes the vivid utterance of children, in their tones of love, and joy, and ecstasy. It belongs to the audible expression of masculine courage, energy, delight, admiration, and to the deliberate language of vengeance, as distinguished from the aspirated and suffocated voice of anger and rage.

In the furious excitement of anger, however, which breathes a fiendish delight in the very consciousness of the destructive passion, the "orotund" will be found to return in the utterance, and predominate even in the scream or yell of the wildest frenzy of excitement.

The property of voice defined by the term "orotund," exists, also, in certain physical and mechanical relations of the corporeal organs. Thus, we hear it in the audible functions of yawning, coughing, and laughing; all of which, when forcibly performed, are attended with a sudden and powerful

From the Latin phrase "ore rotundo," used by the poet Horace, in allusion to the round and full utterance and flowing eloquence of the Greeks.