CHAPTER XIV. STERN, SEVERE, OR HARSH FEELING. THIS class of feeling includes anger, petulance, cruelty, disgust, irritation, etc., which are clearly abnormal, the sensibilities being in a disturbed, rasped condition. "Harsh Feeling" here, like "antagonism" in pantomic expression, measures extreme effects. Practically, the more moderate forms of it, as independence, self-reliance, self-vindication, reproof, authoritative sternness, or severity, are more common and useful in all ordinary forms of conversation and oratory. There are many situations in actual life calling for such forms of firmness or severity. These uses will, however, be broadly distinguished from the harshness of personation, often used in delineating fictitious characters, and from that of the more extreme types. The affected gutturality of certain styles of impersonation, and of a large class of "elocutionary" renderings, has little to do with rational interpretation. Neither this type of feeling nor its vocal exponent is to be made a matter of "costume," or a professional trick. It will be vocally symbolized by a quality of tone which is produced by the admixture of harsh, grating noises made directly by the contraction of the pharyn geal muscles, and indirectly induced by a somewhat tense and knotted condition of the muscles and nerves of the entire body. This general, or pantomimic condition must precede and produce the vocal condition described. The voice is thus relieved from a great part of the strain which would be necessary if the vocal organs alone were to assume the abnormal condition indicated. The bearing, and the muscular texture of the whole frame will, at the same time, be more expressive than the harsh vocal quality alone; these pantomimic conditions will largely take the place of vocal harshness. The throat and neck muscles are delicate and extremely sensitive; they must not be violently contorted in any case, not even in the utmost violence of emotion. If, however, the attitude and the general bodily conditions express disturbance, which is the essence of this species of emotion, the vocal organs will then sufficiently sympathize, and will produce enough of the rasping sound to typify the abnormal condition of the mind. This will ordinarily be enough to allow the general sense of rigidity to momentarily take possession of the voice. This condition is a perversion of the normal state. It represents antagonism, self-conflict; the absence of harmonious and agreeable conditions. Analogously, the tone that represents this mental attitude is produced by a perversion of the natural action, -the rigid, disturbed condition of the muscles opposing somewhat the natural vibration of the vocal organs.. The term "guttural" is the common technical name of this vocal quality. The word itself, however, is somewhat too narrow, and perhaps misleading, as it points simply to the throat, which is not the only agent in producing this, nor the only seat of the effect. A more accurate and a safer term might be The Rigid or Tense voice. The bodily attitude inducing and accompanying this tone will often be that of antagonism, modified by some unbalanced position. The poise of the body will often be disturbed, sometimes momentarily desstroyed, thus pantomimically typifying the lack of harmony in feeling and in tone. Examples of this quality in rather extreme degrees are such as the following: Whence and what art thou, execrable shape, That dar'st, though grim and terrible, advance To yonder gates? Through them I mean to pass, -Paradise Lost, Bk. II. ll. 681–687. As wicked dew as e'er my mother brush'd Drop on you both! A southwest blow on ye, -The Tempest I., 2. Examples.-Find and practice numerous illustrations, using great care not to irritate the throat too much. If the practice is attended or followed by any pain, irritation, or excessive dryness of the throat, there has been too much contraction of the neck muscles. The needful contraction for this distortion of the tone may be made in the pharynx, that is, the back of the mouth and upper part of the throat. It need not be so low as the larynx, and there need not be any severe strain. This rigid or tense quality is simply the normal, or pure, tone under the influence of the rigid or contorted condition of the whole frame. When so produced, it will be found to be both safe, physically, and effective, expressionally. The exaggeration of it produces at the same time an abuse of the vocal organs and an abuse of the sentiment. The following poetic passages are recommended for practice of this "tense" quality in its more exaggerated forms: Much of the Shylock part in Mer. Ven. IV., 1. For a more moderate type, suited to oratory, take such passages as these: Does Now where is the revFive-sixths repealed— the poor solitary tea You have heard this pompous performance. enue which is to do all these mighty things? abandoned-sunk-gone-lost forever. duty support the purposes of this preamble? Is not the supply there stated as effectually abandoned as if the tea duty had perished in the general wreck? Here, Mr. Speaker, is a precious mockery—a preamble without an act-taxes granted in order to be repealed--and the reasons of the grant still carefully kept up! This is raising a revenue in America! This is preserving dignity in England! If you repeal this tax in compliance with the motion, I readily admit that you lose this fair preamble. Estimate your loss in it. The object of the act is gone already; and all you suffer is the purging the statute-book of the opprobrium of an empty, absurd, and false recital.-Burke. Ye stiffnecked and uncircumcised in heart and ears, ye do always resist the Holy Ghost: as your fathers did, so do ye. Which of the prophets did not your fathers persecute? and they killed them which shewed before of the coming of the Righteous One; of whom ye have now become betrayers and murderers; ye who received the law as it was ordained by angels, and kept it not.-Acts vii. 51-53. In In paraphrasing to express this emotion, remarks may be interjected to show the occasion and the circumstances; and to give some hint as to how the speaker would naturally feel, and the reasons for it. This will constitute the more objective paraphrase; but we shall more often have the subjective form, employing figurative, exclamatory, and intensifying clauses, phrases, and words. It is always to be borne in mind that the paraphrase is for the speaker's or reader's personal use, and is not an emendation of the text. these abnormal forms of emotion, written expansions would generally be more offensive than in the normal forms. For a similar reason the harsher forms of utterance tend more to exclamatory and otherwise elliptical expression; in proportion, they are more closely packed with emotional significance. The fuller mental statement which it is the business of the paraphrase to secure, is the measurement of the words that are implied. In the following extract from the "Christmas Carol," by Dickens, observe that Scrooge's remarks are in almost every case mere exclamations. The long speech beginning, "What else can I be?" affords a good example of that amplification which we have called ob |