Part 5 (2/2)
_I WOULD CALL HIM NAPOLEON_, but Napoleon h a sea of blood_ This reat motto and the rule of his life; _AND THE LAST WORDS UTTERED TO HIS SON IN FRANCE WERE THESE: ”My boy, you will one day go back to Santo Doet that France murdered your father” I WOULD CALL HIM CROMWELL,_ but Cromwell _was only a soldier, and the state he founded went doith hireat Virginian _held slaves THIS MAN RISKED HIS EMPIRE rather than pere of his dominions_
_YOU THINK ME A FANATIC TO-NIGHT,_ for you read history, _not with your eyes, BUT WITH YOUR PREJUDICES_ But fifty years hence, when Truth gets a hearing, the Muse of History will put _PHOCION for the Greek,_ and _BRUTUS for the Roland, LAFAYETTE for France,_ choose _WAshi+NGTON as the bright, consummate flower of our EARLIER civilization, AND JOHN BROWN the ripe fruit of our NOONDAY,_ then, dipping her pen in the sunlight, rite in the clear blue, above them all, the name of _THE SOLDIER, THE STATESMAN, THE MARTYR, TOUSSAINT L'OUVERTURE_
--Wendell Phillips, _Toussaint l'Ouverture_
Drill on the following selections for change of pitch: Beecher's ”Abraham Lincoln,” p 76; Seward's ”Irrepressible Conflict,” p 67; Everett's ”History of Liberty,” p 78; Grady's ”The Race Problee's ”Pass Prosperity Around,” p 470
CHAPTER V
EFFICIENCY THROUGH CHANGE OF PACE
Hear how he clears the points o' Faith Wi' rattlin' an' thumpin'!
Now meekly calm, noild in wrath, He's stampin' an' he's jumpin'
--ROBERT BURNS, _Holy Fair_
The Latins have bequeathed to us a word that has no precise equivalent in our tongue, therefore we have accepted it, body unchanged--it is the word _tempo_, and means _rate ofthat ely limited to the vocal andto hear tempo applied to more concreteof the word to say that an ox-cart uns that fire six hundred times a minute, shoot at a fast tempo; the old muzzle loader that required three minutes to load, shot at a slow tempo Every er to sing a half note than it does an eighth note
Now teood platform work, for when a speaker delivers a whole address at very nearly the sa himself of one of his chief means of emphasis and power The baseball pitcher, the bowler in cricket, the tennis server, all know the value of change of pace--change of te their ball, and so e of Tempo Lends Naturalness to the Delivery_
Naturalness, or at least see naturalness, as was explained in the chapter on ”Monotony,” is greatly to be desired, and a continual change of te it Mr Howard Lindsay, Stage Manager for Miss Margaret Anglin, recently said to the present writer that change of pace was one of the most effective tools of the actor While it s of many actors indicate cloudy mirrors, still the public speaker would do well to study the actor's use of tempo
There is, however, a more fundamental and effective source at which to study naturalness--a trait which, once lost, is shy of recapture: that source is the common conversation of any well-bred circle _This_ is the standard we strive to reach on both stage and platform--with certain differences, of course, which will appear as we go on If speaker and actor were to reproduce with absolute fidelity every variation of utterance--every whisper, grunt, pause, silence, and explosion--of conversation as we find it typically in everyday life, much of the interest would leave the public utterance Naturalness in public address is so more than faithful reproduction of nature--it is the reproduction of those _typical_ parts of nature's hich are truly representative of the whole
The realistic story-writer understands this in writing dialogue, and we h change of te sentences in a slow te how natural is the effect Then speak both with the same rapidity and note the difference
I can't recall what I did with ave it to Mary
We see here that a change of tempo often occurs in the saroups of words, and groups of sentences, but to the major parts of a public speech as well
QUESTIONS AND EXERCISES
1 In the following, speak the words ”long, long while” very slowly; the rest of the sentence is spoken in moderately rapid tempo
When you and I behind the Veil are past, Oh but the long, long while the world shall last, Which of our co and departure heeds, As the seven seas should heed a pebble cast
Note: In the following selections the passages that should be given a fast teiven in a slow tempo are in small capitals Practise these selections, and then try others, changing fro the effect
2 No MIRABEAU, NAPOLEON, BURNS, CROMWELL, NO _man_ ADEQUATE _to_ DO ANYTHING _but is first of all in_ RIGHT EARNEST _about it--what I call_ A SINCERE _man I should say_ SINCERITY, _a_ GREAT, DEEP, GENUINE SINCERITY, _is the first_ CHARACTERISTIC _of a man in any way_ HEROIC _Not the sincerity that_ CALLS _itself sincere Ah no That is a very poor matter indeed_--A SHALLOW, BRAGGART, CONSCIOUS _sincerity, oftenest_ SELF-CONCEIT _mainly The_ GREAT MAN'S SINCERITY _is of a kind he_ CANNOT SPEAK OF _Is_ NOT CONSCIOUS _of_--THOMAS CARLYLE
3 TRUE WORTH _is in_ BEING--NOT SEEMING--_in doing each day that goes by_ SOME LITTLE GOOD, _not in_ DREAMING _of_ GREAT THINGS _to do by and by For whatever men say in their_ BLINDNESS, _and in spite of the_ FOLLIES _of_ YOUTH, _there is nothing so_ KINGLY _as_ KINDNESS, _and nothing so_ ROYAL _as_ TRUTH--_Anonyet a natural effect, where would you use slow and where fast te?