TRANSITION.
The changes from one kind of force to another, or one pitch to another, or one movement to another, or one quality to another, are many in expressive reading; and these changes are called "Transition." To practise it is very useful in breaking up monotony of voice, and adding expressiveness to it. In practice of these short extracts, you are showing the benefit of practice in quality, pitch, movement, and force. Put yourself into the thought and feeling, and vary the voice as that, guided by common sense, may suggest to you.
See "Reading Club," No. 1, pp. 45, 54; No. 2, pp. 5, 101; No. 3, pp. 9, 70, 87; No. 4, pp. 26, 42, 75.
1. "Make way for liberty!" he cried,—
Made way for liberty, and died!
2. "Peace be unto thee, father," Tauler said:
"God give thee a good day!" The old man raised
Slowly his calm blue eyes: "I thank thee, son;
But all my days are good, and none are ill."
3. "They come, they come! the pale-face come!"
The chieftain shouted where he stood,
Sharp watching at the margin wood,
And gave the war-whoop's treble yell,
That like a knell on fair hearts fell
Far watching from their rocky home.
4."Not yet, not yet: steady, steady!"
On came the foe in even line,
Nearer and nearer, to thrice paces nine.
We looked into their eyes. "Ready!"
A sheet of flame, a roll of death!
They fell by scores: we held our breath:
Then nearer still they came.
Another sheet of flame,
And brave men fled who never fled before.
5. Did ye not hear it?—No: 'twas but the wind,
Or the car rattling o'er the stony street.
On with the dance! let joy be unconfined!
No sleep till morn, when youth and pleasure meet
To chase the glowing hours with flying feet.
But hark!—that heavy sound breaks in once more,
As if the clouds its echo would repeat;
And nearer, clearer, deadlier than before!
Arm, arm! it is—it is—the cannon's opening roar!
6. "Together!" shouts Niagara his thunder-toned decree;
"Together!" echo back the waves upon the Mexic Sea;
"Together!" sing the sylvan hills where old Atlantic roars;
"Together!" boom the breakers on the wild Pacific shores;
"Together!" cry the people. And "together" it shall be,
An everlasting charter-bond forever for the free!
Of liberty the signet-seal, the one eternal sign,
Be those united emblems,—the Palmetto and the Pine.
7. "Ho, sailor of the sea!
How's my boy,—my boy?"
"What's your boy's name, good wife?
And in what good ship sailed he?"
"My boy John,—
He that went to sea:
What care I for the ship, sailor?
My boy's my boy to me."
8. Out burst all with one accord:
"This is Paradise for Hell!
Let France, let France's king,
Thank the man that did the thing!"
What a shout! and all one word,—
"Hervé Riel!"
As he stepped in front once more,
Not a symptom of surprise
In the frank blue Breton eyes:
Just the same man as before.
9. He called his child,—no voice replied;
He searched, with terror wild:
Blood, blood, he found on every side,
But nowhere found his child.
"Hell-hound! my child's by thee devoured,"
The frantic father cried;
And to the hilt his vengeful sword
He plunged in Gelert's side.
His suppliant, as to earth he fell,
No pity could impart;
But still his Gelert's dying yell
Passed heavy o'er his heart.
10. While the trumpets bray, and the cymbals ring,
"Praise, praise to Belshazzar, Belshazzar the king!"
Now what cometh? Look, look! Without menace or call,
Who writes with the lightning's bright hand on the wall?
What pierceth the king like the point of a dart?
What drives the bold blood from his cheek to his heart?
"Chaldæans, magicians! the letters expound."
They are read; and Belshazzar is dead on the ground!
11. Sir P.—'Slife, madam! I say, had you any of these
little elegant expenses when you married me?
Lady T.—Lud, Sir Peter! would you have me be out
of the fashion?
Sir P.—The fashion, indeed! What had you to do
with the fashion before you married me?
Lady T.—For my part, I should think you would like
to have your wife thought a woman of taste.
Sir P.—Ay, there again! Taste! Zounds, madam!
you had no taste when you married me.
Lady T.—That's very true, indeed, Sir Peter; and,
after having married you, I should never pretend to taste
again, I allow.
12. "And what the meed?" at length Tell asked.
"Bold fool! when slaves like thee are tasked,
It is my will;
But that thine eye may keener be,
And nerved to such nice archery,
If thou succeed'st, thou goest free.
What! pause ye still?
Give him a bow and arrow there:
One shaft,—but one." Madness, despair,
And tortured love,
One moment swept the Switzer's face;
Then passed away each stormy trace,
And high resolve reigned like a grace
Caught from above.
13. Bass.—Why dost thou whet thy knife so earnestly?
Shy.—To cut the forfeit from that bankrupt there.
Gra.—Can no prayers pierce thee?
Shy.—No, none that thou hast wit enough to make.
Gra.—Oh, be thou damned, inexorable dog,
And for thy life let justice be accused!
Thou almost mak'st me waver in my faith,
To hold opinion with Pythagoras,
That souls of animals infuse themselves
Into the trunks of men: thy currish spirit
Governed a wolf, who, hanged for human slaughter,
Even from the gallows did his fell soul fleet,
And, whilst thou lay'st in thy unhallowed dam,
Infused itself in thee; for thy desires
Are wolfish, bloody, starved, and ravenous.
Shy.—Till thou canst rail the seal from off my bond,
Thou but offend'st thy lungs to speak so loud.
Repair thy wit, good youth, or it will fall
To cureless ruin.—I stand here for law.
14. Ham.—Now, mother, what's the matter?
Queen.—Hamlet, thou hast thy father much offended.
Ham.—Mother, you have my father much offended.
Queen.—Come, come, you answer with an idle tongue.
Ham.—Go, go, you question with a wicked tongue.
Queen.—Why, how now, Hamlet?
Ham.—What's the matter now?
Queen.—Have you forgot me?
Ham.—No, by the rood, not so:
You are the queen, your husband's brother's wife;
And—would it were not so!—you are my mother.
Queen.—Nay, then, I'll set those to you that can speak.
Ham.—Come, come, and sit you down: you shall not budge;
You go not, till I set you up a glass
Where you may see the inmost part of you.