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.
MODULATION.
"'Tis not enough the voice be loud and clear:
'Tis MODULATION that must charm the ear."
A good reader or speaker will vary his or her voice in the elements of emotional expression (that is, pitch, quality, movement, stress, force), on words, phrases, and sentences, in such a manner that the listeners get a suggestion of the meaning of a word by the sound of it. For instance, the words bright, glad, joyful, dull, sad, weak, may be pronounced in such a manner as to suggest by the quality of voice used their meaning; and, in the same manner, phrases and whole sentences may have variation in voice so as to suggest their meaning. This is modulation.
To modulate well, first, you must use your imagination, to form a perfect picture in your own mind of what you wish to describe, just as you would if you were an artist, and were intending to paint an ideal picture; and, in reality, you are an artist, for you paint with words and tones. Secondly, you should understand the exact meaning of each word, and, when you speak it, make your manner of speaking it suggest its meaning. Suppose you were to read Tennyson's "Song of the Brook." We will analyze as near as words may the manner of reading each verse. Read the whole song, and form the picture in imagination of the flow of the water, the scenery along its course, the roughness or smoothness of the water as described, the slowness or rapidity of its flow at different points, how large or small the brook is, making the picture as perfect as if you would paint upon canvas the whole scene.
THE BROOK.