FALLING INFLECTION. The general principle suggested under Rule V, is to be borne in mind here. In the various classes of examples under the falling inflection, the reader will perceive the prevailing characteristic of decision and force. So instinctively does bold and strong passion express itself by this turn of voice, that, just so far as the falling slide becomes intensive, it denotes emphatic force. The VIII. IX. and X. rules will illustrate this remark. 12] RULE VII. The indirect question, or that which is not answered by yes or no, has the falling inflection; and its answer has the same. This sort of question begins with interrogative pronouns and adverbs. Thus Cicero bears down his adversary by the combined force of interrogation and emphatic se ries. This is an open, honourable challenge to you. Why are you silent? Why do you prevàricate? I insist upon this point; I ùrge you to it; prèss it; requìre it; náy, I demànd it of you. So in his oration for Ligarius; What, Tubero, did that naked swòrd of yours mean, in the battle of Pharsalia? At whose breast was its point aimed? What was the meaning of your àrms, your spìrit, your eyes, your hands, your ardour of sòul? In conversation there are a few cases where the indirect question has the rising slide; as when one partially hears some remark, and familiarly asks; What is that? Who is that? The answer to the indirect question, according to the general rule, has the falling slide; though at the expense of harmony; as, Who say the people that I am? They answering said, John the Baptist; but some say, Elias; and others say that one of the old pròphets is risen again.-- Where is bòasting then? It is excluded.— Who first seduc'd them to that foul revolt? The infernal sèrpent. The want of distinction in elementary books, between that sort of question which turns the voice upward, and that which turns it downward, must have been felt by every teacher even of children. This distinction is scarcely noticed by the ancients. Augustin, in remarking on the false sense sometimes given to a passage of Scripture by false pronunciation, says, The ancients called that question interrogation, which is answered by yes or no ; and that percontation, which admits of other answers.* Quinctilian, however, says the two terms were used indifferently. 13] RULE VIII. The language of authority and of surprise, is commonly uttered with the falling inflection. Bold and strong passion so much inclines the voice to this slide, that in most of the cases hereafter to be specified, emphatic force is denoted by it. 1. The imperative mood, as used to express the commands of a superior, denotes that energy of thought which usually requires the falling slide. Thus Milton supposes Gabriel to speak, at the head of his radiant files: * He gives an example from Paul, with the pronunciation which he proposes:-" post percontationem, Quis accusabit adversus electos Dei? illud quod sequitur sono interrogantis enuntietur, Deus qui justificat? ut tacitè respondeatur, Non. Et item percontemur, Quis est qui condemnat? rursus interrogemus, Christus Jesus, qui mortuus est? etc. ut ubique tacitè respondeatur, Non." De Doctrina Christiana, Lib. III. Cap. 3. Uzziel! half these draw off and coast the south, With strictest watch; these other, wheel the nòrth.- Search through this gàrden; leave unsearched no nook. Who tells of some infernal spirit seen, Hitherward bent: Such where ye find, seize fàst, and hither bring. Thus in the battle of Rokeby, young Redmond addressed his soldiers; 'Up, comrades! ùp!-in Rokeby's halls Ne'er be it said our courage falls. No language surpasses the English, in the spirit and vivacity of its imperative mode, and vocative case. These often are found together in the same address; and when combined with emphasis, separately or united, they have the falling slide, and great strength. 2. Denunciation and reprehension, on the same principle, commonly require the falling inflection; as, Wo unto you, Phàrisees! for ye love the uppermost seats in the synagogues. Wò unto you, làwyers! for ye have taken away the key of knowledge. But God said unto him, thou fòol!-this night thy sòul shall be required of thee. But Jesus said, Why tempt ye me, ye hypocrites! Paul said to Elymas, O full of all subtlety, and all mischief! Thou child of the Devil,-thou enemy of all righteousness! In the beginning of Shakspeare's Julius Cæsar, Marullus, a patriotic Roman, finding in the streets some peasants, who were keeping holiday, for Cæsar's triumph over the liberties of his country, accosted them in this indignant strain; Hènce!--home, you idle creatures, get you hòme. You blocks, you stònes! You worse than senseless things! This would be tame indeed, should we place the unemphatic, rising slide on these terms of reproach, thus: You blocks, you stónes, you worse than senseless things! The strong reprehension of our Saviour, addressed to the tempter, would lose much of its meaning, if uttered with the gentle, rising slide, thus; Get thee behind me, Sátan. But it becomes very significant, with the emphatic downward inflection; Get thee behind me,-Sàtan. 3. Exclamation, when it does not express tender emotion, nor ask a question, inclines to adopt the falling slide. Terror expresses itself in this way. Thus the appearance of the ghost in Hamlet produces the exclama tion : ** 'Angels! and ministers of gràce,—defend us. Exclamation, denoting surprise, or reverence, or distress, or a combination of these different emotions, generally adopts the falling slide, modified indeed by the degree of emotion. For this reason For this reason I suppose that Mary, weeping at the sepulchre, when she perceived that the person whom she had mistaken for the gardener, was the risen Saviour himself, exclaimed with the tone of reverence and surprise,-Rabbòni! And the same inflection probably was used by the leprous men when they cried Jèsus, Màster! have mercy on us; instead of the collo *The city watch is startled, not so much by the words of distress that echo through the stillness of midnight, as by the tones that denote the reality of that distress ;-"hèlp!--mùrder!-help!" The man whose own house is in flames, cries, "fire !--fire!" it is only from the truant boy in the streets that we hear the careless exclamation, "fire, fire." quial tone Jésus, Máster, which is commonly used in reading the passage, and which expresses nothing of the distress and earnestness which prompted this cry. These examples are distinguished from the vocative case, when it merely calls to attention, or denotes affection. 14] RULE IX. Emphatic succession of particulars requires the falling slide.* The reason is, that a distinctive utterance is necessary to fix the attention on each particular. The figure asyndeton, or omission of copulatives, especially when it respects clauses, and not single words, belongs to this class; as, Go and tell John what things ye have seen and heard ;--the blind see, the lame walk, the leapers are cleansed, the deaf hèar, the dead are raised, to the poor the gospel preached. Charity suffereth long, and is kind; charity ènvieth not; charity vaùnteth not itself; is not puffed up; doth not behave itself unseemly: seeketh not her òwn; is not easily provóked; thinketh no èvil.— Thrice was I beaten with ròds; once was I stòned; thrice I sufered shipwréck; a night and a day have I been in the deep. In each of these examples, all the pauses except the last but one, (for the sake of harmony,) require the downward slide. The polysyndeton, requiring a still more deliberate pronunciation, adopts the same slide; as, Thou shalt love the Lord thy God, with all thy heàrt, and with all thy soul, and with all thy strength, and with all thy mind, and thy neighbor as thyself. NOTE 1. When the principle of emphatic series in *The loose sentence, though it does not strictly belong to this rule, commonly coincides with it; because in the appended member or members, marked by the semicolon or colon, a complete sense, at each of these pauses, is so far expressed as generally to admit the falling slide. |