FREE BOOKS

Author's List




PREV.   NEXT  
|<   101   102   103   104   105   106   107   108   109   110   111   112   113   114   115   116   117   118   119   120   121   122   123   124   125  
126   127   128   129   130   131   132   133   134   135   136   137   138   139   140   141   142   143   144   145   146   147   148   149   150   >>   >|  
, etc. The conjunction presents a general view to our thought, it is the reunion of scattered facts; it is essentially elliptical. 10. The _interjection_ responds to those circumstances where the soul, moved and shaken by a crowd of emotions at once, feels that by uttering a phrase it would be far from expressing what it experiences. It then exhales a sound, and confides to gesture the transmission of its emotion. The interjection is essentially elliptical, because, expressing nothing in itself, it expresses at the time all that the gesture desires it to express, for ellipsis is a hidden sense, the revelation of which belongs exclusively to gesture. It must first be noted that these degrees are numbered from one to nine, and that, of all the grammatical values defined, the conjunction, interjection and adverb are classed highest. Delsarte made the following experiment one day in the "Circle of Learned Societies," during a lecture: "Which word," he asked his audience, "requires most emphasis in the lines-- "The wave draws near, it breaks, and vomits up before our eyes, Amid the surging foam, a monster huge of size?" The absence of any rule applicable to the subject caused the most complete anarchy among the listeners. One thought that the word to be emphasized must be _monster_--as indicating an object of terror; another gave the preference to the adjective _huge_. Still another thought that _vomits_ demanded the most expressive accent, from the ugliness of that which it expresses. Delsarte repeated the lines: "The wave draws near, it breaks, and ... vomits up before our eyes." It was on the word _and_ that he concentrated all the force of his accent; but giving it, by gesture, voice and facial expression, all the significance lacking to that particle, colorless in itself, as he pronounced the word, the fixity of his gaze, his trembling hands, his body shrinking back into itself, while his feet seemed riveted to the earth, all presaged something terrible and frightful. He saw what he was about to relate, he made you see it; the conjunction, aided by the actor's pantomime, opened infinite perspectives to the imagination; his words had only to specify the fact, and to justify the emotion which had accumulated in the interval. But this particle, which here allows of eight degrees, is much diminished when it fills the office of a simple copulative. The extent of the word or the
PREV.   NEXT  
|<   101   102   103   104   105   106   107   108   109   110   111   112   113   114   115   116   117   118   119   120   121   122   123   124   125  
126   127   128   129   130   131   132   133   134   135   136   137   138   139   140   141   142   143   144   145   146   147   148   149   150   >>   >|  



Top keywords:

gesture

 

conjunction

 

thought

 

vomits

 

interjection

 
expresses
 

emotion

 

Delsarte

 

degrees

 
breaks

accent

 
particle
 

monster

 

essentially

 

elliptical

 

expressing

 

significance

 

expression

 

fixity

 

pronounced


colorless

 

presents

 

lacking

 

riveted

 

shrinking

 

trembling

 

demanded

 

expressive

 

adjective

 

preference


terror

 
reunion
 

ugliness

 

giving

 

concentrated

 
repeated
 

general

 

facial

 

interval

 

accumulated


justify

 

copulative

 

extent

 

simple

 

office

 

diminished

 
relate
 

object

 

terrible

 

frightful