CHAPTER XIV

DRAMATIC EXPRESSION

By Dramatic Expression we mean not merely stage representation, but any exhibition of human feelings or actions. When, for instance, in reading a poem like "Lady Clare," we have occasion to speak in the character of another, and especially to present the emotions of another or even to simulate feeling on our own account, our expression may be said to be dramatic.

Oratory, as we have seen, is addressed directly to the audience and has for its object to move others by direct appeal to their reason or sympathies. Dramatic expression, on the contrary, appeals indirectly, by exhibiting our own feelings, or those of the person we represent. Where we deliberately assume another character than our own we are said to impersonate.

In reading scenes from plays we assume each character in turn, suggesting, but not imitating too closely, the various personages. Narration is usually a combination of the oratorical and the dramatic styles. In dialogue or other forms of dramatic literature, where two or more different individuals take part, of course each impersonates to the best of his ability.

The greatest difference between dramatic and oratorical action is in this: that in dramatic expression, revealing as it does the feelings of the speaker, our gestures, instead of reaching out toward the audience, are more frequently

directed toward either the objects exciting our feelings or toward our own selves. In emotional expression the hand more frequently seeks the heart, the lips, the brow, the eyes, or whatever part is supposed to be most deeply affected.

Elocutionists often fail not only on the stage but in dramatic reading from not realizing this essential difference in the relations of speaker and audience.

See also what was said under The Eye and Face in Reading (p. 51).

EMOTIONAL EXPRESSION

It is very difficult to lay down rules for the vocal expression of emotion. What has been said under Breathing and with regard to the imagination applies to dramatic expression also. Practice in expressive attitudes is of great help in acquiring genuine feeling. The range of youthful experience is necessarily limited, and many emotions cannot be expressed by young people as they will be in after years, so we must be content with approximation to the deeper feelings. It should be noted carefully, however, that the greatest and most common fault in emotional expression is undue physical exertion. This is true even of the harsher feelings. Emotion is an agitation of the inner, not of the outer, man, and the parts most affected are not the external muscles, but the internal organs such as the heart, the liver, the tear glands. Excitement of any sort causes an overflow of nerve force from the brain. It must find an outlet somewhere, just like steam or electricity. If this overflow is directed into the external muscles, we have muscular tension, over gesticulation, noise, and rant. If, however, we will to keep our external

muscles as passive as possible, this nerve force is compelled to seek another outlet and flows into the emotional channels. The result is a more genuine expression of feeling.

It is well, also, to concentrate expression on the emphatic word, striving to make the rest relatively unemotional, and to reserve emotional expression for climaxes. Nothing is more fatiguing to speaker or audience than a constant succession of dramatic outbursts. In emotional expression remember that the emphatic word is the one that most completely expresses the emotion, not necessarily, as in logical expression, that which reveals the thought.

The best rule for attaining true emotional expression is, to feel more strongly on the emphatic word, rather than try to make others feel.

Practice the following selections for emotion. Keep the body as passive as possible, but breathe deeply and frequently. Use gestures and change your attitude according to your feeling, but keep on the retired foot as much as possible. That attitude best enables us to gather in and concentrate feeling. Have as great volume as is consistent with the emotion to be expressed. The sound of one's own voice often acts as a stimulant to feeling.

A WELCOME TO ALEXANDRA [PRINCESS OF WALES]

MARCH 7, 1863

Sea king's daughter from over the sea,

Alexandra!

Saxon and Norman and Dane are we,

But all of us Danes in our welcome of thee,

Alexandra!

Welcome her, thunders of fort and of fleet!

Welcome her, thundering cheers of the street!
Welcome her, all things youthful and sweet,
Scatter the blossom under her feet!

Break, happy land, into earlier flowers!

Make music, O bird, in the new-budded bowers!
Blazon your mottoes of blessing and prayer!
Welcome her, welcome her, all that is ours!
Warble, O bugle, and trumpet blare!
Flags, flutter out upon turrets and towers!
Flames, on the windy headland flare!
Utter your jubilee, steeple and spire!
Clash, ye bells, in the merry March air!
Flash, ye cities, in rivers of fire!

Rush to the roof, sudden rocket and higher
Melt into stars for the land's desire!
Roll and rejoice, jubilant voice,

Roll as a ground swell dashed on the strand,
Roar as the sea when he welcomes the land,
And welcome her, welcome the land's desire,
The sea king's daughter as happy as fair,
Blissful bride of a blissful heir,

Bride of the heir of the kings of the sea
O joy to the people, and joy to the throne,
Come to us, love us, and make us your own;
For Saxon or Dane or Norman we,
Teuton or Celt or whatever we be,

We are each all Dane in our welcome of thee,

Alexandra!

-TENNYSON.

JUNE

[From The Vision of Sir Launfal.]

Oh, what is so rare as a day in June?
Then, if ever, come perfect days:

Then heaven tries the earth if it be in tune
And over it softly her warm ear lays.
Whether we look, or whether we listen,
We hear life murmur, or see it glisten;
Every clod feels a stir of might,

An instinct within it that reaches and towers
And, groping blindly above it for light,
Climbs to a soul in grass and in flowers;
The flush of life may well be seen
Thrilling back over hills and valleys;
The cowslip startles in meadows green,
The buttercup catches the sun in its chalice,
And there's never a leaf nor a blade too mean

To be some happy creature's palace;

The little bird sits at his door in the sun,
Atilt like a blossom among the leaves,
And lets his illumined being o'errun
With the deluge of summer it receives;
His mate feels the eggs beneath her wings,
And the heart in her dumb breast flutters and sings;
He sings to the wide world, and she to her nest,
In the nice ear of Nature, which song is the best?

Now is the high tide of the year,

And whatever of life hath ebbed away
Comes flooding back, with a ripply cheer,
Into every bare inlet and creek and bay;

Now the heart is so full that a drop overfills it,