And tuned, to please a peasant's ear,
The harp a king had loved to hear.

5 He passed where Newark's stately tower Looks out from Yarrow's birchen bower: "The minstrel gazed with wishful eyeNo humbler resting-place was nigh; With hesitating step, at last,

The embattled portal arch he passed,
"Whose ponderous grate and massy bar
Had oft rolled back the tide of war,
8 But never closed the iron door
Against the desolate and poor,
• The duchess marked his weary pace,
His timid mien and reverend face,
And bade her page the menials tell,
That they should tend the old man well;
10 For she had known adversity,
Though born in such a high degree,
In pride of power and beauty's bloom,
Had wept o'er Monmouth's bloody tomb.
11 When kindness had his wants supplied,
And the old man was gratified,

12 Began to rise his minstrel pride:
13 And would the noble duchess deign
To listen to an old man's strain,

Though stiff his hand, his voice though weak,

He thought even yet, the sooth to speak,
That if she loved the harp to hear,

He could make music to her ear.

14 The humble boon was soon obtained, The aged minstrel audience gained;

15 But when he reached the hall of state
Where she, with all her ladies, sat,
Perchance he wished his boon denied:
16 For when to tune his harp he tried,
His trembling hand had lost the ease
Which marks security to please;
And scenes long passed of joy and pain
Came wildering o'er his aged brain-
He tried to tune his harp in vain.
The pitying duchess praised its chime,
17 And gave him heart and gave him time,
Till every string's according glee
Was blended into harmony.

18 And then, he said, he would full fain
He could recal an ancient strain

He never thought to sing again:
And much he wished, yet feared, to try
The long forgotten melody.

19 Amid the strings his fingers strayed,
And an uncertain warbling made,

And oft he shook his hoary head.

But when he 20 caught the measure wild,
The old man raised his head and smiled,
And lightened up his faded eye,
With all a poet's ecstasy.

In varying cadence, soft or strong,
He swept the sounding cords along;
The present scene, the future lot,
His toils, his wants, were all forgot;
Cold diffidence and age's frost,
In the full tide of song were lost;

Each blank in faithless memory void,
The poet's glowing thought supplied;
And while his harp responsive rung,
The last of border minstrels sung.

SIR WALTER SCOTT.

Popular, Senatorial, Forensic, and Pulpit Elocution.

As the character and situation of a Speaker should materially influence his manner, some brief extracts from speeches, ancient and modern, that exemplify the styles of oratory here mentioned, will conclude this chapter.

A mixed multitude will be addressed with the utmost freedom of expression, with looks and voice calculated to reach the whole, and with little attention to minute forms and graces. A legislative assembly will demand in general a more reserved address, at least in the opening, though there may be occasions which carry the speaker beyond the usual observances. A regulated address should also distinguish forensic elocution: the speaker must bear in mind that he has to conciliate and persuade the judges of the cause, to whom deference and respect are necessary; nor must his warmth, however great, ever make him lose sight of this circumstance. Lastly, an address to a Christian congregation from their pastor, must display the utmost decorum and seriousness of manner: the expression of whatever passion must be chastened and subdued, and the whole deportment of the speaker should testify a consciousness of the solemnity of his charge.

61. The Consul Titus Quintius to the Roman

Multitude.

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VEHEMENT EXPRESSION:

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'Indignation with shame; rises into Astonishment; relaxes into 'Grief; assumes Confidence; Compassion, Argument appealing with 'Solemnity, and Candour; Reproach, with Irony and Sarcasm, with "Grief, and renewed 12 Sarcasm; 1s the voice sinks into a low, but full tone, with a renewed expression of Candour, and Solemnity of appeal, and rises by degrees into greater vehemence, with an occasional expression of 14 Contempt.

'Though I am not conscious, O Romans, of any crime by me committed, it is yet with the utmost shame and confusion that I appear in your assembly. You have seen it-posterity will know it-in the fourth consulship of Titus Quintius, the Æqui and Volsci, (scarce a match for the Hernici alone,) came in arms to the very gates of Rome, and went away again unchastised. The course of manners indeed and the state of our affairs have long been such, that I had no reason to presage much good; but could I have imagined that so great ignominy would have befallen me this year, I would by death or banishment (if all other means had, failed) have avoided the situation I am now in. 2 What! might Rome then have been taken, if those men who were at our gates had not want

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ed courage for the attempt?-Rome taken while I was Consul! Of honours I had sufficient of life enough-more than enoughI should have died in my third consulate. But who are they that our dastardly enemies thus despise, the consuls? or you, Romans? If we are in fault, depose us, punish us yet more severely. 5 If you are to blame, may neither gods nor men punish your faults, only may you repent! No, Romans, the confidence of your enemies is not owing to their courage, or to their belief of your cowardice; they have been too often vanquished not to know both themselves and you. Discord, discord is the ruin of the city. The eternal disputes between the Senate and the people, are the sole cause of our misfortunes. While we will set no bounds to our domination, nor you to your liberty; while you impatiently endure patrician magistrates, and we plebeian, our enemies take heart, grow elated, and presumptuous.

'In the name of the immortal gods, what is it, Romans, you would have? You desired tribunes; for the sake of peace, we granted them :-You were eager to have decemvirs; we consented to their creation:-You grew weary of these decemvirs; we obliged them to abdicate:-Your hatred pursued them when reduced to be private men; and we suffered you to put to death, or banish, patricians of the first rank in the republic:You insisted on the re