*f(30 LIBRARY OF CONGRESS 027 249 623 7 f Hollinger Corp. pH 8.5 PN 4130 .W4 Copy 1 ELEMENTS OF ELOCUTION JAMES PLAISTED WEBBER |TW)i a^s "? ^«h s o Book. .Wj , Copyright N°_ COPYRIGHT DEPOSIT. ELEMENTS OF ELOCUTION FOR CLASSES IN DECLAMATION JAMES PLAISTED WEBBER, M.A. INSTRUCTOR IN ENGLISH IN THE PHILLIPS EXETER ACADEMY SELECTIONS FOR PRACTICE PRIVATELY PRINTED For use in The Phillips Exeter Academy TH LIBRARY of OONGRCSS Twt 0»pJm R«wv«u DEC 23 190? ttowrwi tairy &c* 12, 14*7 OLAftftA ' XXc, Ho. COPY B. Copyright, 1907 By James Plaisted Webber CONTENTS * Elements of Elocution Breathing Articulation . Pronunciation Utterance Qualities of Voice Stress Volume Time Inflection Selections for Practice .... Massachusetts and South Carolina, Webster Toussaint L/Ouverture, Phillips Reply to Walpole, Pitt .... Regulus to the Carthaginians, Kellogg Henry V at Harfleur, Shakespeare . The Black Horse and His Rider, Lippard Rienzi to the Romans, Mitford Reply to Mr. Corry, Grattan . Opportunity, Sill ..... Victor of Marengo, Anonymous Cato's Soliloquy on Immortality, Addison The American Fisheries, Bu?-ke The Man Who Wears the Button, Thurston Character of Charles I, Macaulay . A Vision of War, Ingersoll The Army of the Potomac, Depew . Defense before Agrippa, Saint Paul A Plea for Force, Thurston At the Tomb of Napoleon, Ingersoll Hamlet's Instruction to the Players, Shakespeare PREFACE This pamphlet is intended for schoolboys. The technical part, therefore, ignores many elements of elocution of import- ance to advanced students, especially to students of dramatic expression, such as suppressed force, median stress, and stress of tremor; but those most often occurring in forensic oratory are defined briefly and illustrated. There is, however, no at- tempt to offer a substitute for viva voce teaching. No printed directions, however elaborate, of the physical means by which the vocal factors are produced, can teach orotund quality of voice, initial stress, or circumflex inflection. The selections for practice have been chosen and, in most cases, abbreviated, to meet a distinct need in a particular school, where from fifteen to twenty pupils are expected to speak in one hour. " A short declamation ", says Prof. Espenshade in the introduction to his " Forensic Declamations", ".will, it is believed, form quite as valuable an exercise in effective speak- ing as a long one ; the lengthy declamation, on the other hand, very often degenerates into a merely mechanical exer- cise of the memory." Acknowledgments are due to several publishers, whose names will be found in the foot-notes, for permission to reprint from their works; to Prof. James A. Tufts, of The Phillips Ex- eter Academy, for contributing the greater part of the exercise in pronunciation on pages 11-12 and for various helpful sug- gestions; and to F. F. Mackay, Director of The National Con- servatory of Dramatic Art, New York City, whose clear and scientific treatment of the technique of speech has served as the basis of the following pages. The Phillips Exeter Academy, Exeter, N. H., November, 1907. ELEMENTS OF ELOCUTION FOR CLASSES IN DECLAMATION ELOCUTION is the art of vocal expression in formal speech. DECLAMATION, as distinguished from reading and oratory, is that branch of the art of formal speech which deals with the delivery of memorized compositions. The first essential of an effective declamation, therefore, is a thorough memorizing of the selection. Only when the recol- lection of the lines has become a mechanical process requiring as little conscious effort as the playing of the scale by a music- ian, can the declaimer do either the author or himself full jus- tice. To acquire such a mastery, the average untrained mind demands not only an amount of time, but also a lapse of time. Two hours distributed in periods of twenty minutes through six days will, as a rule, prove more effective than four solid hours devoted to study immediately before the recitation. It should be noted that the ability to recite the selection by oneself in the privacy of the study is no certain warrant of mastery. Different conditions — the larger room with its strange effect on the sound of the voice, the upturned faces, the opening of a door, the entrance of a late comer, the un- expected self-consciousness — all tend to divert the mind from the work in hand, to divide attention, to break down memory. Not until the declaimer has proved to himself that he can re- call the lines readily amid various circumstances — in the family circle, before a few schoolmates in his study, to himself as he hurries along the street — can he go to the platform in perfect confidence. Clara Morris, writing of her advancement over two of her early associates, says : " There was no luck about it When they studied their parts they were contented if they b BREATHING could repeat their lines perfectly in the quiet of their rooms, and made no allowance for possible accidents or annoyances with power to confuse the mind and so cause loss of memory and ensuing shame. But I . . . . would not trust even my own memory without first taking every possible precaution. Therefore the repeating of my lines correctly in my room was but the beginning of my study of them. In crossing the crowded street I suddenly demanded of myself my lines. At the table, when all were chatting, I again made sudden demand for the same. If on either occasion my heart gave a jump and my memory failed to present the exact word, I knew I was not yet perfect, and I would repeat those lines until, had the very roof blown off the theatre at night, I should not have missed one." BREATHING He who would speak in public should master the instru- ment at his disposal, the organs which produce vocality. Otherwise, while he may naturally, i. e. without training, speak with some degree of power, his delivery as com- pared with that of those who possess technique will be like that of the amateur carpenter as compared with that of the master workman, or like the piano playing of one who per- forms by ear as compared with that of the trained musician. Let us consider the factor without which there would be no vocality. Vocal bands may be at a tension to produce a given number of vibrations ; lip and tongue and jaw may be in position to articulate a given sound ; but, without breath, there will be no sound. Attempts to speak with insufficient amount of air in the lungs produce much the same effect as comes from the steamboat whistle when the man in the pilot- house does not pull the whistle-cord far enough to let a proper BREATHING quantity of steam into the valve; or as comes from the organ when the blow-boy has forgotten to pump. There are various ways of taking air into the lungs. The most correct method is by ABDOMINAL BREATHING. By sitting down and placing the hands upon the body just below the pit of the stomach, one will notice a rising and falling or, speaking more exactly, an outward and an inward movement of the abdominal wall. At each inspiration the wall comes forward ; at each expiration it recedes. At the forward movement of the ab- dominal wall, the diaphragm, a large involuntary muscle separating the lungs (the air-chamber) from the viscera, tends to straighten out, thus increasing the capacity of the air-chamber; and at each inward movement of the abdominal wall, the dia- phragm tends to bulge upward, thus compressing the size of the air-chamber and tending to drive the air therein upward and outward. So, too, by placing the fingers above the hips and pressing firmly upon the so-called " floating ribs", one may note, by breathing deeply enough, that the inhalation not only pushes forward the abdominal wall but also pushes outward and slightly upward these floating ribs. At the exhalation they, too, close in upon the air-chamber and add their power toward driving the air from the lungs. The more deeply one inhales, that is, the farther forward one extends the abdominal wall and the farther outward and upward one pushes the floating ribs, the greater will be one's breathing capacity; and the greater the reaction of these parts of the body upon the air-chamber, the greater will be the force with which the air will be driven against the vocal bands. The whole process is similar to that of the mechanism of the little images of birds and beasts found in the toy-shops. A pedestal formed of a tiny air-chamber, with a reed over the single opening, has a base which moves upward and downward, and sides which move outward and inward. The upward 8 ARTICULATION movement of this base (the toy's diaphragm) and the inward movement of the sides, (the floating ribs) forcing the air from the air-chamber (the lungs) over the reed (the vocal bands) produce a squeak, the intensity of which will depend upon the amount of air previously gathered in the little air-chamber and upon the force of the movement of the base and sides. ARTICULATION ARTICULATION is the utterance of the elementary sounds of a language. TABLE OF ELEMENTARY SOUNDS l a as in ale o as in old a ' arm " lose a ' all " hot a ( an u " tube e eve u " up e end u " full i " ile ou " out i " in oi " oil b as in babe ng as in song d " did z " zone g " gag z " azure 1 lull y " yet m " maim w " woe n nun th " then r star V " valve r roll J " j°y p as in pipe s as in sin t tent sh " shade k " kick h " hut f fame wh " what th " thin ch " church 1 From Vocal Gymnastics by F. F. Mackay, New York City. ARTICULATION 9 EXERCISES IN ARTICULATION x i. Be bold, be bold; be not too bold. 2. Hope on, hope ever. (Not, Ho pon, ho pever.) 3. Mile-stones mark the march of time. (Not, Mile-stone smark the mar chof time.) 4. Well, Washington was wiser than Webster. 5. Valiant deeds for vengeance or revenge. (Not, Vallian deeds for venjan sor revenge.) 6. A faithful life lifts the father's fortunes. (Not, tiffs.) 7. The band blared sadly, Dan declared. (Not, the ban blared.) 8. Tie taut the tent and test it. (Not, Tes tit.) 9. To-morrow try to talk truly and truthfully. 10. Breathe with care ; do not mouth thy words. (Not, Bree thwith care ; do ?iot mow thy words.) 11. "Your mirth hath death in it," quoth the Goth. (Not, Your mir thath death in it, quo the Goth.) 12. Cease sighing, since sighs seldom secure success. (Not, See sighing, sin sighs eldom secure success.) 13. Each daisy teaches a lesson. Abuse them not. (Not, teachy sa lesson.) 14. In Elysium are treasures without measure. 15. Shun selfish spirits who push shamelessly. (Not. Shun selfy shpirits who push aimlessly.) 16. Gems and jewels just from japan. 17. The chief cheerfully chose the choicest chair. (Not, choices chair.) 1 From " Reading and Speaking. Familiar Talks to those who would speak well in public with a thorough presentation of Mandeville's system of sentential de- livery. " by B. G. Smith. By permission of the publishers, D. C. Heath and Com- pany, Boston. 1 ARTICULATION 1 8. Go get the gun and give the goose a shot. 19. " Kill the King ! " the crank cried crossly. 20. Youthful Yankee yacht squared the yards. 21. Now none kneel when the bell knells. 22. The singing grew fainter, the song dying away. 23. They fell like leaves and fill long lists. 24. The car was adorned with corn and drawn by four horses. (Not, The cah was adawned with cawn, and drawn by fo' hosses.) THE SIEGE OF BELGRADE l (Alliterative use of the Elements) An Austrian army, awfully arrayed, Boldly, by battery, besieged Belgrade ; Cossack commanders cannonading come — Dealing destruction's devastating doom ; Every endeavor, engineers essay, For fame, for fortune, fighting furious fray ! Generals 'gainst generals grapple, grasping good. How honors Heaven heroic hardihood ! Infuriate, indiscriminate in ill, Kindred kill kinsmen, kinsmen kindred kill ! Labor low levels loftiest, longest lines — Men march 'mid mounds, 'mid moles, 'mid murderous mines ; Now noisy, noxious, noticed nought Of outward obstacles opposing ought. Poor patriots, partly purchased, partly pressed ; Quite quaking, quickly quarter, quarter quest, Reason returns, religious right redounds, Suwarrow stops such sanguinary sounds. Truce to thee, Turkey, triumph to thy train ! Unjust, unwise, unmerciful Ukraine ! 1 From "Vocal Culture" by Murdock-Russell, published by Houghton, Mifflin and Company, Boston. PRONUNCIATION 11 Vanish vain victory, vanish victory vain ! Why wish ye warfare? Wherefore welcome were Xerxes, Ximenes, Xanthus, Xaviere? Yield, ye youths ! ye yeomen, yield your yell ! Zeno's, Zapater's, Zoroaster's zeal, And all attracting, arms against acts appeal. PRONUNCIATION PRONUNCIATION consists of the correct articulation of the component sounds of a word with the addition, in the case of words of more than one syllable, of accent. EXERCISE IN PRONUNCIATION Accepts Acts Ablative Acclimate Address Again Alias Ally Apparatus Auxiliary Ay, or Aye (yes) Aye (always) Bade Been Boasts Boat Bronchitis Civilization Coat Consul Council Counsel Conversant Data Deficit Despicable Discourse Disputable Duty Enervate Envelop Envelope Exponent Exquisite Extant Extraordinary Except Finance Forehead God Gold Gone Government Gratis Grimace Harass Haunt Hearth Heinous History Horizon Hosts Illustrate Impious Incomparable Inexplicable Indissoluble Indisputable Inquiry Interested 12 UTTERANCE Irrevocable Often Root Italic Parent Rule Jocund Pianist Sacrifice Juvenile Precedence Sacrilegious Laboratory Precedent Satire Lamentable Prelude Satyr Launch Pretty Secretary Laundry Process Simultaneous Library Profile Sinecure Literature Progress Sixth Matron Pronunciation Sixth's Memoir Prophet Squalor Mischievous Quinine Synod Misconstrue Raillery Therefore Municipal Rapine Tomato Museum Recess Vagary Neuralgia Recitative Vase Nominative Referable Visor Obligatory Rise (verb) Which Oblique Rise (noun) Wound Octavo Room UTTERANCE Utterance is the production of voice. There are two modes of utterance used in public speaking: EXPULSIVE and EXPLOSIVE. Expulsive Utterance is the mode whereby the air is impelled over the vocal bands evenly, steadily. It expresses self-control and mental poise. Ccesar. I could be well moved, if I were as you ; If I could pray to move, prayers would move me : QUALITIES OF VOICE 13 But I am constant as the northern star, Of whose true-fix'd and resting quality There is no fellow in the firmament. The skies are painted with unnumber'd sparks ; They are all fire, and everyone doth shine ; But there's but one in all doth hold his place. Explosive Utterance is the mode whereby, the air is impelled over the vocal bands percussively, abruptly. It ex- presses excitement and lack of self-control and of mental poise. Octavius. Come, Antony ; away ! — Defiance, traitors, hurl we in your teeth : If you dare fight to-day, come to the field ; If not, when you have stomachs. Cassius. Why, now, blow wind, swell billow, and swim bark ! The storm is up, and all is on the hazard. Macduff. Awake, awake ! Ring the alarum-bell. — Murder and treason ! — Banquo and Donalbain ! — Malcolm ! — awake ! — Shake off this downy sleep, death's counterfeit, And look on death itself ! Up, up, and see The great doom's image ! — Malcolm ! Banquo ! — As from your graves rise up, and walk like sprites, To countenance this horror. Rincr the bell. QUALITIES OF VOICE Deepest tones vibrate in the chest. Singers tell us that they can sometimes feel their high tones vibrating in the skull near the forehead. Now, while neither all the vibrations of the 14 QUALITIES OF VOICE lowest tones are confined to the chest, nor all the highest tones to the upper part of the skull, these are the centres where the vibrations are strongest. According to the location of the vibratory centres we name the qualities of voice reverberating therein. There are three qualities of voice : HEAD QUALITY, ORO- TUND QUALITY, and PECTORAL QUALITY. Head Quality is the tone produced when the vibratory centre is the head. It expresses tenderness and persuasiveness. Portia. I pray you, tarry : pause a day or two Before you hazard ; for, in choosing wrong, I lose your company : therefore forbear awhile. There's something tells me, but it is not love, I would not lose you ; and you know yourself, Hate counsels not in such a quality. But lest you should not understand me well, — And yet a maiden hath no tongue but thought, — I would detain you here some month or two, Before you venture for me. I could teach you How to choose right, but I am then forsworn ; So will I never be ; so may you miss me * But if you do, you'll make me wish a sin, That I had been forsworn. The tendency of any emotion which causes a tension of the physical system, as anger or fright or sudden joy, will be toward head-tone. Pindarus. Fly further off, my lord, fly further off ! Mark Antony is in your tents, my lord ! Fly, therefore, noble Cassius, fly far off ! Cinna. Liberty ! Freedom ! Tyranny is dead ! Run hence, proclaim, cry it about the streets. QUALITIES OF VOICE 15 Cassius. Some to the common pulpits, and cry out " Liberty, freedom, and enfranchisement ! " Brutus. People, and senators ! be not affrighted ; Fly not ; stand still : — ambition's debt is paid. Orotund Quality is the tone produced when the vibratory- centre is the mouth. It has a fullness and resonance lacking in head quality and is the most deserving of cultivation by the public speaker. It expresses dignity and strength. Antofiy. This was the noblest Roman of them all. All the conspirators, save only he ; Did that they did in envy of great Caesar ; He only, in a general honest thought And common good to all, made one of them. His life was gentle, and the elements So mix'd in him that nature might stand up And say to all the world, "This was a man ! " PECTORAL Quality is the tone produced when the vibra- tory centre is the chest. It expresses awe. It is seldom used except in dramatic selections and need not be cultivated except to increase the range and flexibility of voice. Casta. What night is this ! \Yho ever knew the heavens menace so? Are you not moved, when all the sway of earth Shakes like a thing unfirm? O Cicero, I have seen tempests, when the scolding winds Have rived the knotty oaks, and I have seen The ambitious ocean swell and rage and foam, To be exalted with the threatening clouds : But never till to-night, never till now, Did I go through a tempest dropping fire. Either there is a civil strife in heaven, Or else the world, too saucy with the gods, Incenses them to send destruction. 1 6 STRESS STRESS STRESS is to utterance what accent is to the word. There are three kinds of stress : INITIAL, FINAL, and THOR- OUGH. INITIAL STRESS falls on the first part of the utterance. It expresses excitement. Brutus. Sirrah Claudius ! Fellow thou, awake ! Varro. My lord? Claudius. My lord? Brutus. Why did you so cry out, sirs, in your sleep? Claudius. r , >■ Did we, my lord? Varro. ) J Brutus. Ay : saw you any thing? Varro. No, my lord, I saw nothing. Claudius. Nor I, my lord. Brutus. Go and commend me to my brother Cassius ;. Bid him set on his powers betimes before, And we will follow. Final Stress falls on the last of the utterance, presses hate and resolution. Shylock. I'll have my bond ; speak not against my bond : I have sworn an oath that I will have my bond. Thou call'dst me dog before thou hadst a cause ; But since I am a dog, beware my fangs : The Duke shall grant me justice. I do wonder, Thou naughty gaoler, that thou art so fond To come abroad with him at his request. Antonio. I pray thee, hear me speak. Shylock. I'll have my bond ; I will not hear thee speak : I'll have my bond ; and therefore speak no more. 17 THOROUGH Stress is even throughout the utterance, expresses self-control and mental poise. Ccesar. Men are flesh and blood, and apprehensive ; Yet in the number I do know but one That unassailable holds on his rank, Unshaked of motion : and that I am he, Let me a little show it, even in this ; That I was constant Cimber should be banish'd, And constant do remain to keep him so. VOLUME VOLUME OF VOICE can be measured only approximately. But the terms SOFT, MEDIUM, and LOUD are useful in analysis and criticism. The volume of voice will depend on the inten- sity of the emotion seeking expression. SOFT Lady Macbeth. He is about it : The doors are open, and the surfeited grooms Do mock their charge with snores : I have drugged their possets, That death and nature do contend about them, Whether they live or die. MODERATE Duke Senior. Now, my co- mates and brothers in exile, Hath not old custom made this life more sweet Than that of painted pomp? Are not these woods More free from peril than the envious court? Here feel we but the penalty of Adam, The seasons' difference, — as the icy fang And churlish chiding of the winter's wind, Which, when it bites and blows upon my body, Even till I shrink with cold, I smile and say "This is no flattery" — these are counsellors That feelingly persuade me what I am. 18 LOUD Gratiano. O, be thou damn'd, inexorable dog ! And for thy life let justice be accus'd. Thou almost mak'st me waver in my faith, To hold opinion with Pythagoras, That souls of animals infuse themselves Into the trunks of men. .... for thy desires Are wolvish, bloody, starv'd, and ravenous. TIME As in the case of volume of voice, rate of time can be meas- ured only in relative terms : SLOW, MODERATE, FAST. The rate of time is dependent on the degree of excitement or de- pression of the emotion. SLOW Brutus. Whether we shall meet again I know not. Therefore our everlasting farewell take : For ever, and for ever, farewell, Cassius ! If we do meet again, why, we shall smile ; If not, why then, this parting was well made. Cassius. For ever, and for ever, farewell, Brutus ! If we do meet again, we'll smile indeed ; If not, 'tis true this parting was well made. Brutus. Why, then, lead on. O, that a man might know, The end of this day's business ere it come ! But it sumceth that the day will end, And then the end is known. MODERATE Portia. Soft ! The Jew shall have all justice : — Soft ! no haste : — He shall have nothing but the penalty. INFLECTION 19 Therefore prepare thee to cut off the flesh. Shed thou no blood ; nor cut thou less nor more, But just a pound of flesh. FAST Lady Macbeth. I hear a knocking At the south entry : retire we to our chamber : How easy is it then ! Your constancy Hath left you unattended. Hark ! More knocking : Get on your night gown, lest occasion call us And show us to be watchers : be not lost So poorly in your thoughts. INFLECTION INFLECTION is the raising or lowering of the voice. There are three principal kinds of inflection : RISING, FALL- ING, and CIRCUMFLEX. Rising Inflection expresses incompleteness of thought. Macbeth. Hath he asked for me? Lady Macbeth. Know you not he has? Shy lock. He hath an Argosy bound to Tripolis, another to the Indies ; I understand, moreover, upon the Rialto, he hath a third at Mexico, a fourth for England .... Henry. Show men dutiful ? .... Seem they grave and learned? .... Come they of noble family? .... Seem they religious? Falling Inflection expresses the conclusion of a thought. Henry. Show men dutiful? Why, so didst thou : seem they grave and learned ? Why, so didst thou : come they of noble family? Why, so didst thou : seem they religious? Why, so didst thou. 20 INFLECTION Circumflex Inflection is a bend of the voice resulting from a combination of the rising and the falling inflections. It expresses a double action of the mind, and is often used in rhetorical questions. Shylock. Hath not a Jew eyes? hath not a Jew hands, organs, dimensions, senses, affections, passions? Lady Macbeth. Was the hope drunk Wherein you dress'd yourself? hath it slept since? And wakes it now, to look so green and pale At what it dies so freely? From this time Such I account thy love. Art thou afeard To be the same in thine own act and valour As thou art in desire? Wouldst thou have that Which thou esteem'st the ornament of life, And live a coward in thine own esteem, Letting "I dare not" wait upon " I would," Like the poor cat i' the adage? SELECTIONS FOR PRACTICE MASSACHUSETTS AND SOUTH CAROLINA 1 Daniel Webster Sir, let me recur to pleasing recollections ; let me indulge in refreshing remembrances of the past; let me remind you that, in early times, no states cherished greater harmony, both of principle and feeling, than Massachusetts and South Carolina. Would to God that harmony might again return ! Shoulder to shoulder they went through the Revolution, hand in hand, they stood round the administration of Washington, and felt his own great arm lean on them for support. Unkind feeling, if it exist, alienation, and distrust are the growth, unnatural to such soils, of false principles since sown. They are the weeds, the seeds of which that same great arm never scattered. MR. PRESIDENT, I shall enter on no encomium upon Massa- chusetts. She needs none. There she is ; behold her, and judge for yourself. There is her history; the world knows it by heart. The past, at least, is secure. There is Boston and Concord, and Lexington, and Bunker Hill; and there they will remain forever. . . . And, sir, where American liberty raised its first voice, and where its youth was nurtured and sustained, there it still lives, in the strength of its manhood, and full of its original spirit. If discord and disunion shall wound it; if party strife and blind ambition shall hawk at and tear it ; if folly , and madness, if uneasiness under salutary restraint, shall suc- ceed to separate it from that Union, by which alone its existence is made sure, it will stand, in the end, by the side of that cradle in which its infancy was rocked ; it will stretch forth its arm with whatever of vigor it may still retain, over the friends who gathered around it; and it will fall at last, if fall it must, amid the proudest monuments of its glory, and on the very spot of its origin. 1 By permission of Little, Brown, and Company, Boston, publishers of "The Na- tional Edition of the Writings and Speeches of Daniel Webster." 22 SELECTIONS FOR PRACTICE TOUSSAINT L'OUVERTURE 1 Wendell Phillips CROMWELL never saw an army till he was forty ; Toussaint L'Ouverture never saw a soldier till he was fifty. Cromwell manufactured his own army — out of what? Englishmen, — the best blood in Europe. Out of the middle class of Eng- lishmen, — the best blood of the island. And with it he conquered what? Englishmen, — their equals. This man man- ufactured his army out of what? Out of what you call the despicable race of negroes, debased, demoralized by two hundred years of slavery, one hundred thousand of them im- ported into the island within four years, unable to speak a dialect intelligible even to each other. Yet out of this mixed and, as you say, despicable mass he forged a thunder-bolt, and hurled it at what? At the proudest blood in Europe, the Spaniard, and sent him home conquered ; at the most warlike blood in Europe, the French, and put them under his feet; at the pluckiest blood in Europe, the English, and they skulked home to Jamaica. Now, if Cromwell was a general, at least this man was a soldier. .... You think me a fanatic, for you read history, not with your eyes but with your prejudices. But fifty years hence, when Truth gets a hearing, the Muse of history will put Phocion for the Greek, Brutus for the Roman, Hampden for England, Fay- ette for France, choose Washington as the bright consummate flower of our earlier civilization, then, dipping her pen in the sunlight, will write in the clear blue, above them all, the name of the soldier, the statesman, the martyr, Toussaint L'Ouver- ture. 1 Reprinted by permission of Lothrop, Lee, and Shepard Company, Boston. SELECTIONS FOR PRACTICE 23 REPLY TO WALPOLE William Pitt The atrocious crime of being a young man, which the honor- able gentleman has, with such spirit and decency, charged up- on me, I shall neither attempt to palliate nor deny. But youth is not my only crime ; I am accused of acting a theatrical part. A theatrical part may either imply some peculiarity of gesture, or a dissimulation of my real sentiments and an adoption of the opinions and language of another man. In the first sense, the charge is too trifling to be confuted, and deserves only to be mentioned that it may be despised. But, if any man shall, by charging me with theatrical behav- ior, imply that I utter any sentiments but my own, I shall treat him as a calumniator and a villain. I shall, on such an occa- sion, without scruple, trample upon all those forms with which wealth and dignity intrench themselves, nor shall anything but age restrain my resentment; age, — which always brings one privilege, that of being insolent and supercilious without pun- ishment. But, with regard to those whom I have offended, I am of opinion that, if I had acted a borrowed part, I should have avoided their censure ; the heat that offended them was the ardor of conviction and that zeal for the service of my country which neither hope nor fear shall influence me to suppress. I will not sit unconcerned while my liberty is invaded, nor look in silence upon public robbery. I will exert my endeavors, at whatever hazard, to repel the aggressor and drag the thief to justice, whoever may protect him in his villainies, and whoever may partake of his plunder. 24 SELECTIONS FOR PRACTICE REGULUS TO THE CARTHAGINIANS . Elijah Kellogg Calm and unmoved as the marble walls around him, stood Regulus, the Roman ! He stretched his arm over the surging crowd with a gesture as proudly imperious as though he stood at the head of his own gleaming cohorts, ... as he thus ad- dressed them : " Ye doubtless thought, judging of Roman virtue by your own, that I would break my plighted faith, rather than by re- turning, and leaving your sons and brothers to rot in Roman dungeons, to meet your vengeance. ... If the bright blood which feeds my heart were like the slimy ooze that stagnates in your veins, I should have remained at Rome, saved my life and broken my oath. If, then, you ask why I have come back, to let you work your will on this poor body which I esteem but as the rags that cover it, — enough reply for you, it is because I am a Roman ! " Venerable senators, with trembling voices and outstretched hands, besought me to return no more to Carthage. The voice of a beloved mother, — her withered hands beating her breast, her gray hairs streaming in the wind, tears flowing down her furrowed cheeks — praying me not to leave her in her lonely and helpless old age, is still sounding in my ears. Compared to anguish like this, the paltry torments you have in store is as the murmur of the meadow brook to the wild tumult of the mountain storm. Go ! bring your threatened tortures ! The woes I see impending over this fated city will be enough to sweeten death, though every nerve should tingle with its agony ! I die — but mine shall be the triumph; yours, the untold deso- lation." SELECTIONS FOR PRACTICE 25 HENRY V AT HARFLEUR William Shakespeare Once more unto the breach, dear friends, once more; Or close the wall up with our English dead. In peace, there's nothing so becomes a man As modest stillness and humility; But when the blast of war blows in our ears, Then imitate the action of the tiger; Stiffen the sinews, summon up the blood, Disguise fair nature with hard favored rage ; Then lend the eye a terrible aspect; Let it pry through the portage of the head Like the brass cannon ; let the brow o'erwhelm it, As fearfully. as doth a galled rock O'erhang and jutty his confounded base, Swilled with the wild and wasteful ocean. Now set the teeth, and stretch the nostrils wide, Hold hard the breath, and bend up every spirit To his full height. Now on, you noblest English, Whose blood is fet from fathers of war-proof: Fathers, that like so many Alexanders, Have in these parts, from morn till even fought, And sheathed their swords for lack of argument; Be copy now to men of grosser blood, And teach them how to war ! And you, good yeomen, Whose limbs are made in England, show us here The mettle of your pasture ; let us swear That you are worth your breeding, which I doubt not: For there is none of you so mean and base That hath not noble luster in your eye; I see you stand like greyhounds in the slips, Straining upon the start: the game's afoot; Follow your spirit; and, upon this charge, Cry, Heaven for Harry, England, and St. George ! 26 SELECTIONS FOR PRACTICE THE BLACK HORSE AND HIS RIDER George Lippard It was the 7th of October, 1777. . . . The two flags, this of the stars, that of the red cross, tossed amid the smoke of battle, . . . and the earth throbbed with the pulsations of a mighty heart. Suddenly, Gates and his officers were startled. Along the height on which they stood came a rider on a black horse, rushing towards the distant battle . . . and lo ! he is gone ; gone through those clouds, while his shout echoes over the plains. . . . Thus it was all the day long. Wherever that black horse and his rider went, there followed victory. At last, towards the setting of the sun, the crisis of the conflict came. That fortress yonder, on Bemis' Heights, must be won, or the Amer- ican cause is lost ! That cliff is too steep — that death is too certain. The officers cannot persuade the men to advance. But look yonder ! In this moment when all is dismay and horror, here crashing on, comes the black horse and his rider. . . . And now look ! Now hold your breath, as that black steed crashes up that steep cliff. That steed quivers ! He falls ! No ! No! Still on, still up the cliff, still on towards the fortress. The rider turns his face and shouts, " Come on, men of Quebec ! come on ! " That call is needless. Already, the bold riflemen are on the rock. . . . And there in the gate of the fortress, as the smoke clears away, stands the black horse and his rider. That steed falls dead, pierced by a hundred balls ; but his rider . . . lifts up his voice and shouts afar to Horatio Gates waiting yonder in his tent, " Saratoga is won ! " As that cry goes up to heaven, he falls with his leg shattered by a cannon ball. Who was the rider of the black horse? Do you not guess his name? Then bend down and gaze on that shattered limb; and you will see that it bears the mark of a former wound. That wound was received in the storming of Quebec. The rider of the black horse was Benedict Arnold. SELECTIONS FOR PRACTICE 27 RIENZI TO THE ROMANS Mary Russell Mitford I COME not here to talk. You know too well The story of our thralldom. We are slaves ! . . . Slaves to a horde Of petty tyrants, feudal despots, lords, . . . Strong in some hundred spearmen ; only great In that strange spell, — a name ! Each hour dark fraud, Or open rapine, or protected murder, Cries out against them. But this very day, An honest man, my neighbor, — there he stands, — Was struck — struck like a dog, by one who wore The badge of Ursini ! because, forsooth, He tossed not high his ready cap in air, Nor lifted up his voice in servile shouts, At sight of that great ruffian ! Be we men, And suffer such dishonor? Men, and wash not The stain away in blood? Such stains are common. I have known deeper wrongs. I that speak to ye, I had a brother once — a gracious boy, Full of all gentleness, of calmest hope, Of sweet and quiet joy ; . . . How I loved That gracious boy ! Younger by fifteen years, Brother at once and son ! ... In one short hour That pretty, harmless boy was slain ! . . . . Yet this is Rome That sat on her seven hills, and from her throne Of beauty ruled the world ! And we are Romans. Why in that elder day, to be a Roman Was greater than a king ! And once again, — Hear me, ye walls that echoed to the tread Of either Brutus ! Once again, I swear The eternal city shall be free. 28 SELECTIONS FOR PRACTICE REPLY TO MR. CORRY l Henry Grattan Has the gentleman done? Has he completely done? He was unparliamentary from the beginning to the end of his speech. There was scarce a word that he uttered that was not a viola- tion of the privileges of the House; but I did not call him to order. Why? Because the limited talents of some men render it impossible for them to be severe without being unparliament- ary; but, before I sit down, I shall show him how to be severe and parliamentary at the same time. The right honorable gentleman has called me an "un- impeached traitor." I ask, why not traitor unqualified by an epithet? I will tell him; it was because he dare not. It was the act of a coward who raises his arm to strike, but has not the courage to give the blow. I will not call him villain, because it is unparliamentary, and he is a privy counselor. I will not call him fool, because he happens to be Chancellor of the Ex- chequer; but I say he is one who has abused the privileges of Parliament and freedom of debate, to the uttering of language which, if spoken out of the House, I should answer with a blow. I have returned to refute a libel, as false as it is malicious, given to the public under the appellation of a report of the committee of the Lords. Here I stand, ready for impeachment or trial. I dare accusation. I defy the honorable gentlemen ; I defy the government; I defy the whole phalanx; let them come forth. I tell the ministers I will neither give them quarter nor take it. I am here to lay the shattered remains of my constitution on the floor of this house, in defense of the liber- ties of my country. 1 From Goodrich's British Eloquence. Reprinted by permission of the publishers,. Harper and Brothers, New York and London. SELECTIONS FOR PRACTICE 29 OPPORTUNITY J Edward Rowland Sill This I beheld, or dreamed it in a dream : — There spread a cloud of dust along a plain ; And underneath the cloud, or in it, raged A furious battle, and men yelled, and swords Shocked upon swords and shields. A prince's banner Wavered, then staggered backward, hemmed by foes. A craven hung along the battle's edge And thought, " Had I a sword of keener steel — That blue blade that the king's son bears, — but this Blunt thing — !" he snapt and flung itfrom his hand, And lowering crept away and left the field. Then came the king's son, wounded, sore bestead, And weaponless, and saw the broken sword, Hilt-buried in the dry and trodden sand, And ran and snatched it, and with battle- shout Lifted afresh, he hewed his enemy down, And saved a great cause that heroic day. 1 By permission of and special arrangement with Messrs. Houghton, Mifflin, and Company, the authorized publishers of Sill's writings. 30 SELECTIONS FOR PRACTICE VICTOR OF MARENGO i Anonymous NAPOLEON was sitting in his tent. Before him lay the map of Italy. He took four pins, stuck them up, measured, moved the pins, and measured again. " Now," said he, "that is right. I will capture him there." . . . And the finger of the child of destiny pointed to Marengo. . . . But God thwarted Napoleon's schemes . . . and the well-planned victory of Napoleon became a terrible defeat. ... In the corps was a drummer boy, a gamin whom Desaix had picked up in the streets of Paris. As the column halted, Napoleon shouted to him: "Beat a retreat." The boy did not stir. "Gamin, beat a retreat!" The boy grasped his drumsticks, stepped forward and said: "O sire, I don't know how. Desaix never taught me that. But I can beat a charge. Oh ! I can beat a charge that would make the dead fall in line. I beat that charge at the Pyramids once, and I beat it at Mt. Tabor, and I beat it again at the Bridge of Lodi, and, oh ! may I beat it here? " Napoleon turned to Desaix: "We are beaten; what shall we do? " " Do? Beat them ! There is time to win a victory yet. Up ! gamin, the charge ! Beat the old charge of Mt. Tabor and Lodi!" A moment later the corps, following the sword gleam of Desaix, and keeping step to the furious roll of the gamin's drum, swept down on the host of Austria. . . . Desaix fell at the first volley, but the line never faltered. And, as the smoke cleared away, the gamin was seen in front of the line, marching right on and still beating the furious charge. To-day men point to Marengo with wonderment. They laud the power and foresight that so skillfully planned the battle ; but they forget that Napoleon failed, and that a gamin of Paris put to shame the chird of destiny. 1 " See Napoleon and His Marshals " by J. T. Headley, published by Baker and Scribner, New York City, 1846. SELECTIONS FOR PRACTICE 31 CATO'S SOLILOQUY ON IMMORTALITY 1 Joseph Addison It must be so. — Plato, thou reasonest well ! Else whence this pleasing hope, this fond desire This longing after immortality? Or whence this secret dread, and inward horror, Of falling into naught? Why shrinks the soul Back on herself, and startles at destruction? 'Tis the divinity that stirs within us ; 'Tis heaven itself, that points out a hereafter, And intimates eternity to man. Eternity ! — thou pleasing dreadful thought ! Through what variety of untried being, Through what new scenes and changes must we pass ! The wide, the unbounded prospect lies before me; But shadows, clouds, and darkness rest upon it. Here will I hold. If there's a Power above us, — And that there is, all Nature cries aloud Through all her works, — he must delight in virtue. And that which he delights in must be happy. But when? or where? This world was made for Caesar. I'm weary of conjectures, — this must end them. Thus am I doubly armed. My death and life, My bane and antidote, are both before me. This in a moment brings me to my end ; But this informs me I shall never die. The soul, secure in her existence, smiles At the drawn dagger, and defies its point. The stars shall fade away, the sun himself Grow dim with age, and Nature sink in years; But thou shalt nourish in immortal youth, Unhurt amid the war of elements, The wreck of matter, and the crush of worlds. 'From Addison's drama, "Cato." 32 SELECTIONS FOR PRACTICE THE AMERICAN FISHERIES 1 Edmund Burke As to the wealth which the colonies have drawn from the sea by their fisheries, you had all that matter fully opened at your bar. And pray, Sir, what in the world is equal to it? Pass by the other parts, and look at the manner in which the people of New England have of late carried on the whale fish- ery. While we follow them among the tumbling mountains of ice, and behold them penetrating into the deepest frozen re- cesses of Hudson Bay and Davis Straits, while we are look- ing for them beneath the Arctic Circle, we hear that they have pierced into the opposite region of polar cold, that they are at the antipodes, and engaged under the frozen Serpent of the South. Falkland Island, which seemed too remote and roman- tic an object for the grasp of national ambition, is but a stage and resting place in the progress of their victorious industry. Nor is the equinoctial heat more discouraging to them than the accumulated winter of both the poles. We know that while some of them draw the line and strike the harpoon on the coast of Africa, others run the longitude and pursue their gigantic game along the coast of Brazil. No sea but what is vexed by their fisheries. No climate that is not witness to their toils. Neither the perseverance of Holland, nor the activity of France, nor the dexterous and firm sagacity of English enter- prise, ever carried this most perilous mode of hardy industry to the extent to which it has been pushed by this recent people — a people who are still, as it were, but in the gristle, and not yet hardened into the bone of manhood. 1 From " On Conciliation with America." SELECTIONS FOR PRACTICE 33 THE MAN WHO WEARS THE BUTTON 1 John Mellen Thurston SOMETIMES in passing along the street I meet a man who, in the left lapel of his coat, wears a little, plain, modest, unas- suming bronze button. The coat is often old and rusty; the face above it seamed and furrowed by the toil and suffer- ing of adverse years; perhaps beside it hangs an empty sleeve, or below it stumps a wooden peg. But when I meet the man who wears that button I doff my hat and stand uncovered in his presence — yea ! to me the very dust his weary foot has pressed is holy ground, for I know that man, in the dark hour of the nation's peril, bared his breast to the hell of battle to keep the flag of our country in the Union sky. . . . What mighty men have worn this same bronze button ! Grant, Sherman, Sheridan, Logan, and a hundred more, whose names are written on the title-page of deathless fame. Their glorious victories are known of men ; the history of their coun- try gives them voice ; the white light of publicity illuminates them for every eye. But there are thousands who, in humbler way, no less deserve applause. How many knightliest acts of chivalry were never seen beyond the line or heard of above the roar of battle ! . . God bless the men who wear the button. They pinned the stars of Union in the azure of our flags with bayonets, and made atonement for a nation's sin in blood. They took the negro from the auction-block and at the altar of emancipation crowned him — citizen. They supplemented " Yankee Doodle " with " Glory Hallelujah," and Yorktown with Appomatox. Their powder woke the morn of universal freedom and made the name " American" first in all the earth. To us their memory is an inspiration and to the future it is hope. 1 From an address delivered at the annual banquet of the Michigan Club at De- troit, February 21, 1890. Reprinted by permission of Hon. John M. Thurston. LOFC. 34 SELECTIONS FOR PRACTICE CHARACTER OF CHARLES I* Thomas Bablngton' Macaulay The advocates of Charles, like the advocates of other male- factors against whom overwhelming evidence is produced, gen- erally decline all controversy about the facts, and content them- selves with calling testimony to character. He had so many private virtues ! . . . And what, after all, are the virtues ascribed to Charles? A religious zeal, not more sincere than that of his son, and fully as weak and narrow-minded, and a few of the ordinary household decencies which half the tomb- stones in England claim for those who lie beneath them. A good father ! A good husband ! Ample apologies indeed for fifteen years of persecution, tyranny, and falsehood ! We charge him with having broken his coronation oath ; and we are told that he kept his marriage vow. We accuse him of having given up his people to the merciless inflictions of the most hot-headed and hard-hearted of prelates ; and the defence is, that he took his little son on his knee and kissed him ! We censure him for having violated the articles of the Petition of Right, after having, for good and valuable consider- ation, promised to observe them; and we are informed that he was accustomed to hear prayers at six o'clock in the morning ! It is to such considerations as these, together with his Vandyke dress, his handsome face, and his peaked beard, that he owes, we verily believe, most of his popularity with the present generation. For ourselves, we own that we do not understand the com- mon phrase, " a good man, but a bad king." We can as easily conceive a good man and an unnatural father, or a good man and a treacherous friend. We cannot in estimating the char- acter of an individual, leave out of our consideration his con- duct in the most important of all human relations ; and if in that relation we find him to have been selfish, cruel, and de- ceitful, we shall take the liberty to call him a bad man in spite of all his temperance at table and all his regularity at chapel. 1 From the essay on Milton. SELECTIONS FOR PRACTICE 35 A VISION OF WAR 1 Robert Green Ingersoll The past rises before me like a dream. Again we are in the great struggle for national life. . . . We are with the soldiers when they enlist in the great army of freedom. . . . We see them all as they march proudly away under the flaunting flags, keeping time to the grand, wild music of war — . . . through the towns and across the prairies — down to the fields of glory, to do and to die for the eternal right. We go with them, one and all. We are by their side on all the gory fields — in all the hospitals of pain —on all the weary marches. We stand guard with them in the wild storm and under the quiet stars. We are with them in ravines running with blood, in the furrows of old fields. We are with them be- tween contending hosts, unable to move, wild with thirst, the life blood ebbing slowly away among the withered leaves. We see them pierced by balls and torn with shells, in the trenches, by forts, and in the whirlwind of the charge, where men be- come iron, with nerves of steel. We are at home when the news comes that they are dead. We see the maiden in the shadow of her first sorrow. We see the silvered head of the old man bowed with the last grief. . . . These heroes are dead. They died for liberty — they died for us. They are at rest. They sleep -in the land they made free, under the flag they rendered stainless. . . . Earth may run red with other wars ; they are at peace. In the midst of battle, in the roar of conflict, they found the serenity of death. I have one sentiment for soldiers living and dead : cheers for the living; tears for the dead. 1 From " Prose-Poems and Selections from the Writings of Robert G. Ingersoll." Reprinted by permission of the publisher, C. P. Farrell, New York City. 36 SELECTIONS FOR PRACTICE THE ARMY OF THE POTOMAC 1 Chauncey Mitchell Depew To the Army of the Potomac belongs the unique distinction of being its own hero. It fought more battles and lost more in killed and wounded than all the others ; it shed its blood like water to teach incompetent officers the art of war, and political tacticians the folly of their plans ; but it was always the same invincible and undismayed Army of the Potomac. Loyal ever to its mission and to discipline, the only sound it gave in pro- test of the murderous folly of cabinets and generals was the crackling of the bones as cannon-balls ploughed through its decimated ranks. It suffered for four years under unparalleled abuse, and was encouraged by little praise, but never mur- mured. . . . When Lincoln and Grant and Sherman, firmly holding be- hind them the vengeful passions of the Civil War, put out their victorious arms to the South and said, "We are brethren," this generous and patriotic army joined in the glad acclaim and welcome with their fervent "Amen." Twenty-two years have come and gone since you marched down Pennsylvania Avenue past the people's representatives, to whom you and your West- ern comrades there committed the government you had saved and the liberties you had redeemed ; past Americans from whose citizenship you had wiped with your blood the only stain, and made it the proudest of earthly titles. Call the roll. The names reverberate from earth to heaven. " All present or accounted for." Here the living answer for the dead, there the spirits of the dead answer for the living. As God musters them out on earth, he enrolls them above, and as the Republic marches down the ages, accumulating power and splendor with each succeeding century, the van will be led by the Army of the Potomac. 1 Reprinted by permission of Hon. Chauncey M. Depew. SELECTIONS FOR PRACTICE 37 DEFENSE BEFORE AGRIPPA 1 Saint Paul I THINK myself happy, king Agrippa, because I shall answer for myself this day before thee touching all the things whereof I am accused ; especially because I know thee to be expert in all customs and questions which are among the Jews. . . . My manner of life from my youth, which was at the first among mine own nation at Jerusalem, know all the Jews. . . . And now I stand and am judged for the hope of the promise made of God unto our fathers : unto which promise our twelve tribes, constantly serving God day and night, hope to come. . . . Why should it be thought a thing incredible with you, that God should raise the dead? I verily thought with myself, that I ought to do many things contrary to the name of Jesus of Naz- areth. Which thing I also did in Jerusalem : and many of the saints did I shut up in prison, and when they were put to death, I gave my voice against them, and being exceedingly mad against them, I persecuted them even unto strange cities. Whereupon as I went to Damascus, . . . O king, I saw in the way a light from heaven, above the brightness of the sun. . . . And when we were all fallen to the earth, I heard a voice speak- ing unto me, and saying, . . . " Saul, Saul, why persecutest thou me? It is hard for thee to kick against the goad." And I said, " Who art thou, Lord? " And be said, " I am Jesus whom thou persecutest. But rise, and stand upon thy feet: for I have ap- peared unto thee for this purpose, to make thee a minister and a witness both of these things which thou hast seen, and of those things in the which I will appear unto thee." . . . Having therefore obtained help of God, I continue unto this day, wit- nessing both to small and great, saying none other things than those which the prophets and Moses did say should come : That Christ should suffer, and that he should be the first that should rise from the dead, and should show light unto the people, and to the Gentiles. 1 Recorded by Saint Luke in Acts, XXVI. 38 SELECTIONS FOR PRACTICE A PLEA FOR FORCE 1 John Mellen Thurston Mr. PRESIDENT, there is only one action possible. . . . We cannot intervene and save Cuba without the exercise of force, and force means war; war means blood. . . . But it will be God's force. When has a battle for humanity and liberty ever been won except by force? What barricade of wrong, injustice, and oppression has ever been carried except by force? Force compelled the signature of unwilling royalty to the great Magna Charta; force put life into the Declaration of In- dependence and made effective the Emancipation Proclamation ; force beat with naked hands upon the iron gateway of the Bastile and made reprisal in one awful hour for centuries of kingly crime ; force waved the flag of revolution over Bunker Hill and marked the snows of Valley Forge with blood-stained feet; force held the broken line at Shiloh, climbed the flame- swept hill at Chattanooga, and stormed the clouds on Lookout Heights ; force marched with Sherman to the sea, rode with Sheridan in the valley of the Shenandoah, and gave Grant vic- tory at Appomatox ; force saved the Union, kept the stars in the flag, made " niggers " men. The time for God's force has come again. Let the impassioned lips of American patriots once more take up the song: In the beauty of the lilies Christ was born across the sea, With a glory in His bosom that transfigures you and me, As he died to make men holy, let us die to make men free, For God is marching on. 1 From a speech delivered in the Senate of the United States, March 24, 1898. Reprinted by permission of Hon. John M. Thurston. SELECTIONS FOR PRACTICE 39 AT THE TOMB OF NAPOLEON 1 Robert Green Ingersoll A LITTLE while ago I stood by the grave of the old Napo- leon — a magnificent tomb of gilt and gold, fit almost for a dead deity — and gazed upon the sarcophagus of rare and nameless marble, where rest at last the ashes of that restless man. I leaned over the balustrade and thought of the career of the greatest soldier of the modern world. . . . I thought of the orphans and widows he had made, of the tears that had been shed for his glory, and of the only woman who ever loved him, pushed from his heart by the cold hand of ambition. And I said : " I would rather have been a French peasant and worn wooden shoes. I would rather have lived in a hut with a vine growing over the door, and the grapes grow- ing purple in the amorous kisses of the autumn sun. I would rather have been that poor peasant, with my loving wife by my side, knitting as the day died out of the sky, with my children upon my knees and their arms about me, I would rather have been that man, and gone down to the tongueless silence of the dreamless dust, than to have been that imperial impersonation of force and murder, known as Napoleon the Great." 1 From " Prose-Poems and Selections from the Writings of Robert G. Ingersoll. " Reprinted by permission of the publisher. C. P. Farrell, New York City. 40 SELECTIONS FOR PRACTICE HAMLET'S INSTRUCTION TO THE PLAYERS William Shakespeare Speak the speech, I pray you, as I pronounced it to you — trippingly on the tongue; but if you mouth it as many of our players do, I had as lief the town-crier spoke my lines. Nor do not saw the air too much with your hand, thus ; but use all gently: for in the very torrent, tempest, and, as I may say, whirlwind of your passion, you must acquire and beget a tem- perance that may give it smoothness. O, it offends me to the soul, to hear a robustious periwig-pated fellow tear a passion to tatters, to very rags, to split the ears of the groundlings ; who, for the most part, are capable of nothing but inexplicable dumb-show and noise. I would have such a fellow whipped for o'erdoing Termagant: it out-herods Herod. Pray you, avoid it. Be not too tame neither, but let our own discretion be your tutor; suit the action to the word, the word to the action ; with this special observance, that you o'erstep not the modesty of nature : for any thing so overdone is from the purpose of playing, whose end, both at the first and now, was, and is, to hold, as 't were, the mirror up to nature ; to show virtue her own feature ; scorn her own image ; and the very age and body of the time, his form and pressure. Now, this overdone or come tardy off, though it make the unskillful laugh, can not but make the judicious grieve ; the censure of the which one, must, in your allowance, o'erweigh a whole theater of others. O, there be players that I have seen play, and heard others praise, and that highly, not to speak it profanely, that, neither having the accent of Christians, nor the gait of Christian, pagan, nor man, have so strutted and bellowed that I have thought some of nature's journeymen had made men, and not made them well, they imitated humanity so abominably. ucv «£*•£? j ; LIBRARY OF CONGRESS Nil ' IN I II II > 027 249 623 7 *f(30 LIBRARY OF CONGRESS 027 249 623 7 p