The Young Gentleman and Lady's Monitor, and English Teacher's Assistant Part 45

Would he were fatter--but I fear him not.

Yes, if my name were liable to fear, I do not know the man I should avoid, So soon as that spare Ca.s.sius. He reads much-- He is a great observer--and he looks Quite through the deeds of men.

He loves no plays: he hears no music.

Seldom he smiles; and smiles in such a sort, As if he mock'd himself, and scorn'd his spirit, That could be moved to smile at any thing.

Such men as he be never at heart's ease, Whilst they behold a greater than themselves-- And, therefore, are they very dangerous.

WIT AND HUMOUR.

A good sherris-sack hath a two-fold operation in it. It ascends me into the brain. Dries me there, all-the foolish, dull, and crudy vapours which environ it: makes it apprehensive, quick, inventive; full of nimble, fiery, and delectable shapes, which, delivered over to the voice, the tongue, which is the birth, becomes excellent wit--The second property of your excellent sherris, is, the warming of the blood; which, before, cold and settled, left the liver white and pale: which is the badge of pusillanimity and cowardice. But the sherris warms it, and makes its course from the inwards to the parts extreme. It illuminateth the face, which, as a beacon, gives warning to all the rest of this little kingdom, man, to arm; and then, the vital commoners, and inland petty spirits, muster me all to their captain, the heart; who, great, and puffed up with this retinue, doth any deed of courage--and this value comes of sherris. So that skill in the weapon, is nothing without sack; for that sets it a-work; and learning, a mere h.o.a.rd of gold kept by a devil, till sack commences it, and sets it in act and use. Hereof comes it that Prince Harry is valiant; for the cold blood he did naturally inherit of his father, he hath, like lean, steril, and bare land, manured, husbanded, and tilled, with drinking good, and good store of fertile sherris--If I had a thousand sons, the first human principle I would teach them, should be--to foreswear thin potations, and to addict themselves to sack.

A plague on all cowards, I say, and a vengeance too, marry and amen! Give me a cup of sack, boy--Ere I lead this life long, I'll sew nether socks and mend them, and foot them too. A plague on all cowards! Give me a cup of sack, rogue. Is there no virtue extant? [_Drinks._

You rogue! here's lime in this sack too. There is nothing but roguery to be found in villainous man. Yet a coward is worse than a cup of sack with lime in it---Go thy ways, old Jack! die when thou wilt, if manhood, good manhood, be not forgot upon the face of the earth, then a'nt I a shotten herring. There lives not three good men unhanged in England; and one of them is fat, and grows old, G.o.d help the while!--A plague on all cowards, I say still!---Give me a cup of sack. [_Drinks._

I am a rogue if I were not at half-sword with a dozen of them two hours together. I have escaped by miracle. I am eight times thrust through the doublet; four through the hose; my buckler cut through and through; my sword hacked like a hand-saw--_ecce signum!_ I never dealt better since I was a man. All would not do. A plague on all cowards!--But I have peppered two of them; two, I am sure I have paid; two rogues in buckram suits. I tell thee what, if I tell thee a lie, spit in my face; call me a horse.--Thou knowest my old ward. Here I lay; and thus I bore my point.--Four rogues in buckram let drive at me.

These four came all afront, and mainly thrust at me. I made no more ado, but took all their seven points in my target, thus.

Then, these nine in buckram, that I told thee of, began to give me ground. But I followed them close; came in foot and hand; and, with a thought--seven of these eleven I paid.--A plague on all cowards, say I!--Give me a cup of sack. [_Drinks_.

RIDICULE.

I can as well be hanged, as tell the manner of it; it was mere foolery.--I saw Mark Antony offer him a crown; and, as I told you, he put it by once--but, for all that, to my thinking, he would fain have had it. Then he offered it to him again; then, he put it by again--but, to my thinking, he was very loth to lay his fingers off it. And then he offered it a third time; he put it the third time by; and still as he refused it, the rabblement shouted, and clapt their chopt hands, and threw by their sweaty night-caps, and uttered such a deal of stinking breath, because Caesar refused the crown, that it had almost choaked Caesar, for he swooned, and, fell down at it; and for mine own part, I durst not laugh for fear of opening my lips, and receiving the bad air.

Before he fell down, when he perceived the common herd were glad, he refused the crown, he plucked me ope his doublet, and offered them his throat to cut: an' I had been a man of any occupation, if I would not have taken him at a word, I would I might go to h.e.l.l among the rogues!--and so he fell. When he came to himself again, he said, "if he had done, or said any thing amiss, he desired their wors.h.i.+ps to think it was his infirmity." Three or four wenches where I stood, cried, Alas, good soul!--and forgave him with all their hearts. But there's no heed to be taken of them: if Caesar had stabbed their mothers they would have done no less.

PERTURBATION.

Vengeance! death! plague! confusion!

Fiery! what quality?---Why, Gloster, Gloster!

I'd speak with the Duke of Cornwall and his wife: The King would speak with Cornwall---the dear father Would with his daughter speak; commands her service.

Are they inform'd of this?---My breath and blood!

Fiery! the fiery Duke! Tell the hot Duke-- No' but not yet: may be he is not well: I beg his pardon: and I'll chide my rashness, That took the indisposed and sickly fit.

For the sound man,---But wherefore sits he there?-- Death on my state! this act convinces me, That this retiredness of the Duke and her Is plain contempt--Give me my servant forth-- Go tell the Duke and's wife I'd speak with 'em: Now: instantly--Bid 'em come forth and hear me; Or, at their chamber-door, I'll beat the drum-- 'Till it cry--Sleep to death.

Elements of Gesture.

SECTION I.

_On the Speaking of Speeches at Schools_.

Elocution has, for some years past, been an object of attention in the most respectable schools in this country. A laudable ambition of instructing youth in the p.r.o.nunciation and delivery of their native language, has made English speeches a very conspicuous part of those exhibitions of oratory which do them so much credit.

This attention to English p.r.o.nunciation has induced several ingenious men to compile Exercises in Elocution for the use of schools, which have answered very useful purposes; but none, so far as I have seen, have attempted to give us a regular system of gesture suited to the wants and capacities of school-boys. Mr. Burgh, in his Art of Speaking, has given us a system of the pa.s.sions, and has shewn us how they appear in the countenance, and operate on the body; but this system, however useful to people of riper years, is too delicate and complicated to be taught in schools. Indeed, the exact adaptation of the action to the word, and the word to the action, as Shakespear calls it, is the most difficult part of delivery, and therefore can never be taught perfectly to children; to say nothing of distracting their attention with two difficult things at the same time. But that boys should stand motionless, while they are p.r.o.nouncing the most impa.s.sioned language, is extremely absurd and unnatural; and that they should sprawl into an aukward, ungain, and desultory action, is still more offensive and disgusting. What then remains, but that such a general style of action be adopted, as shall be easily conceived and easily executed, which, though not expressive of any particular pa.s.sion, shall not be inconsistent with the expression of any pa.s.sion; which shall always keep the body in a graceful position, and shall so vary its motions; at proper intervals, as to seem the subject operating on the speaker, and not the speaker on the subject.

This, it will be confessed, is a great desideratum; and an attempt to do this, is the princ.i.p.al object of the present publication.

The difficulty of describing action by words, will be allowed by every one; and if we were never to give any instructions but such as should completely answer our wishes, this difficulty would be a good reason for not attempting to give any description of it. But there are many degrees between conveying a precise idea of a thing, and no idea at all.

Besides, in this part of delivery, instruction may be conveyed by the eye; and this organ is a much more rapid vehicle of knowledge than the ear. This vehicle is addressed on the present, occasion, and plates, representing the att.i.tudes which are described, are annexed to the several descriptions, which it is not doubted will greatly facilitate the reader's conception.

The first plate represents the att.i.tude in which a boy should always place himself when he begins to speak. He should rest the whole weight of his body on the right leg; the other, just touching the ground, at the distance at which it would naturally fall, if lifted up to shew that the body does not bear upon it. The knees should be strait and braced, and the body, though perfectly strait, not perpendicular, but inclining as far to the right as a firm position on the right leg will permit. The right arm must then be held out with the palm open, the fingers straight and close, the thumb almost as distant from them as it will go, and the flat of the hand neither horizontal nor vertical, but exactly between both. The position of the arm perhaps will be best described by supposing an oblong hollow square, formed by the measure of four arms, as in plate the first, where the arm in its true position forms the diagonal of such an imaginary figure. So that, if lines were drawn at right angles from the shoulder, extending downwards, forwards, and sideways, the arm will form a& angle of forty-five degrees every way.

When the pupil has p.r.o.nounced one sentence in the position thus described, the hand, as if lifeless, must drop down to the side, the very moment the last accepted word is p.r.o.nounced; and the body, without altering the place of the feet, poise itself on the left leg, while the left hand rises itself into exactly the same position as the right was before, and continues in this position till tine end of the next sentence, when it drops down on the side, as if dead; and the body poizing itself on the right leg as before, continues with the right arm extended, till the end of the succeeding sentence, and so on from right to left, and from left to right alternately, till the speech is ended.

[Ill.u.s.tration: PLATE I.]

[Ill.u.s.tration: PLATE II.]

Great care must he taken that the pupil end one sentence completely, before he begin another. He must let the arm drop to the side, and continue for a moment in that posture in which he concluded, before he poizes his body on the other leg, and raises the other arm into the diagonal position before described; both which should be done before he begins to p.r.o.nounce the next sentence. Care must also he taken in s.h.i.+fting the body from one leg to the other, that the feet do not alter their distance. In altering the position of the body, the feet will necessarily alter their position a little; but this change must be made by turning the toes in a somewhat different direction, without suffering them to s.h.i.+ft their ground. The heels, in this transition, change their place, but not the toes. The toes may be considered as pivots, on which the body turns from side to side.

If the pupil's knees are not well formed, or incline inwards, he must be taught to keep his legs at as great a distance as possible, and to incline his body so much to that side, on which the arm is extended, as to oblige him to rest the opposite leg upon the toe; and this will, in a great measure, hide the defect of his make. In the same manner, if the arm be too long, or the elbow incline inwards, it will be proper to make him turn the palm of his hand downwards, so as to make it perfectly horizontal. This will infallibly incline the elbow outwards, and prevent the worst position the arm can possibly fall into, which is that of inclining the elbow to the body. This position of the hand so necessarily keeps the elbow out, that it would not be improper to make the pupil sometimes practice it, though he may have no defect in his make; as an occasional alteration of the former position to this, may often be necessary both for the sake of justness and variety. These two last positions of the legs and arms, are described in plate second.

When the pupil has got the habit of holding his hand and arm properly, he may be taught to move it. In this motion he must be careful to keep the arm from the body. He must neither draw the elbow backwards, nor suffer it to approach to the side, bur, while the hand and lower joint of the arm are curving towards the shoulder, the whole arm, with the elbow forming nearly an angle of a square, should move upwards from the shoulder, in the same position as when gracefully taking off the hat; that is, with the elbow extended from the side, and the upper joint of the arm nearly on a line with the shoulder, and forming an angle of a square with the body--(see plate III.) This motion of the arm will naturally bring the hand with the palm downwards, into an horizontal position, and when it approaches to the head, the arm should with a jerk be suddenly straitened into its first position, at the very moment the emphatical word is p.r.o.nounced. This coincidence of the hand and voice, will greatly enforce the p.r.o.nunciation; and if they keep time, they will be in tune as it were to each other, and to force and energy add harmony and variety.

As this motion of the arm is somewhat complicated, and may be found difficult to execute, it would be adviseable to let the pupil at first speak without any motion of the arm at all. After some time he will naturally fall into a small curvature of the elbow, to beat time, as it were, to the emphatic word; and if, in doing this, he is constantly urged to raise the elbow, and to keep it at a distance from the body, the action of the arm will naturally grow up into that we have just described. So the diagonal position of the arm, though the most graceful and easy when the body is at rest, may he too difficult for boys to fall into at first; and therefore it may be necessary, in order to avoid the worse extreme, for some time to make them extend the arm as far from the body as they can, in a somewhat similar direction, but higher from the ground, and inclining more to the back. Great care must be taken to keep the hand open, and the thumb at some distance from the fingers; and particular attention must be paid to keeping the hand in the exact line with the lower part of the arm, so as not to bend at the wrist, either when it is held out without motion, or when it gives the emphatic stroke. And above all, the body must be kept in a straight line with the leg on which it bears, and not suffered to bend to the opposite side.

[Ill.u.s.tration: PLATE III.]

At first it may not be improper for the teacher, after placing the pupil in the position plate I. to stand at some distance exactly opposite to him in the same position, the right and left sides only reversed, and while the pupil is speaking, to show him by example the action he is to make use of. In this case the teacher's left hand will correspond for the pupil's right, by which means he will see as in a looking-gla.s.s, how to regulate his gesture, and will soon catch the method of doing it by himself.

It is expected the master will be a little discouraged at the aukward figure his pupil makes in his first attempts to teach him. But this is no more than what happens in dancing, fencing, or any other exercise which depends on habit. By practice, the pupil will soon begin to feel his position, and be easy in it. Those positions which were at first distressing to him, he will fall into naturally, and if they are such as are really graceful and becoming (and such it is presumed are those which have been just described) they will be adopted with more facility than any other that can be taught him.

SECTION II.

_On the Acting of Plays at School_.

Though the acting of plays at schools has been universally supposed a very useful practice, it has of late years been much laid aside. The advantages arising from it have not been judged equal to the inconveniencies; and the speaking of single speeches, or the acting of single scenes, has been generally subst.i.tuted in its stead. Indeed when we consider the leading principle and prevailing sentiments of most plays, we shall not wonder that they are not always thought to be the most suitable employment for youth at school; nor, when we reflect on the long interruption to the common school-exercises, which the preparation for a play must necessarily occasion, shall we think it consistent with the general improvement:--But, to wave every objection from prudence or morality, it may be confidently affirmed, that the acting of a play is not so conducive to improvement in elocution, as the speaking of single speeches.

In the first place, the acting of plays is of all kinds of delivery the most difficult; and therefore cannot be the most suitable exercise for boys at school. In the next place, a dramatic performance requires so much attention to the deportment of the body, so varied an expression of the pa.s.sions, and so strict an adherence to character, that elocution is in danger of being neglected: Besides, exact propriety of action, and a nice discrimination of the pa.s.sions, however essential on the stage, are but of a secondary importance in a school. It is plain, open, distinct, and forcible p.r.o.nunciation which school-boys should aim at; and not that quick transition from one pa.s.sion to another, that archness of look, and that _jeu de theatre_, as it is called, so essential to a tolerable dramatic exhibition, and which actors themselves can scarcely arrive at.

In short, it is speaking rather than acting which school-boys should be taught, while the performance of plays is calculated to teach them acting rather than speaking.

But there is a contrary extreme into which many teachers are apt to run, and that is, to condemn every thing which is vehement and forcible as _theatrical_. It is an old trick to depreciate what we can not attain, and calling a spirited p.r.o.nunciation _theatrical_, is but an artful method of hiding an utter inability of speaking with force and energy.