Practical English Composition Part 17

_Tuesday_--Study of Models through Dictation.

_Wednesday_--Gathering of Material--Organization.

_Thursday_--Oral Discussion of First Drafts.

_Friday_--1. Present finished work to teacher.

2. Program.

VIII. A Shakespeare Program

If, for any reason, it seems unwise to send pupils to a play, they might be requested (1) to present the following program, or some modification of it, as typical of Shakespeare's best work, and (2) to write notices or critiques thereon. It is perhaps unnecessary to add that no more profitable or delightful exercise can be devised for a cla.s.s.

1. Mendelssohn's _A Midsummer Night's Dream_ Music.

2. Antony's Oration (with mob).

3. Songs from _As You Like It_.

4. Quarrel of Brutus and Ca.s.sius.

5. The Seven Ages of Man.

6. Hamlet's Soliloquy.

7. The Trial Scene from _The Merchant of Venice_.

8. Songs from Various Plays.

9. The Rude Mechanicals, from _A Midsummer Night's Dream_.

IX. Memorize

THE ART OF ACTING

_Hamlet._ Speak the speech, I pray you, as I p.r.o.nounced it to you, trippingly on the tongue: but, if you mouth it, as many of your 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, the whirlwind of pa.s.sion, you must acquire and beget a temperance that may give it smoothness. O, it offends me to the soul to hear a robustious periwig-pated fellow tear a pa.s.sion to tatters, to very rags, to split the ears of the groundlings, who for the most part are capable of nothing but inexplicable dumb-shows and noise: I would have such a fellow whipped for o'erdoing Termagant; it out-herods Herod: pray you, avoid it.

_First Player._ I warrant your honour.

_Hamlet._ Be not too tame neither, but let your 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 anything so overdone is from the purpose of playing, whose end, both at the first and now, was and is, to hold, as 'twere, 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, cannot but make the judicious grieve; the censure of the which one must in your allowance o'erweigh a whole theatre 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.

_First Player._ I hope we have reformed that indifferently with us, sir.

_Hamlet._ O, reform it altogether. And let those that play your clowns speak no more than is set down for them; for there be of them that will themselves laugh, to set on some quant.i.ty of barren spectators to laugh too; though, in the mean time, some necessary question of the play be then to be considered: that's villainous, and shows a most pitiful ambition in the fool that uses it. Go, make you ready.

WILLIAM SHAKESPEARE, _Hamlet_, Act III, Scene 2.

CHAPTER XIII

INTERVIEWS

"To be a well-favored man is the gift of fortune; but to write and read comes by nature."--SHAKESPEARE.

I. Introduction

For most of his material a reporter must rely upon his success as an interviewer. This, it has already been pointed out, requires courage, tact, persistence, and some knowledge of human nature. Its performance is beyond the powers of most boys and girls, and besides, if they tried it, they would annoy people. As a subst.i.tute, the exercises that follow have been devised. They involve interviews, it is true, but only with the members of a pupil's own family.

There are two ways to manage an interview. One may go directly at it, which is sometimes the best method, or one may approach the subject cautiously. It depends on the disposition of the person interviewed. The direct method will probably work well with mother, who is never out of sorts, but as to father--well, the case may be different; while sisters, brothers, cousins, aunts, and uncles present endless problems and opportunities.

Before interviewing anybody, it is a good plan always to write down the questions you wish to ask. But do not read them to the person interviewed. Get them so thoroughly into your own mind that you will forget none of them. As an exercise, make a set of questions such as you would need to ask in order to learn the facts contained in the following paragraphs from Franklin's _Autobiography_.

II. a.s.signments

Write the opening paragraphs of your own biography, covering the topics suggested below:

Week 1--My Ancestors.

Week 2--My Uncles.

Week 3--My Parents.

III. Model I

MY ANCESTORS

One of my uncles furnished me with several particulars relating to our ancestors. From his notes I learned that the family had lived in the same village, Ecton, in Northamptons.h.i.+re, for three hundred years, and how much longer he knew not (perhaps from the time when the name of Franklin, that before was the name of an order of people, was a.s.sumed by them as a surname when others took surnames all over the kingdom), on a freehold of about thirty acres, aided by the smith's business, which had continued in the family until his time, the eldest son being always bred to that business, a custom which he and my father followed as to their eldest sons. When I searched the records of Ecton, I found an account of their births, marriages, and burials from the year 1555 only, there being no registers kept in that parish at any time preceding. By that register I perceived that I was the youngest son of the youngest son for five generations back. My grandfather Thomas, who was born in 1598, lived at Ecton till he grew too old to follow business longer, when he went to live with his son John, a dyer at Banbury, in Oxfords.h.i.+re, with whom my father served an apprentices.h.i.+p. There my grandfather died and lies buried. We saw his gravestone in 1758. His eldest son Thomas lived in the house at Ecton, and left it with the land to his only child, a daughter. My grandfather had four sons that grew up, viz: Thomas, John, Benjamin, and Josiah. I will give you what account I can of them.

IV. Queries

1. Who was Benjamin Franklin? Answer in a five-minute speech.

2. What is the difference between a biography and an autobiography?

3. Locate Ecton, Northamptons.h.i.+re, Banbury, and Oxfords.h.i.+re.

4. Point out all of the adjective phrases.

5. Does Franklin use simple, compound, or complex sentences, and in what proportion?

6. Make a list of the topics he discusses. Can you improve his order?

7. Are his sentences long or short?

8. Do they lack unity?

9. Can you find any metaphors or ant.i.theses in the model?

10. Discuss the origin of the name Franklin. What is a surname?

When did the English a.s.sume surnames?

V. Composition

Write an account of your own ancestors, choosing either your father's or your mother's family. Let the length be about the same as that of the model. The topics discussed should include the following: