PLAN OF STUDY FOR "PERFECT POSSESSION" To attain to the standard of "Perfect Possession," the reader ought to have an intimate and ready knowledge of the subject. The student ought, first of all, to read the play as a pleasure; then to read it over again, with his mind upon the characters and the plot; and lastly, to read it for the meanings, grammar, etc. With the help of the scheme, he can easily draw up for himself short examination papers (1) on each scene, (2) on each act, (3) on the whole play. 1. The Plot and Story of the Play. (a) The general plot; (b) The special incidents. 2. The Characters: Ability to give a connected account of all that is done, and most of what is said by each character in the play. 3. The Influence and Interplay of the Characters upon each other. (a) Relation of A to B and of B to A; (b) Relation of A to C and D. 4. Complete Possession of the Language. (a) Meanings of words; (b) Use of old words, or of words in an old (c) Grammar; (d) Ability to quote lines to illustrate a gram 5. Power to Reproduce, or Quote as doint out explain. (a) What was said by A or B on a particular (b) What was said by A in reply to B ; (c) What argument was used by Cat a particular (d) To quote a line in instance of an idiom or of 6. Power to Locate. (a) To attribute a line or statement to a certain (b) To cap a line; (c) To fill in the right word or epithet. INTRODUCTION William Shakespeare. "He was born, it is thought, April 23, 1564, the son of a comfortable burgess of Stratford-on-Avon. While he was still young, his father fell into poverty, and an interrupted education left the son an inferior scholar. He had 'small Latin and less Greek.' But by dint of genius and by living in a society in which all sorts of information were attainable, he became an accomplished man. The story told of his deer-stealing in Charlecote woods is without proof, but it is likely that his youth was wild and passionate. At nineteen, he married Ann Hathaway, seven years older than himself, and was probably unhappy with her. For this reason or from poverty, or from the driving of the genius that led him to the stage, he left Stratford about 1586-1587, and went to London at the age of twenty-two, and, falling in with Marlowe, Greene, and the rest, became an actor and a playwright, and may have lived their unrestrained and riotous life for some years. "His First Period. It is probable that before leaving Stratford he had sketched a part at least of his Venus and Adonis. It is full of the country sights and sounds, |