The cock, that is the trumpet to the morn, Doth with his lofty and shrill-sounding throat Mar. It faded on the crowing of the cock. Hor. So have I heard and do in part believe it. Mar. Let's do't, I pray; and I this morning know Exeunt. WILLIAM SHAKESPEARE, HELPS TO STUDY A drama tells of action by means of the words of the actors themselves. It is written to be presented in the theater where the actors mimic the words and deeds of real life. When we read a drama, we imagine the setting that would be provided by scenery on the stage, and the persons, voices, and gestures of the actors. Notice that in addition to the speeches there are "stage directions" usually printed in italics. These explain where the place is, who enters, and who leaves (exit) the stage. A drama calls for more imagination in reading than a narrative but it presents life more vividly and directly. The selection is the first scene of the greatest of all plays, Shakespeare's Hamlet. It tells of the appearance of the ghost of Hamlet's murdered father to some soldiers on the watch. 1. When does this scene take place? 2. Who are the speakers? 3. What are they doing? 4. What hour is it? 5. What words tell us of the weather? of the stillness? 6. What is the first reference to the ghost? 7. Who have seen the ghost before? 8. Who doubts its existence? 9. How does the ghost impress the watchers? 10. With what words does Horatio address it? 11. Of what do the soldiers converse after the ghost has vanished? 12. Who is young Fortinbras? 13. What danger to the kingdom? 14. How does Horatio address the ghost on its second appearance? 15. When does the ghost disappear? 16. Is this selection in prose or verse? 17. Is it in rhyming verse? 18. What is blank verse? 19. How many feet are there in a blank verse line? 20. Notice line 10, page 55. 21. Notice line 3, page 56. 22. Who was Shakespeare? you read by Shakespeare? How is it printed? How is it printed? How many feet has it? 23. When did he live? 24. What have 25. What is a tragedy? a comedy? Phrases: Shakespeare uses words with great skill and originality. Some of his words are not now in use and others have changed their meanings since his day. The Notes below explain such difficulties. You should, however, notice for yourself how vivid and imaginative are many of the expressions which offer no difficulties. Explain or find synonyms for the following phrases, and note the vividness of Shakespeare's words: Page 55, 1. 2, unfold yourself; P. 56, l. 12, watch the minutes; I. 16, assail your ears; P. 58, l. 15, sore task; 1. 17, sweaty haste; 1. 23, thereto prick'd on; P. 59, 1. 24, what passage in the Bible is referred to? (Matthew vii. 3); 1. 28, squeak and gibber; P. 61, l. 17, in russet mantle clad. Notes on Words and Phrases. Page 55, 1. 3, the countersign; l. 15, the Dane, the King of Denmark; P. 57, l. 8, spoke to, it was believed that ghosts could not speak unless spoken to; 1. 14, approve our eyes, admit that our eyes saw correctly; 1. 20, sensible, perceived by the senses; avouch, proof; P. 58, 1. 2, parle, parley, meeting; 1. 3, sledded Polacks, Poles who used sleds; 1. 5, jump, just; 1. 8, gross and scope, i.e. speaking generally; 1. 12, toils the subject, makes the subjects toil; 1. 14, mart, market, trade; P. 59, 1. 3, gaged, pledged; 1. 6, And carrying out of the agreement planned; 1. 8, unimproved mettle, untried temper; 1. 10, Picked up a lot of homeless and resolute fellows; 1. 15, compulsative, compulsory; 1. 19, post-haste and romage, great haste and hustle; 1. 21, sort, accord; P. 60, ll. 11; 12, If you have hoarded stolen gold buried in the ground; 1. 15, partisan, battle-axe; P. 61, 1. 5, extravagant, wandering outside its confines; erring, wandering; 1. 7, probation, proof; 1. 13, strike, injure; 1. 14, takes, bewitches. For Study with the Glossary: liegemen, fantasy, apparition, assail, harrows, usurp'st, bodes, impress, emulate, heraldry, moiety, portentous, wards, illusion. Review Questions. 1. What is a drama? 2. How does a drama differ from other narratives? 3. Name some dramas that you have read or have seen acted. 4. What prose narrative have you read in this book? 5. What narrative poem? 6. What is a lyric poem? 7. Give examples. 8. What is the difference between a description and a narrative. 9. Tell what you can about these other forms of literature: the novel, the history, the biography. 10. What authors have you read thus far in this book? LITERATURE, A WINDOW INTO THE PAST Literature is very much alive to-day. Thousands of books are setting forth the ideas and scenes of the present time; and many are employing the same forms that you have studied, as narrative, lyric, description, and drama. 5 But literature is also very old, going back to the earliest days of mankind on this earth. It is a record of human nature through many centuries and in many countries. Its great books have become the heritage of the race. boy or girl to-day through literature may come into pos10 session of the best that has been thought and written by the great minds of all ages. Each Literature puts before us the whole panorama of civilization and shows its progress from the nations of antiquity, the Hebrews of Palestine, the Greeks who spread trade and 15 culture over the eastern world, and the Romans who for centuries ruled the Mediterranean, onward through the Middle Ages to the growth of the great modern nations of to-day. Of the peoples of antiquity, the Hebrews, the Greeks, and the Romans had noble literatures, and through these writ20ings they play great parts in the life and thought of the present. The Middle Ages too had a great literature which is the direct inheritance of all the nations of Western Europe. In the preceding selections we have had examples of various forms of literature and have seen in what differ25 ent ways, in prose or verse, in narrative, in lyric, descrip tion, or drama, the imagination of the individual writer may express itself. In the selections which follow, literature will unlock the doors of the past and reveal to us the lives and hopes of the days of long ago. There are two ways by which we may live again in the past through lit-5 erature. In the first place, we may read the books which were written then, and in the second place, we may read the books in which later writers have described the past times. Our selections will consist in part of the masterpieces of 10 the Hebrew, the Greek, the Roman, and the medieval literatures, and in part of the masterpieces which modern writers have written concerning those periods of history. We shall look at the Greeks, for example, through the writings of their greatest poet, Homer, and also through what 15 Tennyson has written about Homer's hero, Ulysses. We shall see the Age of Chivalry in the poem which the Norman invaders of England sang at the battle of Hastings, and also in the great novel in which Sir Walter Scott made the Middle Ages live afresh for modern readers. 20 We shall be interested in seeing how different were the manners and customs of those past times from ours to-day; and we shall also be interested in seeing how much the men and women of those times were like ourselves. We shall find in these selections many examples and lessons which 25 are as good now as ever. We shall know more about ourselves and our times through our acquaintance with the best of the past. |