CONTENTS. PAGE Adolphus, Duke of Guelders.-Owen Meredith.. 89 Adventure, An.-Amelia B. Edwards... 195 Amy Robsart and Lord Leicester, at Kenilworth, Interview be Beggar's Daughter of Bednall Green, The.-Percy Reliques. 44 Blindness, On His.-John Milton.. 202 Bon Jour, Bon Soir... 242 Building of the House, The.-Charles Mackay... 86 Count Albert and Fair Rosalie.-Walter Scott.. 203 Death of Roland, The.-Robert Buchanan. .... Flood on the Floss, The.-George Eliot.... 164 238 35 9 69 31 61 109 81 93 Golden Supper, The.-Alfred Tennyson. 210 Guinevere.-Alfred Tennyson..... 14 Heart of Bruce, The.-William Edmondstoune Aytoun.. 222 Hugh Sutherland's Pansies.-Robert Buchanan. 82 Ivan Ivanovitch.- Robert Browning..... 100 King and the Nightingales, The.-Charles Mackay.. 207 King John and the Abbot of Canterbury-Percy Reliques. 199 39 139 PREFACE. ہے T HE purpose of this collection is to offer readings that can be approved by refined taste and cultivated judgment. The opinion has, to a certain extent, obtained that highly-wrought, sensational elocutionary selections are alone likely to insure attention. WERNER'S READINGS AND RECITATIONS No. I is designed to elevate the student's thought and inspire him with admiration for the purer forms of English literature; also to awaken careful, analytic study. In order to do this the observance of a few direct principles is necessary, even if the intention be to do nothing more than acquire the utterance, in an unembellished manner, of an author's productions in prose or verse. The subject should first be clearly defined in the reader's mind by silent, thoughtful conning of the selection, determining it as narrative, descriptive, didactic, heroic, pathetic, or humorous. Then should follow a clear understanding of the manner in which to deliver the style decided upon; this involves a ready perception of types drawn from daily observation of character. Tones, action, facial expression, and a subordinating of personality to the requirements of the moment are aids by which are to be communicated to an audience the inner significance of what is read, recited, or declaimed. As poet or sculptor appeals first to nature for his inspiration, so should the orator or elocutionist study humanity in its kaleidoscopic showings of the various phases of mind and spirit. |