no means easy to grasp even when standing alone, thrown in after the mind already has two or three subordinate thoughts to retain ! The subordinate either overtops the principal or obscures it altogether. A small detail in This leads us to the consideration of Subordination in Recitation. As has been already stated, this is one of the most difficult problems of the reader. painting is painted relatively small. In sculpture the hand is smaller than the head. And yet in reading, some people's arms are more prominent than their voices, their attitudinizing more significant than their souls. The reason for this is generally utter ignorance of that feature of art we are now discussing, and a desire to display self. But why does the conscientious student so often fail? The answer is: He forgets that he is working in time. The reader must utter every word of his author, and hence every word is potentially significant or not. Every tone, quality, gesture, and attitude may be made so significant that it will remain permanently in the mind of the audience. Here, then, is the pitfall. Many readers act out every description, on the mistaken principle that every thought is equally important. The consequence is no thought is significant. One cannot see the forest for the trees. It is true we should miss a brick if it were left out of the front of a building, but we do not want every brick stamped "a brick." Many lines in a poem are bricks. They are necessary that the structure may rise from foundation to spire; but having performed their office, they must sink into comparative insignificance. Let us illustrate this, once more from King Robert. The king is locked within the church. Some one must open the door, Hence the author says: "At length the sexton, hearing from without And thinking thieves were in the house of prayer, Now, there are those who imitate the action of the sexton holding high his lantern, and even present him as speaking in a shrill treble. Comment is useless. Bring in the sexton with as little ostentation as possible, let him open the door, say his say, and then depart. It is claimed that it can do no harm to make this and similar scenes vivid, because while many in the audience may get the idea if it is correctly set forth, many others of less imagination would miss it. If an auditor has no sense of proportion, it is all the more necessary that the important and nonimportant be carefully discriminated. If one makes significant such points as these, what technique is left to manifest the most important? We must ask ourselves, How much is the episode worth? Why is it inserted? To answer in this case is easy. The king is in the church and the door is locked. Some one must open it, and the sexton is that person. Let him be introduced as simply as possible; let him open the door and be dismissed. In contrast to this note the following from the same poem: "And, lifting high his forehead, he would fling The haughty answer back, 'I am, I am the King!' Here is a most significant detail. It is inserted to show the pride, arrogance, and obstinacy of the king, the very motive of the poem. This must be made significant. It is the central idea of the paragraph. How strange it is that so many actors and readers recite the following lines from Hamlet, and yet in practice appear utterly oblivious of their true meaning. Let the student ponder them well: "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 quantity of barren spectators to laugh too; though in the meantime, some necessary question of the play is then to be considered: that's villainous, and shows a pitiful ambition in the fool that uses it." Movement will not require much elaboration. It must be clear that where the story is not progressive, the mind of the reader is distracted, and his interest dissipated. Note how easily the mind follows the story in King Robert. On the contrary, observe the lack of continuous thinking along any line in the following extract from Tennyson's Brook. The speaker mentioned is a garrulous old man, who is by every stray thought led away from his topic : O Katie, what I suffer'd for your sake! He praised his land, his horses, his machines; Then, seated on a serpent-rooted beech, He pointed out a pasturing colt, and said: "That was the four-year-old I sold the Squire." And there he told a long long-winded tale To learn the price, and what the price he ask'd, Then, while I breathed in sight of haven, he, How suggestive of the character is the parenthesis concerning "May or April"! In Recitation the law of Movement is often violated by the reader. By dwelling too long on this word, sentence, or paragraph, he hinders the progress of the story, very often with the result of greatly irritating the audience and destroying the innermost meaning. CHAPTER VII. STUDIES IN PRINCIPALITY AND SUBORDINATION. PRINCIPALITY. THE student should study with great care the following poems, with the view to discovering the central thought. In the rendition which should follow, let him observe what has been said regarding subordination. When in doubt as to the amount of stress to be laid on any particular phrase, let him ask himself, How much does it contribute to the whole? and the answer will determine the amount of prominence the phrase will receive in recitation. The decision in most cases is not a question of taste, as so many aver. It is a matter of judgment; and while occasionally particular passages need to be more strongly emphasized for one audience than for another, yet on the whole there is a very definite art principle that cannot be violated. It is not possible to dwell at length on this most vital principle, for to do that might easily require a volume. It is possible, however, to give some suggestive examples, which it is hoped will serve as standards for the student. These are given after the studies in Principality. A child sleeps under a rose-bush fair. |