Journeys Through Bookland Volume Viii Part 57

Make a list of the incidents which to you seem unnecessary, which could be left out without injury to the real story. Make another list of incidents that could not be omitted without spoiling the story. Find two little plots that make complete stories in themselves, but that help only in a moderate degree to make the main story clearer.

POETRY AND PROSE. Do any of the characters speak always in prose? Do any speak always in poetry? Do some speak partly in prose and partly in poetry? Can you see any connection between each character and his method of speech? How many songs are sung in the play? Who sings them? Do you like any of the songs? What effect do the songs have upon the play? Can you find rhyming lines anywhere excepting in the songs? Does any character speak in rhyme?

CONCLUSION. If we study a play too long or continue to read it after our interest ceases for a time, we are liable to be prejudiced against it, and to feel that it is not worth the labor we have put upon it. If, however, a person will stop studying when he begins to lose interest and work seems a drudgery, he will come back a little later with renewed interest. Again, when we study a play minutely as we have been doing, and view it from many sides, we may lose sight for a time of the unity and beauty of the whole composition. This is peculiarly unfortunate, for the poet intends us to view his work as a whole, and to produce his effect with the whole. It is _The Tempest_ that we will remember as a work of art, and, if our studies are fruitful, that will draw us back to it at intervals for many years to come. Before we leave it, we must take it and read it through in a leisurely manner, pausing merely to enjoy its beauty, to smile at its playfulness and to feel our hearts expand under the benign influence of the grand old man Prospero. Now Miranda, Ferdinand and Ariel have pa.s.sed the line of mere acquaintances, and have become to us fast friends, who, though they may be forever silent, have yet given us a fragment of their lives to cheer us on our way.

OTHER PLAYS OF SHAKESPEARE. Shakespeare wrote a great many plays, and all are not equally good; a few seem so inferior that many who study them think they were not written by the same hand that penned _The Tempest_. Some of the plays are more difficult than others, and some cannot be comprehended until the reader has had some experience in life.

There are several, on the other hand, that may be read with great interest and profit by almost any one, while those who have read _The Tempest_ as we have recommended, should find some measure of enjoyment in all. _A Midsummer Night's Dream_ is a charming fairy story; _The Merchant of Venice_ is a good story, contains fine characters and shows some of Shakespeare's most beautiful thoughts, although some people are inclined to believe he has dealt too severely with the Jew. _Much Ado About Nothing_ is a jolly comedy to match with _The Comedy of Errors_.

_Julius Caesar_, _Richard III_ and _Coriola.n.u.s_ are interesting historical plays, and _Hamlet_, _Macbeth_ and _Romeo and Juliet_ are among the best of his tragedies. If a person would read just the plays mentioned in the thoughtful way we have indicated here, he would gain a benefit whose great value never can be estimated, and thereafter all reading would seem easier and more delightful.