64

THE GHOST SCENE IN HAMLET.

With servile souls this mill we fed,"
That ground the grain for Slavery's bread:
With cringing men, and grovelling deeds,
We dwarfed our land to Slavery's needs;
Till all the scornful nations hissed,
To see us ground with Slavery's grist.
The mill grinds on! From Slavery's plain,
We reap great crops of blood-red grain;
And still the Negro's strength we urge,
With Slavery's gyve and Slavery's scourge;
And still we crave-on Freedom's sod-
That Slaves shall turn the mills of God!

The Mill grinds on! God lets it grind !
We sow the seed-the sheaves we bind:
The mill-stones whirl as we ordain;
Our children's bread shall test the grain!
While Samson still in chains we bind,
The mill grinds on! God lets it grind!

THE GHOST SCENE IN HAMLET.'

SHAKESPEARE.

In the following scene-from which is omitted some of the dialogue--the young orator will find excellent opportunities for practising himself in attitude, gesture and expression. Hamlet's whole appearance should denote a solemn awe, his voice should be tremulous-particularly when he addresses the visitant from the other world as father; then his whole frame should tremble with emotion, and his voice break, as if overcome by the flood of painful recollections. The "Ghost's" part should be delivered in a low, impressive, guttural tone, suggestive of the hollow echoes of the tomb: Enter GHOST.

Hamlet. Angels and ministers of grace defend us !—
Be thou a spirit of health, or goblin damn'd.

Bring with thee airs from heaven, or blasts from hell,

Be thy intents wicked, or charitable,

Thou comest in such a questionable shape,

That I will speak to thee; I'll call thee, Hamlet,

King, father; Royal Dane, O, answer me:

THE GHOST SCENE IN HAMLET.

Let me not burst in ignorance! but tell,
Why thy canonized bones, hearsed in death,
Have burst their cerements! why the sepulchre,
Wherein we saw thee quietly in-urn'd,

Hath ope'd his ponderous and marble jaws,
To cast thee up again! What may this mean,
That thou, dead corse, again in complete steel,
Revisit'st thus the glimpses of the moon,
Making night hideous; and we fools of nature,
So horridly to shake our disposition,

With thoughts beyond the reaches of our souls?
Say, why is this? wherefore? what should we do?
Ghost. I am thy father's spirit;

Doom'd for a certain term to walk the night:
And, for the day, confined to fast in fires,

Till the foul crimes, done in my days of nature,

Are burnt and purged away. But that I am forbid
To tell the secrets of my prison-house,

I could a tale unfold, whose lightest word

Would harrow up thy soul; freeze thy young blood;

Make thy two eyes, like stars, start from their spheres;
Thy knotted and combined locks to part,

And each particular hair to stand an-end,

Like quills upon the fretful porcupine:

But this eternal blazon must not be

To ears of flesh and blood:-List, list, O list!

If thou didst ever thy dear father love,—

Ham. O heaven!

Ghost. Revenge his foul and most unnatural murder."

Ham. Murder?

Ghost. Murder most foul, as in the best it is;

But this most foul, strange, and unnatural.

Ham. Haste me to know it; that I, with wings as swift

As meditation, or the thoughts of love,

May sweep to my revenge.

Ghost. I find thee apt;

And duller shouldst thou be than the fat weed

That rots itself in ease on Lethe wharf,

Wouldst thou not stir in this. Now, Hamlet, hear:

'Tis given out, that, sleeping in mine orchard,

A serpent stung me; so the whole ear of Denmark

Is by a forged process of my death

Rankly abused: but know, thou noble youth,

The serpent, that did sting thy father's life,
Now wears his crown.

Ham. O, my prophetic soul! my uncle!

Ghost, Ay, that incestuous, that adulterous beast

65

66

THE GHOST SCENE IN HAMLET.

With witchcraft of his wit, with traitorous gifts,
(O wicked wit, and gifts, that have the power
So to seduce!) won to his shameful lust
The will of my most seeming-virtuous queen;
O, Hamlet, what a falling off was there!
From me, whose love was of that dignity,
That it went hand in hand even with the vow
I made to her in marriage; and to decline
Upon a wretch, whose natural gifts were poor
To those of mine!

But virtue, as it never will be moved,

Though lewdness court it in a shape of heaven;
So lust, though to a radiant angel link'd,
Will sate itself in a celestial bed,

And prey on garbage.

But, soft! methinks I scent the morning air;
Brief let me be :-Sleeping within mine orchard,
My custom always of the afternoon,

Upon my secure hour thy uncle stole
With juice of cursed hebenon in a vial,
And in the porches of mine ear did pour
The leprous distilment: whose effect
Holds such an enmity with blood of man,
That, swift as quicksilver, it courses through
The natural gates and alleys of the body;
And, with a sudden vigor, it doth posset
And curd, like eager droppings into milk,
The thin and wholesome blood: so did it mine:
And a most instant tetter bark'd about,
Most lazar-like, with vile and loathsome crust,
All my smooth body.

Thus was I, sleeping, by a brother's hand,

Of life, of crown, of queen, at once dispatch'd:
Cut off even in the blossoms of my sin,
Unhousel'd, disappointed, unaneal'd;

No reckoning made, but sent to my account,
With all my imperfections on my head:
O horrible! O horrible! most horrible!
If thou hast nature in thee, bear it not;
Let not the royal bed of Denmark be
A couch for luxury and damned incest.
But, howsoever thou pursuest this act,
Taint not thy mind, nor let thy soul contrive
Against thy mother aught; leave her to Heaven,
And to those thorns that in her bosom lodge,
To prick and sting her. Fare thee well at once!
The glow-worm shows the matin to be near,

OUR HEROES SHALL LIVE.

And 'gins to pale his uneffectual fire!

67

Adieu, adieu, adieu! remember me.

[Exit.

Ham. O all you host of heaven! O earth! What else?

And shall I couple hell ?-O fy!--Hold, hold, my heart;

And you, my sinews, grow not instant old,

But bear me stiffly up!-Remember thee?

Ay, thou poor ghost, while memory holds a seat
In this distracted globe. Remember thee?
Yea, from the table of my memory

I'll wipe away all trivial fond records,

All saws of books, all forms, all pressures past,
That youth and observation copied there;
And thy commandment all alone shall live
Within the book and volume of my brain,
Unmix'd with baser matter: yes, by Heaven,
O most pernicious woman!

O villain, villain, smiling, damned villain!

My tables,-meet it is, I set it down,

That one may smile, and smile, and be a villain !

At least, I am sure, it may be so in Denmark: (writing)
So, uncle, there you are. Now, to my word;

It is, Adieu, adieu! remember mo.

I have sworn't.

OUR HEROES SHALL LIVE.

HENRY WARD BEECHER.

This brief extract from a splendid oration should be spoken in clear, defined tones, rather high pitch, the utterance slow, with a rather long pause after each question :

Oh, tell me not that they are dead-that generous host, that airy army of invisible heroes. They hover as a cloud of witnesses above this nation. Are they dead that yet speak louder than we can speak, and a more universal language? Are they dead that yet act? Are they dead that yet move upon society, and inspire the people with nobler motives, and more heroic patriotism?

Ye that mourn, let gladness mingle with your tears. It was your son, but now he is the nation's. He made your household bright: now his example inspires a thousand households. Dear to his brothers and sisters, he is now brother to every generous youth in the land. Before, he was narrowed, appropriated, shut up to you. 'Now he is augmented, set free, and given to all. Before, he was yours he is ours. He has died from the family, that he might live to the nation. Not one name shall be forgotten or neglected: and it shall by and by be confessed of our modern heroes, as it is of an ancient hero, that he did more for his country by his death than by his whole life.

68.

KATHERINE'S DEFENCE.

KATHERINE'S DEFENCE.

SHAKESPEARE.

In the beginning of this speecn Queen Katherine speaks in a low, subdued tone, in a kneeling posture. When she speaks of her conduct as a wife and mother her eyes suffuse with tears--her voice grows tremulous with agitation; but as she replies to the cutting insinuation of her enemies, her form grows erect and dilates with all the power of conscious rectitude, and her lip curls with haughty disdain. Meanwhile her tones become sharp and biting:

Q. Kath. Sir, I desire you do me right, and justice;
And to bestow your pity on me: for

I am a most poor woman, and a stranger,
Born out of your dominions; having here
No judge indifferent, nor no more assurance
Of equal friendship and proceeding. Alas, sir,
In what have I offended you; what cause..
Hath my behavior given to your displeasure;
That thus you should proceed to put me off,

And take your good grace from me? Heaven witness
I have been to you a true and humble wife,

At all times to your will conformable:

Ever in fear to kindle your dislike,

Yea, subject to your countenance; glad, or sorry,
As I saw it inclined. When was the hour,

I ever contradicted your desire,

Or made it not mine too? Or which of your friends
Have I not strove to love, although I knew

He were mine enemy? what friend of mine,
That had to him derived your anger, did I
Continue in my liking? nay, gave notice

He was from thence discharged? Sir, call to mind,
That I have been your wife, in this obedience,
Upward of twenty years, and have been blest
With many children by you: If, in the course
And process of this time, you can report,
And prove it too, against mine honor aught,
My bond to wedlock, or my love and duty,
Against your sacred person, in God's name,
Turn me away; and let the foul'st contempt
Shut door upon me and so give me up
To the sharpest kind of justice. Please you, sir
The king, your father, was reputed for