Celebrated IMAGINARY ADDRESSES AND HE laws of language and the laws of music are so closely correlated that even the plainest prose is governed by the same principles of melody which govern the highest form of poetical expression. There is no break at any point of the development of speech towards its highest possibilities of beauty and power. The poets are thus the best teachers of prose, because it is in their best verse only that the laws of prose find perfect expression. All great orators have been taught by the great poets. Homer in the classical ages and Shakespeare in modern times have taught the greatest orators who ever lived. Anyone who will read aloud their verse and the verse of other great poets as persistently as a musician practices to acquire skill on his instrument, is almost sure to acquire a controlling "ear" for melody in language. It is indispensable for success, however, that the verse should be read aloud, in order that the ear may clearly grasp its vowel harmonies. This has been recognized practically, even if it has not been defined as a principle, for the "recitation" of speeches and soliloquies from Homer, Milton and Shakespeare has long been a favorite exercise in the schools. Some of the speeches which the great poets put in the mouths of their characters represent eloquence of the highest order. The orations delivered at the Council of War in hell by Milton's fallen angels have seldom been equaled, and, certainly, they have never been surpassed in either the American Congress or the British Parliament. It would be safe to say the same thing of the speeches and soliloquies in Homer, Shakespeare, and Byron. In selecting such speeches and soliloquies for this work, care has been taken to find, by examining the "Speakers » most used in America and England, those which general experience has shown to be most widely useful for oratorical purposes. Only the most celebrated have been included, and, though what may be called "the acting versions,"-as they have been adapted for recitation by the best elocutionists,—have been retained, they have been compared with the original texts in standard editions and corrected. CELEBRATED IMAGINARY ADDRESSES AND SOLILOQUIES HOMER (Greece c. 850 (?) to 800 (?) B. C.) The brave and base in equal honor stand,— And tell it him aloud, that other Greeks Of this his offer,- all the treasured heaps I will not wed the daughter of your Chief,— ACHILLES TO THE ENVOYS-LANG'S LITERAL VERSION AND Achilles, fleet of foot, answered and said unto him: Heaven-sprung son of Laertes, Odysseus of many wiles, in openness must I now declare unto you my saying, even as I am minded, and as the fulfillment thereof shall be, that ye may not sit before me and coax this way and that. For hateful to me even as the gates of hell is he that hideth one thing in his heart and uttereth another; but I will speak what me seemeth best. Not me, I ween, shall Agamemnon son of Atreus persuade, nor the other Danaans, seeing we were to have no thank for battling with the foeman ever without respite. He that abideth at home hath equal share with him that fighteth his best, and in like honor are held both the coward and the brave; death cometh alike to the untoiling and to him that hath toiled long. Neither have I any profit for that I endured tribulation of soul, ever staking my life in fight. Even as a hen bringeth her unfledged chickens each morsel as she winneth it, and with herself it goeth hard, even so I was wont to watch out many a sleepless night and pass through many bloody days of battle, warring with folk for their women's sake. Twelve cities of men have I laid waste from shipboard, and from land eleven, I do you to wit, throughout deep-soiled Troy-land; out of all these took I many goodly treasures and would bring and give them all to Agamemnon, son of Atreus, and he staying behind amid the fleet ships would take them and portion out some few, but keep the most. Now some he gave to be meeds of honor to the princes and the kings, and theirs are left untouched; only from me of all the Achaians took he my darling lady and keepeth her, - let him sleep beside her and take his joy! But why must the Argives make war on the Trojans? Why hath Atreides gathered his host and led them hither? Is it not for lovely-haired Helen's sake? Do then the sons of Atreus, alone of mortal men, love their wives? Surely whatsoever man is good and sound of mind loveth his own and cherisheth her, even as I too loved mine with all my heart, though but the captive of my spear. But now that he hath taken my meed of honor from mine arms and hath deceived me, let him not tempt me that know him full well; he shall not prevail. Nay, Odysseus, let him take counsel with thee and all the princes to ward from the ships the consuming fire. Verily without mine aid he hath wrought many things, and built a wall and dug a foss about it wide and deep, and set a palisade therein; yet even so can he not stay murderous Hector's might. But so long as I was fighting amid the Achaians, Hector had no mind to array his battle far from the wall, but scarce came unto the Skaian gates and to the oak tree; there once he awaited me alone and scarce escaped my onset. But now, seeing I have no mind to fight with noble Hector, I will to-morrow do sacrifice to Zeus and all the gods, and store well my ships when I have launched them on the salt sea,-then shalt thou see, if thou wilt and hast any care therefor, my ships sailing at break of day over the Hellespont, the fishes' home, and my men right eager at the oar; and if the great Shaker of the Earth grant me a good journey, on the third day should I reach deep-soiled Phthia. There are my great possessions that I left when I came hither to my hurt; and yet more gold and ruddy bronze shall I bring from hence, and fair-girdled women and gray iron,- all at least that were mine by lot; only my meed of honor hath he that gave it me taken back in his despitefulness, even Lord Agamemnon, son of Atreus. To him declare ye everything even as I charge you, openly, that all the Achaians likewise may have indignation, if, haply, he hopeth to beguile yet some other Danaan, for that he is ever clothed in shamelessness. Verily not in my face would he dare to look, though he have the front of a dog. Neither will I devise counsel with him nor any enterprise, for utterly he hath deceived me and done wickedly; but never again shall he beguile me with fair speech, -let this suffice him. Let him begone in peace; Zeus, the lord of counsel, hath taken away his wits. Hateful to me are his gifts, and I hold him at a straw's worth. Not even if he gave me ten times, yea twenty, all that now is his, and all that may come to him otherwhence, even all the rev enue of Orchomenos or Egyptian Thebes, where the treasure-houses are stored fullest,- Thebes of the hundred gates, whence sally forth two hundred warriors through each with horses and chariots,-nay, nor gifts in number as sand or dust; not even so shall Agamemnon persuade my soul till he have paid me back all the bitter despite. And the daughter of Agamemnon, son of Atreus, will I not wed, not were she rival of golden Aphrodite for fairness, and for handiwork matched bright-eyed Athene,- not even then will I wed her; let him choose him of the Achaians another that is his peer and is more royal than I. For if the gods indeed preserve me, and I come unto my home, then will Peleus himself seek me a wife. Many Achaian maidens are there throughout Hellas and Phthia, daughters of princes that ward their cities; whomsoever of these I wish will I make my dear lady. Very often was my high soul moved to take me there a wedded wife, a helpmeet for me, and have joy of the possessions that the old man Peleus possesseth. For not of like worth with life hold I even all the wealth that men say was possessed of the well-peopled city of Ilios in days of peace gone by, before the sons of the Achaians came; neither all the treasure that the stone threshold of the archer Phoebus Apollo encompasseth in rocky Pytho. For kine and goodly flocks are to be had for the harrying, and tripods and chestnut horses for the purchasing; but to bring back man's life neither harrying nor earning availeth when once it hath passed the barrier of his lips. For thus my goddess mother telleth me, Thetis, the silver-footed, that twain fates are bearing me to the issue of death. If I abide here and besiege the Trojans' city, then my returning home is taken from me, but my fame shall be imperishable; but if I go home to my dear native land, my high fame is taken from me, but my life shall endure long while, neither shall the issue of death soon reach me. Moreover I would counsel you all to set sail homeward, seeing ye shall never reach your goal of steep Ilios; of a surety far-seeing Zeus holdeth his hand over her, and her folk are of good courage. So go your way and tell my answer to the princes of the Achaians, even as is the office of elders, that they may devise in their hearts some other better counsel, such as shall save them their ships and the host of the Achaians amid the hollow ships; since this counsel availeth them naught that they have now devised, by reason of my fierce wrath. -From the Iliad, Book IX., 307-427. Translated by Andrew Lang. MacMillan & Co. HECTOR'S REBUKE TO POLYDAMAS POLYDAMAS to dauntless Hector spake: Ofttimes in council, Hector, thou art wont To censure me, although advising well; Yet hear my best opinion once again. Proceed we not in our attempt against The Grecian fleet. The omens we have seen All urge against it. When the eagle flew, Clutching the spotted snake, then dropping it Into the open space between the hosts, Troy's host was on the left. Was this propitious? To whom dark-lowering Hector thus replied: Thou couldst have framed far better; but if this Which I alike despise, speed they their course With right-hand flight toward the ruddy East, Or leftward down into the shades of eve! Consider we the will of Jove alone, Sovereign of Heaven and Earth. Omens abound; CORNELIUS TACITUS (Rome, c. 55-c. 117 A. D.) GALGACUS TO THE CALEDONIANS (Galgacus is represented by Tacitus as addressing his followers, encamped on the Grampian Hills.) AS OFTEN as I reflect on the origin of the war, and our necessities, I feel a strong conviction that this day, and your will, are about to lay the foundations of British liberty. For we have all known what slavery is, and no place of retreat lies behind us. The sea even is insecure when the Roman fleet hovers around. Thus arms and war, ever coveted by the brave, are now the only refuge of the cowardly. In former actions in which the Britons fought with various success against the Romans, our valor was a resource to look to; for we, the noblest of all the nations, and, on that account, placed in its inmost recesses, unused to the spectacle of servitude, had our eyes even inviolate from its hateful sight. We, the last of the earth, and of freedom, unknown to fame, have been hitherto defended by our remoteness; now the extreme limits of Britain appear, and the unknown is ever regarded as the magnificent. No refuge is behind us; naught but the rocks and the waves, and the deadlier Romans, - men whose pride you have in vain sought to deprecate by moderation and subservi ence. The robbers of the globe, when the land fails, scour the sea. Is the enemy rich? they are avaricious; is he poor? they are ambitious; the East and the West are unable to satiate their desires. Wealth and poverty are alike coveted by their rapacity. To carry off, massacre, seize on false pretenses, they call empire; and, when they make a desert, they call it peace.* **Auferre, trucidare, rapere, falsis nominibus imperium, atque ubi solitudinem faciunt, pacem appellant." Nature has made children and relations dearest to all; they are carried off by levies to serve elsewhere. Our goods and fortunes they seize on as tribute, our corn as supplies; our very bodies and hands they wear out, amid strife and contumely, in fortifying stations in the woods and marshes. Serfs born in servitude are once bought, and ever after fed by their masters; Britain alone daily buys its slavery, daily feeds it. As in families the last slave purchased is often a laughingstock to the rest, so we, the last whom they have reduced to slavery, are the first to be agonized by their contumely, and reserved for destruction. We have neither fields, nor minerals, nor harbors, in working which we can be employed; the valor and fierceness of the vanquished are obnoxious to the victors; our very distance and obscurity, as they render us the safer, make us the more suspected. Laying aside, therefore, all hope of pardon, assume the courage of men to whom salvation and glory are alike dear. The Trinobantes, under a female leader, had courage to burn a colony and storm castles; and, had not their success rendered them negligent, they would have cast off the yoke. We, untouched and unconquered, nursed in freedom, shall we not show, on the first onset, what men Caledonia has nursed in her bosom? Do not believe the Romans have the same prowess in war as lust in peace. They have grown great on our divisions; they know how to turn the vices of men to the glory of their own army. As it has been drawn together by success, so disaster will dissolve it, unless you suppose that the Gauls and the Germans, and, I am ashamed to say, many of the Britons, who now lend their blood to a foreign usurpation, and in their hearts are rather enemies than slaves, can be retained by faith and affection. |