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spelling is no safe guide. Words are not always pronounced as they are spelt. Usage is sovereign-the best usage of the best people. Find out what it is and imitate it, even at the cost of being thought affected, or trying to be grand.

4. Be intelligent. Understand the meaning of what you recite, of every sentence, and of all the difficult words or phrases in every sentence. Remember that a poet speaks in figures. Look beneath the surface of the words. Find out where the figures are and what they are, and master them.

5. Be expressive. Expression is the life of a passage. The rest is sufficient for rendering it correctly and intelligibly, but expression makes it live. Find out what is the key-note of the piece, and let it ever be present with you, pervading everything; and if it be a passage from a drama, what is the distinguishing character of the person whose part you are assuming, and express it, in your bearing, your look, the intonations of your voice, your gestures, suiting the action to the word,

For example: "Manfred" is a tragedy. Then let your mood be tragic, solemn, stately. Manfred himself is an unhealthily gloomy, meditative, impassioned character, rendered desperate by remorse for some mysterious sin, and bent on self-destruction. Then be yourself-when you recite what he has to say-moodily thoughtful, melancholy, passionate, as he was. The "Chamois hunter," on the other hand, is a simple-hearted, manly mountaineer. Alter your voice, your manner, your very look, to suit him. Again, "Helena and Hermia" is a comic scene with a vein of tender pathos running through it. If you are Helena, be tender, pathetic, timid; if Hermia, ready to take offence, indignant, shrewish. "The Wreck of the Hesperus" is a sea-piece. Begin boldly, with a dash of salt water in your air and voice. Let the skipper speak roughly but kindly,

to save.

in a tone of confidence which he scarcely feels; his gentle child fearfully, in trembling reliance on her father's power Let the winds roar and the cruel foam sweep over the crashing timbers. "Italy and Switzerland" is a calm flowing description of two dissimilar countries, in English hexameter verse. Attend to the sense and not the rhymes: the rhymes will take care of themselves. Mind your stops. Let the voice pause, not at the end of the line,

but with the sense. Be careful not to proceed with a swing, like a pendulum or a rocking-horse, but in a slow, deliberate, measured tone, only rising or falling or quickening the pace to suit the meaning. "Rosabelle" is a romantic ballad; "March," a simple lay or song. Let your air be simple. Remember that the lines are not to be made to dance, but flow. Sing-song is to be avoided. Find out beforehand on what words or passages a becoming stress should be laid, and vary your tones accordingly.

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Let these five things be borne clearly in mind-to place yourself appropriately, to articulate distinctly, to pronounce correctly, to understand what you are saying, and to express it-and there is no doubt but you will deserve the highest reward of merit there is to be bestowed.

HINTS ON PARSING.

To parse a word is, to point out first of all, to what part of speech it belongs; secondly, what part it plays in the sentence before you.

1. The same word does not always belong to the same part of speech. It depends on what it has to do in the sentence. For instance, in the sentence, "Sound him, as to the sound the bell would give, if it were sound"—the first "sound" is a verb, the next a noun, the next an adjective. Or again: "I did all you told me but that one thing; and

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had I had but more time, I would have done that too, but time ran short." Here "but" is successively a preposition, equivalent to "except;" an adverb, meaning "only," a conjunction, because it joins two sentences together. The same word, if a noun, may be either singular or plural, as the case may be, as "sheep" may mean either one sheep or several; if a verb, it may be either the present tense or the past, as I read" may mean either "I am reading" or "I did read." In short, the mere form of the word is no sure guide to the parsing of it. In the English language there are so few inflexions, that is, the word is so often not altered when the meaning alters, that it is well to trust yourself almost wholly to your common sense, to carry you to the bottom of a sentence, as it were, so as to master the meaning of it, before you attempt to parse the words of which it is composed.

2. Abbreviate when you parse a passage in writing, but do not let your abbreviations be so short as to be unintelligible.

3. Give the rule, if you must give it, once, and refer to it afterwards.

4. Grammars vary in the terms they use. For instance : some will say a noun is the nominative case to the verb, others that it is the subject; some talk of weak and strong verbs, others of regular and irregular; some will tell you that "the" and "a" or "an," are respectively the definite and indefinite article, others that they are distinguishing adjectives. The particulars in which one grammar differs from another are numerous. Follow the grammar you are used to. Do not fear but that what you put down will be accepted, if you write correctly according to what you have been taught.

The following may serve as examples of the way in which passages might be parsed.

to save.

in a tone of confidence which he scarcely feels; his gentle child fearfully, in trembling reliance on her father's power Let the winds roar and the cruel foam sweep over the crashing timbers. " Italy and Switzerland" is a calm flowing description of two dissimilar countries, in English hexameter verse. Attend to the sense and not the rhymes: the rhymes will take care of themselves. Mind your stops. Let the voice pause, not at the end of the line,

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but with the sense. Be careful not to proceed with a swing, like a pendulum or a rocking-horse, but in a slow, deliberate, measured tone, only rising or falling or quickening the pace to suit the meaning. "Rosabelle" is a romantic ballad; 'March," a simple lay or song. Let your air be simple. Remember that the lines are not to be made to dance, but flow. Sing-song is to be avoided. Find out beforehand on what words or passages a becoming stress should be laid, and vary your tones accordingly.

.

Let these five things be borne clearly in mind-to place yourself appropriately, to articulate distinctly, to pronounce correctly, to understand what you are saying, and to express it-and there is no doubt but you will deserve the highest reward of merit there is to be bestowed.

HINTS ON PARSING.

To parse a word is, to point out first of all, to what part of speech it belongs; secondly, what part it plays in the sentence before you.

1. The same word does not always belong to the same part of speech. It depends on what it has to do in the sentence. For instance, in the sentence, "Sound him, as to the sound the bell would give, if it were sound"—the first "sound" is a verb, the next a noun, the next an adjective. Or again: "I did all you told me but that one thing; and

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fr

there are

not altered whe

yourself after my
to the bottom

meaning of

which it is comed

2. Abbreviae C

do not let your 2004 ligible.

3. Give the rule.

afterwards.

4. Grammar 2

some wri

others IL

verbs, ocen e

that

and indee

adject

from a

are =

be actee

have see

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