ood translations. Victor Hugo's "Ruy Blas" is
recommended as an excellent type of the romantic drama of the nineteenth
century.

Apart from the criticism of diction, sentence, and figure, the pieces
assigned should be studied with the view of answering such questions as
the following: To what division of the epic or drama does the work
belong? What is its source? Is it legend or history? What is the story?
Has it a beginning, middle, and end? Is it symmetrical in structure?
What episodes are introduced? Is the treatment in keeping with the
subject? Is it true to fact and character? Does it faithfully portray
an age or country? What customs are reflected? What is the state of
society? Describe the leading characters. What is the rank of the piece?
What other productions resemble it? Is it classic or romantic? Are there
autobiographic elements? What light is thrown on the author? How is
nature treated? What fundamental views of life are reflected? What is
the moving impulse in the drama? What constitutes the introduction?
Where is the climax? Is the _denouement_ natural and satisfactory? Trace
the tying and the untying of the knot. What furnishes the "tragic
impulse"? Is there an "impulse of last suspense"? What unities are
observed? What is the length of time consumed? What is the ethical
teaching of the piece?

CHAPTER X

NATURE AND FORMS OF PROSE

+62. Definition.+ Prose is the ordinary form of discourse. It is
distinguished from poetry not only by more commonplace thought but also
by the absence of regular metrical structure. Prose and poetry together
constitute the great body of literature; but at the present time, which
is characterized by the predominance of material and commercial
interests, prose forms by far the larger part. In our popular magazines,
poetry is relegated to a very subordinate place.

The forms of prose are various. They may be approximately classified
under history, essays, oratory, fiction, science, philosophy, and
epistolary correspondence. These classes, as will be seen later, are
subject to numerous subdivisions. The last three classes--science,
philosophy, and epistolary correspondence--do not come within the scope
of the present work, but in general it may be said that they are subject
to the same laws of truth and beauty that govern other forms of literary
composition.

+63. History.+ History is a systematic record of past events. It rests
upon contemporary testimony, which