his chapter.

EXERCISES

1. Molly Farren tries to get news of Godfrey Cass from a Stable-boy.
_Silas Marner_.

2. The two Miss Gunns talk about Priscilla Lammeter. _Silas Marner_.

3. The Wedding Guest meets one of his companions. _The Ancient
Mariner_.

4. Nausicaa tells her betrothed about Odysseus. _Odyssey_.

5. Reynaldo in Paris tries to get information about Laertes.
_Hamlet_.

6. Fred tells his wife about Scrooge and Crachit. _A Christmas Carol_.

7. Jupiter tells a friend of the finding of the treasure. _The Gold
Bug_.

8. Two women who know David Copperfield talk about his second
marriage. _David Copperfield_.

Memorized Conversations. You can approach still more closely to the
material of a play if you offer in speech before your class certain
suitable portions from books you are reading or have read. These
selections may be made from the regular class texts or from
supplementary reading assignments. In studying these passages with the
intention of offering them before the class you will have to think
about two things. First of all, the author has in all probability,
somewhere in the book, given a fairly detailed, exact description of
the looks and actions of these characters. If such a description does
not occur in an extended passage, there is likely to be a series of
statements scattered about, from which a reader builds up an idea of
what the character is like. The pupil who intends to represent a
person from a book or poem must study the author's picture to be able
to reproduce a convincing portrait.

The audience will pass over mere physical differences. A young girl
described in a story as having blue eyes may be acted by a girl with
brown, and be accepted. But if the author states that under every kind
remark she made there lurked a slight hint of envy, that difficult
suggestion to put into a tone must be striven for, or the audience
will not receive an adequate impression of the girl's disposition.

So, too, in male characters. A boy who plays old Scrooge in _A
Christmas Carol_ may not be able to look like him physically, but in
the early scenes he must let no touch of sympathy or kindness creep
into his voice or manner.

It is just this inability or carelessness in plays attempting to
reproduce literary works upon the stage that annoys so many
intelligent, well-read people who attend theatrical productions of
material which they already know. When _Vanity Fair_ was dramatised
and