the scene conclude properly? If this were acted upon a
stage would any additional lines be necessary or desirable?

4. Read the last part of Chapter XI of _Silas Marner_. What is the
point?

5. Memorize this dialogue and deliver it before the class. Did the
point impress the class?

6. Consider, discuss, and test passages from any book which the
members of the class know.

7. Present before the class passages from any of the following:

Dickens _A Christmas Carol_
_A Tale of Two Cities_
_David Copperfield_
George Eliot _Silas Marner_
_The Mill on the Floss_
Scott _Ivanhoe_
_Kenilworth_
_The Lady of the Lake_
Mark Twain _Huckleberry Finn_
_The Prince and the Pauper_
O. Henry _Short Stories_
Thackeray _Vanity Fair_
_Henry Esmond_
_Pendennis_
Kipling _Captains Courageous_
_Stalkey and Co_.
Hugo _Les Miserables_
Tennyson _Idylls of the King_
_The Princess_
Arnold _Sohrab and Rustum_
Stevenson _Treasure Island_
Gaskell _Cranford_
Carroll _Alice in Wonderland_
Kingsley _Westward Ho!_
Barrie _Sentimental Tommy_

Characters in Plays. In acting regular plays you may find it necessary
to follow either of the preceding methods of characterization. The
conception of a character may have to be supplied almost entirely by
some one outside the play. Or the dramatist may be very careful to
set down clearly and accurately the traits, disposition, actions of
the people in his plays. In this second case the performer must try to
carry out every direction, every hint of the dramatist. In the first
case, he must search the lines of the play to glean every slightest
suggestion which will help him to carry out the dramatist's intention.
Famous actors of characters in Shakespeare's plays can give a reason
for everything they show--at least, they should be able to do so--and
this foundation should be a compilation of all the details supplied by
the play itself, and stage tradition of its productions.

In early plays there are practically no descriptions of the
characters. Questions about certain Shakespeare characters will never
be solved to the satisfaction of all performers. For instance, how old
is Hamlet in the tragedy? How close to madness did the dramatist
expect actors to po