h descriptive
character sketches, but even the shortest and most general is
necessary to the proper appreciation of every play, even if it is
being merely read. When a student is assimilating a role for
rehearsing or acting, these additions of the author are as important
as the lines themselves.

EXERCISES

Analyze the following. Discuss the suitability of various members of
the class for each part. Which details do you think least essential?

1. He is a tall, thin, gaunt, withered, domineering man of sixty. When
excited or angry he drops into dialect, but otherwise his speech,
though flat, is fairly accurate. He sits in an arm-chair by the empty
hearth working calculations in a small shiny black notebook, which he
carries about with him everywhere, in a side pocket.

2. When the curtain rises a man is seen climbing over the balcony. His
hair is close cut; his shirt dirty and blood-stained. He is followed by
another man dressed like a sailor with a blue cape, the hood drawn
over his head. Moonlight.

3. Enter Dinah Kippen quickly, a dingy and defiant young woman
carrying a tablecloth. She is a nervous creature, driven half-mad by
the burden of her cares. Conceiving life, necessarily, as a path to be
traversed at high speed, whenever she sees an obstacle in her way,
whether in the physical or in the moral sphere, she rushes at it
furiously to remove it or destroy it.

4. Mrs. Rhead, a woman of nearly sixty, is sitting on the sofa,
crocheting some lace, which is evidently destined to trim petticoats.
Her hair is dressed in the style of 1840, though her dress is of the
1860 period.

5. The song draws nearer and Patricia Carleon enters. She is dark and
slight, and has a dreamy expression. Though she is artistically
dressed, her hair is a little wild. She has a broken branch of some
flowering tree in her hand.

6. Enter a Neat-herd, followed by King Alfred, who is miserably clad
and shivering from cold; he carries a bow and a few broken arrows. A
log fire is burning smokily in a corner of the hut.

7. Enter from the right Ito, the cynic philosopher, book in hand.

8. The rising of the curtain discovers the two Miss Wetherills--two
sweet old ladies who have grown so much alike it would be difficult
for a stranger to tell the one from the other. The hair of both is
white, they are dressed much alike, both in some soft lavender colored
material, mixed with soft lace.

9. Newte is a cheerful person, attractively