SCENE FROM DAVID COPPERFIELD, II. Charles Dickens

SCENE FROM KING HENRY IV—­“Falstaff’s Recruits” William Shakespeare

SCENE FROM THE SHAUGHRAUN Boucicault

SELF-RELIANCE Ralph Waldo Emerson

TALE, THE—­From The Two Poets of Croisic Robert Browning

TRUE USE OF WEALTH, THE John Ruskin

TRUTH AT LAST Edward Rowland Sill

WORK John Ruskin

EXERCISES FOR ELEMENTAL VOCAL EXPRESSION.

The exercises under each chapter have primarily the characteristics of that chapter, and secondarily the characteristics of the other two chapters.

CHAPTER I.

VITALITY.

MIND ACTIVITIES DOMINATED BY A CONSCIOUSNESS OF Power, Largeness,
Freedom, Animation, Movement.

1.  “Ho! strike the flag-Staff deep, Sir Knight—­ho! scatter flowers, fair
              maids: 
    Ho! gunners, fire a loud salute—­ho! gallants, draw your blades.”

* * * * *

2.  “Awake, Sir King, the gates unspar! 
    Rise up and ride both fast and far! 
    The sea flows over bolt and bar.”

* * * * *

3.  “I would call upon all the true sons of New England to co-operate with the laws of man and the justice of heaven.”

* * * * *

4.  “Robert of Sicily, brother of Pope Urbane,
    And Volmond, emperor of Allemaine,
    Apparelled in magnificent attire,
    With retinue of many a knight and squire,
    On St. John’s eve at vespers proudly sat,
    And heard the priest chant the Magnificat.”

* * * * *

5.  “Then the master,
    With a gesture of command,
    Waved his hand;
    And at the word,
    Loud and sudden there was heard
    All around them and below
    The sound of hammers, blow on blow,
    Knocking away the shores and spurs. 
    And see! she stirs! 
    She starts,—­she moves,—­she seems to feel
    The thrill of life along her keel,
    And, spurning with her foot the ground,
    With one exulting, joyous bound,
    She leaps into the ocean’s arms!”

* * * * *

6.  “Under his spurning feet, the road
    Like an arrowy Alpine river flowed,
    And the landscape sped away behind,
    Like an ocean flying before the wind.”

* * * * *

7.  “The wind, one morning sprang up from sleep,
    Saying, ’Now for a frolic! now for a leap! 
    Now for a madcap galloping chase! 
    I’ll make a commotion in every place!’”

* * * * *

8.  “O hark!  O hear! how thin and clear,
    And thinner, clearer, farther going! 
    O sweet and far, from cliff and scar,
    The horns of Elfland faintly blowing!”