Successful Recitations

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• Publié le: 08 décembre 2010
• Nombre de lectures: 26
• Langue: English

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The Project Gutenberg eBook, Successful
Recitations, by Various, Edited by Alfred H. Miles
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Title: Successful Recitations
Author: Various
Editor: Alfred H. Miles
Release Date: December 22, 2005 [eBook #17378]
Language: English
***START OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG
EBOOK SUCCESSFUL RECITATIONS***
E-text prepared by Roy Brown
SUCCESSFUL RECITATIONSEdited by
ALFRED H. MILES
1901
"Speak the speech, I pray you, as I pronounced it
to you, trippingly on the tongue; but if you mouth it,
as many of our players do, I had as lief the town-
crier spoke my lines."—Hamlet. SHAKESPEARE.
London:
S. H. Bousfield & Co., Ld.,
Norfolk House, Norfolk Street W.C.
London:
Printed by H. Virtue And Company, Limited.
City Road.PREFACE.
Many things go to the making of a successful
recitation.
A clear aim and a simple style are among the first
of these: the subtleties which make the charm of
much of the best poetry are lost in all but the best
platform work. The picturesque and the dramatic
are also essential elements; pictures are the
pleasures of the eyes, whether physical or mental,
and incident is the very soul of interest.
The easiest, and therefore often the most
successful, recitations are those which recite
themselves; that is, recitations so charged with the
picturesque or the dramatic elements that they
command attention and excite interest in spite of
poor elocution and even bad delivery. The trouble
with these is that they are usually soon recognized,
and once recognized are soon done to death.
There are pieces, too, which, depending upon the
charm of novelty, are popular or successful for a
time only, but there are also others which, vitalised
by more enduring qualities, are things of beauty
and a "joy for ever."
But after all it is not the Editor who determines
what are and what are not successful recitations. It
is time, the Editor of Editors, and the public, our
worthy and approved good masters. It is the public
that has made the selection which makes up the
bulk of this volume, though the Editor has added alarge number of new and less known pieces which
he confidently offers for public approval. The
majority of the pieces in the following pages are
successful recitations, the remainder can surely be
made so.
A.H.M.
THE ROYAL RECITER.
PREFATORY.
True Patriotism is the outcome of National home-
feeling and self-respect.Home-feeling is born of the loving associations and
happy memories which belong to individual and
National experience; self-respect is the result of a
wise and modest contemplation of personal or
National virtues.
The man who does not respect himself is not likely
to command the respect of others. And the Nation
which takes no pride in its history is not likely to
make a history of which it can be proud.
But self-respect involves self-restraint, and no man
who wishes to retain his own respect and to merit
the respect of others would think of advertising his
own virtues or bragging of his own deeds. Nor
would any Nation wishing to stand well in its own
eyes and in the eyes of the world boast of its own
conquests over weaker foes or shout itself hoarse
in the exuberance of vainglory.
Patriotism is not to be measured by ostentation
any more than truth is to be estimated by volubility.
The history of England is full of incidents in which
her children may well take an honest pride, and no
one need be debarred from taking a pride in them
because there are other incidents which fill them
with a sense of shame. As a rule it will be found
that the sources of pride belong to the people
themselves, and that the sources of shame belong
to their rulers. It would be difficult to find words
strong enough to condemn the campaign of
robbery and murder conducted by the Black Prince
against the peaceful inhabitants of SouthernFrance in 1356, but it would be still more difficult to
do justice to the magnificent pluck and grit which
enabled 8,000 Englishmen at Poitiers to put to
flight no less than 60,000 of the chosen chivalry of
France. The wire-pullers of state-craft have often
worked with ignoble aims, but those who suffer in
the working out of political schemes often sanctify
the service by their self-sacrifice. There is always
Glory at the cannon's mouth.
In these days when the word Patriot is used both
as a party badge and as a term of reproach, and
when those who measure their patriotism by the
standards of good feeling and self-respect are
denied the right to the use of the term though they
have an equal love for their country and take an
equal pride in their country's honourable
achievements, it seems necessary to define the
word before one applies it to oneself or puts one's
name to what may be called patriotic verse.
It is a bad day for any country when false
standards of patriotism prevail, and at such times it
is clearly the duty of intelligent patriotism to uphold
true ones.
ALFRED
H.
MILES.
October,
1901.CONTENTS.
NAME. AUTHOR.
John Bull and His Island Alfred H. Miles
The Red Rose of War F. Harald Williams
England Eliza Cook
A Song for Australia W. C. Bennet
The Ploughshare of Old England Eliza Cook
The Story of Abel Tasman Frances S. Lewin
The Groom's Story A. Conan Doyle
The Hardest Part I ever Played Re Henry
The Story of Mr. King David Christie Murray
The Art of Poetry From "Town Topics"
The King of Brentford's Testament W. M.
Thackeray.
"Universally Respected" J. Brunton Stephens
The Amenities of Shopping Leopold Wagner
Shamus O'Brien J. S. Le Fanu
Home, Sweet Home William Thomson
The Cane Bottom'd Chair W. M. Thackeray
The Alma W. C. Bennet
The Mameluke Charge Sir F. H. Doyle
My Lady's Leap Campbell Rae-Brown
A Song for the end of the Season J. R. Planche
The Aged Pilot-man Mark Twain
Tim Keyser's Nose Max Adeler
The Lost Expression Marshall Steele
A Night Scene Robert B. Brough
Karl the Martyr Frances Whiteside
The Romance of Tenachelle Hercules EllisMichael Flynn William Thomson
A Night with a Stork William G. Wilcox
An Unmusical Neighbour William Thomson
The Chalice David Christie Murray
Livingstone Henry Lloyd
In Swanage Bay Mrs. Craik
Ballad of Sir John Franklin G. H. Boker
Phadrig Crohoore J. S. Le Fanu
Cupid's Arrows Eliza Cook
The Crocodile's Dinner Party E. Vinton Blake
"Two Souls with but a Single Thought" William
Thomson
A Risky Ride Campbell Rae-Brown
On Marriage Josh Billings
The Romance of Carrigcleena Hercules Ellis
The False Fontanlee W. C. Roscoe
The Legend of St. Laura Thomas Love Peacock
David Shaw, Hero J. Buckham
Brotherhood Alfred H. Miles
The Straight Rider H. S. M.
Women and Work Alfred H. Miles
A Country Story Alfred H. Miles
The Beggar Maid Lord Tennyson
The Vengeance of Kafur Clinton Scollard
The Wishing Well V. W. Cloud
The Two Church Builders John G. Saxe
The Captain of the Northfleet Gerald Massey
The Happiest Land H. W. Longfellow
The Pipes of Lucknow J. G. Whittier
The Battle of the Baltic Thomas Campbell
The Grave Spoilers Hercules Ellis
Bow-Meeting Song Reginald Heber
The Ballad of Rou Lord Lytton
Bingen on the Rhine Hon. Mrs. Norton