TO MRS. CARLYLE EDINBURGH, February 17, 1827. MY DEAR MOTHER, - Let me thank you for the nice eggs and butter which arrived in the best preservation and so opportunely! just when I was lamenting over the emptied cans, as one who had no hope. Really, it is most kind of you to be so mindful and helpful of our townwants, and most gratifying to us to see ourselves so cared for. The new book is going on at a regular rate; and I would fain persuade myself that my husband's health and spirits are at the same regular rate improving: more contented he is, since he applied himself to this task, for he was not born to be anything but miserable in idleness. But that he were indeed well, well beside me, and occupied as he ought! How plain and clear would life then lie before us! I verily believe there would not be such a happy pair of people on the face of the whole earth! Yet we must not wish this too earnestly. How many precious things do we not already possess which others have not have hardly an idea of! Let us enjoy these then, and bless God that we are permitted to enjoy them, rather than importune His goodness with vain longings for more. Indeed we lead a most quiet and even happy life here: within doors all is warm, is swept and garnished; and without the country is no longer winter-like, but beginning to be gay and green. Many pleasant people come to see us; and such of our visitors as are not pleasant people, have at least the good effect of enhancing to us the pleasure of being alone. Alone we never weary: if I have not Jean's enviable gift of talking, I am at least among the best listeners in the kingdom. And my husband has always something interesting and instructive to say. Then we have books to read all sorts of them from the Bible down to novels; and I have sewing needles and purse needles, and all conceivable implements for a lady's work. So Jean is not coming to us yet. Well, I am sorry for it, but I hope the time is coming. In the meantime, she must be a good girl, and read as much as she has time for, and above all cultivate this talent of speech, for I am purposing to learn from her when she comes. It is my husband's worst fault to me that I will not, or rather cannot speak; often when he has talked for an hour without answer, he will beg for some sign of life on my part, and the only sign I can give is a little kiss. Well! that is better than nothing, don't you think? Your affectionate daughter, JANE CARLYLE. NOTES This letter was written by Jane Welsh Carlyle, the wife of the great Scotch author, Thomas Carlyle, to her mother-inlaw. It gives a brief picture of her life with her genius husband. TO JOHN R. THOMPSON COLUMBIA, S. C., January 14th, 1863. MY DEAR MR. THOMPSON, - Your very kind letter was forwarded to me from Charleston about four days ago. I have not been able to acknowledge it until to-day. I need not say how very deeply your approval of my poem has gratified me. I know no man whose praise I value more. But I believe I have said as much to you already. I have not yet received any official announcement of my success, but I suppose it is on its way. Take my thanks for the neatly printed copy which you have sent me of your ballad on Johnston. I had of course already seen and admired it. It rings like one of Scott's. Your squib against Pope is like everything you do in that style, in which I think you inimitable. I send you in return two of my lately perpetrated lyrics. My whereabout is continually changing, but a letter addressed to the care of the Courier office at Charleston will always reach me. I regret that it will not be possible for me to go to Richmond. Most truly yours, HENRY TIMROD. VI. THE DRAMA The drama is one of the oldest and most popular forms of literature. In earlier times most plays were written in poetry, but nowadays almost all dramas are in prose. We usually divide plays into tragedies, those ending in death, and comedies, those ending happily. In Shakespeare's time there was another class of plays called historical plays, because they were based on well-known incidents in history. A drama is a series of speeches spoken by characters who accompany the words by action and is divided into acts and scenes. A Shakespearean play is divided into five acts and many scenes. The first part of the play is known as the rising action; the last part as the falling action. The rising action continues to the turning point, or crisis, after which comes the falling action. The whole action leads up to the crisis, and then everything that follows is a result of the outcome of the crisis, which usually comes in the third act in Shakespeare's plays. The play given below, Julius Cæsar, is one of Shakespeare's greatest tragedies, and shows his skill as a play-writer at its best. Probably no more effective play has ever been written and acted on the stage. The speeches of Brutus and Antony and the quarrel of Brutus and Cassius should be learned by heart and recited as oral exercises. It would be a good idea, too, for the students to give an act of the play; say the third or fourth. Others of Shakespeare's plays which it would be well to read are Hamlet, Macbeth, As You Like It, Richard III, The Merchant of Venice, and A Midsummer Night's Dream. SCENE. ARTEMIDORUS, a sophist of Cnidos. LUCILIUS, TITINIUS, MES- sius. CALPURNIA, wife of Cæsar. Senators, Citizens, Guards, During a great part of the Play, at Rome; afterward at SARDIS, and near PHILIPPI. Enter, in procession, with music, CÆSAR; ANTONY, for the course; CALPURNIA, PORTIA, DECIUS, CICERO, BRUTUS, CASSIUS, and CASCA; a great Crowd following, among them a Soothsayer Cæs. Calpurnia! Peace, ho! Cæsar speaks. [Music ceases. Casca. Cœs. Cal. Here, my lord. |