Prince Henry's Purpose.

WILLIAM SHAKESPEARE.

God forgive them that so much have sway'd
Your majesty's good thoughts away from me!
I will redeem all this on Percy's head,
And in the closing of some glorious day
Be bold to tell you that I am your son;
When I will wear a garment all of blood,
And stain my favours in a bloody mask,
Which, wash'd away, shall sccur my shame with it:
And that shall be the day, whene'er it lights,
That this same child of honour and renown,
This gallant Hotspur, this all-praised knight,
And your unthought-of Harry chance to meet,
For every honour sitting on his helm,
Would they were multitudes, and on my head
My shames redoubled ! for the time will come,
That I shall make this northern youth exchange
His glorious deeds for my indignities.
Percy is but my factor, good my lord,
To engross up glorious deeds on my behalf;
And I will call him to so strict account,
That he shall render every glory up,
Yea, even the slightest worship of his time,
Or I will tear the reckoning from his heart.
This, in the name of God, I promise here:
The which if He be pleased I shall perform,
I do beseech your majesty may salve
The long-grown wounds of my intemperance:
If not, the end of life cancels all bands;
And I will die a hundred thousand deaths
Ere break the smallest parcel of this vow.

-Henry IV, Pt. I, iii., 2. TONE OF ENCOURAGEMENT.

(See Tone Drill No. 85.) [The tone of Encouragement manifests an urging tinged with assurance and confidence.]

The Onset.

BARRY CORNWALL.

Sound an alarum! The foe is come!
I hear the tramp,—the neigh,-the hum,
The cry, and the blow of his daring drum:

Huzzah!
Sound! The blast of our trumpet blown
Shall carry dismay into hearts of stone:
What! shall we shake at a foe unknown?

Huzzah !—Huzzah!

Have we not sinews as strong as they?
Have we not hearts that ne'er gave way?
Have we not God on our side to-day?

Huzzah!
Look! They are staggered on yon black heath!
Steady awhile, and hold your breath!
Now is your time, men,-Down like Death!

Huzzah !-Huzzah !

a

Stand by each other, and front your foes !
Fight, whilst a drop of the red blood flows!
Fight, as ye fought for the old red rose !

Huzzah!
Sound! Bid your terrible trumpets bray!
Blow, till their brazen throats give way!
Sound to the battle! Sound, I say !

Huzzah !-Huzzah !

Henry V Before Harfleur.

WILLIAM SHAKESPEARE.

Cnce more unto the breach, dear friends, once more;
Or close the wall up with our English dead.
In peace there's nothing so becomes a man
As modest stillness and humility;
But when the blast of war blows in our ears,
Then imitate the action of the tiger;
Stiffen the sinews, summon up the blood,
Disguise fair nature with hard-favour'd rage;
Then lend the eye a terrible aspect;
Let it pry through the portage of the head
Like the brass cannon; let the brow o’erwhelm it
As fearfully as doth a galled rock
O'erhang and jutty his confounded base,
Swill’d with the wild and wasteful ocean.
Now set the teeth and stretch the nostril wide,
Hold hard the breath and bend up every spirit
To his full height. On, on, you noblest English,
Whose blood is fet from fathers of war-proof!
Fathers that, like so many Alexanders,
Have in these parts from morn till even fought,
And sheathed their swords for lack of argument:
Dishonour not your mothers; now attest
That those whom you call’d fathers did beget you.
Be copy now to men of grosser blood,
And teach them how to war. And you, good geomen,
Whose limbs were made in England, show us here
The mettle of your pasture; let us swear
That you are worth your breeding; which I doubt not;
For there is none of you so mean and base,
That hath not noble lustre in your eyes.
I see you stand like greyhounds in the slips,

Straining upon the start. The game's afoot:
Follow your spirit, and upon this charge
Cry “God for Harry, England, and Saint George!"

-Henry V, iii., 1.

THE TONE OF ADVICE.

(See Tone Drill No. 4.) [The tone of Advice has in it something of command, but lacks the insistence of the latter. Sometimes there is a suggestion of deference.]

Free Speech.

JOHN JAY CHAPMAN.

When I was asked to make this address, I wondered what I had to say to you who are graduating. And I think I have one thing to say. If you wish to be useful, never take a course that will silence you. Refuse to learn anything that you cannot proclaim. Refuse to accept anything that implies collusion, whether it be a clerkship or a curacy, a legal fee or a post in a university. Retain the power of speech, no matter what other power you lose. If you can, take this course, and in so far as you take it, you will bless this country. In so far as you depart from this course, you

. become dampers, mutes, and hooded executioners.

As for your own private character, it will be preserved by such a course. Crime you cannot commit, for crime gags you Collusion gags you. As a practical matter, a mere failure to speak out upon occasions where no opinion is asked or expected of you, and when the utterance of an uncalled for suspicion is odious, will often hold you to a concurrence in palpable iniquity. It will bind and gag you and lay you dumb and in shackles like the veriest serf in Russia. I give you this one rule of conduct. Do what you will, but speak out always. Be shunned, be hated, be ridi. culed, be scared, be in doubt, but don't be gagged.

Polonius's Advice to Laertes.

WILLIAM SHAKESPEARE.

These few precepts in thy memory Look thou character. Give thy thoughts no tongue, Nor any unproportion'd thought his act. Be thou familiar, but by no means vulgar. Those friends thou hast, and their adoption tried, Grapple them to thy soul with hoops of steel, But do not dull thy palm with entertainment Of each new-hatch'd unfledged comrade. Beware Of entrance to a quarrel; but being in, Bear 't, that the opposed may beware of thee. Give every man thy ear, but few thy voice: Take each man's censure, but reserve thy judgment. Costly thy habit, as thy purse can buy, But not express’d in fancy; rich, not gaudy: For the apparel oft proclaims the man; And they in France of the best rank and station Are of a most select and generous chief in that. Neither a borrower nor a lender be: For loan oft loses both itself and friend, And borrowing dulls the edge of husbandry. This above all: to thine own self be true, And it must follow, as the night the day, Thou canst not then be false to any man.

—Hamlet, i., 3.