In school exhibitions, it will be sufficient if the speakers are dressed in suits of black, frock coats, pants, etc.

No. 1. HAMLET AND THE GHOST.

REMARKS. The character of Hamlet, in Shakspeare's sublime tragedy of that name, is that of a philosopher devoid of resolution. He can conceive but not execute. At one instant he is determined, the next vacillating. Imaginative and studious, he can reason, yet, in a moment, doubts the justness of his conclusions. Naturally of a melancholy temperament, he takes no pleasure in the allurements of royalty. "The glass of fashion and the mould of form," he is content to forsake the court for the "academic hall," and is only prevented therefrom by the entreaties of his mother. Urged to avenge the murder of a parent by the appeal of that parent, who is permitted to assume the form in which the "Majesty of buried Denmark did sometimes walk," that he may tell the fearful story of his death, he vows that, at once, he will rid the world of the fratricide, his uncle, then "palls in resolution," แ assumes an antic disposition," and allows himself to become the very slave of circumstances. Not until, through the means of poison, intended for himself by the king, he sees his mother fall a corpse at his feet, and maddened by the consciousness that in his own system rankles a deadly poison, drawn from the envenomed sword of his adversary,

Laertes, as it entered his bosom, does he complete his mission, and send "the murderous Dane" to follow his mother. His knowledge of the world is beautifully developed in his "Advice to the Players,” and his speech to Horatio, his intimate and much-loved friend. The address made by the "ghost," is one of the grandest that imagination ever conceived.

The language of this scene, or that portion of it given to the ghost, affords an excellent chance for elocutionary display in the management of the monotone. The ghost should deliver his lines in a hollow, sepulchral voice, somewhat tremulous in tone, when speaking of his own fearful condition; but sonorous and authoritative when charging Hamlet to revenge his murder. By proper change of inflection in the monotone, a judicious speaker can produce a very fine effect in the delivery of this address. In speaking the last line, "Adieu, adieu!" etc., the voice should be permitted to die away in a solemn whisper, like that described by Virginius in his madness, when thinking he hears his daughter's voice, he exclaims:

"I hear a sound so fine that nothing lives
"Twixt it and silence."

I'll go no further.

Ghost, (L. c.) Mark me.

Ham. (R. c.) I will.

Ghost. My hour is almost come

When I to sulph'rous and tormenting flames

Must render up myself.

Ham. Alas, poor ghost!

Ghost. Pity me not; but lend thy serious hearing To what I shall unfold.

Ham. Speak, I am bound to hear.

Ghost. So art thou to revenge, when thou shalt hear! Ham.

What?

Ghost. I am thy father's spirit:

Doomed for a certain term to walk the night;

And, for the day, confined to fast in fires,

Till the foul crimes, done in my days of nature,
Are burnt and purged away. But that I am forbid
To tell the secrets of my prison-house,

I could a tale unfold, whose lightest word

Would harrow up thy soul; freeze thy young blood;
Make thy two eyes, like stars, start from their spheres,
Thy knotted and combined locks to part,

And each particular hair to stand on end,
Like quills upon the fretful porcupine:

But this eternal blazon must not be

To ears of flesh and blood: List, list, oh, list!

If thou didst ever thy dear father love—

Ghost. Revenge his foul and most unnatural murder.
Ham. Murder!

Ghost. Murder most foul, as in the best it is;

But this most foul, strange, and unnatural.

Ham. Haste me to know it, that I, with wings as swift

As meditation, or the thoughts of love,

May sweep to my revenge.

Ghost. I find thee apt.

Now, Hamlet, hear:

"Tis given out, that, sleeping in my orchard,

A serpent stung me; so that the whole ear of Denmark

Is, by a forged process of my death,

Rankly abused: but know, thou noble youth,

The serpent that did sting thy father's life

Now wears his crown.

Ham. Oh, my prophetic soul! my uncle?

Ghost. Ay, that incestuous, that adulterate beast,
With witchcraft of his wit, with traitorous gifts,
Won to his shameful lust

The will of my most seeming-virtuous queen:
Oh, Hamlet, what a falling off was there!
From me, whose love was that of dignity,
That it went hand in hand, even with the vow
I made to her in marriage; and to decline
Upon a wretch, whose natural gifts were poor

To those of mine!.

But, soft, methinks I scent the morning air—
Brief let me be-sleeping within mine orchard,
My custom always of the afternoon,

Upon my secure hour thy uncle stole,

With juice of cursed hebenon in a phial,
And in the porches of mine ears did pour
The leperous distillment: whose effect
Holds such an enmity with blood of man,
That swift as quicksilver it courses through
The natural gates and alleys of the body;
So it did mine.

Thus was I, sleeping, by a brother's hand,
Of life, of crown, of queen, at once despatched!
Cut off, even in the blossoms of my sin,
No reck'ning made, but sent to my account
With all my imperfections on my head.

Ham. Oh, horrible! Oh, horrible! most horrible!
Ghost. If thou hast nature in thee, bear it not;

Let not the royal bed of Denmark be

A couch for luxury and damned incest,

But, howsoever thou pursu'st this act,

Taint not thy mind, nor let thy soul contrive

Against thy mother aught; leave her to Heaven,

And to those thorns that in her bosom lodge,
To goad and sting her. Fare thee well at once!
The glow-worm shows the matin to be near,
And 'gins to pale his uneffectual fire.
Adieu, adieu, adieu! remember me.

Ham. (R.) Hold, hold, my heart;

(Vanishes, L. c.)

And you, my sinews, grow not instant old,
But bear me stiffly up. (c.) Remember thee?
Ay,
thou poor ghost, while memory holds a seat
In this distracted globe. Remember thee?
Yea, from the table of my memory

I'll wipe away all forms, all pressures past,
And thy commandment all alone shall live
Within the book and volume of my brain,
Unmixed with baser matter; yes, by heaven,
I have sworn it.

No. 2. HAMLET'S ADVICE TO THE PLAYERS. REMARKS. The worth of these instructions has been recognized by all who have given them the attentive perusal they merit. Faults in delivery and action are commented on in language at once explicit and forcible. The student will do well to remember these instructions whenever he has occasion to appear before the public in the capacity of a speaker.

Positions on Stage at rise of Curtain:

HAMLET.

PLAYER.

R..

FRONT OF STAGE.

..L.

HAMLET and PLAYER discovered.

Hamlet. 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 lieve the town-crier spoke my lines. Nor do not saw the air too much with your hand