  The speaker should present himself to the audience with modesty, and without any show of self-consequence, and should avoid everything opposed to true dignity and self respect; he should feel the importance of his subject and the occasion. He should be deliberate and calm, and should take his position with his face directed to the audience. A bow, being the most marked and appropriate symbol of respect, should be made on the last step going to his place on the platform. In making a graceful bow, there should be a gentle bend of the whole body, the eyes should not be permitted to fall below the person addressed, and the arms should lightly move forward, and a little inward. On raising himself into an erect position from the introductory bow, the speaker should fall back into the first position of the advanced foot. In this position he commences to speak. In his discourse let him appear graceful, easy, and natural, and when warmed and animated by the importance of his subject, his dignity and mien should become still more elevated and commanding, and he should assume a somewhat lofty and noble bearing. ADVICE TO STUDENTS.The student must ever bear in mind that there is no royal road of attaining excellence in Elocutionary art without labour. No matter under what favourable circumstances he may have been placed for observing good methods, or how much aid he may receive from good teachers, he never can make any real improvement, unless he does the work for himself, and by diligence and perseverance he may achieve a great measure of success, and free himself from many blemishes and defects. As the highest attainment of art, is the best imitation of nature, to attain to excellence in art the student must study nature as it exists in the manner of the age,— "And catch the manners, living as they rise." The rules of every science, as far as they are just and useful, are founded in nature, or in good usage; hence their adoption and application tend to free us from our artificial defects, all of which may be regarded as departures from the simplicity of nature. Let the student, therefore, ever bear in mind that whatever is artificial is unnatural, and that whatever is unnatural is opposed to genuine eloquence. Good reading is exactly like good talking—one, therefore, who would read well or who would speak well, who would interest, rivet the attention, convince the understanding, and excite the feelings of his hearers—need not expect to do it by any extraordinary exertion or desperate effort; for genuine eloquence is not to be wooed and won by any such boisterous course of courtship, but by more gentle means. But, the pupil must not be tied down to a too slavish attention to rules, for one flash of genuine emotion, one touch of real nature, will produce a greater effect than the application of all the studied rules of rhetorical art. "He who in earnest studies o'er his part, Before attempting to give a piece in public the pupil must practice it well in private, until the words and ideas are perfectly familiar, and it must be repeated o'er and o'er again, with perfect distinctness and clear articulation,—for more declaimers break down in consequence of forgetting the words of their piece, than from any other cause, and the pupil must practice assiduously until there is no danger of failure from this source. Do not be discouraged if your early attempts are not very successful ones, but persevere; the most renowned actors and orators were not at all remarkable in the commencement of their career, they all, with scarcely an exception, attained to eminence by untiring perseverance. Never rest satisfied with having done as you think—"well"—but be constantly trying to improve and to do better, and do not let the flattery of injudicious friends lead you to imagine you have a remarkable genius for oratory or for reading—such a foolish notion will be productive of great harm and effectually stop your further improvement, and those who are led to believe they are great geniuses and above the necessity of being guided by the rules suited for more commonplace mortals, rarely, if ever, attain to eminence, or become useful members of society. Do not rely too much on others for instruction or advice as to the way of reading or speaking a passage, think for yourself, read it over carefully until you have formed a definite opinion as to how it ought to be delivered, then declaim it according to your own idea of its meaning and character. Avoid everything like affectation; think of your subject and its requirements, not of yourself, and do not try to make a great display. Let your tone, look and gestures be all in harmony—be deliberate, yet earnest and natural; let nature be the mistress with art for her handmaiden. Do not be such a slavish imitator of others, that it can be said of you, as it is of many—"Oh! I know who taught him Elocution. Every gesture and every movement is in accordance with some specific rule, and a slavish mannerism that never breaks into the slightest originality, marks his whole delivery, and all of ——'s pupils do exactly the same way." Remember always that the GOLDEN RULE of Elocution is:— BE NATURAL AND BE IN EARNEST.a cloth woven of feathers,While he has a staff or a wooden sceptre Beautifully ornate. Both of these things are strange; In any case, I wonder what they call them. TSURE This is a narrow cloth called 'Hosonuno,' It is just the breadth of the loom. SHITE And this is merely wood painted, And yet the place is famous because of these things. Would you care to buy them from us? WAKI Yes, I know that the cloth of this place and the lacquers are famous things. I have already heard of their glory, and yet I still wonder why they have such great reputation. TSURE Ah well now, that's a disappointment. Here they call the wood Nishikigi,' and the woven stuff 'Hosonuno,' and yet you come saying that you have never heard why, and never heard the story. Is it reasonable? SHITE No, no, that is reasonable enough. What can people be expected to know of these affairs when it is more than they can do to keep abreast of their own? BOTH (to the Priest) Ah well, you look like a person who has abandoned the world; it is reasonable enough that you should not know the worth of wands and cloths with love's signs painted upon them, with love's marks painted and dyed. WAKI That is a fine answer. And you would tell me then that Nishikigi and Hosonuno are names bound over with love? SHITE They are names in love's list surely. Every day for a year, for three years come to their full, the wands Nishikigi were set up, until there were a thousand in all. And they are in song in your time, and will be. 'Chidzuka' they call them. TSURE These names are surely a by-word. As the cloth Hosonuno is narrow of weft, More narrow than the breast, We call by this name any woman Whose breasts are hard to come nigh to. It is a name in books of love. SHITE 'Tis a sad name to look back on. TSURE A thousand wands were in vain. A sad name, set in a story. SHITE A seed-pod void of the seed, We had no meeting together. TSURE Let him read out the story. CHORUS I At last they forget, they forget. The wands are no longer offered, The custom is faded away. The narrow cloth of Kefu Will not meet over the breast. 'Tis the story of Hosonuno, This is the tale: These bodies, having no weft, Even now are not come together. Truly a shameful story, A tale to bring shame on the gods. II Names of love, Now for a little spell, For a faint charm only, For a charm as slight as the binding together Of pine-flakes in Iwashiro, And for saying a wish over them about sunset, We return, and return to our lodging. The evening sun leaves a shadow. WAKI Go on, tell out all the story. SHITE There is an old custom of this country. We make wands of meditation, and deck them with symbols, and set them before a gate, when we are suitors. TSURE And we women take up a wand of the man we would meet with, and let the others lie, although a man might come for a hundred nights, it may be, or for a thousand nights in three years, till there were a thousand wands here in the shade of this mountain. We know the funeral cave of such a man, one who had watched out the thousand nights; a bright cave, for they buried him with all his wands. They have named it the 'Cave of the many charms.' WAKI I will go to that love-cave, It will be a tale to take back to my village. Will you show me my way there? SHITE So be it, I will teach you the path. TSURE Tell him to come over this way. BOTH Here are the pair of them Going along before the traveller. CHORUS We have spent the whole day until dusk Pushing aside the grass From the over-grown way at Kefu, And we are not yet come to the cave. O you there, cutting grass on the hill, Please set your mind on this matter. 'You'd be asking where the dew is 'While the frost's lying here on the road. 'Who'd tell you that now?' Very well then don't tell us, But be sure we will come to the cave. SHITE There's a cold feel in the autumn. Night comes.... CHORUS And storms; trees giving up their leaf, Spotted with sudden showers. Autumn! our feet are clogged In the dew-drenched, entangled leaves. The perpetual shadow is lonely, The mountain shadow is lying alone. The owl cries out from the ivies That drag their weight on the pine. Among the orchids and chrysanthemum flowers The hiding fox is now lord of that love-cave, Nishidzuka, That is dyed like the maple's leaf. They have left us this thing for a saying. That pair have gone into the cave. (sign for the exit of Shite and Tsure) Second Part (The Waki has taken the posture of sleep. His respectful visit to the cave is beginning to have its effect.) WAKI (restless) It seems that I cannot sleep For the length of a pricket's horn. Under October wind, under pines, under night! I will do service to Butsu. (he performs the gestures of a ritual) TSURE Aie! honoured priest! You do not dip twice in the river Beneath the same tree's shadow Without bonds in some other life. Hear sooth-say, Now is there meeting between us, Between us who were until now In life and in after-life kept apart. A dream-bridge over wild grass, Over the grass I dwell in. O honoured! do not awake me by force. I see that the law is perfect. SHITE (supposedly invisible) It is a good service you have done, sir, A service that spreads in two worlds, And binds up an ancient love That was stretched out between them. I had watched for a thousand days. Take my thanks, For this meeting is under a difficult law. And now I will show myself in the form of Nishikigi. I will come out now for the first time in colour. (The characters announce or explain their acts, as these are mostly symbolical. Thus here the Shite, or Sh'te, announces his change of costume, and later the dance.) CHORUS The three years are over and past: All that is but an old story. SHITE To dream under dream we return. Three years.... And the meeting comes now! This night has happened over and over, And only now comes the tryst. CHORUS Look there to the cave Beneath the stems of the Suzuki. From under the shadows of the love-grass, See, see how they come forth and appear For an instant.... Illusion! SHITE There is at the root of hell No distinction between princes and commons; Wretched for me! 'tis the saying. WAKI Strange, what seemed so very old a cave Is all glittering-bright within, Like the flicker of fire. It is like the inside of a house. They are setting up a loom, And heaping up charm-sticks. No, The hangings are out of old time. Is it illusion, illusion? TSURE Our hearts have been in the dark of the falling snow, We have been astray in the flurry. You should tell better than we How much is illusion; You who are in the world. We have been in the whirl of those who are fading. SHITE Indeed in old times Narihira said, —and he has vanished with the years— 'Let a man who is in the world tell the fact.' It is for you, traveller, To say how much is illusion. WAKI Let it be a dream, or a vision, Or what you will, I care not. Only show me the old times over-past and snowed under— Now, soon, while the night lasts. SHITE Look then, the old times are shown, Faint as the shadow-flower shows in the grass that bears it; And you've but a moon for lanthorn. TSURE The woman has gone into the cave. She sets up her loom there For the weaving of Hosonuno, Thin as the heart of Autumn. SHITE The suitor for his part, holding his charm-sticks, Knocks on a gate which was barred. TSURE In old time he got back no answer, No secret sound at all Save.... SHITE The sound of the loom. TSURE It was a sweet sound like katydids and crickets, A thin sound like the Autumn. SHITE It was what you would hear any night. TSURE Kiri. SHITE Hatari. TSURE Cho. SHITE Cho. CHORUS (mimicking the sound of crickets) Kiri, hatari, cho, cho, Kiri, hatari, cho, cho. The cricket sews on at his old rags, With all the new grass in the field; sho, Churr, isho, like the whir of a loom: churr. CHORUS (antistrophe) Let be, they make grass-cloth in Kefu, Kefu, the land's end, matchless in the world. SHITE That is an old custom, truly, But this priest would look on the past. CHORUS The good priest himself would say: Even if we weave the cloth, Hosonuno, And set up the charm-sticks For a thousand, a hundred nights, Even then our beautiful desire will not pass, Nor fade nor die out. SHITE Even to-day the difficulty of our meeting is remembered, And is remembered in song. CHORUS That we may acquire power, Even in our faint substance, We will show forth even now, And though it be but in a dream, Our form of repentance. (explaining the movement of the Shite and Tsure) There he is carrying wands, And she has no need to be asked. See her within the cave, With a cricket-like noise of weaving. The grass-gates and the hedge are between them; That is a symbol. Night has already come on. (now explaining the thoughts of the man's spirit) Love's thoughts are heaped high within him, As high as the charm-sticks, As high as the charm-sticks, once coloured, Now fading, lie heaped in this cave. And he knows of their fading. He says: I lie a body, unknown to any other man, Like old wood buried in moss. It were a fit thing That I should stop thinking the love-thoughts. The charm-sticks fade and decay, And yet, The rumour of our love Takes foot and moves through the world. We had no meeting But tears have, it seems, brought out a bright blossom Upon the dyed tree of love. SHITE Tell me, could I have foreseen Or known what a heap of my writings Should lie at the end of her shaft-bench? CHORUS A hundred nights and more Of twisting, encumbered sleep, And now they make it a ballad, Not for one year or for two only But until the days lie deep As the sand's depth at Kefu, Until the year's end is red with Autumn, Red like these love-wands, A thousand nights are in vain. And I stand at this gate-side. You grant no admission, you do not show yourself Until I and my sleeves are faded. By the dew-like gemming of tears upon my sleeve, Why will you grant no admission? And we all are doomed to pass, You, and my sleeves and my tears. And you did not even know when three years had come to an end. Cruel, ah cruel! The charm-sticks.... SHITE CHORUS Shall I ever at last see into that room of hers, which no other sight has traversed? SHITE Happy at last and well-starred, Now comes the eve of betrothal: We meet for the wine-cup. CHORUS How glorious the sleeves of the dance, That are like snow-whirls! SHITE Tread out the dance. CHORUS Tread out the dance and bring music. This dance is for Nishikigi. SHITE This dance is for the evening plays, And for the weaving. CHORUS For the tokens between lover and lover: It is a reflecting in the wine-cup. CHORUS Ari-aki, The dawn! Come, we are out of place; Let us go ere the light comes. (to the Waki) We ask you, do not awake, We all will wither away, The wands and this cloth of a dream. Now you will come out of sleep, You tread the border and nothing Awaits you: no, all this will wither away. There is nothing here but this cave in the field's midst. To-day's wind moves in the pines; A wild place, unlit, and unfilled.
|
|
