Then, finally, read some of his marvelous verse to be confirmed in the opinion that Shakespeare was a consummate romanticist. After the glory of the Elizabethan age had departed, Puritan restraint, French classical influence, and dictation by refined society turned literature to realistic, ordinary matter and method, until human nature and artistic sensibility yearned for something new. In the latter half of the eighteenth century the romantic revival swept over all of cultured Europe. Every national literature fell under its sway. Notice the second word of the term by which this movement is known in England-revival. The thrill of romantic abandon was recognized then as no new thing; it had inspired literature before, it was now merely coming back to its own. The teachers of English must know the general outlines of this artistic upheaval throughout Europe. The new literature of Germany culminating in the unparalleled productions of Goethe must be familiar, the bitter struggle of the young French romanticists, and at least the single detail of the disturbance in the Comédie Française when Victor Hugo's Hernani was performed in 1830, the European influence of the peculiar roetical and personal brand of "dandyism" spread by Lord Byron, the popularity of the Indian stories of James Fenimore Cooper, the dazzling success of Sir Walter Scott. With some understanding of the historical significance of romanticism as an attitude toward life, and with some appreciation of its world-wide spread, the teacher will be the better prepared to present its definite examples to pupils who by their inherent dispositions are avid for its pleasures and influences.

Show how romantic themes are chosen.-As preliminary to appreciation, pupils should be told of the simpler methods by which authors determine their romantic themes. Pupils will enjoy this elementary training in literary esthetics. The most simple manner of presenting romance is by choosing

a story distant in place. It is a common trait of human nature to be fascinated by the far-away. We are prone to believe that we should be much happier if we were somewhere else. So the writer of romance travels either in person or by reading books-to distant lands, and there places his stories. As the result of countless details we have accumulated certain prepossessions concerning "romantic" lands. A wise teacher will let pupils discuss their personal conceptions of this idea. The list prepared by them may be different from that of an adult, but if confined strictly to the present day, it will likely include Spain, India, China, Japan, the South Pacific, Alaska, Central Africa, Italy. Such preliminary clearing of the minds of pupils concerning their equipment of impressions and prejudices is of paramount importance to the teaching of literature. Discriminating appreciation by the teacher of the mental attributes of pupils is an essential to the teaching of any form of expression. To their list of romantic places pupils should add titles of books or pictures which corroborate their entries.

The second method for securing strangeness is by depart2ing from the present day. This may mean darting forward

into the thirtieth century or back to the time of Caesar. No series of epochs listed by the teacher will have the value of one evolved by the class, if impressions are based upon reading or choice.

The third method of securing romance is plainly a combination of the first two. This fact will unquestionably have been made perfectly clear in the first five minutes of discussion concerning the use of distant scenes.

The foregoing are not all the aspects of the romantic which need to be comprehended by the teacher and offered to pupils. They are, however, the simpler phases, those which will be required in the study of the more obvious kinds of romance writing. Specimens of these should be placed early in the

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school course. Other more mature, more subtle elements and accompaniments, belonging to masterpieces requiring keener minds, better appreciation, and therefore belonging in the higher grades of high school, will be discussed later.

Preliminary discussion.-Understandingly and rapidly covered by a teacher who has read and still reads, the preliminary or summarizing discussion of the essence of romance need not be above the heads of high school pupils. It will serve for poetry and drama as well as for prose fiction; it will awaken interest in the stories about King Arthur, whether they be retold versions based on Malory or the poetic Idylls of Tennyson. It will clear the path to a comprehensive view of A Midsummer Night's Dream, As You Like It, Peter Pan, and The Piper.

Pupil response to adventure. In romances of the kinds so far defined here emphasis is not upon the development of character, but upon the adventures of the leading persons involved in the plot. Pupils will grasp at once this essential so far as it concerns events. Youth lives at white heat in the adventures of its friends of fiction. No amazing feat is beyond credulity, at least literary credulity. The astounding prowess of an Indian fighter does not disturb pupils' pleasure in the Leatherstocking Tales. Only a critical humorist like 1 Mark Twain would or could demolish their structure of naïve impossibilities. A teacher may go so far as to suggest, or get pupils to admit the difference between factual authenticity and fictional interest, and their relation to acceptable plausibility. Plot is a usual word in schoolrooms, but few pupils are able to explain what it means. Dictionary definitions will clarify vague impressions. The point for the teacher to emphasize here is the interdependent relation of events in the story, the plan of causal sequence. He should make clear that sequential events do not necessarily constitute a plot. Incidents must be consequential. Concatena

tion and complication are likewise helpful ideas to amplify before a romance is studied.

Reading, and the teaching of reading.-Not more than a single recitation period should be necessary to prepare pupils for the reading and study of a masterpiece of romantic fiction. By this time the teacher should have decided quite accurately how much of the story is to be used for reading, and how much for the teaching of reading. Practically any volume within the comprehension of a pupil may be used for reading. Many of these stories should not be used in any other manner in school. But there is a difference between reading and learning how to become a better reader. Unless a book serves to a large degree the second purpose it had better be used frankly as a supplemental or outside reading volume, and not be dignified as educational material by intensive study and detailed discussion in the classroom. Many an adult who reads a great deal is a poor reader notwithstanding, for he misses much that the author intends to convey, he retains little of what he has carelessly perused, and he has no opinion of the relative value of the different parts of the story, frequently not even a valid preference among many volumes. Although such a person may be an inveterate reader, he should be taught how to become a better reader.

Planning the reading.-The teacher's copy of the book may show by notes, cross-references, excisions, the result of his distribution of the pages according to the division suggested. Certain well-defined parts of every book are signally more thought-provoking or taste-developing than others. Other portions are more entertaining. Others are inextricably involved in plot complications. For the purpose of teaching how to read, beginnings are usually quite important -not always. Chapter I of Quentin Durward should be read by a pupil, but is not necessary as material to teach the pupil

how to read that part of the story. On the other hand the first chapter of Ivanhoe is necessary in teaching how to read that historical romance. The work should be so planned that the most significant portions should be read almost entirely and discussed in class. Those chapters requiring less explanation, less minute consideration as links between salient events, should be read rapidly outside class, and reported upon rather rapidly. Demands of time, dangers of stretching the study of a book over too long a period, number of details to be mastered, amount of comparative study to be involved, accuracy of memory to be developed, and appreciation of style to be inculcated are factors which enter into the time allotment for any book in high school.

Ivanhoe.-The study of Ivanhoe might be begun without a single preliminary assignment by starting to read the first chapter. Some teachers report that first year pupils do not find the opening chapter very interesting, that the real enthusiasm begins only when the preparations for the tournament at Ashby-de-la-Zouche are described. It should be possible to make the first chapter interesting if the teacher presents it adequately. This adequate preparation will not be by a report on the life of Sir Walter Scott, though if pupils have already read one of the verse romances, The Lady of the Lake or Marmion, certain facts of the author's life may be recalled. More interesting as approach to this romance than knowledge of Scott is familiarity with Richard the Lion Hearted and the Age of Knighthood. Just a few questions and comments by the teacher, a few replies by the pupils, perhaps a picture or so of armor, a turreted castle, or a knightly combat should serve to arouse anticipatory interest. If the teacher is at all keen about social customs and their effects upon words, the dialogue of Gurth and Wamba can be made as alive as anything in print. Philology must be subordinated to character-drawing, however. The approach