Central High School - Almanac Yearbook (Toledo, OH)

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Who! Miss Ritchie? H The same. f'Miss Ritchie your teacher! It cannot be the same! Why she Was my teacher some forty years ago. I'is strange, Very strange. She was Wise? Yes. She was forcible, in mindw- Yes. -and in body. Yes She was diiiicult of deception. Exceedingly so. It can be no other! It can not be the same! H 'Tis strange, exceeding strange. But continue, you were saying, I believe, that- Yes, my lord, I Would consult my book. and having found the rule, Would say to myself, 'William, Write not 'there's the trouble,' but 'there's the rub,' for hath not thy preceptress told thee to 'use the strong homely idioms of the language? And again have I Written 'bodkin' at the end of the line as being the most important Word in the sentence, for hath not thy preceptress said, 'give important Words important positions '? But see here, William, a poet like yourself does not confine himself to grammars and rhetorics and note-books, he soars above such paltry thingsg he sings because he must, because his soul is on tire, because he is inspired. When he gets started on a thing like that Soliloquy, nothing can stop himg he does not think of Words or expressionsg they fly to his lips and run off the point of his pen. Come now, my lord, you are Wrong, all Wrong. Of grammars and rhetorics in truth I had none, nothing save only the priceless note-book Which my preceptress- Yes, I know about the preceptressg go on. -and as to my singing, I don't remember of singing but once in my life, and I never did it again. It Was With

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My lord, methought I heard you say but a moment gone that rules of rhetoric were of no use, and more, that I have ' never used them, I could not then forbear but that I should speak to you against the matter, for hark you, 'twere not for my little note-book Wherein are kept the ' pro- perties of style,' I never had Written the like of I-Iamletf' an in ,, 1, il N if Q 'fri-IE SHADE OF SHAKESPEARE. Then, my dear Shakespeare, you mean to say that I-Iamlet's Soliloquy and Antony's Oration Were Written by rule? Marry, my lord, that Was the manner of it. For oft have I paused when I Would Write a Word that I might counsel with my note-book copied full of the Wise sayings of myipreceptress, Dame Ritchie, a Wonderful Woman! She-

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the Romeo and Juliet company-Blackfriars, iirst perform- ance. We had to 'double up ', as you say nowdays, and I was stage manager, carpenter, conductor-J' Come, William, you are jestingf' -scene-shifter, property-master, box-agent, prompter and Romeo, but my chief work was as Romeo. We had a specialty to introduce that eveningg I was to sing 4Ange- lina', and I was sure of making a hit. I sang it-part of it -and it was a hit, but the audience made itg it was a tomato- I am surprised, Mr. Shakespeare, that you should con- tinue in such a garrulous vein. It is quite out of harmony With the dignity of your position. And as to my stopping When once started on a thing like that soliloquy, why, I was stopped nity times. First the janitor banged at the door and told me that it was time for Christmas tips, then a coal collector tried to get in the window by way of the fire-escape. After I had shot him, a municipal oificer came running down the hall with a sta- tioner at his heels. The villain took my pen and ink away, which, by the way, were originally his, having been bor- rowed by me indeinitelyg this compelled me to hnish writing on my cuffs with green ink, the whole occurrence was quite disconcerting and then- I see you are growing facetiousf' -and then came the autograph-hunters in such num- bers that my ammunition gave out and- Are you aware that you are digressing from the subject in hand? Perhaps Well, to return: I believe I was speaking of my note-book given to me by my dear preceptress- H Pardon me, but you would relieve me immensely by not referring to the note-book again-and the dear preceptress. Be it so, my lordg but I do assure you that I never Wrote without my note-book-no--no-I mean without the