THE MINUTE MAN OF THE REVOLUTION There is Bryant, as quiet, as cool, and as dignified, But no warm applauses come, peal following peal on,- 109 From Lowell's "Fable for Critics," 1848. 25 30 I am quite sensible that I did not do Mr. Bryant justice in the "Fable." But there was no personal feeling in what I said — 35 though I have regretted what I did say because it might seem personal. I am now asked to write a review of his poems for the North American. If I do, I shall try to do him justice. JAMES RUSSELL LOWELL, 1855. THE MINUTE MAN OF THE REVOLUTION GEORGE WILLIAM CURTIS Such was the opening battle of the Revolution a conflict which, so far as we can see, saved civil liberty in two hemispheres -saved England as well as America, and whose magnificent results shine through the world as the beacon light of free popular government. And who won this victory? The minute men 5 and militia, who, in the history of our English race, have been always the vanguard of freedom. The minute man of the American Revolution-who was he? He was the husband and father who, bred to love liberty, and to know that lawful liberty 10 is the sole guarantee of peace and progress, left the plow in the furrow and the hammer on the bench, and, kissing wife and children, marched to die—or to be free. He was the son and lover, the plain, shy youth of the singing school and the village choir, whose heart beat to arms for his country, and who felt, though he could 15 not say, with the old English cavalier, "I could not love thee, dear, so much, Loved I not honor more." This was the minute man of the Revolution, the rural citizen trained in the common school, the church, and the town meeting; 20 who carried a bayonet that thought, and whose gun, loaded with a principle, brought down, not a man, but a system. Him we gratefully recall to-day; him, in yon manly figure wrought in the metal which but feebly typifies his inexorable will, we commit in his immortal youth to the reverence of our children. And here 25 among these peaceful fields-here in the county whose children first gave their blood for American union and independence, and, eighty-six years later, gave it, first also, for a truer union and a larger liberty-here in the heart of Middlesex, county of Lexington and Concord and Bunker Hill, stand fast, Son of Liberty, as 30 the minute man stood at the old North Bridge! But, should we or our descendants, false to liberty, false to justice and humanity, betray in any way their cause, spring into life as a hundred years ago, take one more step, descend and lead us, as God led you in saving America, to save the hopes of man! 35 And what cloud of doubt so dark hangs over us as that which lowered above the colonies when the troops of the king marched into the town, and the men of Middlesex resolved to pass the bridge? With their faith and their will we shall win their victory. No royal governor, indeed, sits in yon stately capital, no hostile 40 fleet for many a year has vexed the waters of our coasts, nor is any army but our own ever likely to tread our soil. Not such are our enemies to-day. They do not come proudly stepping to the drumbeat, with bayonets flashing in the morning sun. But wherever party spirit shall strain the ancient guarantees of freedom; or bigotry and ignorance shall lay their fatal hands upon 45 education; or the arrogance of caste shall strike at equal rights; or corruption shall poison the very springs of national life-there, minute men of liberty, are your Lexington Green and Concord Bridge; and, as you love your country and your kind, and would have your children rise up and call you blessed, spare not the 50 enemy! Over the hills, out of the earth, down from the clouds, pour in resistless might. Fire from every rock and tree, from door and window, from hearthstone and chamber; hang upon his flank and rear from noon to sunset, and so, through a land blazing with holy indignation, hurl the hordes of ignorance and cor- 55 ruption and injustice back, back, in utter defeat and ruin. From "Orations and Addresses." GLOSSARY. Minute man; old English cavalier; king's writ; Son of Liberty; North Bridge; caste. STUDY. How does the orator make you understand that the minute man was not a mere abstraction, but a real, live human being? And what was the spirit that animated all his being? What special qualities of the minute man are emphasized in paragraph 2? What obligation for us has he made necessary? Explain fully the passage, "Who carried a bayonet that thought, and whose gun, loaded with a principle, brought down, not a man, but a system." In what fields are minute men necessary to-day? What kind of fight are we to wage? Notice that here, once more, life is set forth in the form of a battle. Trace the parallel. What spirit do you think. the orator is trying to instill in his listeners by this speech? THE OVERLAND MAIL RUDYARD KIPLING [Foot-service to the Simla Hills] In the name of the Empress of India, make way, Let the robber retreat—and the tiger turn tail— He turns to the footpath that heads up the hill- And, tucked in his waistbelt, the Post Office bill;-"Dispatched on this date, as received by the rail, Per runner, two bags of the Overland Mail." Is the torrent in spate? He must ford it or swim. Has the rain wrecked the road? He must climb by the cliff. Does the tempest cry halt? What are tempests to him? The Service admits not a "but" or an "if." While the breath's in his mouth, he must bear without fail, From aloe to rose oak, from rose oak to fir, From level to upland, from upland to crest, From rice fields to rock ridge, from rock ridge to spur, Fly the soft-sandaled feet, strains the scrawny brown chest. From rail to ravine-to the peak from the vale Up, up through the night goes the Overland Mail. There's a speck on the hillside, a dot on the road — For the great Sun himself must attend to the hail:- GLOSSARY. Simla Hills; Empress of India; per; spate. STUDY. To the common imagination the power and majesty of government is suggested by the mail service more forcibly than by any other means, perhaps because it touches every one in a concrete way. Who are the Lords of the Jungle? (Does line 5 give you the answer?) Why are they exhorted to make way? How much time is covered by the poem? Picture the messenger from the hints here and there in the poem. What · HAMLET'S ADVICE TO THE PLAYERS 113 suggestions of difficulties and the way they must be met? Read passages that indicate that certainty and speed are ideals in mail service. What climax is reached with reference to the sun in stanza 5? HAMLET'S ADVICE TO THE PLAYERS WILLIAM SHAKESPEARE Speak the speech, I pray you, as I pronounced it to you, trippingly on the tongue; but if you mouth it, as many of your players do, I had as lief the town-crier spoke my lines. Nor do not saw the air too much with your hand, thus, but use all gently; for in the very torrent, tempest, and, as I may say, whirlwind of passion, you must acquire and beget a temperance that may give it smoothness. O, it offends me to the soul to hear a robustious periwig-pated fellow tear a passion to tatters, to very rags, to split the ears of the groundlings, who for the most part are capable of nothing but inexplicable dumb-shows and noise. I could have 10 such a fellow whipped for o'er-doing Termagant; it out-herods Herod: pray you, avoid it. Be not too tame neither, but let your own discretion be your tutor: suit the action to the word, the word to the action; with this special observance, that you o'erstep not the modesty of nature; 15 for anything so overdone is from the purpose of playing, whose end, both at the first and now, was and is, to hold, as 't were, the mirror up to nature; to show virtue her own feature, scorn her own image, and the very age and body of the time his form and pressure. Now this overdone, or come tardy off, though it 20 make the unskillful laugh, cannot but make the judicious grieve; the censure of the which one must in your allowance o'erweigh a whole theater of others. O, there be players that I have seen play, and heard others praise, and that highly, not to speak it profanely, that, neither having the accent of Christians nor the 25 gait of Christian, pagan, nor man, have so strutted and bellowed that I have thought some of nature's journeymen had made men and not made them well, they imitated humanity so abominably. From "Hamlet." |
