MENTAL SCENES.
These are next-of-kin to "Guessing Stories," they will however be appreciated as they afford perhaps greater scope for vividly descriptive narrative.
The following specimen of a Mental Scene, which is sufficiently close to the original to reveal to all lovers of Shakspere the play upon which it is founded, will serve as an example as to how these scenes may be rendered:—
From camp to camp, throughout the live-long night, nothing is heard but the hum of either army. So stilly is the scene, that the opposing sentinels might almost hear each other's secret passwords. The cocks commence to crow, the armourers, with busy hammers, secure all rivets in the knights' full armour, the clocks do toll and the third hour of drowsy morning name, and all gives note of dreadful preparation. Proud of their numbers, and insolent with pride, one army rises from a night spent in counting chickens which have ne'er been hatched, and throwing dice for rich lands not yet secured. Anon they chide the cripple, tardy-gaited night, which limps so tediously away. They wait the morn, expectant and exulting. The poor wretches whom they have already, in imagination, condemned, like sacrifices, by their watch fires, sit patiently, and inly ruminate the morning's danger. Oh, now behold the royal captain of this seeming ruined band, walking from watch to watch, from tent to tent. He bids them all good morrow with a modest smile, and calls them brothers, friends, and countrymen. Beholding him, with his cheerful semblance and sweet majesty, one and all pluck comfort from his looks. A largess, universal as the sun, his liberal eye doth give to every one, thawing cold fear, and infusing his heroic nature into all. The scene is blurred over with bloodshed; but a ray of light reveals this royal captain, victorious against fearful odds, exclaiming, "O, God, thy arm was here! and not to us, but to thy arm alone, ascribe we all!"
Answer: Agincourt. See Shakspere's Henry V.
Should difficulty be found in painting in words a "Mental Scene" for the company to discover, a capital plan—as the above example will have indicated—is to read a passage from some great writer, such as Shakspere, or Macaulay, or Sir Walter Scott, or Tennyson, or Carlyle, and leave it to the discernment of the audience to give the name of the scene or incident related. The passage should of course be complete in itself, not too long, and proper names of persons and places which might give a definite clue to the subject of the reading should be removed, and abstract terms like "the hero," "the heroine," "the scene of conflict," and so on, used in their stead. Remember, it is useless to select a "scene" so difficult that no one could identify it or so easy that everybody could discover it.