SUBJECTS FOR WRITTEN IMITATION
| 1. Study and “Cramming” | 11. Leisure and Hurry |
| 2. Fair Play and Trickery | 12. Thrift and Waste |
| 3. Selfishness and Unselfishness | 13. Courage and Cowardice |
| 4. School Spirit and Lack of School Spirit | 14. Persistence |
| 5. Reasons for Success and for Failure | 15. Ambition |
| 6. The Gentleman and the Boor | 16. Thoughtfulness |
| 7. Kindness and Brutality | 17. Loyalty |
| 8. Care and Carelessness | 18. Will Power |
| 9. Promptness and Tardiness | 19. Honor |
| 10. Respect and Insolence | 20. The Kindly Life |
DIRECTIONS FOR WRITING
You have noticed that Mr. Mabie began his essay by telling about Shakespeare's reading. He then set forward the ideal that Shakespeare's method of reading represents. You must follow the same plan. Begin your essay by telling of some one person who represents in some way the ideal of which you write. That very specific example will lead your reader into the thought that you wish to emphasize,—that there is, in connection with your subject, an ideal method of proceeding, and a method that is less ideal. After you have made this specific introduction, set forward your own ideas. Do as Mr. Mabie did, and give many specific examples that will make your thought clear and emphatic.
FOOTNOTES:
[6] From “Books and Culture” by Hamilton Wright Mabie. Copyright by Dodd, Mead and Co.
[7] Florio's Montaigne. John Florio (1553-1625). A teacher of French and Italian in Oxford University, who in 1603 translated the essays of Montaigne, one copy of which, autographed by Shakespeare, is in the British Museum in London. From him Shakespeare perhaps learned French and Italian. In all probability many of the passages of wit and wisdom in plays like Hamlet and The Tempest, as well as in other plays, were suggested by Florio's translation of Montaigne.
[8] Holinshed's Chronicles. Ralph Holinshed (?-1580?). Author of Chronicles of Englande, Scotlande, and Irelande, a book published in 1577, from which Shakespeare drew material for many of his historical plays.
[9] North's Plutarch. Sir Thomas North (1535?-1601?), translated from the French Plutarch's Lives, originally written in Greek in the first century A.D. From these remarkable biographies Shakespeare learned the stories that he embodied in such plays as Antony and Cleopatra and Coriolanus.
[10] Dante Alighieri (1265-1321), an Italian poet, author of The Divine Comedy, a work of such surpassing merit that its author is regarded as one of the five greatest writers of all time.