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Rh How to read English authors, v. g. a drama of Shakespeare?

1. Read first the whole piece, quickly, uncritically, to gain a knowledge of its contents; or induce the pupils to do it at home, but in this case examine whether they do so. – 2. Explain then part after part: all archaic words, difficult constructions, until everything is understood. – 3. Explain historical and literary allusions. – 4. Explain the plot, the tragic idea, the chief characters (in an oration, the proposition and the argumentation). – 5. Criticise the work as a whole. Show its excellences and shortcomings. – 6. Have choice passages learned by heart, and delivered well. Besides, for each lesson make the pupils write something on the lesson previously explained: let them give the contents of a scene, write a synopsis, criticise a passage, or explain a beautiful sentence. Otherwise there is a danger that some will not even look at the author at home.

The nineteenth rule prescribes the regular recitation of memory lessons. These frequent practices of the memory in Jesuit schools have often been censured by modern writers. But renowned teachers as Dr. Arnold of Rugby, in fact, all educators that are not mere theorizers, strongly insist on the necessity of these exercises.

Why should we exercise the memory of the pupils? The answer to this question in general is: because we