such was- the story-teller 's- genius that each successive ver- 

 sion is read with enhancing interest to the last sentence. 

 Since the time of Chancer, story-telling on the one hand 

 diverges toward the modern novel and on the other toward 

 the drama. In a story or epic, a. past event takes, up the 

 attention cl anthor and reader. The actors arc the thii-d 

 persons spoken Oif. But a drajna is a etoiT in aetioi:i. In it, 

 each party to^ the stary himself makes known tlie action, 

 passion, word and deed his part of the story calls, for. . 



ThuG, taking- ao motives stories collecLed by William 

 Painter- from Bishop Bandello and others, and with the aid 

 of Holinshed's chronicle and North's Plutarch, Shakespeare 

 elaborated dramas that are the glory of his country. And 

 thus, more recently, Wagner's conjoint genius of dramatist ' 

 and tone-master, with his reaplendent aids froin architec- 

 ture, histrionic skill, and the enchantment O'f instrumental 

 and vocal music, gave to Fa.usfc and toi Parsifal versions 

 which for magnificence are wide as the poles asunder from 

 the lowly puppet-play and bardic song of the original 

 storieiS'. 



From the modern novelist we expect plot, counterplot, 

 minute description of character, and next to photographic 

 exactness in particulars o.f time and place the story covers. 

 How well these exactions can be met^ may be seen in such 

 novels as Scott's Quentin Durward, Charles Readc'fi Clois-. 

 ter and the Hearth, and Thackeray's Virginians. In these 

 respectively are mirrored the times of Louis XI. of France, 

 of Erasmus, and of the American ' Pie A"olution. Between 

 them and the Canterbury Tales lies a broad expanse through 

 which the story, like the brook, "vvinds about and in and 

 out." Whoever cares toi travel over that course will find 

 Arthur Ransome's History of Story-Telling, published since' 

 this paper was v/ritten, a most pleasant guide. It^ may suf-' 

 fice to say here, that, Cervantes, Defoe, Eichardson, Field- 

 ing and Smollett are but a few of the worthies to be met 

 with on the way. 



As to story-reading, thoughtful inen agr^e that those 



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