And as obvious
becomes one's paucity of expression, one's week-kneed imagination, one's
imperfect assimilation of the spirit of the story. It is not a flattering
process.
But when these faults have been corrected by several attempts, the method
gives a confidence, a sense of sureness, which makes the real telling to a
real audience ready and spontaneously smooth. Scarcely an epithet or a
sentence comes out as it was in the preliminary telling; but epithets and
sentences in sufficiency do come; the beauty of this method is that it
brings freedom instead of bondage.
A valuable exception to the rule against memorising must be noted here.
Especially beautiful and indicative phrases of the original should be
retained, and even whole passages, where they are identified with the
beauty of the tale. And in stories like _The Three Bears_ or _Red Riding
Hood_ the exact phraseology of the conversation as given in familiar
versions should be preserved; it is in a way sacred, a classic, and not to
be altered. But beyond this the language should be the teller's own, and
probably never twice the same. Sureness, ease, freedom, and the effect of
personal reminiscence come only from complete mastery. I repeat, with
emphasis: Know your story.
The next suggestion is a purely practical one concerning the preparation
of physical conditions.
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