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Unit 13 – A Play: Aesop’s “The Hare and the Tortoise”
of
The Third “Ideal” KISS Grammar Book
Unit 13 – A Play: Aesop’s “The Hare and the Tortoise”
THE HARE AND THE TORTOISE
Ex. 1 - A KISS Grammar Passage for Analysis
Ex. 2 -- Part Two
Ex. 3 – Rhys’ “The Hare and the Tortoise”
Ex. 4 –Detmold’s “The Hare and The Tortoise”
Ex. 5 – Herford’s THE HARE AND THE TORTOISE
Ex. 6 - Writing Assignments for “The Hare and the Tortoise”
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© Ed Vavra 12/16/2016
THE HARE AND THE TORTOISE
Based on Aesop’s The Hare and the Tortoise
From Children’s Classics in Dramatic Form, Book One,
by Augusta Stevenson
Illustrated by Clara E. Atwood. Boston: Houghton Mifflin, 1911.
Time: a warm afternoon.
Place: a meadow.
Tortoise.Hare.Birds.
[The Hare walks in slowly, and sits under a tree. The Birds are singing above him.]
Hare. It is too warm! Sing me to sleep,birds. Please sing me to sleep.
Birds. Tweet, tweet! Tweet, tweet, tweet!Tweet, tweet!
[The Tortoise creeps in.]
Hare. Where are you going, tortoise?
Tortoise. I am out for a walk, sir.
Hare. Why do you not go out for a run?
Birds. Ha, ha, ha!
Hare. How would you like to race withme?
Tortoise. I will race with you, sir.
Birds. Ha, ha, ha, ha!
Hare. We will race to that field overthere. Come now. Are you ready?
Tortoise. I am. Please count for us,birdies.
Birds. One—two—three— Go!
[The Hare runs. The Tortoise creeps. The Hare soon reaches a tree and stops.]
Hare. It is so warm! I will take a littlenap here. I can easily get to the field first.
[He sits, and is soon asleep. Soon the Tortoise creeps by him. The Tortoise creeps on and on. The Birds follow quietly. The Tortoise reaches the field.]
Tortoise. I am at the field! I am at thefield!
Birds. Tweet, tweet! Tweet, tweet, tweet!
[The Hare wakes and jumps up.]
Tortoise. I have won the race, friend hare!
Hare. Well—well—well!
Birds. Ha, ha, ha, ha, ha, ha!
Ex. 1 - A KISS Grammar Passage for Analysis
THE HARE AND THE TORTOISE
From Children’s Classics in Dramatic Form, Book One, by Augusta Stevenson
Illustrated by Clara E. Atwood. Boston: Houghton Mifflin, 1911.
Part One
Directions:
1. Ignore the words in small print and the words that tell who is speaking.
2. Work sentence by sentence. Don’t jump around.
3. Put parentheses ( ) around prepositional phrases.
4. Underline subjects once, verbs twice, and label complements “C”.
5. Label each interjection (“Inj”), each noun used as an adverb (“NuA”), and each example of direct address (“DirA”).
[The Hare walks in slowly, and sits under a tree. The Birds are singing above him.]
Hare. It is too warm! Sing me to sleep,birds. Please sing me to sleep.
Birds. Tweet, tweet! Tweet, tweet, tweet! Tweet, tweet!
[The Tortoise creeps in.]
Hare. Where are you going, tortoise?
Tortoise. I am out for a walk, sir.
Hare. Why do you not go out for a run?
Birds. Ha, ha, ha!
Hare. How would you like to race withme?
Tortoise. I will race with you, sir.
Birds. Ha, ha, ha, ha!
THE HARE AND THE TORTOISE
Ex. 2 -- Part Two
Directions:
1. Ignore the words in small print and the words that tell who is speaking.
2. Work sentence by sentence. Don’t jump around.
3. Put parentheses ( ) around prepositional phrases.
4. Underline subjects once, verbs twice, and label complements “C”.
5. Label each interjection (“Inj”), each noun used as an adverb (“NuA”), and each example of direct address (“DirA”).
Hare. We will race to that field overthere. Come now. Are you ready?
Tortoise. I am. Please count for us,birdies.
Birds. One—two—three— Go!
[The Hare runs. The Tortoise creeps. The Hare soon reaches a tree and stops.]
Hare. It is so warm! I will take a littlenap here. I can easily get to the field first.
[He sits, and is soon asleep. Soon the Tortoise creeps by him. The Tortoise creeps on and on. The Birds follow quietly. The Tortoise reaches the field.]
Tortoise. I am at the field!I am at the field!
Birds. Tweet, tweet! Tweet, tweet, tweet!
[The Hare wakes and jumps up.]
Tortoise. I have won the race, friend hare!
Hare. Well—well—well!
Birds. Ha, ha, ha, ha, ha, ha!
Ex. 3 – Rhys’ “The Hare and the Tortoise”
Adapted from Æsop’s fables: an anthology of the fabulists of all countries. Ernest Rhys, ed. London: J.M. Dent & Sons, Ltd.; New York, E.P. Dutton & Co. 1913 [1936] 23.
Directions:
1. Ignore the words in bold. You’ll learn about them later. The words that are in parentheses are speaker tags. In each case, the complement of “says” is the sentence in which the tag appears. In these tags, just underline the subjects and verbs. Note that many sentences have more than one subject/verb pattern.
2. Place parentheses around each prepositional phrase.
3. Underline subjects once, verbs twice, and write “C” over each complement.
A Hare jeered at a Tortoise for the slowness ofhis pace. Butthe Tortoise laughed and said that he wouldrun against her and beat her any day. “Come on,”(said the Hare), “you shall soon see whatmy feet are made of.”They agreed to start at once. The Tortoise jogged along, without a moment’s stopping, at his usual steady pace. The Hare treated the whole matter very lightly. She would first take a little nap (she said), and she should soon overtake the Tortoise. Meanwhile theTortoise plodded on, but the Hare overslept and arrived at the goal late.The Tortoise hadgot in before her.
Slow and steady wins the race.
Ex. 4 –Detmold’s “The Hare and The Tortoise”
Adapted from Edward Detmold’s The Fables of Aesop. London; New York: Hodder & Stoughton, 1909.
Directions:
1. Ignore the words in bold. You’ll learn about them later. The words that are in parentheses are speaker tags. In each case, the complement of “says” is the sentence in which the tag appears. In these tags, just underline the subjects and verbs.
2. Place parentheses around each prepositional phrase.
3. Underline subjects once, verbs twice, and write “C” over each complement.
WHAT a Dull Heavy Creature (saysa Hare) is thissame Tortoise! And yet (saysthe Tortoise) I’llrun with you for a wager. The Hare agreed, and theFox, by consent, was the Judge. They started together,and the Tortoise kept jogging, until he cameto the end of the course. The Hare lay down about midway, and took a nap. I can (says he)catch up with the Tortoisewhen I please.He over-slept.He awoke and scudded awayas fast ashe could. But the Tortoise got to the post before him, and won the wager.
The Moral
Up and be Doing is a good idea. Action is the business of life.We will never come to the end of our journey in time, if we sleep by the way.
Ex. 5 – Herford’s THE HARE ANDTHE TORTOISE
From Oliver Herford’s The Herford Æsop: Fifty Fables in Verse. Illustrated by the author. Boston: Ginn and Co. 1921. 44-45.
A HARE one day a Tortoise chaffed
On her slow gait. The Tortoise laughed.
“’Tis true I’m slowest of the slow
And you’re the fastest thing I know;
Yet notwithstanding your swift pace,”
Said she, “I’ll beat you in a race.”
The Hare consented, half in jest,
To put the matter to the test,
And off they started. Like a flash,
Half round the course in one swift dash,
Bounded the Hare; then, feeling sure
That victory was now secure,
Sat down to rest.—.and fell asleep.
Meanwhile his Rival, creep, creep, creep,
Came slowly on, caught up, and passed.
Creep-creep, creep-creep, until at last
The Hare awaking, rubbed his eyes
And saw, to his intense surprise,
The Tortoise, faithful to her boast,
Was waiting at the winning-post.
Ex. 6 - Writing Assignments for “The Hare and the Tortoise”
1. You’ve read the play by Augusta Stevenson and three versions of the fable. Now, write this fable as if you were using theexact words of the hare and the tortoise.
Get up a lively conversation between the animals.Be careful to use quotation marks correctly. You can use the following to remember what happened:
Hare made fun of tortoise—said tortoise had slow way, creeping along—tortoise asked hare to race—hare said tortoise was in fun—agreed to race—asked fox to mark bounds and give prize—fox showed where to start, how far to run—tortoise lost no time—started promptly—jogged straight on—hare sure he could win—lay down —took nap—awoke—ran fast—came to end—tortoise already there—what we learn from this
2. Write a comparison of the four versions—the play, the poem, and the two prose versions. (You can look at the texts and take notes as you do this.) In it try to answer the following questions.
a.) In addition to the Hare and the Tortoise, each version includes one or more other animal characters. The play is really different here. Why might Stevenson have made such a change?
b.) In each version, what gender (male or female) is the Hare? The Tortoise? Quoting specific words, what evidence do you have for the gender of each? Can you think of any reason why the writers would make them different genders?
c.) Two versions include a “Moral” at the end. Why don’t the other two? What differences are there in the two that have a moral.
d.) Which version do you like the best? Why? Which do you like the least? Why? (Give at least one specific reason for each.)