Select Recitations and Readings with The Loan of a Lover

# Select Recitations and Readings, No. 4 (1890)

This Street & Smith publication compiles recitations and dramatic readings for public performance and parlor entertainment. The primary content is an anthology of some 80 poems, speeches, and dramatic passages ranging from serious to comic, drawn from established literary figures including Byron, Tennyson, Hawthorne, Shakespeare, Addison, and others. Selections span patriotic ("American Flag"), sentimental ("Hour of Death"), comic ("Mrs. Grubbs' Railroad Claim" by Max Adeler), and philosophical subjects ("Thanatopsis"). The issue concludes with "The Loan of a Lover," a six-character comedy by J.B. Planche. The preface advises speakers to select pieces suited to their abilities and deliver them with careful enunciation and emphasis to command audience attention.