ness of her steps she confuseth the swarms of bees that take her feet for lotuses ! (35) KING. The dream has actually come to pass as you prophecied! (Looking) She is indeed a means to restore life to him whose banner is a dolphin,' and a remedy to free my heart from care. (After reflection) Her brows adance with sweet vivacity, Her eyes aglow with tender, wanton charm, [39] Her waist most slender, and her hips most firm- Bestowed by youth, great Kama's wondrous friend. (36) VIDŪŞAKA. What's she doing there with tremulous slender brows and upraised fingers of her lotus-hand? KING. Full sure to poesy her thought now tends, And parted are the petals of her lips. [40] VIDŪṢAKA. That's pretty straight! There's a half written letters in front of her! KING (recites). Upon what limb doth tender youth write not?? row of (37) (After reflection) Oh, the sikhariņi meter! Oh, words full of meaning! Oh, charming Vaidarbhi style! Oh, unequalled sweetness! Oh, lucidity without a flaw! 1 See p. 22, note 3, and p. 23, note 1. * The first lines of a tetrastich, of which two lines are given in the second act (36), three in the third (53), and the complete stanza in the fourth (60). The meter, as the king's next words imply, is šikhariņī, and the style Vāidarbhi. 3 A style characterized by grace, and admitting all poetic qualities, but avoiding long compounds (Regnaud, Rhétorique Sanskrite, 254-255). Apte, 20, sees in this an allusion to the poet's patriotic pride in his native Mahārāṣṭra. It is also noted conspicuously in Karpūramañjarī, i. 1 c, under the name vacchomi. [41] VIDUSAKA. right time. Well then, look for the fair charmer at the Let the depths of your eyes drink in the moon on the day of its full; let the caverns of your ears be filled with oceans of goodly speech; let Love, the master of the dance, be made to dance himself with hands upraised in joy! KING (standing a step nearer, looking in the four directions). Ah, there is no duality of my beloved! For lo, Here stands a beauteous maid, there pictures twain, (38) Thus doth her loveliness in fourfold wise Fill all our hearts with Kama's darts of fire. [42] Come then, let us draw near, and delight our ears with goodly words! Truly, even though thou hold the pearl-oyster in thy hand, it will not easily release its pearls! (With these words both walk about)' VIDUSAKA (going ahead, gesticulating the exhibition of fear). Oh! get out! get out! This has got the devil in it, sure enough! So I'll beat it mightily with this wooden club, bent like the frowning, curving brow of Devi in her rage! Now see my manly deeds! KING. You'll make silk of jasmine flowers then!" (39) VIDUSAKA. Well, what the devil is this? KING. Good friend, methinks that on the further side of the crystal wall she stands, and that she can be clearly seen from here because it is transparent. Come then, let us pay court to (They do so)3 her behind the pleasure-mount. VIDŪSAKA. She's fled in wild haste, for the queen is dimly seen tracing her footsteps toward her apartments. KING. Oh, heart, good fortune be with thee! May we be remembered by thee as thou dost follow after her! The scene changes from the pavilion to a path running by the courtyard of the zenana. 2 Comp. the Marathi proverb, "String cannot be made from stone" (Manwaring, No. 1184); the Sanskrit, "Not even by the employment of a thousand different processes can syāmāka grain be made to germinate as rice" (Jacob, ii. 26); and the English, "You can't make a silk purse out of a sow's ear." 3 The scene changes from the path to the courtyard of the zenana. (In the wings) May the midday Victory, victory, oh Lord of Trilinga. season be for weal unto thy majesty ! Since now For lotus-leaves to shield him from the sun The elephant holds high his flapping ears, The peacock hides his head beneath his plumes; The boar doth lick his tusks, while buffaloes (40) [44] And furthermore, Now on the banks of pools in pleasure-groves The waves rise high for hips of fawn-eyed dames Soft murmuring, in navels cavernous. VIDŪSAKA. Come, let's go to the queen's apartment, offer up our midday prayer, and get more news of her! (41) [45] (Exeunt omnes) ACT II. END OF ACT I. (Enter two MAID-SERVANTS, meeting each other; they walk about) FIRST MAID-SERVANT (seizing the other by the skirt). Why, Tarañgikā, you look as though the king's words had gotten into your heart, you're so rattled now and won't speak to me, even when I'm face to face with you!" SECOND MAID-SERVANT (embracing her). Dear Kurañgikā, don't be angry! Gauri' curse me if I saw you! My thoughts were on something else! 1A region of ancient India roughly corresponding to the modern Haidarabad (Lassen, 214-216; comp. also Apte, 46; Dey, 93; Balfour, iii. 840). 2 The scene is indefinite, perhaps a part of the royal gardens. 3 For a similar situation, comp. the opening of the first act of the Mālavikāgnimitra, and of the second of the Ratnāvalī. A name of the wife of Śiva. Comp. Quartilla's oath, "Iunonem meam iratam habeam” (Petronius, Satiræ, 25). KURANGIKĀ. Ah ha! what are these thoughts of yours "on something else"? (42) TARANGIKĀ. They're such that I'm all in a tremble, even speaking to you! [46] KURANGIKA. My heart is one with yours, and I'm so anxious! It's interest that makes me ask! TARANGIKA. Whatever happens, I won't hide things! Love don't stick to rights and wrongs. KURANGIKĀ. That's the very thing that makes me hesitate! What were the koel's spouse if her love for the mango-twig were blunted ?1 TARANGIKA. Still, there's a true saying: "The keeping of the spell is the earnest of success." (43) KURANGIKĀ, Don't speak so to me! How can you get the gold from the chameleon's brow while it's alive ?2 [47] TARANGIKA. Well then, listen, dear! There's a king of Kuntala named Candamahasena. He lost his kingdom and came here, and has a daughter named Kuvalayamālā. The king saw her as she came from bathing in the Narmada, and she entered his heart. And the queen received her on account of Mrgāñkavarman, the son of Candravarman, her maternal uncle. So now I've been sent to make arrangements for the marriage. That's what I was so intent on that I didn't see you! (44) KURANGIKA. My, but the queen's smart! This is her trick to get rid of the chances of a rival wife, and play the devoted to her maternal uncle, Candravarman. [48] TARANGIKĀ. But where are you going? KURANGIKĀ. The queen's going to fool Carayana, Esq., with a mock marriage today, and I'm sent to make preparations for the wedding. Come, then, let's both go to give our plans success. 1 (Exeunt omnes) 1 Comp. Ind. Spr. 2808, 6987, 7415. (End of the connecting-scene) I'll keep the secret as long as I live. For the geological conceit, comp. the English superstition of the toadstone (Century Dictionary, 6361). A district of ancient India corresponding roughly to the modern districts of North Kanara, Belgaum, and Bellary in southern Bombay, Haidarabad, northwestern Madras, and part of Mysore (Lanman, 213). The heroine Karpūramañjarī likewise was a daughter of Vallabharāja, king of Kuntala (Karpūramañjarī, i. 34, 8-20). (45) (Enter the KING in anxiety, characteristically adorned, and the VIDUSAKA) KING (gesticulating the emotion of love). [49] Yea, dead the Lord of Love by Śiva slain, Of darts unperishing, and by his shafts (gesticulating distress) If that the silvern moon should melt away Then might I lave me in some cooling stream, [50] And, morever, my dear Cārāyaṇa : (46) His flower-darts great Kāma gently lays Upon a bow of breezes soft and low; Or how could these deep sighs, that shake my robe, So show the way to Tuṣarapuñja, the kadali-'bower that's covered over with expanded atimuktaka-'creepers. (VIDUŞAKA shows it with a gesture) KING. Why this unwonted seal of silence? [51] (VIDŪṢAKA writes characters on the ground) 6 KING. I know eighteen alphabets, but I can't read your writing. 1 Nauclea cadamba, Roxb., bearing beautiful orange flowers with large projecting white clubbed stigmas, thus answering to the allusion in the stanza (Roxburgh, 172; Balfour, ii. 1068). 2 Ind. Spr. 6184. 3 Musa sapientum, Roxb., the plantain, a tree about twelve feet in height, with smooth, vivid green leaves, six feet long by two wide, large purple flowers, and bearing from 150 to 180 plantains (Balfour, ii. 1015). 4 A plant of uncertain identification; probably another name for madhavi, or Gærtnera racemosa, Roxb. 6 * The scene changes to the vicinity of the kadalī-bower. Comp. the eighteen alphabets given in Jain writings (Bühler, Indische Palæographie, 1-2: Weber, in Indische Studien, xvi. 280, 399, translated by Smyth, 28, 76-77). |