Collected Plays and Stories

 

CONTENTS

 

Pre-content

 

PLAYS

THE VIZIERS OF BASSORA

 

Rodogune

Act One

Act Two

Act Three

Act Four

Act Five

SCENE I

SCENE II

SCENE III

SCENE I

SCENE II  

SCENE III

SCENE IV

SCENE V

SCENE I

SCENE II

SCENE III

 

SCENE I

SCENE II

SCENE III

SCENE IV

SCENE V

SCENE I

SCENE II

SCENE III

SCENE IV

 

 

Perseus the Deliverer

Act One

Act Two

Act Three

Act Four

Act Five

SCENE I

SCENE II

SCENE III

SCENE I

SCENE II

SCENE III

SCENE I

SCENE II

SCENE III

SCENE I

SCENE II

SCENE III

SCENE IV

SCENE V

SCENE I

SCENE II

SCENE III

 

Eric

Act One

Act Two

Act Three

Act Four

Act Five

SCENE I

SCENE II

SCENE III

SCENE IV

SCENE I

SCENE II

SCENE I

SCENE II

SCENE I

SCENE II

SCENE I

 

Vasavadutta

 

Incomplete and Fragmentary Plays

The Witch of Ilni

Act One

 

Act Two

 

Act Three

SCENE I

SCENE II

 

SCENE I

 

 SCENE I

SCENE II

 

The House of Brut

Act  twO

 

SCENE I

 

The Maid in the Mill

Act One

 

 

 

Act Two

SCENE I

SCENE II

SCENE Iii

SCENE Iv

SCENE v

 

 

 

SCENE I

 

The Prince of Edur

The Prince of Mathura

Act  One

SCENE I

 

The Birth of Sin

Act ONE

 

Fragment of a Play

Act  One

SCENE I

 

STORIES

Occult Idylls

The Phantom Hour

 The Door at Abelard

 

Incomplete and Fragmentary Stories

Fictional Jottings

Fragment of a Story

The Devil's Mastiff

The Golden Bird

 

 

Vasavadutta

 

A Dramatic Romance

 


Characters

 

 

VUTHSA UDAIAN, King of Cowsamby.

YOUGUNDHARÂYAN, his Minister, until recently Regent of Cowsamby.

ROOMUNWATH, Captain of his armies.

PARENACA, the King's door-keeper.

CHUNDA MAHASEGN, King of Avunthy.

RÉBHA, Governor of Ujjayiny, the capital of Avunthy.

A CAPTAIN of Avunthy.

 

UNGÂRICÂ, Queen of Avunthy.

VÂSAVADUTTÂ, daughter of Chunda Mahasegn and Ungarica.

UMBÂ, her handmaiden.

MUNJOOLICÂ, the servile name of Bundhumathie, the captive Princess of Sourashtra, serving Vasavadutta.

A KIRÂTHA WOMAN.

 


The action of the romance takes place a century after the war of the Mahabharata; the capital has been changed to Cowsamby; the empire has been temporarily broken and the kingdoms of India are overshadowed by three powers, Magadha in the East ruled by Pradyotha, Avunthy in the West ruled by Chunda Mahasegn who has subdued also the Southern kings, and Cowsamby in the Centre where Yougundharayan strives by arms and policy to maintain the house of Parikshith against the dominating power of Avunthy. Recently since the young Vuthsa has been invested with the regal power and appeared at [               ], Chunda Mahasegn, till then invincible, has suffered rude but not decisive reverses. For the moment there is an armed peace between the two empires.

The fable is taken from Somadeva's Kathasaritsagara (the Ocean of the Rivers of Many Tales) and was always a favourite subject of Indian romance and drama; but some of the circumstances, a great many of the incidents and a few of the names have been altered or omitted and others introduced in their place. Vuthsa, the name of the nation in the tale, is in the play used as a personal name of the King Udaian.


Act I

 

Scene 1

 

A room in the palace in Ujjayiny.

Chunda Mahasegn, seated; Gopalaca.

 

MAHASEGN

Vuthsa Udaian drives my fortunes back.

Our strengths retire from one luxurious boy,

Defeated!

 

GOPALAKA

I have seen him in the fight

And I have lived to wonder. O, he ranges

As lightly through the passages of war

As moonbeam feet of some bright laughing girl,

Her skill concealing in her reckless grace,

The measures of a rapid dance.

 

MAHASEGN

If this portentous morning reach our gates,

My star is fallen. Yet I had great dreams.

Oudh and Cowsamby were my high-carved doors,

Ganges, Godavary and Nurmada

In lion race besprayed with sacred dew

My moonlit jasmines in my pleasure-grounds.

All this great sunlit continent lay sleeping

At peace beneath the shadow of my brows.

But they were dreams.

 

GOPALAKA

Art thou not great enough

 

Page – 623


To live them?

MAHASEGN

O my son, many high hearts

Must first have striven, many must have failed

Before a great thing can be done on earth,

And who shall say then that he is the man?

One age has seen the dreams another lives.

 

GOPALAKA

Look up towards the hills where Rudra stands,

His dreadful war-lance pointing to the east.

Is not thy spirit that uplifted spear?

 

MAHASEGN

It has been turned by Vishnu's careless hand!

 

GOPALAKA

Fear not the obstacles the gods have strewn.

Why should the mighty man restrain his soul?

Stretch out thy hand to seize, thy foot to trample,

A Titan's motion.

 

MAHASEGN

Thou soarst the eagle's height,

But with eyes closed to the tempest.

 

GOPALAKA

Wilt thou sue

To foemen for the end of haughty strife?

 

MAHASEGN

That never shall be seen. The boy must fall.

 

GOPALAKA

He is young, radiant, beautiful and bold.

But let him fall. We will not bear defeat.

Page – 624


MAHASEGN

Yet many gods stood smiling at his birth.

Luxmie came breathing fortunate days; Vishnu

Poured down a radiant sanction from the skies

And promised his far stride across the earth;

Magic Saruswathie between his hands

Laid down her lotus arts.

 

GOPALAKA

The austere gods

Help best and not indulgent deities.

The greatness in him cannot grow to man.

His hero hours are rare forgetful flights.

Excused from effort and difficult ascent

Birds that are brilliant-winged, fly near to earth.

Wine, song and dance winging his peaceful days

Throng round his careless soul. It cannot find

The noble leisure to grow great.

 

MAHASEGN

There lives

Our hope. Spy out, my son, thy enemy's spirit,

Even as his wealth and armies! Let thy eyes

Find out its weakness and thy hand there strike.

 

GOPALAKA

Thou hast a way to strike?

 

MAHASEGN

I have a way,

Not noble like the sounding paths of war.

 

GOPALAKA

Take it; let us stride straight towards our goal.

 

MAHASEGN

Thy arm is asked for.

Page – 625

GOPALAKA

It is thine to use.

 

MAHASEGN

Invent some strong device and bring him to us

A captive in Ujjayiny's golden groves.

Shall he not find a jailor for his heart

To take the miracle of its keys and wear them

Swung on her raiment's border? Then he lives

Shut up by her close in a prison of joy,

Her and our vassal.

 

GOPALAKA

Brought to the eagle's nest

For the eagle's child thou giv'st him her heart's prey

To Vasavadutta! King, thy way is good.

Garooda on a young and sleeping Python

Rushing from heaven I'll lift him helpless up

Into the skiey distance of our peaks.

Though it is strange and new and subtle, it is good.

Think the blow struck, thy foeman seized and bound.

 

MAHASEGN

I know thy swiftness and thy gathered leap.

Once here! his senses are enamoured slaves

To the touch of every beautiful thing. O, there

No hero, but a tender soul at play,

A soft-eyed, mirthful and luxurious youth

Whom all sweet sounds and all sweet sights compel

To careless ecstasy. Wine, music, flowers

And a girl's dawning smile can weave him chains

Of vernal softness stronger than can give

The unyielding iron. Two lips shall seal his strength,

Two eyes of all his acts be tyrant stars.

 

GOPALAKA

One aid I ask of thee and only one.

Page – 626


My banishment, O King, from thy domains.

 

MAHASEGN

Gopalaca, I banish thee, my child.

Return not with my violent will undone.

Page – 627


Scene 2

 

A hall in the palace at Cowsamby.

Yougundharayan, Roomunwath.

 

YOUGUNDHARAYAN

I see his strength lie covered sleeping in flowers;

Yet is a greatness hidden in his years.

 

ROOMUNWATH

Nourish not such large hopes.

YOUGUNDHARAYAN

I know too well

The gliding bane that these young fertile soils

Cherish in their green darkness; and my cares

Watch to prohibit the nether snake who writhes

Sweet-poisoned, perilous in the rich grass,

Lust with the jewel love upon his hood,

Who by his own crown must be charmed, seized, change

Into a warm great god. I seek a bride

For Vuthsa.

 

ROOMUNWATH

Wisely; but whom?

 

YOUGUNDHARAYAN

One only lives

So absolute in her charm that she can keep

His senses from all straying, the child far-famed

For gifts and beauty, flower born by magic fate

On a fierce iron stock.

Page – 628


ROOMUNWATH

Vasavadutta,

Avunthy's golden princess! Hope not to mate

These opposite godheads. Follow Nature's prompting,

Nor with thy human policy pervert

Her simple ends.

 

YOUGUNDHARAYAN

Nature must flower into art

And science, or else wherefore are we men?

Man out of Nature wakes to God's complexities,

Takes her crude simple stuff and by his skill

Turns things impossible into daily miracles.

 

ROOMUNWATH

This thing is difficult, and what the gain?

 

YOUGUNDHARAYAN

It gives us a long sunlit time for growth;

For we shall raise in her a tender shield

Against that iron victor in the west,

The father's heart taking our hard defence

Forbid the king-brain in that dangerous man.

Then when he's gone, we are his greatness' heirs

In spite of his bold Titan sons.

 

ROOMUNWATH

He must

Have fallen from his proud spirit to consent.

 

YOUGUNDHARAYAN

Another strong defeat and she is ours.

 

ROOMUNWATH

Blow then the conchs for battle.

Page – 629


YOUGUNDHARAYAN

I await

Occasion and to feel the gods inclined.

(to Vuthsa entering)

My son, thou comest early from thy breezes.

 

VUTHSA

The dawn has spent her glories and I seek

Alurca and Vasuntha for the harp

With chanted verse and lyric ease until

The golden silences of noon arrive.

See this strange flower I plucked below the stream!

Each petal is a thought.

 

YOUGUNDHARAYAN

And the State's cares,

King of Cowsamby?

 

VUTHSA

Are they not for thee,

My mind's wise father? Chide me not. See now,

It is thy fault for being great and wise.

What thou canst fashion sovereignly and well,

Why should I do much worse?

 

YOUGUNDHARAYAN

And when I pass?

 

VUTHSA

Thy passing I forbid.

 

YOUGUNDHARAYAN

Vuthsa, thou art

Cowsamby's king, not Time's, nor death's.

 

VUTHSA

O, then,

Page – 630


The gods shall keep thee at my strong demand

To be the aged minister of my sons.

This they must hear. Of what use are the gods

If they crown not our just desires on earth?

 

YOUGUNDHARAYAN

Well, play thy time. Thou art a royal child,

And though young Nature in thee dallies long,

I trust her dumb and wiser brain that sees

What our loud thoughts can never reason out,

Not thinking life. She has her secret calls

And works divinely behind play and sleep,

Shaping her infant powers.

 

VUTHSA

I may then go

And listen to Alurca with his harp?

 

YOUGUNDHARAYAN

Thy will

In small things train, Udaian, in the great

Make it a wrestler with the dangerous earth.

 

VUTHSA

My will is for delight. They are not beautiful,

This State, these schemings. War is beautiful

And the bright ranks of armoured men and steel

That singing kisses steel and the white flocking

Of arrows that are homing birds of war.

When shall we fight again?

 

YOUGUNDHARAYAN

When battle ripens.

And what of marriage? Is it not desired?

 

VUTHSA

O no, not yet! At least I think, not yet.

Page – 631


I'll tell thee a strange thing, my father. I shudder,

I know it is with rapture, at the thought

Of women's arms, and yet I dare not pluck

The joy. I think, because desire's so sweet

That the mere joy might seem quite crude and poor

And spoil the sweetness. My father, is it so?

 

YOUGUNDHARAYAN

Perhaps. Thou hast desire for women then?

 

VUTHSA

It is for every woman and for none.

 

YOUGUNDHARAYAN

One day perhaps thou shalt join war with wedlock

And pluck out from her guarded nest by force

The wonder of Avunthy, Vasavadutta.

 

VUTHSA

A name of leaping sweetness I have heard!

One day I shall behold a marvellous face

And hear heaven's harps defeated by a voice.

Do the gods whisper it? Dreams are best awhile.

 

YOUGUNDHARAYAN

These things we shall consider.

 

PARENACA (entering)

Hail, Majesty!

A high-browed wanderer at the portals seeks

Admittance. Tarnished is he with the road,

Alone, yet seems a mighty prince's son.

 

VUTHSA

Bring him with honour in. Such guests I love.

Page – 632


YOUGUNDHARAYAN

We should know first what soul is this abroad

And why he comes.

 

VUTHSA

We'll learn that from his lips.

 

YOUGUNDHARAYAN

Hope not to hear truth often in royal courts.

Truth! Seldom with her bright and burning wand

She touches the unwilling lips of men

Who lust and hope and fear. The gods alone

Possess her. Even our profoundest thoughts

Are crooked to avoid her and from her touch

Crawl hurt into their twilight, often hating her

Too bright for them as for our eyes the sun.

If she dwells here, it is with souls apart.

 

VUTHSA

All men were not created from the mud.

 

YOUGUNDHARAYAN

See not a son of heaven in every worm.

Look round and thou wilt see a world on guard.

All life here armoured walks, shut in. Thou too

Keep, Vuthsa, a defence before thy heart.

Parenaca brings in Gopalaca.

GOPALAKA

Which is Udaian, great Cowsamby's king?

 

VUTHSA

He stands here. What's thy need from Vuthsa? Speak.

 

YOUGUNDHARAYAN

Roomunwath, look with care upon this face.

Page – 633


GOPALAKA

Hail, then, Cowsamby's majesty, well borne

Though in a young and lovely vessel! Hail!

 

VUTHSA

Thou art some great one surely of this earth

Who com'st to me to live guest, comrade, friend,

Perhaps much more.

 

GOPALAKA

I have fought against thee, king.

 

VUTHSA

The better! I am sure thou hast fought well.

Com'st thou in peace or strife?

 

GOPALAKA

In peace, O king,

And as thy suppliant.

 

VUTHSA

Ask; I long to give.

 

GOPALAKA

Know first my name.

 

VUTHSA

Thy eyes, thy face I know.

 

GOPALAKA

I am Gopalaca, Avunthy's son,

Once thy most dangerous enemy held on earth.

 

VUTHSA

A mighty name thou speakest, prince, nor one

To supplications tuned. Yet ask and have.

Page – 634


GOPALAKA

Thou heardst me well? I am thy foeman's son.

 

VUTHSA

And therefore welcome more to Vuthsa's heart.

Foemen! they are our playmates in the fight

And should be dear as friends who share our hours

Of closeness and desire. Why should they keep

Themselves so distant? Thou the noblest of them all,

The bravest. I have played with thee, O prince,

In the great pastime.

 

GOPALAKA

This was Vuthsa, then!

 

YOUGUNDHARAYAN

And wherefore seeks the son of Mahasegn

Hostile Cowsamby? or why suppliant comes

To his chief enemy?

 

GOPALAKA

I should know that brow.

This is thy great wise minister? That is well.

I seek a refuge.

 

YOUGUNDHARAYAN

And thou sayst thou art

Avunthy's son?

 

GOPALAKA

Because I am his son.

My father casts me from him and no spot

Once thought my own will suffer now my tread.

Therefore I come. Vuthsa Udaian, king,

Grant me some hut, some cave upon thy soil,

Some meanest refuge for my wandering head.

But if thy heart can dwell with fear, as do

Page – 635


The natures of this age, or feed the snake

Suspicion, over gloomier borders send

My broken life.

 

YOUGUNDHARAYAN

Vuthsa, beware. His words

Strive to conceal their naked cunning.

 

VUTHSA

Prince,

What thou demandst and more than thou demandst,

Is without question thine. Now, if thou wilt,

Reveal the cause of thy great father's wrath,

But only if thou wilt.

 

GOPALAKA

Because his bidding

Remained undone, my exile was embraced.

 

YOUGUNDHARAYAN

More plainly.

 

GOPALAKA

Ask me not. I am ashamed.

Nor should a son unveil his father's fault.

They, even when they tyrannise, remain

Most dear and reverend still, who gave us birth.

This, Vuthsa, know; against thee I was aimed,

A secret arrow.

 

VUTHSA

Keep thy father's counsel.

If he shoot arrows and thou art that shaft,

I'll welcome thee into my throbbing breast.

What thou hast asked, I sue to thee to take.

Thou seekst a refuge, thou shalt find a home:

Thou fleest a father, here a brother waits

Page – 636


To clasp thee in his arms.

 

YOUGUNDHARAYAN

Too frank, too noble!

 

VUTHSA

Come closer. Child of Mahasegn, wilt thou

Be king Udaian's brother and his friend?

This proud grace wilt thou fling on the bare boon

That I have given thee? Is it much to ask?

 

GOPALAKA

To be thy brother was my heart's desire.

Shod with that hope I came.

 

VUTHSA

Clasp then our hands.

Gopalaca, my play, my couch, my board,

My serious labour and my trifling hours

Share henceforth, govern. All I have is thine.

 

GOPALAKA

Thine is the noblest soul on all the earth.

 

VUTHSA

Frown not, my father. I obey my heart

Which leaped up in me when I saw his face.

Be sure my heart is wise. Gopalaca,

The sentinel love in man ever imagines

Strange perils for its object. So my minister

Expects from thee some harm. Wilt thou not then

Assure his love and pardon it the doubt?

 

GOPALAKA

He is a wise deep-seeing statesman, king,

And shows that wisdom now. But I will swear,

But I will prove to thee, thou noble man,

Page – 637


That dearest friendship is my will to him

Thou serv'st and to work on him proudest love.

Is it enough?

 

VUTHSA

My father, hast thou heard?

A son of kings swears not to lying oaths.

 

YOUGUNDHARAYAN

It is enough.

 

VUTHSA

Then come, Gopalaca,

Into my palace and my heart.

He goes into the palace with Gopalaca.

YOUGUNDHARAYAN

O life

Besieged of kings! What snare is this? what charm?

There was a falsehood in the Avunthian's eyes.

 

ROOMUNWATH

He has given himself into his foemen's hands

And he has sworn. He is a prince's son.

 

YOUGUNDHARAYAN

Yes, by his sire; but the pale queen Ungarica

Was to a strange inhuman father born

And from dim shades her victor dragged her forth.

 

ROOMUNWATH

There's here no remedy. Vuthsa is ensnared

As with a sudden charm.

 

YOUGUNDHARAYAN

I'll watch his steps.

Keep thou such bows wherever these two walk

Page – 638


As never yet have missed their fleeing mark.

 

ROOMUNWATH

Yet was this nobly done on Vuthsa's part.

 

YOUGUNDHARAYAN

O, such nobility in godlike times

Was wisdom, but not to our fall belongs.

Sweet virtue now is mother of defeat

And baser, fiercer souls inherit earth.

Page – 639