All original dramatic works including 'The Viziers of Bassora', 'Rodogune', 'Perseus the Deliverer', 'Eric' and 'Vasavadutta'.; and works of prose fiction.
All original dramatic works and works of prose fiction. Volume 1: The Viziers of Bassora, Rodogune, and Perseus the Deliverer. Volume II: Eric and Vasavadutta; seven incomplete or fragmentary plays; and six stories, two of them complete.
A Dramatic Romance
VUTHSA UDAIAN - King of Cowsamby.
YOUGUNDHARÂYAN - his Minister, until recently Regent of Cowsamby.
ROOMUNWATH - Captain of his armies.
ALURCA, VASUNTHA - young men of Vuthsa's age, his friends and companions.
PARENACA - the King's door-keeper.
CHUNDA MAHASEGN - King of Avunthy.
GOPÂLACA, VICURNA - his sons.
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.
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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.
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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!
GOPALACA 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.
GOPALACA Art thou not great enough
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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.
GOPALACA 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!
GOPALACA 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.
GOPALACA Wilt thou sue To foemen for the end of haughty strife?
MAHASEGN That never shall be seen. The boy must fall.
GOPALACA He is young, radiant, beautiful and bold. But let him fall. We will not bear defeat.
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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.
GOPALACA 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.
GOPALACA Thou hast a way to strike?
MAHASEGN I have a way, Not noble like the sounding paths of war.
GOPALACA Take it; let us stride straight towards our goal.
MAHASEGN Thy arm is asked for.
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GOPALACA 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.
GOPALACA 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.
GOPALACA One aid I ask of thee and only one.
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My banishment, O King, from thy domains.
MAHASEGN Gopalaca, I banish thee, my child. Return not with my violent will undone.
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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.
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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.
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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,
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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.
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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.
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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.
GOPALACA 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.
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GOPALACA 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.
GOPALACA I have fought against thee, king.
VUTHSA The better! I am sure thou hast fought well. Com'st thou in peace or strife?
GOPALACA In peace, O king, And as thy suppliant.
VUTHSA Ask; I long to give.
GOPALACA Know first my name.
VUTHSA Thy eyes, thy face I know.
GOPALACA 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.
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GOPALACA 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.
GOPALACA This was Vuthsa, then!
YOUGUNDHARAYAN And wherefore seeks the son of Mahasegn Hostile Cowsamby? or why suppliant comes To his chief enemy?
GOPALACA 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?
GOPALACA 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
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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.
GOPALACA Because his bidding Remained undone, my exile was embraced.
YOUGUNDHARAYAN More plainly.
GOPALACA 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
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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?
GOPALACA 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.
GOPALACA 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?
GOPALACA 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,
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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
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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.
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A room in the palace at Cowsamby.
Alurca, Vasuntha.
ALURCA He'll rule Cowsamby in the end, I think.
VASUNTHA Artist, be an observer too. His eyes Pursue young Vuthsa like a hunted prey And seem to measure possibility, But not for rule or for Cowsamby care. To reign's his nature, not his will.
ALURCA This man Is like some high rock that was suddenly Transformed into a thinking creature.
VASUNTHA There's His charm for Vuthsa who is soft as Spring, Fair like a hunted moon in cloud-swept skies, Luxurious like a jasmine in its leaves.
ALURCA When will this Vuthsa grow to man? Hard-brained Roomunwath, deep Yougundharayan rule; The State, its arms are theirs. This boy between Like a girl's cherished puppet stroked and dandled,
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Chid and prescribed the postures it must keep, Moves like a rhythmic picture of delight And with his sunny smile he does it all. Now in our little kingdom with its law Of beauty and music this high silence comes And seizes on him. All our acts he rules And Vuthsa has desired one master more.
VASUNTHA There is a wanton in this royal heart Who gives herself to all and all are hers. Perhaps that too is wisdom. For, Alurca, This world is other than our standards are And it obeys a vaster thought than ours, Our narrow thoughts! The fathomless desire Of some huge spirit is its secret law. It keeps its own tremendous forces penned And bears us where it wills, not where we would. Even his petty world man cannot rule. We fear, we blame; life wantons her own way, A little ashamed, but obstinate still, because We check but cannot her. O, Vuthsa's wise! Because he seeks each thing in its own way, He enjoys. And wherefore are we at all If not to enjoy and with some costliness Get dear things done, till rude death interferes, God's valet moves away these living dolls To quite another room and better play,— Perhaps a better!
ALURCA Yet consider this. Look back upon the endless godlike line. Think of Parikshith, Janamejoya, think Of Suthaneke, then on our Vuthsa gaze. Glacier and rock and all Himaloy piled! What eagle peaks! Now this soft valley blooms;
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The cuckoo cries from branches of delight, The bee sails murmuring its low-winged desires.
VASUNTHA It was to amuse himself God made the world. For He was dull alone! Therefore all things Vary to keep the secret witness pleased. How Nature knows and does her office well. What poignant oppositions she combines! Death fosters life that life may suckle death. Her certainties are snares, her dreams prevail. What little seeds she grows into huge fates, Proves with a smile her great things to be small! All things here secretly are right; all's wrong In God's appearances. World, thou art wisely led In a divine confusion.
ALURCA The Minister Watches this man so closely, he must think There is some dangerous purpose in his mind.
VASUNTHA He is the wariest of all ministers And would suspect two pigeons on a roof Of plots because they coo.
ALURCA All's possible.
Vuthsa enters with Gopalaca.
VUTHSA Yes, I would love to see the ocean's vasts. Are they as grand as are the mountains dumb Where I was born and grew? Or is its voice Like the huge murmur of our forests swayed In the immense embrace of giant winds?
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We have that in Cowsamby.
GOPALACA Wilt thou show Them to me, Vindhya's crags where forests dimly Climb down towards my Avunthy?
VUTHSA We will go And hunt together the swift fleeing game Or with our shafts unking the beast of prey.
GOPALACA If we could range alone wide solitudes, Not soil them with our din, not with our tread Disturb great Nature in her animal trance, Her life of mighty instincts where no stir Of the hedged restless mind has spoiled her vasts.
VUTHSA It is a thing I have dreamed of. Alurca, tell The Minister that we go to hunt the deer In Vindhya's forests on Avunthy's verge. That's if my will's allowed.
Alurca goes out to the outer palace.
VASUNTHA He will, Vuthsa, Allow thy will. Where does it lead thee, king?
VUTHSA A scourge for thee or a close gag might help.
VASUNTHA A bandage for my eyes would serve as well.
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VUTHSA Shall we awaken in Alurca's hands The living voices of the harp? Or willst thou That I should play the heaven-taught airs thou lov'st On the Gundhurva's magical guitar Which lures even woodland beasts? For the elephant Comes trumpeting to the enchanted sound, A coloured blaze of beauty on the sward The peacocks dance and the snake's brilliant hood Lifts rhythmic yearning from the emerald herb.
GOPALACA Vuthsa Udaian, suffer me awhile To walk alone, for I am full of thoughts.
VUTHSA Thou shouldst not be. Cannot my love atone For lost Avunthy?
GOPALACA Always; but a voice Comes to me often from the haunts of old.
VASUNTHA Returns no dim cloud-messenger to whisper To thy great father's longing waiting heart Far from his banished son?
GOPALACA Thy satire's forced.
VASUNTHA Thy earnest less?
VUTHSA One hour, a long pale loss, I sacrifice to thy thoughts. When it has dragged past,
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Where shall I find thee?
GOPALACA Where the flowers rain Beneath the red boughs on the river's bank. There will I walk while thou hearst harp or verse.
VUTHSA Without thee neither harp nor verse can charm.
Gopalaca goes.
The harmony of kindred souls that seek Each other on the strings of body and mind, Is all the music for which life was born. Vasuntha, let me hear thy happy crackling, Thou fire of thorns that leapest all the day. Spring, call thy cuckoo.
VASUNTHA Give me fuel then, Your green young boughs of folly for my fire.
VUTHSA I give enough I think for all the world.
VASUNTHA It is your trade to occupy the world. Men have made kings that folly might have food; For the court gossips over them while they live And the world gossips over them when they are dead. That they call history. But our man returns.
ALURCA Do here and in all things, says the Minister, Thy pleasure. But since upon a dangerous verge This hunt will tread, thy cohorts armed shall keep The hilly intervals, himself be close To guard with vigilance his monarch's life
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Against the wild beasts and what else means harm.
VUTHSA That is his care; what he shall do, is good.
ALURCA To lavish upon all men love and trust Shows the heart's royalty, not the brain's craft.
VUTHSA I have found my elder brother. Grudge me not, Alurca, that delight. Thou lov'st me well?
ALURCA Is it now questioned?
VUTHSA Then rejoice with me That I have found my brother. Joy in my joy, Love with my love, think with my thoughts; the rest Leave to much older wiser men whose schemings Have made God's world an office and a mart. We who are young, let us indulge our hearts.
ALURCA Thou tak'st all hearts and givest thine to none, Udaian. Yet is this prince Gopalaca, This breed from Titans and from Mahasegn, Hard, stern, reserved. Does he repay thy friendship As we do?
VUTHSA Love itself is sweet enough Though unreturned; and there are silent hearts.
VASUNTHA Suffer this flower to climb its wayside rock.
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Oppose not Nature's cunning who will not Be easily refused her artist joys. Fierce deserts round the green oasis yearn And the chill lake desires the lily's pomp.
VUTHSA He is the rock, I am the flower. What part Playst thou in the woodland?
VASUNTHA A thorn beneath the rose That from the heavens of desire was born And men call Vuthsa.
VUTHSA Poet, satirist, sage, What other gifts keepst thou concealed within More than the many that thy outsides show?
VASUNTHA I squander all and keep none, not like thee Who trad'st in honey to deceive the world.
VUTHSA O, earth is honey; let me taste her all. Our rapture here is short before we go To other sweetness on some rarer height Of the upclimbing tiers that are the world.
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A forest-glade in the Vindhya hills.
Vicurna, a Captain.
VICURNA The hunt rings distant still; but all the ways Troops and more troops besiege. Where is Gopalaca?
CAPTAIN Our work may yet be rude before we reach Our armies on the frontier.
VICURNA That I desire. O whistling of the arrows! I have yet To hear that battle music.
CAPTAIN Someone comes, For wild things scurry forth.
They take cover. Gopalaca enters.
VICURNA Whither so swiftly? You are near the frontier for a banished man, Gopalaca.
GOPALACA Why has my father sent Thy rash hot boyhood here, imperilling Both of his sons? I find not here his wisdom.
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VICURNA There will be danger? I am glad. None sent me; I came unasked.
GOPALACA And also unasking?
VICURNA Right.
GOPALACA Trust me to have thee whipped. But since thou art here! Where stand the chariots?
CAPTAIN On our left they wait Screened by the secret tunnel which the Boar Tusked through the hill to Avunthy. Torches ready And men in arms stand in the cavern ranked They call the cavern of the Elephant By giants carved. But all the forest passages The enemy guards.
GOPALACA There are some he cannot guard. I know the forest better than their scouts. When I shall speak of you and clap my hands, Surround us in a silence armed.
CAPTAIN His men Resisting?
GOPALACA No; we two shall be alone.
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VICURNA Fie! there will be no fighting?
GOPALACA Goblin, off!
They take cover again. Gopalaca goes; then arrive from another side Vuthsa with Vasuntha and Alurca.
ALURCA We lose our escort!
VASUNTHA They lose us, I think.
ALURCA What fate conspires with what hid treachery? Our chariot broken, we in woods alone And the night close.
VASUNTHA Roomunwath guards the paths.
ALURCA The night is close.
VUTHSA Here I will rest, my friends, Where all is green and silent; only the birds And the wind's whisperings! Go, Alurca, meet Our comrades of the hunt; guide their vague steps To this green-roofed refuge.
ALURCA It is the best, though bad. I leave thee with unwarlike hands to guard.
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VASUNTHA I am no fighter; it is known. Run, haste.
Alurca hastens out.
And yet for all your speed, someone will worship Great Shiva in Avunthy. I hear a tread.
Gopalaca returns.
VUTHSA Where wert thou all this time, Gopalaca?
GOPALACA Far wandering in the woods since a white deer Like magic beauty drew my ardent steps Into a green entanglement.
VASUNTHA Simple! You found there what you sought?
GOPALACA No deer, but hunters, Not of our troop. We spoke of this green glade Where many wandering paths might lead the king. In haste I came.
VASUNTHA Greater the haste to go!
VUTHSA Follow Alurca and come back with him.
VASUNTHA What, cast myself into the forest's hands To wander and be eaten by the night? Come here and bid me then a long farewell. Are thy eyes open at least? Is it thou in this Who movest? I should know that at least from thee,
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If nothing more.
VUTHSA Why ask when thou hast eyes? Thou seest that mine are open and I walk; For no man drives me.
VASUNTHA Walk! but far away From thy safe capital.
VUTHSA What harm?
VASUNTHA And with This prince Gopalaca?
VUTHSA Suspicions then? Why not suspect at once it is my will To visit Avunthy?
VASUNTHA So?
VUTHSA Not so, but if?
VASUNTHA Oh, if! And if return were much less easy Than the going?
VUTHSA Who has talked of easy things? With difficulty then I will return.
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VASUNTHA I go, King Vuthsa.
VUTHSA But tell Yougundharayan And all who harbour blind uneasy thoughts, "Whatever seeks me from Fate, man or god, Leave all between me and the strength that seeks. War shall not sound without thy prince's leave. Vuthsa will rescue Vuthsa."
VASUNTHA I will tell, But know not if he'll hear.
VUTHSA He knows who is His sovereign.
VASUNTHA King, farewell.
VUTHSA I shall. Farewell.
Vasuntha disappears in the forest.
We two have kept our tryst, Gopalaca. Hang there, my bow; lie down, my arrows. Now Of you I have no need. O this, O this Is what I often dreamed, to be alone With one I love far from the pomp of courts, Not ringed with guards and anxious friendships round, Free like a common man to walk alone Among the endless forest silences, By gliding rivers and over deciduous hills, In every haunt where earth our mother smiles Whispering to her children. Let me rest awhile My head upon thy lap, Gopalaca,
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Before we plunge into this emerald world. Shall we not wander in her green-roofed house Where mighty Nature hides herself from men, And be the friends of the great skyward peaks That call us by their silence, bathe in tarns, Dream where the cascades leap, and often spend Slow moonless nights inarmed in leafy huts Happier than palaces, or in our mood Wrestle with the fierce tiger in his den Or chase the deer with wind-swift feet, and share With the rough forest-dwellers natural food Plucked from the laden bounty of the trees, Before we seek the citied haunts of men? Shall we not do these things, Gopalaca?
GOPALACA Some day we shall.
VUTHSA Why some day? why not now? Have I escaped my guards in vain?
GOPALACA Not vainly.
VUTHSA This sword encumbers; take it from me, friend, And fling it there upon the bank.
GOPALACA It is far. I keep my arms lest some wild thing invade These green recesses.
VUTHSA Keep thy arms and me. O, this is good to be among the trees
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With thee to guard me and no soul besides.
GOPALACA Thyself thou hast given wholly into my hands.
VUTHSA Yes, take me, brother.
GOPALACA I shall use the trust And yet deserve it.
VUTHSA I love thee well, Gopalaca. How dost thou love me?
GOPALACA It was hard to speak, Now I can tell it. As a brother might Elder and jealous, as a mother loves Her beautiful flower-limbed boy or grown man yearns Over some tender girl, his sister, comrade, child, In all these ways, but many more besides, But always jealously.
VUTHSA Why?
GOPALACA Because, Vuthsa, I'ld have thee for my own and not as in Thy city where a thousand shared thy rays Who were strangers to me. In my own domain, Part of a world that's old and dear to me, Where thou shalt be no king, but Vuthsa only And I can bind with many dearest ties Heaped on thee at my will. This, Vuthsa, I desired
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And therefore I have brought thee to this glade.
VUTHSA And therefore I have come to thee alone.
GOPALACA Thou must go farther.
VUTHSA Yes? Then haste. Was that A clank of arms amid the silent trees?
He makes as if to rise, but Gopalaca restrains him.
GOPALACA Thy escort.
VUTHSA Mine?
GOPALACA My father sends for thee. I seize upon thee, Vuthsa, thou art mine, My captive and my prize. I'll bear thee far As Heaven's great eagle bore thy mother once Rapt to his unattainable high hills.
As he speaks the armed men appear.
Swift, captain, swift! I hold the royal boy. On to the tunnel of the Boar.
CAPTAIN Haste, haste! There is a growing rumour all around.
GOPALACA Care not for that, but follow me and guard.
They disappear among the trees. Vasuntha enters.
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VASUNTHA The forest lives with sound; but here all's empty. The stake is thrown; it cannot be called in Whatever happens.
Armed men break in from all sides; Yougundharayan, Roomunwath, Alurca.
YOUGUNDHARAYAN Where is King Vuthsa? where? His bow hangs lonely! sword and arrows lie.
VASUNTHA (indifferently) I cannot tell.
ALURCA Not tell! but you were here, Were with him!
VASUNTHA I was sent away like that. But for a guess he's travelling far and fast To Shiva in Avunthy.
ALURCA And thou laughst, Untimely jester!
YOUGUNDHARAYAN Impetuously pursue! The forest ways and mountain openings flood That flee to Avunthy. Over her treasonous borders Drive in your angry search.
VASUNTHA Thy king commands thee To leave all twixt him and the strength that seeks Their quarrel; throw not armies in the balance. War shall not sound her conch; but Vuthsa only
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Shall rescue Vuthsa.
ROOMUNWATH This is a boy's madness. What lies behind this message?
YOUGUNDHARAYAN Roomunwath, this. The lion's cub breaks forth Whom we so guarded, from our strict control To measure with the large and perilous world The bounding rapture of his youth and force. He throws himself into his foeman's lair Alone and scorning every aid. I guess His purpose and find it headlong, subtle, rash. If he failed? This boy and iron Mahasegn! We must obey.
ROOMUNWATH There's time to arrest their flight This side our frontier. Hastily pursue.
He goes with Alurca and the armed men, all in a tumult of haste.
YOUGUNDHARAYAN It will be vain. A perilous leap and yet Heroic with the bold and antique scorn Of common deeds and the safe guarded paths. This is the spirit that smiled hidden in him Waiting for birth! At least my spies shall enter Their secret chambers, even in his prison My help be timely and near. Back to Cowsamby!
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Avunthy. A road on a wooded hill-side overlooking the plain.
Gopalaca, Vuthsa in a chariot, surrounded by armed men.
GOPALACA Arrest our wheels. Those are our army's lights That climb to us like fire-flies from the plain.
VUTHSA (awakened from sleep) Is this Avunthy?
GOPALACA We have passed her bounds.
VUTHSA So, thou dear traitor, this thou from the first Cam'st planning.
GOPALACA This with more that follows it.
VUTHSA Thou bearst me to thy father's town?
GOPALACA Where thou Shalt lie, a jewel guarded carefully, Beside the dearest treasure of our house.
VUTHSA I must be cooped up in a golden cage As I was guarded in Cowsamby's walls.
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You foes and friends think me your wealth inert, And all men hope to do their will with me. But now I warn you all that I will have My freedom and will do my own dear will By fraud or violence greater than your own.
GOPALACA Thou canst not. If thou hadst thy bow indeed!
VUTHSA Thou hadst me for the taking. I will break forth Almost as easily.
GOPALACA Thou shalt find it hard, Such keepers shall enring thy steps.
VUTHSA But I will And carry with me something costlier far Than what thou stealest from Cowsamby's realm. For I will have revenge.
GOPALACA No wealth we have More precious than the thing I seize today. Therefore thy boast is vain.
VUTHSA That I will see. Was it not thy brother rode behind our car? He passes now; call him.
GOPALACA Vicurna, here!
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VUTHSA Come near, embrace me, brother of Gopalaca, Loved for his sake and for thy own desired Since I beheld thee, son of Mahasegn.
VICURNA Vuthsa Udaian, in the battle's front I had hoped to meet thee and compel thy praise As half thy equal in the fight. But this Is nearer, this is better.
VUTHSA Thou art fair to see. Thy father has two noble sons. Are there No others of your great upspringing stock?
GOPALACA Only a sister.
VUTHSA The world has heard of her.
GOPALACA Thou shalt behold.
VUTHSA Oh then, it is pure gain I go to in Avunthy. O the night With all her glorious stars and from the trees Millions of shrill cigalas peal one note, A thunderous melody! Shall we be soon In the golden city? But it will be night And I shall hardly see her famous fanes.
GOPALACA Dawn will have overtaken us in her skies Passing our chariots long before Ujjayiny's seen.
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Our vanguard nears; unite with them; descend. Roomunwath's cohorts should tread close behind.
VUTHSA They will not come. My fate must ride with me Unhindered to Avunthy.
GOPALACA Hasten in front Towards my father fire-hooved messengers To cry aloud to him the prize we bring Richer than booty of his twenty wars. Shiva has smiled on us.
VUTHSA Vishnu on me. Godheads, it is by strife that you grow one.
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Avunthy. In the palace.
A room in the royal apartments.
Mahasegn, Ungarica.
MAHASEGN I conquer still though not with glorious arms. He's seized! the young victorious Vuthsa's mine, A prisoner in my grasp.
UNGARICA (laughing) Thou holdst the sun Under thy arm-pit as the tailed god did. What wilt thou do with it?
MAHASEGN Make him my moon And shine by him upon the eastern night.
UNGARICA Thou canst?
MAHASEGN Loved sceptic of my house, I can. What thing desired has long escaped my hands Since out of thy dim world I dragged thee conquered Into our sun and breeze and azure skies By force, my fortune?
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UNGARICA Yes, by force, but this By force thou hast not done. Wilt thou depart From thy own nature, Chunda Mahasegn, And hop'st for victory?
MAHASEGN Thou wert my strength, my fortune, But never my counsellor! My own mind's my seer.
UNGARICA I do not counsel, but obey and watch. That is enough for me in your strange world, For in your light I cannot guide myself. Man is a creature blinded by the sun Who errs by seeing; but the world that to you Is darkness,—they who walk there, they have sight. Such am I, for the shades have reared my soul.
MAHASEGN What dost thou see?
UNGARICA That Vuthsa is too great For thy greatness, too cunning for thy cunning. He Will bend not to thy pressure.
MAHASEGN Thou hast bent, The Titaness. This is a delicate boy Softer than summer dews or like the lily That yields to every gentle, insistent wave. A hero? yes: all Aryan boys are that.
UNGARICA Thou thinkst thy daughter thy proud fortune's wave, He its bright flower—a nursling reared by gods
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Only to be thy servant?
MAHASEGN Thou hast seen? I kept my counsel hidden in my soul.
UNGARICA It is good; it is the thing my heart desires. My daughter shall have empire.
MAHASEGN No, thy son.
UNGARICA No matter which. The first man of the age Will occupy her heart; the pride and love That are her faults will both be satisfied. She will be happy.
MAHASEGN Call thy child, my queen. For I will teach her what her charm must weave.
UNGARICA Her heart's her teacher. Call here, Vullabha, The princess.
MAHASEGN O, the heart, it is a danger, A madness! Let the thinking mind prevail.
UNGARICA We are women, king.
MAHASEGN Be princesses! My daughter Has dignity, pride, wisdom, noble hopes;
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She will not act as common natures do.
UNGARICA Love will unseat them all and put them down Under his flower-soft feet.
MAHASEGN Thou hast ever loved To oppose my thoughts!
UNGARICA That is our poor revenge Who in our acts must needs obey.
Vasavadutta enters.
Let now Thy princely cunning teach a woman's brain To use for statecraft's ends her dearest thoughts.
MAHASEGN My daughter Vasavadutta, my delight, Now is thy hour to pay the long dear debt Thou ow'st thy parents by whom thou wast made. Vuthsa, Cowsamby's king, my rival, foe, My Fate's high stumbling-block, captive today Is brought to Avunthy. I mean he shall become Thy husband, Vasavadutta, and my slave. By thee he shall become my subject king. Then shall thy father's fate outleap all bounds, Thy house and nation rule the prostrate world. This is my will, my daughter; is it thine?
VASAVADUTTA Father, thy will is mine, as it is fate's. Thou givest me to whom thou wilt; what share In this have I except only to obey?
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MAHASEGN A greater part which makes thee my ally And golden instrument; for thou, my child, Must be, who only canst, my living sceptre, Thou my ambassador to win his mind And thou my viceroy over his subject will.
VASAVADUTTA Will he submit to this?
MAHASEGN Yes, if thou choose.
VASAVADUTTA I choose, my father, since it is thy will. That thou shouldst rule the world, is my desire; My nation's greatness is my dearest good.
MAHASEGN Thou hast kept my proudest lessons; lose them not. O, thou art not as feebler natures are! Thou wilt not put thy own ambitions first, Nor justify a blind and clamorous heart.
VASAVADUTTA My duty to my country and my sire Shall lead me.
MAHASEGN I will not teach thy woman's brain How thou shalt mould this youth, nor warn thy will Against the passions of the blood. The heart And senses over common women rule; Thou hast a mind.
VASAVADUTTA Father, this is my pride,
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That thou ennoblest me to be the engine Of thy great fortunes; that alone I am.
MAHASEGN Thou wilt not yield then to the heart's desire?
VASAVADUTTA Let him desire, but I will nothing yield. I am thy daughter; greatest kings should sue And take my grace as an unhoped-for joy.
MAHASEGN Thou art my pupil; statecraft was not wasted Upon thy listening brain. Thou seest, my queen?
UNGARICA As if this babe could understand! Go, go And leave me with my child. I will speak to her Another language.
MAHASEGN Breathe no breath against My purpose!
UNGARICA Fearst thou that?
MAHASEGN No; speak to her.
He goes out from the chamber.
UNGARICA (taking Vasavadutta into her arms) Rest here, my child, to whom another bosom Will soon be refuge. Thou hast heard the King; Hear now thy mother. Thou wilt know, my bliss, The fiercest sweet ordeal that can seize A woman's heart and body. O my child,
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Thou wilt house fire, thou wilt see living gods, And all thou hast thought and known will melt away Into a flame and be reborn. What now I speak, thou dost not understand, but wilt Before many nights have kept thy sleepless eyes. My child, the flower blooms for its flowerhood only, To fill the air with fragrance and with bloom, And not to make its parent bed more high. Not for thy sire thy mother brought thee forth But thy own nature's growth and heart's delight And for a husband and for children born. My child, let him who clasps thee be thy god That thou mayst be his goddess; make your wedded arms Heaven's fences; let his will be thine and thine Be his, his happiness thy regal throne. O Vasavadutta, when thy heart awakes Thou shalt obey thy sovereign heart, nor yield Allegiance to the clear-eyed selfish gods. Do now thy father's will, the god awake Shall do his own. Fear not, whatever threatens. Thy mother watches over thee, my child.
She goes out.
VASAVADUTTA I love her best, but do not understand; My mind can always grasp my father's thoughts. If I must wed, it shall be one I rule. Vuthsa! Vuthsa Udaian! I have heard Only a far-flung name. What is the man? A flame? a flower? High like Gopalaca Or else some golden-fair and soft-eyed youth? I have a fluttering in my heart to know.
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The same.
Mahasegn, Ungarica, Gopalaca, Vuthsa.
GOPALACA King of Avunthy, see thy will performed. The boy who rivalled thy ripe victor years, I bring a captive to thy house.
MAHASEGN Gopalaca, Thou hast done well, thou art indeed my son. Vuthsa,—
VUTHSA Hail, monarch of the West. We have met In equal battle; it has pleased me to approach Thy greatness otherwise.
MAHASEGN Pleased thee, vain boy! No, but thy fate indignant that thou strov'st Against heaven-chosen fortunes.
VUTHSA Think it so. I am here. What is thy will with me or wherefore Hast thou by violence brought me to thy house?
MAHASEGN To serve me as earth's sovereign and thy own Assuming my great yoke as all have done
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From Indus to the South.
VUTHSA This is thy error. Thou hast not great Cowsamby's monarch here, But Vuthsa only, Suthaneka's son Who sprang from sires divine.
MAHASEGN And where then dwells Cowsamby's youthful majesty, if not In thee its golden vessel?
VUTHSA Where my vacant throne In high Cowsamby stands. Thou shouldst know that. There is a kingship which exceeds the king. For Vuthsa unworthy, Vuthsa captive, slain, This is not captive, this cannot be slain. It far transcends our petty human forms, It is a nation's greatness. This, O King, Was once Parikshith, this Urjoona's seed, Janamejoya, this was Suthaneke, This Vuthsa; and when Vuthsa is no more, This shall live deathless in a hundred kings.
MAHASEGN Thou speakest like the unripe boy thou seemst, With thoughts high-winging. Grown minds keep to earth's More humble sureness and prefer her touches. I am content to have thy gracious body here, This earth of kingship; with things sensible I deal, for they are pertinent to our days, And not with any high and unseen thought.
VUTHSA My body? deal with it. It is thy slave
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And captive by thy choice and by my own. What thou canst do with Vuthsa, do, O King; In nothing will I pledge Cowsamby's majesty, But Vuthsa is a prisoner in thy hands. Him I defend not from thy iron will.
MAHASEGN My prisoner, thou shalt not so escape My purpose.
VUTHSA I embrace it. If escape Were my desire, I should not now be here. It is not bars and gates can keep me.
MAHASEGN But I will give thee other jailors, boy, Surer than my armed sentries, against whom Thou dar'st not lift thy helpless hands.
VUTHSA Find such; I am satisfied.
MAHASEGN Grow humbler in thy bearing. Be Vuthsa or be great Cowsamby's king, Know thyself only for a captive and a slave.
VUTHSA I accept thy stern rebuke, as I accept Whatever state the wiser gods provide And bend my action to their mood and thought.
MAHASEGN Thou knowst the law of the high sacrifice, Where many kings as menials serve the one,
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And this compelled have many proud lords done Whose high beginnings disappear in time. Now I will make my throned triumphant days A high continual solemn sacrifice Of kingship. There shalt thou, great Bharuth's heir, Dwell in my house a royal servitor, And as most fitting thy yet tender years, My daughter's serf. She with her handmaidens Shall be thy jailors whose firm gracious cordon Thy strength disarmed stands helpless to transgress. To this Thy pride must, forced, consent.
VUTHSA Not only consent, But welcome with a proud aspiring mind Since to be Vasavadutta's servitor Is honour, happiness and fortune's grace. My greatness this shall raise, not cast it down, King Mahasegn.
MAHASEGN Lead now, Gopalaca, Thy gift, her servant, to thy sister's feet. He has a music that the gods desire, His brush leaves Nature wondering and his song The luminous choristers of heaven have taught. All this is hers to please her. Boy, thou smilest?
VUTHSA What thou hast said, is merely truth. And yet I smiled to see how strong and arrogant minds Think themselves masters of the things they do.
Gopalaca goes out with Vuthsa towards Vasavadutta's apartments.
MAHASEGN This is a charming boy, Ungarica,
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Who vaunts and yields!
UNGARICA What he has shown thee, King, Thou seest.
MAHASEGN Wilt thou lend next this graceful child, Almost a girl in beauty, thoughts profound And practised subtleties? I have done well, Was deeply inspired.
He goes out.
UNGARICA For him and her thou hast. Our own ends seeking, Heaven's ends are served.
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A room in Vasavadutta's apartments.
Vasavadutta, Munjoolica, Umba.
VASAVADUTTA But hast thou seen him?
MUNJOOLICA Yes!
VASAVADUTTA Speak, perverse silence. Thou canst chatter when thou wilt.
MUNJOOLICA What shall I say Except that thou art always fortunate. Since first thy soft feet moved upon our earth, O living Luxmie, beauty, wealth and joy Run overpacked into thy days, and grandeurs Unmeasured. Now the greatest king on earth Becomes thy servant.
VASAVADUTTA That's the greatest king's Proud fortune and not mine; for nothing now Can raise me higher than I am whose father Is sovereign over greatest kings. Nothing are these And what I long to know thou dost not tell. What is he like?
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MUNJOOLICA I have seen the lord of love Wearing a golden human body.
VASAVADUTTA (with a pleased smile) So fair!
MUNJOOLICA As thou art; yes, and more.
VASAVADUTTA More!
MUNJOOLICA Cry not out. His eyes are proud and smiling like the god's; His voice is like the sudden call of Spring.
VASAVADUTTA O dear to me even as myself, wear this!
She puts her own chain round her neck.
MUNJOOLICA That is my happiness; keep thy gifts.
VASAVADUTTA Think them My love around thy neck. Thou hast spoken truly, Not woven fictions to beguile my heart? Then tell me more, tell tell, thou dearest one. Not that I care for these things, but would know.
MUNJOOLICA Let thy eyes care not then, but gaze.
Gopalaca comes, bringing in Vuthsa.
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VASAVADUTTA My brother! Long thou wast far from me.
GOPALACA For thy sake far. Much have I flung, my sister, at thy feet Nor thought my gifts were worthy of thy smile, Not even Sourashtra's captive daughter here, The living flower and jewel of her race. But now I give indeed. This is that famous boy, Vuthsa Udaian, great Cowsamby's king, Brought by my hands to serve thee in our house. Look on him; tell me if I have deserved.
VASAVADUTTA (looking covertly at Vuthsa) Much love, dear brother; not that any prize I value as of worth for such as we, But thy love gives it price.
GOPALACA My love for both. My gift is precious to me, for my heart Possessed him long before my hands have seized. Then love him well, for so thou lov'st me twice.
VASAVADUTTA Dear then and prized although a slave.
GOPALACA Are we not all Thy servants? The wide costly world is less, My sister, than thy noble charm and grace And beauty and the sweetness of thy soul Deserve, O Vasavadutta.
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VASAVADUTTA (smiling, pleased) Is it so?
GOPALACA My sister, thou wast born from Luxmie's heart, And we, thy brothers, feel in thee, not us, Our father's fate inherited; our warrings Seek for thy girdle all the conquered earth.
VASAVADUTTA I know it, brother.
GOPALACA From thy childhood, yes, Thou seem'dst to know, ruling with queenly eyes. But since thou knowest, queen, assume thy fiefs Cowsamby and Ayodhya for our house!
VASAVADUTTA (glancing at Vuthsa, then avoiding his eyes) Since he's my slave, they are already mine.
GOPALACA No; understand me, sister; make them thine. Thou, Vuthsa, serve thy mistress and obey.
VASAVADUTTA He is a boy, a marvellous golden boy. I am surely older! I can play with him. There is no fear, no difficulty at all.
(to Vuthsa)
What is thy name? I'll hear it from thy lips.
VUTHSA Vuthsa.
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VASAVADUTTA Thou tremblest, Vuthsa; dost thou fear?
VUTHSA Perhaps. There is a fear in too much joy.
VASAVADUTTA (smiling) I did not hear. My brother loves thee well. Take comfort. If thou serve me faithfully, Thou hast no cause for any grief at all. Thou art Cowsamby's king—
VUTHSA Men call me so.
VASAVADUTTA And now my servant.
VUTHSA That my heart repeats.
VASAVADUTTA (smiling) I did not hear. Cowsamby's king, my slave, What canst thou do to please me?
VUTHSA Dost thou choose To know the songs that shake the tranquil gods Or hear on earth the harps of heaven? dost thou Desire such lines and hues of living truth As make earth's shadows pale? or wilt thou have The infinite abysmal silences Made vocal, clothed with form? These things at birth The Kinnarie, Vidyadhur and Gundhurva Around me crowding on Himaloy dumb Gave to the silent god that lived in me Before my outer mind held thought. All these
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I can make thine.
VASAVADUTTA Vuthsa, I take all these, All thy life's ornaments that thou wearst, for mine And am not satisfied.
VUTHSA Dost thou desire The earth made thine by my victorious bow? Send me then forth to battle; earth is thine.
VASAVADUTTA I take the earth and am not satisfied.
VUTHSA Say then what thing shall please thee in thy slave, What thou desir'st from Vuthsa.
VASAVADUTTA Do I know? Not less than all thou canst and all thou hast,—
(hesitating a little)
And all thou art.
VUTHSA All's thine.
VASAVADUTTA I speak and hear And know not what I say, nor what thou meanst.
VUTHSA The deepest things are those thought seizes not; Our spirits live their hidden meaning out.
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VASAVADUTTA (after a troubled silence in which she tries to recover herself) I know not how we passed into this strain. Such words are troubling to the mind and heart; Leave them.
VUTHSA They have been spoken.
VASAVADUTTA Let them rest. Vuthsa, my slave who promisest me much, Great things thou offerest, small things I'll demand From thee, yet hard. Since he's my prisoner, Munjoolica and Umba, guard this boy; You are his jailors. When I need him near me Bring him to me. Go, Vuthsa, to thy room.
Vuthsa falls at her feet which he touches.
What dost thou? It is not permitted thee.
VUTHSA Not this? That's hard.
VASAVADUTTA (troubled and feigning anger) Thou art too bold a slave.
VUTHSA Let me be earth beneath thy tread at least.
VASAVADUTTA O, take him from me; I have enough of him. Thou, Umba, see he bribes thee not or worse.
UMBA I will be bribed to make thee smart for that. Where shall we put him? In the turret rooms Beside the terrace where thou walkst when moonlight
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Sleeps on the sward?
VASAVADUTTA There; it is nearest.
UMBA (taking Vuthsa's hand) Come.
They go out, leaving Vasavadutta alone.
VASAVADUTTA Will he charm me from my purpose with a smile? How beautiful he is, how beautiful! There is a fear, there is a happy fear. But he is mine, his eyes confessed my yoke. Surely I shall do all my will with him. I sent him from me, his words troubled me And yet delighted. They have a witchery,— No, not his words, but voice. 'Tis not his voice, Nor yet his face, his smile, his flower-soft eyes, And yet it is all these and something more.
(shaking her head)
I fear it will be difficult after all.
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The tower-room beside the terrace.
Vuthsa on a couch.
VUTHSA All that I dreamed or heard of her, her charm Exceeds. She's mine! she has shuddered at my touch; Thrice her eyes faltered as they gazed in mine.
He lies back with closed eyes; Munjoolica enters and contemplates him.
MUNJOOLICA O golden Love! thou art not of this earth. He too is Vasavadutta's! All is hers, As I am now and one day all the earth. Vuthsa, thou sleepst not, then.
VUTHSA Sleep jealous waits Finding another image in my eyes.
MUNJOOLICA Thou art disobedient. Wast thou not commanded To sleep at once?
VUTHSA Sleep disobeys, not I. But thou too wakest, yet no thoughts should have To keep thy lids apart.
MUNJOOLICA How knowst thou that?
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I am thy jailor and I walk my rounds.
VUTHSA Bright jailor, thou art jealous without cause. Who would escape from heaven's golden bars? Thy name's Munjoolica? So is thy form A bower of the graceful things of earth.
MUNJOOLICA I had another name but it has ceased, Forgotten.
VUTHSA Thou wast then Sourashtra's child?
MUNJOOLICA I am still that royalty clouded, even as thou Captive Cowsamby. Me Gopalaca In battle seized, brought a disdainful gift To Vasavadutta.
VUTHSA Since our fates are one, Should we not be allies?
MUNJOOLICA For what bold purpose?
VUTHSA How knowest thou I have one?
MUNJOOLICA Were I a man!
VUTHSA Wouldst thou have freedom? wilt thou give me help?
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MUNJOOLICA In nothing against her I love and serve.
VUTHSA No, but conspire to serve and love her best And make her queen of all the Aryan earth.
MUNJOOLICA My payment?
VUTHSA Name it thyself, when all is ours.
MUNJOOLICA Content; it will be large.
VUTHSA However large.
MUNJOOLICA Now shall I be avenged upon my fate! What thy heart asks I know; too openly Thou carriest the yearning in thy eyes. Vuthsa, she loves thee as the half-closed bud Thrills to the advent of a wonderful dawn And like a dreamer half-awake perceives The faint beginnings of a sunlit world. Doubt not success more than that dawn must break; For she is thine.
VUTHSA Take my heart's gratitude For the sweet assurance.
MUNJOOLICA I am greedy. Only Thy gratitude?
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VUTHSA What wouldst thou have?
MUNJOOLICA The ring Upon thy finger, Vuthsa, for my own.
VUTHSA (putting it on her finger) It shall live happier on a fairer hand.
MUNJOOLICA Since thou hast paid me instantly and well, I will be zealous, Vuthsa, in thy cause. But my great bribe is in the future still.
VUTHSA Claim it in our Cowsamby.
MUNJOOLICA There indeed. Sleep now.
VUTHSA By thy good help I now shall sleep.
Munjoolica goes out.
Music is sweet; to rule the heart's rich chords Of human lyres much sweeter. Art's sublime But to combine great ends more sovereign still, Accepting danger and difficulty to break Through proud and violent opposites to our will. Song is divine, but more divine is love.
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VASAVADUTTA I govern no longer what I speak and do. Is this the fire my mother spoke of? Oh, It is sweet, is sweet. But I will not be mastered By any equal creature. Let him serve Obediently and I will load his lovely head With costliest favours. He's my own, my own, My slave, my toy to play with as I choose, And shall not dare to play with me. I think he dares; I do not know, I think he would presume. He's gentle, brilliant, bold and beautiful. I'll send for him and chide and put him down; I'll chide him harshly; he must not presume. O, I have forgotten almost my father's will; Yet it was mine. Before I lose it quite, I will compel a promise from the boy. Will it be hard when he is all my own?
(she calls)
Umba! Bring Vuthsa to me from his tower. His music is a voice that cries to me, His songs are chains he hangs around my heart. I must not hear them often; I forget That I am Vasavadutta, that he is My house's foe and only Vuthsa feel, Think Vuthsa only, while my captive heart Beats in world-Vuthsa and on Vuthsa throbs. This must not be.
Umba brings in Vuthsa and retires.
Go, Umba. Vuthsa, stand
Page 687
Before me.
VUTHSA It is my sovereign's voice that speaks.
VASAVADUTTA Be silent! Lower thy eyes; they are too bold To gaze on me, my slave.
VUTHSA Blame not my eyes; They follow the dumb motion of a heart Uplifted to adore thee.
VASAVADUTTA (with a shaken voice) Dost thou really Adore me, Vuthsa?
VUTHSA Earth's one goddess, yes.
VASAVADUTTA (mildly) But, Vuthsa, men adore with humble eyes Upon their deity's feet.
VUTHSA Oh, let me so Adore thee then, thus humble at thy feet, Their sleeping moonbeams in my eyes, and place My hands in Paradise beneath these flowers That bless too oft the chill unheeding earth. Let this not be forbidden to thy slave. So let me worship and the carolling of thy speech So listen.
VASAVADUTTA Vuthsa, thou must not presume.
Page 688
VUTHSA O even when faint thy voice, thy every word Reaches my soul.
VASAVADUTTA Wilt thou not let me free?
VUTHSA Yes, if thou bid; but do not.
VASAVADUTTA (bending down to caress his hair) If really And as my slave thou adorest, nothing more, I will not bid.
VUTHSA What more, when this means all?
VASAVADUTTA But if thou art such, is not all thou hast Mine, mine? Why dost thou, Vuthsa, keep from me My own?
VUTHSA Take all; claim all.
VASAVADUTTA (collecting herself) Cowsamby first.
VUTHSA It shall be thine, a jewel for thy feet.
VASAVADUTTA Thy kingdom, Vuthsa, for my will to rule.
VUTHSA It shall be thine, the garden of thy pomp.
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VASAVADUTTA Shall?
VUTHSA Is it not far? We must go there, my queen, Thou to receive and I to give.
VASAVADUTTA I wish To be there. But, Udaian, thou must vow, And the word bind thee, that none else shall be Cowsamby's queen and thou my servant live Vowed to obedience underneath my throne.
VUTHSA Thou only shalt be over my heart a queen, Yes, if thou wilt, the despot of my thoughts, My hopes, my aims, but I will not obey If thou command disloyalty to thee, My sweet, sole sovereign.
VASAVADUTTA (smiling) This reserve I yield.
(hesitatingly)
But Vuthsa, if as subject of my sire, High Chunda Mahasegn, I bid thee rule?
VUTHSA My queen, it will be void.
VASAVADUTTA Void? And thy vow?
VUTHSA Would it not be disloyalty in me, To serve another sovereign?
Page 690
VASAVADUTTA (vexed, yet pleased) O, thou playst with me.
VUTHSA No, queen. What's wholly mine, that wholly take. But this belongs to many other souls.
VASAVADUTTA To whom?
VUTHSA Their names are endless. Bharuth first, Who ruled the Aryan earth that bears his name, And great Dushyanta and Pururavus' Famed warlike son and all their peerless line, Urjoona and Parikshith and his sons Whom God descended to enthrone, and all Who shall come after us, my heirs and thine Who choosest me, and a great nation's multitudes, And the Kuru ancestors and long posterity Who all must give consent.
VASAVADUTTA Thy thoughts are high. But if thy life must fade a prisoner here? My father is inflexible and stern.
VUTHSA Dost thou desire this really in thy heart? Vuthsa degraded, art thou not degraded too?
VASAVADUTTA My rule thou hast vowed?
VUTHSA To obey thee in all things Throned in Cowsamby, not as here I must,
Page 691
Thy father's captive. There I shall be thine.
VASAVADUTTA Leave, Vuthsa, leave me. Take him, Umba, from me.
UMBA (entering, in Vasavadutta's ear) Who now is bribed? We are all traitors now.
She goes out with Vuthsa.
VASAVADUTTA O joy, if he and all were only mine. O greatness, to be queen of him and earth. I grow a rebel to my father's house.
Page 692
Ungarica, Vasavadutta.
UNGARICA Thou singest well; a cry of Vuthsa's art Has stolen into thy song.
She takes Vasavadutta on her lap.
Look up at me, My daughter, let me gaze into thy eyes And from their silence learn thy treasured thoughts. Thou knowest I can read twixt human lids The secrets of the throbbing heart? I search In Vasavadutta's eyes by what strange skill Vuthsa has crept into my daughter's voice. Thou keepst thy lashes lowered? thou wilt not let me look? But that too I can read.
VASAVADUTTA O mother, mother mine, Plague me not; thou knowst all things; comfort me.
UNGARICA Thou needest comfort?
VASAVADUTTA Yes, against myself Who trouble my own heart.
Page 693
UNGARICA Why? though I know. Thou wilt not speak? I'll speak then for thee.
Vasavadutta alarmed puts her hand over Ungarica's mouth.
Off! It is because thou canst not here control What thy immortal part with rapture wills And the mortal longingly desires; for yet Thy proud heart cannot find the way to yield.
VASAVADUTTA If thou knewst, mother.
UNGARICA No, thou hast the will But not the art, Love's learner. O my proud Sweet ignorance, 'tis he shall find the way And thou shalt know the joy of being forced To what thy heart desires.
VASAVADUTTA O mother!
She hides her face in Ungarica's bosom.
UNGARICA Thou hast done thy father's will? Thy husband shall be vassal to thy sire?
VASAVADUTTA Have I a father or a house? O none, O none, O none exists but only he.
UNGARICA Let none exist for thee but the dear all thou lov'st. I charge thee, Vasavadutta, when thou rul'st In far Cowsamby, let this be thy reign
Page 694
To heap on him delight and seek his good. Raise his high fortunes, shelter from grief his heart, Even with thy own tears buy his joy and peace, Nor let one clamorous thought of self revolt Against him.
VASAVADUTTA Mother, thou canst see my heart; Is this not there? Can it do otherwise, Being thus conquered, even if it willed?
UNGARICA Child, 'tis my care to give thy heart a voice And bind it to its nobler loving self. Let this be now thy pride.
VASAVADUTTA It is, it is. But, mother, it is very sweet to rule, And if I rule him for his good, not mine?
UNGARICA Thou canst not be corrected! Queenling, rule. Go now; thy brother comes.
Vasavadutta escapes towards her own apartments; Vicurna enters from the outer door.
Why is thy brow A darkness?
VICURNA Wherefore was King Vuthsa brought Into Ujjayiny? why is captive kept?
UNGARICA Thy father's will, who knows.
Page 695
VICURNA But I would know.
UNGARICA Him ask.
VICURNA (taking her face between his hands) I ask thee; thou must answer.
UNGARICA To wed Thy sister.
VICURNA Let him wed and be released. Our fame is smirched; the city murmurs. War Threatens from Vuthsa's nation and our cause Is evil.
UNGARICA Wedding her he must consent To be our vassal.
VICURNA Thus are vassals made? Thus empires built? This is a shameful thing. Release him first, then with proud war subdue.
UNGARICA Thou knowest thy father's stern, unbending will Whom we must all obey.
VICURNA Not I, or not In evil things.
Page 696
UNGARICA Respect thy father! He Will not, unsatisfied, release his foe. Demand not this.
VICURNA I will release him then.
UNGARICA Him by what right who is thy house's peril?
VICURNA He is a hero and he is my friend.
UNGARICA Didst thou not help to bring him captive here?
VICURNA For Vasavadutta. I will bear them both Out from the city in my chariot far Into the freedom of the hills. I will hew down All who oppose me.
UNGARICA Rash and violent boy, So wilt thou make bad worse. Await the hour When Vuthsa shall himself demand thy aid.
VICURNA The hour will come?
UNGARICA He will be free.
VICURNA Then soon, Or I myself will act.
Page 697
UNGARICA This too is well And most that the proud chivalries of old Are not yet dead in all men's hearts. O God Shiva, thou mak'st me fortunate in my sons.
Page 698
Vasavadutta's chamber.
Vuthsa, Vasavadutta.
VUTHSA Thy hands have yet no cunning with the strings. 'Tis not the touch alone but manner of the touch That calls the murmuring spirit forth,—as thus.
VASAVADUTTA I cannot manage it; my hand rebels.
VUTHSA I will compel it then.
He takes her hand in his.
Thou dost not chide.
VASAVADUTTA I am weary of chiding; and how rule a boy Who takes delight in being chidden? And then 'Twas only my hand. What dost thou?
Vuthsa takes her by the arms and draws her towards him.
VUTHSA What thy eyes Commanded me and what for many days My heart has clamoured for in hungry pain.
VASAVADUTTA Presumptuous! wilt thou not immediately Release me?
Page 699
VUTHSA Not till thy heart's will is done.
He draws her down on his knees, resisting.
VASAVADUTTA What will? I did not bid. What will? Vuthsa! Vuthsa! I did not bid. This is not well.
He masters her and holds her on his bosom.
Her head falls on his shoulder.
VUTHSA O my desire, why should we still deny Delight that calls to us? Strive not with joy, But yield me the sweet mortal privilege That makes me equal with the happiest god In all the heavens of fulfilled desire. O on thy sweet averted cheek! My queen, My wilful empress, all in vain thou striv'st To keep from me the treasure of thy lips I have deserved so long.
VASAVADUTTA Vuthsa! Vuthsa!
He forces her lips up to his and kisses her.
VUTHSA O honey of thy mouth! The joy, the joy Was sweeter. I have drunk in heaven at last, Let what will happen.
Vasavadutta escapes and stands quivering at a distance.
VASAVADUTTA Stand there! approach me not.
VUTHSA I thought 'twould be enough for many ages;
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But 'tis not so.
VASAVADUTTA Go from me, seek thy room.
VUTHSA Have I so much offended? I will go.
He pretends to go.
VASAVADUTTA Vuthsa, I am not angry; do not go. Sit; I must chide thee. Was this well to abuse My kindness, to mistake indulgence?—No, I am not angry; thou art only a boy. I have permitted thee to love because Thou saidst thou couldst not help it. This again Thou must not do,—not thus.
VUTHSA Then teach me how.
VASAVADUTTA (with a troubled smile) I never had so importunate a slave. I must think out some punishment for thee.
She comes to him suddenly, takes him to her bosom and kisses him with passion.
VUTHSA O if 'tis this, I will again offend.
She clings to him, kisses him again, then puts him away from her.
VASAVADUTTA Go from me, go. Wilt thou not go? Munjoolica!
VUTHSA She is not here to help thee against thy heart.
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But I will go; thou willst it.
VASAVADUTTA Wilt thou leave me?
VUTHSA Never! thus, thus into my bosom grow, O Vasavadutta.
VASAVADUTTA O my happiness! O Vuthsa, only name that's sweet on earth I have murmured to the silence of the hours, Give me delight, let me endure thy clasp For ever. O loveliest head on all the earth!
VUTHSA If we could thus remain through many ages, Nor Time grow weary ever of such bliss, O Vasavadutta!
VASAVADUTTA I have loved thee always Even when I knew it not. Was't not the love Secret between us, drew thee here by force, Vuthsa?
VUTHSA Thou wilt not now refuse thy lips?
VASAVADUTTA Nothing to thee.
VUTHSA Yes, thou shalt be my queen Surrendered henceforth, I thy slave enthroned. Give me the largess of thyself that I may be
Page 702
The constant vassal of thy tyrant eyes And captive of thy beauty all my days And homage pay to thy sweet sovereign soul. Thus, thus accept me.
VASAVADUTTA I accept, my king, Thy service and thy homage and thy love. If in return the bounty of myself I lavish on thee, will it be enough? Can it hold thy life as thou wilt fill all mine?
VUTHSA Weave thyself into morn and noon and eve. We will not be as man and woman are Who are with partial oneness satisfied, Divided in our works, but one large soul Parted in two dear bodies for more bliss. For all my occupations thou shalt rule, And those that take me from thy blissful shadow Still with thy sweet remembrance shall inspired Be done by thee.
VASAVADUTTA If thy heart strays from me,—
VUTHSA Never my heart.
VASAVADUTTA If thy eyes stray from me, O Vuthsa,—
VUTHSA If I view all beautiful things With natural delight, thou wilt pardon that Because thou wilt share the joy.
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VASAVADUTTA Then must I find Thy beauty there.
VUTHSA Tonight, my love, my love, Shall we not linger heart on heart tonight?
VASAVADUTTA Ah, Vuthsa, no.
VUTHSA Does not thy heart cry, yes? Are we not wedded? Shall we dally, love, Upon heaven's outskirts, nor all Paradise This hour compel?
VASAVADUTTA (faintly) Munjoolica!
VUTHSA Beloved, thy eyes Beseech me to overcome thee with my will.
Munjoolica entering, Vuthsa releases Vasavadutta.
MUNJOOLICA Princess!
VASAVADUTTA Munjoolica! Why camest thou?
MUNJOOLICA Call'dst thou not?
VASAVADUTTA 'Tis forgotten. Oh, I remember. 'Twas to lead Vuthsa to his prison. (low) Smile,
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And I will beat thee! It was all thy fault.
MUNJOOLICA Oh, very little. Come, the hour is late; The Princess' maidens will come trooping in. Turn not reluctant eyes behind but come.
She takes Vuthsa by both wrists and leads him out.
VASAVADUTTA There is a fire within me and a cry. My longings have all broken in a flood And I am the tossed spray! O my desire That criest for the beauty of his limbs And to feel all his body with thyself And lose thy soul in his sweet answering soul, Wilt thou not all this night be silent? I Will walk upon the terrace in moonlight; Perhaps the large, silent night will give me peace. For now 'twere vain to sleep. O in his arms! His arms about me and the world expunged!
Page 705
The tower-room by the terrace.
Vuthsa asleep on a couch; Munjoolica.
MUNJOOLICA He sleeps and now to lure my victim here. You! princess! Vasavadutta!
VASAVADUTTA (appearing at the doorway) Didst thou call?
MUNJOOLICA Yes, to come in from moonlight to the moon. Thou hast never seen him yet asleep.
VASAVADUTTA He sleeps!
MUNJOOLICA His curls are pillowed on one golden arm Like clouds upon the moon. Wilt thou not see?
VASAVADUTTA I dare not. I will stand here and will see.
MUNJOOLICA Thou shalt not. Either pass or enter in.
VASAVADUTTA Thou playst the tyrant? I will stand and see.
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MUNJOOLICA (pushing her suddenly in) In with thee!
VASAVADUTTA Munjoolica!
MUNJOOLICA Hush, wake him not!
She drags her to the couch-side.
Is he not beautiful?
She draws back and after a moment goes quietly out and closes the door.
VASAVADUTTA Oh, now I feel My mother's heart when over me she bowed Wakeful at midnight! He has never had Since his strange birth a mother's, sister's love. O sleeping soul of my beloved, hear My vow, that while thy Vasavadutta lives, Thou shalt not lack again one heart's desire, One tender bodily want. All things at once, Wife, mother, sister, lover, playmate, friend, Queen, comrade, counsellor I will be to thee. Self shall not chill my heart with wedded strife, Nor age nor custom pale my fire of love. I have that strength in me, the strength to love of gods.
A tress of her hair falls on his face and awakes him.
VUTHSA O Vasavadutta, thou hast come to me!
VASAVADUTTA It was not I! Munjoolica dragged me in. O where is she? The door!
She hastens to the door and finds it bolted from outside.
Page 707
Munjoolica! What is this jest? I shall be angry. Open.
MUNJOOLICA (outside, solemnly) Bolted.
VASAVADUTTA For pity, sweet Munjoolica!
MUNJOOLICA I settle my accounts. Be happy. I Am gone.
VASAVADUTTA Go not, go not, Munjoolica.
VUTHSA (coming to her) She's gone, the thrice-blessed mischief, and tonight This happy prison thou gav'st me is thine too. Goddess! thou art shut in with thy delight. Why wouldst thou flee then through the doors of heaven?
VASAVADUTTA O not tonight! Be patient! I will ask My father; he will give me as thy wife.
VUTHSA Thou thinkst I'll take thee from thy father's hands Like a poor Brahmin begging for a dole? Not so do heroes' children wed, nor they Who from the loins of puissant princes sprang. With the free interchange of looks and hearts Nobly self-given, heaven for the priest And the heart's answers for the holy verse, They are wedded or by wished-for violence torn Consenting, yet resisting from the midst Of many armed men. So will I wed thee, O Vasavadutta, so will bear by force
Page 708
Out of the house and city of my foes Breaking through hostile gates. By a long kiss I'll seal thy lips that vainly would forbid. Let thy heart speak instead the word of joy, O Vasavadutta.
VASAVADUTTA Do with me what thou wilt, for I am thine.
Page 709
Vasavadutta, Munjoolica.
VASAVADUTTA So thou hast dared to come.
MUNJOOLICA I have. Thou, dare To look me in the eyes. Thou canst not. Then?
VASAVADUTTA Hast thou no fear of punishment at all?
MUNJOOLICA For shutting thee in with heaven? none, none at all.
VASAVADUTTA How didst thou dare?
MUNJOOLICA How didst thou dare, proud girl, To make of kings and princesses thy slaves? How dare to drag Sourashtra's daughter here, To keep her as thy servant and to load With gifts, caresses, chidings and commands, The puppet of thy sweet imperious will? Thinkst thou my heart within me was not hot? But now I am avenged on thee and all.
Page 710
VASAVADUTTA Vindictive traitress, I will beat thee.
MUNJOOLICA Do And I will laugh and ask thee of the night.
VASAVADUTTA Then take thy chastisement.
She seizes and beats her with the tassels of her girdle.
MUNJOOLICA Stop! I'll bear no more. Art not ashamed to spend thy heart in play Knowing what thou hast done and what may come? Think rather of what thou wilt do against Thy dangerous morrow.
VASAVADUTTA See what thou hast done! How shall I look my father in the eyes? What speak? what do? my Vuthsa how protect?
MUNJOOLICA Thy father must not know of this.
VASAVADUTTA Thou thinkst My joy can be shut in from every eye? Besides thee I have other serving-girls.
MUNJOOLICA None who'ld betray thee. This thing known, his wrath Would strike thy husband.
Page 711
VASAVADUTTA Me rather. I will throw My heart and body, twice his shield, between.
MUNJOOLICA You will be torn apart and Vuthsa penned In some deep pit or fiercer vengeance taken To soothe the stern man's outraged heart.
VASAVADUTTA Alas! Thou hast a brain; give me thy counsel. The ill Thyself hast done, must thou not remedy?
MUNJOOLICA If thou entreat me much, I will and can.
VASAVADUTTA I shall entreat thee!
MUNJOOLICA Help thyself, proud child.
VASAVADUTTA O, if I have thee at advantage ever! Stay! I beseech thee, my Munjoolica,—
MUNJOOLICA More humbly!
VASAVADUTTA Oh!
She kneels.
I clasp thy feet. O friend, In painful earnest I beseech thee now To think, plan, spend for my sake all thy thought. Remember how I soothed thy fallen life
Page 712
Which might have been so hard. O thou my playmate, Joy, servant, sister who hast always been, Help me, save him, deceive my father's wrath, Then ask from me what huge reward thou wilt.
MUNJOOLICA Nothing at all. Vengeance is sweet enough Upon thy father and Gopalaca. I'm satisfied now. First give me a promise; Obey me absolutely in all things Till Vuthsa's free.
VASAVADUTTA I promise. Thou art my guide And I will walk religiously thy path.
MUNJOOLICA Then think it done.
VASAVADUTTA (smiling on Vuthsa who enters) Vuthsa, I asked not for thee.
VUTHSA Thou didst. I heard thy heart demand me.
MUNJOOLICA Hark! What is this noise and laughter in the court? See, see, the hunchbacked laughable old man! What antics!
VUTHSA Surely I know well those eyes. Munjoolica, this is a friend. He must Be brought here to me.
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MUNJOOLICA Princess, let us call him. It is an admirable buffoon.
VASAVADUTTA Fie on thee! Is this an hour for jests and antics?
MUNJOOLICA (looking significantly at her) Yes.
VASAVADUTTA Call him.
MUNJOOLICA And thou go in.
VASAVADUTTA How, in!
MUNJOOLICA This girl! Hast thou not promised to obey me?
VASAVADUTTA Yes.
She goes in. Munjoolica descends.
VUTHSA Yougundharayan sends him. O, he strikes The hour as if a god had planned all out. This world's the puppet of a silent Will Which moves unguessed behind our acts and thoughts; Events bewildered follow its dim guidance And flock where they are needed. Is't not thus, O Thou, our divine Master, that Thou rulest, Nor car'st at all because Thy joy and power
Page 714
Are seated in Thyself beyond the ages?
Munjoolica returns bringing in Vasuntha disguised.
Who is this ancient shape thou bringest?
MUNJOOLICA I'ld know If he has a tongue as famous as his hump And as preposterous; that to learn I bring him.
VASUNTHA Where is the only lady of the age? Princes or else domestics,—
MUNJOOLICA Something, sir, of both.
VASUNTHA O masters then of princes, think not that I scorn Your prouder royalty; but now if any Will introduce my hungry old hunchback To Avunthy's far-famed paragon of girls, He shall have tithe of all my golden gains.
MUNJOOLICA Why not to Avunthy's governor and a prison, Yougundharayan's spy?
VASUNTHA (looking at Vuthsa) What's this? what's this?
MUNJOOLICA Strong tonic for a young old man.
VUTHSA Speak freely Thy message; there are only friends who hear.
Page 715
VASUNTHA (to Vuthsa, with a humorous glance at Munjoolica) Thy hours were not ill-spent. But thou hast nearly Frighted these poor young hairs to real grey, My sportive lady. Hear now why I crouch Beneath the hoary burden of this beard And the insignia of a royal hump,— And an end to jesting. Vuthsa, in thy city The people clamour; they besiege thy ministers Railing at treason and demanding thee; Nor can their rage be stilled. Do swiftly then Whatever thou must do yet, swiftly break forth Or war will seek thee clamouring round these doors. To bear thy message back to him I come, Upon Avunthy's mountain verge who lurks, Or else to aid thee if our help thou needest.
VUTHSA Let him restrain my army forest-screened Where the thick woodlands weave a border large To the ochre garment round Avunthy's loins Nearest Ujjayiny. Under the cavern-hill Of Lokanatha let him lie, but never Transgress that margin till my chariot comes.
VASUNTHA 'Tis all?
VUTHSA In my own strength all else I'll do.
VASUNTHA Good; then I go?
VUTHSA Yes, but with gold, thy fee, To colour thy going. Bring him gold, dear friend,
Page 716
Or take from Vasavadutta gem or trinket That shall bear out his mask to jealous eyes.
Munjoolica goes into the inner chamber.
VASUNTHA Leave that to me.
VUTHSA Thou hast adventured much For my sake.
VASUNTHA Poor Alurca cried to come, But this thing asked for brains and he had only Blunt courage and a harp. The danger's nothing, But oh, this hump! I shall not soon walk straight, Nor rid myself of all the loyal aches I bear for thee.
VUTHSA Pangs fiercer would have chased them, Hadst thou been caught, my friend. I shall remember.
Munjoolica returns with gold and a trinket.
Take now these gauds; haste, make thy swiftest way, For I come close behind thee.
Vasuntha goes.
MUNJOOLICA Tell me thy plan.
VUTHSA These chambers are too strongly kept.
MUNJOOLICA But there's The pleasure-ground.
Page 717
VUTHSA Let Vasavadutta call Her brothers on an evening to the park And wine flow fast. The nights are moonlit now. How many gates?
MUNJOOLICA Three, but the southern portal Nearest the ramparts.
VUTHSA There, how many guard?
MUNJOOLICA Three armed Kiratha women keep the gate.
VUTHSA I cannot hurt them. Thou must find a way.
MUNJOOLICA They shall be drowned in wine. The streets outside?
VUTHSA A chariot,—find one for me. I cannot fight With Vasavadutta on my breast.
MUNJOOLICA I think That I shall find one.
VUTHSA Do it. The rest is easy, To break the keepers of the city-gate In one fierce moment and be out and far. There are arms enough in the palace?
Page 718
MUNJOOLICA The armoury I use sometimes.
VUTHSA Conceal them in the grounds. No, in the chariot let them wait for me.
MUNJOOLICA Thou wilt need both thy hands in such a fight. Vuthsa, I'll be thy charioteer.
VUTHSA Thou canst?
MUNJOOLICA Hope not to find a better in thy realms.
VUTHSA My battle-comrade then! Words are not needed Between us.
MUNJOOLICA More than that before all's done I will be to thee. Good fortune makes hard things Most easy; for the god comes with laden hands. If the strange word the queen half spoke to me Means anything, Vicurna's car shall bear His sister to her joy and sovereign throne.
Page 719
The pleasure-groves of the palace in Ujjayiny.
Gopalaca, Vuthsa, Vicurna; at a distance under the trees Ungarica, Vasavadutta and Umba.
GOPALACA Vuthsa, the wine is singing in my brain, The moonlight floods my soul. These are the hours When the veil for eye and ear is almost rent And we can hear wind-haired Gundhurvas sing In a strange luminous ether. Thou art one, Vuthsa, who has escaped the bars and walks Smiling and harping to enchanted men.
VUTHSA It was your earthly moonlight drew me here And thou, Gopalaca, and Vindhya's hills And Vasavadutta. Thou shalt drink with me In moonlight in Cowsamby.
GOPALACA Vuthsa, when? What wild and restless spirit keeps thy feet Tonight, Vicurna?
VICURNA 'Tis the wine. I wait.
GOPALACA For what?
Page 720
VICURNA (with a harsh laugh) Why, for the wine to do its work.
GOPALACA Where's Vasavadutta? Call her to us here. We are not happy if she walks apart.
VICURNA There with the mother underneath the trees.
GOPALACA Call them. Thou, Vuthsa, she and I will drink One cup of love and pledge our hearts in wine Never to be parted. Thou deceiv'st the days, O lax and laggard lover.
VUTHSA 'Tis the last. Tomorrow lights another scene.
GOPALACA 'Tis good That thou inclin'st thy heart. My father grows Stern and impatient. This done, all is well.
VUTHSA All in this poor world cannot have their will; Its joys are bounded. I submit, it seems. Wilt thou incline thy heart, Gopalaca?
GOPALACA To what?
VUTHSA To this fair moonlit night's result And all that follows after.
Page 721
GOPALACA Easily I promise that.
VUTHSA All surely will be well.
Munjoolica arrives from the gates; Vicurna returning from the trees with Ungarica, Vasavadutta and Umba, goes forward to meet her.
VICURNA Is't done?
MUNJOOLICA They sprawl half-senseless near the gate.
VICURNA Whole bound and gagged were best. Give Vuthsa word.
He goes towards the gates.
UNGARICA Munjoolica, is it tonight?
MUNJOOLICA What, madam?
UNGARICA (striking her lightly on the cheek) Vicurna rides tonight?
MUNJOOLICA He rides tonight.
UNGARICA Let him not learn, nor any, that I knew.
She returns to the others.
Page 722
GOPALACA Come, all you wanderers. Mother, here's a cup That thou must bless with thy fair magic hands Before we drink it.
UNGARICA May those who drink be one In heart and great and loving all their days Favoured by Shiva and by Luxmie blest Until the end and far beyond.
GOPALACA Drink, Vuthsa. Three hearts meet in this cup.
UNGARICA Who drinks this first, He shall be first and he shall be the bond.
GOPALACA Drink, sister Vasavadutta, queen of all.
UNGARICA Queen thou shalt be, my daughter, as in thy heart, So in thy love and fortunes.
GOPALACA Mine the last.
UNGARICA Thou sayest, my son, yet first mid many men.
GOPALACA Whatever place, so in this knot 'tis found.
UNGARICA (embracing Vasavadutta closely) Forget not thy dear mother in thy bliss.
Page 723
Gopalaca, attend me to the house, I have a word for thee, my son.
GOPALACA I come.
They go towards the palace.
VUTHSA Is it the moment?
MUNJOOLICA Yonder lies the gate.
VUTHSA Love! Vasavadutta.
VASAVADUTTA Vuthsa! Vuthsa! speak. What has been quivering in the air this night?
He takes her in his arms.
VUTHSA Thy rapt and rapture far away, O love. Look farewell to thy father's halls.
VASAVADUTTA Alas! What is this rashness? Thou art unarmed; the guards Will slay thee.
VUTHSA Fear not! Thou in my arms, Our fates a double shield, thou hast no fear, Nor anything this night to think or do Save in the chariot lie between my knees And listen to the breezes in thy locks Whistling to thee of far Cowsamby's groves.
Page 724
He bears her towards the gate, Vicurna crossing him in his return.
VICURNA Haste, haste! all's ready.
MUNJOOLICA Umba! Umba! here!
UMBA (who comes running up) Oh, what is this?
VICURNA Should not this girl be bound?
UMBA Give rather thy commands.
MUNJOOLICA Thou'lt face the wrath?
UMBA O, all for my dear mistress. If the King Slays me, I shall have lived and died for her For whom I was born.
MUNJOOLICA Hide in the groves until Thou hearst a rumour growing from the walls, Then seek the house and save thyself. Till then Let no man find thee.
UMBA I will lose myself In the far bushes. O come safely through. Could you not have trusted me in this?
Page 725
MUNJOOLICA Weep not! I'll have thee to Cowsamby if thou live.
VICURNA Come, follow, follow. He is near the gates.
MUNJOOLICA I to my freedom, she her royal crown!
Page 726
Vasavadutta's apartments.
Mahasegn, Ungarica, Umba bound, armed women.
MAHASEGN She is not here. O treachery! If thou Wert privy to this, thou shalt die impaled Or cloven in many pieces.
UMBA I am resigned.
UNGARICA Thou'lt stain thy soul with a woman's murder, King?
MAHASEGN 'Tis truth; she is too slight a thing to crush. Are not the gardens searched? Who are these slaves Who dare to loiter? If he's seized, he dies.
UNGARICA Wilt thou make ill much worse,—if this be ill?
MAHASEGN How sayst thou? 'Tis not ill? My house is shamed, My pride downtrodden; all the country laughs Already at the baffled Mahasegn Whose daughter was plucked out by one frail boy From midst his golden city and his hosts Unnumbered. Who shall honour me henceforth? Who worship? who obey? who fear my sword?
Page 727
UNGARICA Cowsamby's king has kept the Aryan law, Nor is thy daughter shamed at all in this, But taken with noblest honour.
MAHASEGN 'Tis a law I spurn. My will is trodden underfoot, My pride which to preserve or to avenge Is the warrior's righteousness. Udaian dies. Or if he reach his capital, my hosts Shall thunder on and blot it into flame, A pyre for his torn dishonoured corpse.
UNGARICA Hast thou forgotten thy daughter's heart? Her good, Her happiness are nothing then to thee?
MAHASEGN Is she my daughter? She'll not wish to live Her sire's dishonour.
UNGARICA Thinkest thou he seized her, Her heart consenting not?
MAHASEGN If it be so And she thus rebel to my will and blood, Let her eyes gaze upon their sensuous cause Of treason mocked with many marring spears.
UNGARICA Art thou an Aryan king and threatenest thus? Thy daughter only for thyself was loved?
Page 728
MAHASEGN Silence, my queen! Chafe not the lion wroth.
UNGARICA The tiger rather, if this mood thou nurse.
A Kiratha woman enters.
MAHASEGN Thou com'st, slow slave!
KIRATHIE King, all the grounds are searched. The guards lie gagged below the southern gate; All's empty.
MAHASEGN Where's Gopalaca? He too Has leisures!
KIRATHIE There's a captain from the walls.
MAHASEGN Ha! bring him.
The Kirathie brings in the Avunthian captain.
Well!
CAPTAIN Vuthsa has broken forth. The wardens of the gate are maimed or dead; Triumphant, bearing Vasavadutta, far Exults his chariot o'er the moonlit plains.
MAHASEGN O bitter messenger! Pursue, pursue!
Page 729
CAPTAIN Rebha with his armed men and stern-lipped speed Is hot behind.
MAHASEGN Let all my force that keeps Ujjayiny, be hurled after them, one speed. Call, call Vicurna; let the boy bring back First fame of arms today in Vuthsa slain, His sister's ravisher.
CAPTAIN Let not my words Offend my king. 'Twas Prince Vicurna's car Bore forth his sister and Vicurna's self Rode as her guard.
MAHASEGN (after an astonished pause) Do all my house, my blood Revolt against me?
CAPTAIN The princess Bundhumathie, Thy daughter's serving-maiden, at Vuthsa's side Controlled his coursers.
MAHASEGN Her I do not blame, Yet will most fiercely punish. Captain, go; Gather my chariots; let them gallop fast Crushing these fugitives' new-made tracks.
As the captain departs, Gopalaca enters.
Gopalaca, Head, son, my armies; bear thy sister back Before irrevocable shame is done, Nor with thy father's greatness unavenged return.
Page 730
GOPALACA My father, hear me. Though quite contrary To all our planned design this thing has fallen, Yet no dishonour tarnishes the deed, But as a hero with a hero's child Has Vuthsa seized the girl. We planned a snare, He by a noble violence answers us. We sought to bribe him to a vassal's state Dangling the jewel of our house in front; He keeps his freedom and enjoys the gem. Then since we chose the throw of dice and lost, Let us be noble gamblers, like a friend Receive God's hostile chance, nor house blind wounded thoughts As common natures might. Sanction this rapt; Let there be love twixt Vuthsa's house and us.
MAHASEGN I see that in their hearts all have conspired Against my greatness. Thou art Avunthy's prince, My second in my cares. Hear then! if twixt Ujjayiny and my frontiers they are seized, My fiercer will shall strike; but if they reach Free Vindhya, thou thyself shalt make the peace. Take Vasavadutta's household and this girl, Take all her wealth and gauds; lead her thyself Or follow to Cowsamby, but leave not Till she is solemnised as Vuthsa's queen. Sole let her reign throned by Udaian's side; Then only shall peace live betwixt our realms.
GOPALACA And I will fetch Vicurna back.
MAHASEGN Son, never. I exile the rebel to his name and house. Let him with Vuthsa whom he chooses dwell,
Page 731
My foeman's servant.
He goes out, followed by the guards.
Gopalaca unbinds Umba.
UNGARICA If we give his rage its hour, 'Twill sink. His pride will call Vicurna back, If not the father's heart.
GOPALACA Haste, gather quickly Her wealth and household. I would make earliest speed, Lest Vuthsa by ill hap be seized for ill.
UNGARICA Fear not, my son. The hosts are not on earth That shall prevail against these two in arms.
Page 732
The Avunthian forests; moonlight.
Vuthsa, Vasavadutta, Munjoolica.
VUTHSA Thou hast held the reins divinely. We approach Our kingdom's border.
MUNJOOLICA But the foe surround.
VUTHSA We will break through as twice now we have done. Vicurna comes.
Vicurna arrives ascending.
VICURNA Vuthsa, yon Rebha asks For parley; is it given? I'ld hold him here While by a long masked woodland breach I know Silent we pass their cordon.
VUTHSA Force is best.
VICURNA Vuthsa, to my mind more; but I would spare Our Vasavadutta's heart these fierce alarms. Though she breathe nothing, yet she suffers.
VUTHSA Good!
Page 733
We'll choose thy peaceful breach.
Vicurna descends.
VASAVADUTTA Vuthsa, if I Stood forth and bade their leader cease pursuit Since of my will I go, he must desist.
VUTHSA It would diminish, love, my victory And triumph which are thine.
VASAVADUTTA Then let it go. I would not stain thy fame in arms, though over My house's head its wheels go trampling.
MUNJOOLICA (yawning) Ough! If we could parley a truce for sleep. This fighting Makes very drowsy.
Vicurna returns with Rebha.
VUTHSA Well, captain, thy demand!
REBHA Vuthsa, thou art environed. Dost thou yield?
VUTHSA Thou mockst! Return; we'll break the third last time Thy fragile chain. Are thy dead counted?
REBHA The living Outnumber their first strength; more force comes on Fast from Ujjayiny. Therefore yield the princess.
Page 734
Thyself depart a freeman to thy realms.
VUTHSA Knowst thou thy offer is an insolence?
REBHA Then, Prince, await the worst. Living and bound Or else a corpse we'll bring thee back to our city. Three times around thee is my cordon passed, Thy steeds are spent, nor hast thou Urjoon's quiver. The dawn prepares; think it thy last.
VUTHSA At noon I give thee tryst within my borders.
Rebha goes.
VICURNA Swift! Before he reach his men and back ascend, We must be far. Munjoolica, mount my horse, Ride to Yougundharayan, bid him bring on His numbers; for I see armies thundering towards us With angry speed o'er the Avunthian plains. I'll guide the car.
MUNJOOLICA The horse?
VICURNA Bound in yon grove. Rein lightly; he's high-mettled.
MUNJOOLICA Teach me not. There is no horse yet foaled I cannot ride. Which is my way through all this leafy tangle?
Page 735
VICURNA Thou canst not miss it; for yon path leads only To Lokanatha's hill beyond our borders. Now on!
VUTHSA The moonlight and the glad night-winds Have rustled luminously among the leaves And sung me wordless paeans while I fought. Now let them fall into a rapturous strain Of silence, while I ride with thee safe-clasped Upon my bosom.
VASAVADUTTA If I could hold thee safe at last!
Page 736
On the Avunthian border.
Roomunwath, Yougundharayan, Alurca, soldiers.
ROOMUNWATH The dawn with rose and crimson crowned the hills, There was no sign of Vuthsa's promised wheels. Another noon approaches.
YOUGUNDHARAYAN Two days only Vasuntha's here. Yet is Udaian swift With the stroke he in a secret sloth prepares.
ROOMUNWATH We learned that though too late. A secret rashness, A boy's wild venture with his life for stake And a kingdom! Dangerously dawns this reign.
ALURCA See, see, a horseman over Avunthy's edge Rides to us. He quests forward with his eyes.
ROOMUNWATH Whoe'er he be, he has travelled far. His beast Labours and stumbles on.
YOUGUNDHARAYAN This is no horseman; It is a woman rides though swift and armed.
Page 737
ALURCA She has seen us and dismounts.
YOUGUNDHARAYAN A woman rides! My mind misgives me. Is't some evil chance? Comes she a broken messenger of grief? She runs as if pursued.
ALURCA She's young and fair.
Munjoolica arrives.
MUNJOOLICA Art thou King Vuthsa's captain?
ROOMUNWATH I am he.
MUNJOOLICA Gather thy force; for Vuthsa drives here fast, But hostile armies surge behind his wheels. Fast, fast, into the woods your succour bring, Lest over his wearied coursers and spent quiver Numbers and speed prevail.
YOUGUNDHARAYAN Roomunwath, swift.
Roomunwath goes.
But who art thou or where shall be my surety That thou art no Avunthian sent to lure Our force into an ambush?
MUNJOOLICA This is surely Yougundharayan of the prudent brain. Thy question I reply; the rest resolve
Page 738
But swiftly, lest Fate mock thy wary thoughts. My name is Bundhumathie and my father Sourashtra held; but I, his daughter, taken Served in Avunthy Vasavadutta. Knowest thou This ring?
YOUGUNDHARAYAN 'Tis Vuthsa's.
MUNJOOLICA Young Vicurna's bay I rode, who guards his sister's ravisher Against the angry rescuers. Will these riddles, Wisest of statesmen, solve thy cautious doubt?
YOUGUNDHARAYAN Thy tale is strange; but thou at least art true.
MUNJOOLICA Thou art not prudent only!
YOUGUNDHARAYAN Forward then. Roomunwath's camp already is astir.
Page 739
Near the edge of the forest in Avunthy.
Roomunwath, Yougundharayan, Alurca, Munjoolica, forces.
ROOMUNWATH Stay, stay our march; 'tis Vuthsa's car arrives. The tired horses stumble as they pause.
YOUGUNDHARAYAN There is a noise of armies close behind And out of woods the Avunthian wheels emerge.
There arrive Vuthsa, Vicurna, Vasavadutta.
VUTHSA My father, all things to their hour are true And I bring back my venture. Am I pardoned Its secrecy?
YOUGUNDHARAYAN My pupil and son no more, But hero and monarch! Thou hast set thy foot Upon Avunthy's head.
VUTHSA Yet still thy son.
YOUGUNDHARAYAN Hail, Vasavadutta, great Cowsamby's queen.
VASAVADUTTA (smiling happily on Vuthsa) My crown was won by desperate alarms.
Page 740
VUTHSA It was a perilous race and in the end Fate won by a head. Were it not the difficult paths Baffled their numbers, we were hardly here, So oft we had to pause and rest our steeds. But in less strength they dared not venture on.
YOUGUNDHARAYAN They range their battle now.
VUTHSA Speak thou to them. War must not break.
YOUGUNDHARAYAN Demand a parley there.
VUTHSA If we must fight, it shall be for defence Retreating while we war unless they urge Too far their violent trespass.
VICURNA Rebha comes.
Rebha arrives.
REBHA Ye are suitors for a parley?
VICURNA Rebha, with beaten men?
REBHA Because you had your sister in the car Our shafts were hampered.
Page 741
VICURNA Nor could with swords prevail Against two boys so many hundred men.
REBHA O Prince Vicurna, what thou hast done today Against thy name and nation, I forbear To value. 'Tis thy first essay of arms.
VICURNA Well dost thou not to weigh thy better's deeds.
YOUGUNDHARAYAN Rebha, wilt thou urge vainly yet this strife? What hitherto was done, was private act And duel; now if thou insist on fight, Two nations are embroiled; and to what end?
REBHA I will take Vuthsa and the Princess back. It is my king's command.
YOUGUNDHARAYAN The impossible No man is bound to endeavour. While we fight, King Vuthsa with the captive princess bounds Unhindered to his high-walled capital.
REBHA It is my king's command. I am his arm And not his counsellor; nor to use my brain Have any right, save for the swift way to fulfil His proud and absolute mandate.
YOUGUNDHARAYAN If there came Word from Ujjayiny, then pursuit must cease?
Page 742
REBHA Then truly.
YOUGUNDHARAYAN Send a horseman, Rebha, ask. All meanwhile shall remain as now it stands.
REBHA I'll send no horseman; I will fight.
YOUGUNDHARAYAN Then war!
REBHA We fear it not. This is strange insolence To stand in arms upon Avunthian ground And issue mandates to the country's lords.
He is going.
ROOMUNWATH Rebha, yet pause! No messenger thou needst. Look where yon chariot furious-bounding comes And over it streams Avunthy's royal flag.
REBHA It is the prince Gopalaca. Of this I am glad.
VASAVADUTTA O if my brother comes, then all is well.
VUTHSA For thou art Luxmie. Thou beside me, Fate And Fortune, peace and battle must obey The vagrant lightest-winged of my desires.
Gopalaca arrives; with him Umba.
Page 743
GOPALACA Hail, Vuthsa! peace and love between our lands!
VUTHSA I hold them here incarnate. Welcome thou, Their strong achiever.
GOPALACA As earnest and as proof Receive this fair accomplice of thy flight Unpunished. Sister, take her to thy arms.
VASAVADUTTA O Umba, thou com'st safe to me!
GOPALACA And all My sister's household and her wealth comes fast Behind me. Only one claim Avunthy keeps; My sister shall sit throned thy only queen,— Which, pardon me, my eyes must witness done With honour to our name.
VUTHSA Cowsamby's majesty Will brook not even in this, Gopalaca, A foreign summons. Surely my will and love Shall throne most high, not strong Avunthy's child, But Vasavadutta; whether alone, her will And mine, the nation and the kingdom's good Consenting shall decide. Therefore this claim Urge not, my brother.
GOPALACA Let not this divide us. The present's gladness is enough: the future's hers And thine, Udaian, nor shall any man
Page 744
Compel thee. Boy, thy revolt was rash and fierce Wronging thy house and thy high father's will. Exiled must thou in far Cowsamby dwell Until his wrath is dead.
VICURNA I care not, brother. I have done my will, I have observed the right. Near Vuthsa and my sister's home enough And I shall see new countries.
VUTHSA Follow behind, Gopalaca; thy sister's household bring And all the force thou wilt. We speed in front. Ride thou, Alurca, near us; let thy harp Speak of love's anthems and her golden life To Vasavadutta. Love, the storm is past, The peril o'er. Now we shall glide, my queen, Through green-gold woods and between golden fields To float for ever in a golden dream, O earth's gold Luxmie, till the shining gates Eternal open to us thy heavenly home.
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