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April 12, 1856.] THB LEADER, 355
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A1ST INDIAN DRAMA. Sakoontala: or, the L...
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ANECDOTES OF JURISPRUDENCE. Principles a...
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Note: This text has been automatically extracted via Optical Character Recognition (OCR) software. The text has not been manually corrected and should not be relied on to be an accurate representation of the item.
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April 12, 1856.] Thb Leader, 355
April 12 , 1856 . ] THB LEADER , 355
A1st Indian Drama. Sakoontala: Or, The L...
A 1 ST INDIAN DRAMA . Sakoontala : or , the Lost Ring , an Indian Drama . Translated by Monier Williams , M . A . Third Edition . Stephen Austin , Hertford . The dramatic literature of tlie Hindoos dates from a period antecedent to the Christian era . It is believed by Oriental scholars that quite two thousand years haye elapsed since King Sudraka composed The Toy Cart , the merits of which are patent to the English reader through the translation of Professor H . H . Wilson . The most celebrated , however , of Hindoo dramas is the one at the head of this notice . The author , Kalidasa , flourished at the brilliant court of King Vikramaditya L , a contemporary of Augustus . But even at the present day this drama maintains its popularity undiminished , owing to the stereotyped features of society in India . Perhaps , the word " popularity" is scarcely applicable , for the Hindoo dramas are not written in the vernacular language of the country . Being composed in Sanskrit they were intelligible only to persons possessed of some degree of literary culture . All the chief male characters are made to speak the purest and most polished
Sanskrit , while the inferior personages , including all the women—and even the heroine—express themselves in a rude vulgar dialect , as much inferior to the other as is the jargon of an English peasant to the essays of Addison . There is also a curious admixture of prose and verse , the former particularly common-place , the latter almost poetic . For instance , Sakoontala complains that her companion Pryamvada , has drawn her bark-dress too tightly about her chest , and prays Acasuya to looseu it a little . Whereupon Pryanavada smilingly asks : "Why do you lay the bLame on me ? Blame rather your own blooming youthftuness which imparts fulness to your bosom . " The King , who is lying concealed and watching the movements of the maidens , then stolidly remarks to himself , "A most just observation ! " but goes on to say , This youthful form , whose bosom ' s swelling charms By the bark ' s knotted tissue are concealed , Like some fair bud close folded in its sheath , Gives not to view the blooming of its b « auty .
" But wlmt am I saying ? In real truth , this bark dress , though ill-suited to feer figua-e , sets it ' off like an ornament . " The lotus with the Saivala entwined Is not a whit less brilliant : dusky spots Heighten the lustre of the cold-rayed moon : This lovely maiden in her dress of bark Seems all the lovelier . E ' en the meanest garb Gives to true beauty fresh attractiveness . Dushyanta was evidently a believer in the simplex munditiis , and preferred beauty unadorned to beauty disguised with excessive adornment .
Of metre there is an endless variety . The first thirty-four verses of SaJioonicda , Aye are told , exhibit eleven different kinds , alt of which Mr . Williams conceals in very blank verse , though he may possibly have thereby preserved more of the spirit and freshness of the original . The stage business , in this as in other dramas , is clearly denned in the directions to the actors . "We constantly ' meet with " asides , " with hints as to manner and attitude , and with such indications of tone and feeling as modestly — pacing up and down — frowning—with rapture—looking sorrowfully at one another—thoughtfully - —gazing a ~ l licr 2 ) ussionatcly , & c , & c . It does not appear , however , that any great perfection had been attained in machinery or scenic appliances . It may be conjectured , indeed , from the frequent intercourse between the celestial and earthly beings , that some contrivances must have been used to represent the chariots of the gods and their exalted position above the terrestrial
speakers . It is also clear that there was no deficiency in point of dresses and personal decorations , or with regard to seats , thrones , weapons , and ordinary chariots . But it may be reasonably inferred , from the constant recurrence of the stage direction , " gesticulating , " that the audience were oftentimes constrained to draw largely upon their imagination . Thus , in the opening scene of " Sakoontala , " King Dushyanta , armed with "bow and arrow , is supposed to enter in a chariot , chasing an antelope and attended b y his charioteer . A somewhat lengthy conversation is held between the royal hunter and his attendant while driving at full speed across the plain . At first , the antelope gains ground , "because—says the charioteer—the ground is full of hollows and the speed of the horses has been consequently checked . Afterwards , when
they come to more level groamd , the king commands him to loosen the reins , when the steeds dash forward " as if they would outstrip the steeds of Indra and the Sun . " Going at this terrific pace they approach a hermitage , whence a voice issuing pleads for the flying deer . The chariot is stopped , and , after some conversation with two hermits , the king bids his attendant " see that the horses are watered" and be ready to receive him on his " return from visiting the inhabitants of the hermitage . " The charioteer meekly responds "I will , " mil exit . Now , all this could not possibly have taken place had not the spectators been cnlled upon to supply the changes of place from their individual imaginations—especially as the latter part of the scene is laid in n very different kind of forest scenery to the first . Mr . Williams is , no doubt , perfectly correct when he says :
Ifc is probable that a curtain suspended uoroas tho stage , and divided in tho contro , answered all tho purposos of bcouob . Behind tho curtain was tho spaco or room called ncpathya , whore tho decorations woro kept , Avliere tho actors attirod themselves and remained in readiness before entering the stage , and whither thoy withdrew on leaving it . When an actor was to ontor hurriodly , he was directed to do bo with a toBs of tho curtain . " Every play commenced with an introduction in which a Brahman—the stagemanager himself , if a member of that favoured caste—invoked the blessing ot the bupreme Being upon the audience . This pious exordium was follow ™!
oy a dialogue between tho manager and one of tho actors , who sometimes sang a song . Ihc object , however , of the dialogue was to give some account of tho picoo nfcout to be performed , and of ita author , at the close of which the manager contrived to introduce some allusion to tho actual performance and thus cad up to the entrance of the dramatic personages . In the ease of bakoontiilft , the introductory actress warbles so charmingly that the manager nilects to forget the subject selected for representation , until the up ' on heTe Ues " t 0 ' ^^ amnounce ( 1 for th < c occasion . There-Rijjb . Uy reminded ! For the moment I hail forgotten it .
Your song ' s transporting melody decoyed My thoughts , and rapt -with , ecstacy my soul ; As now the bounding antelope allures The King Dushyanta on the chase intent . And now the performance fairly commences with the king driven rapidly in pursuit of an antelope , which leads him to a sacred retreat in the recesses of a ' forest . This is no other than the abode of the venerable sage Kanwa , at that moment absent on a pilgrimage to avert some calamity which threatened his adopted daughter Sakoontala . While he seeks by prayer and penance to propitiate destiny , the maiden is left all unguarded . The king falls desperately in love at first sight as he watches her and her companions from behind some trees . A bee disturbed by the lady , while watering a young jasmine , tries to settle on her face in spite of all her efforts to drive it away , until Dushyanta , discovering himself , gallantly advances to the rescue . They then all sit down
together uudcr the shade of a leafy tree , but the king disguises his rank and declares himself to be the Minister of Justice and Religion . In the course of the conversation that ensues he learns that Sakoontala is not the child of the recluse , but of the sage of regal caste , " Viswamitra , and of the nymph Menaka . Viswamitra , it seems , had raised himself by a long course of austerities from the regal to the Brahmanical caste , but during the period of his probation he proved himself inferior to St . Anthony . The inferior gods , jealous of his asceticism , which , if persisted in , would finally raise him to an equality with themselves , sent the nymph Menaka to seduce him from his self-imposed sufferings . The roj r al anchorite succumbed to the temptation , and for ten years consented to be happy in Menaka ' s arms . At the end of that period , being moved whether by satiety or remorse , he put her away from him , and abandoning his child to the tender mercies of strangers resumed his former life of theoretical virtue . The offspring of this . amour is the lady wlio has so speedily fascinated Dushyanta , by him subdued in her turn . betw
The second act is chiefly occupied by a very familiar conversation een the King and his Jester , —a personage always a Brahman , and , therefore , of a superior caste , but a . sorry buffoon , " grey-haired , hump-backed , lame , and hideously ugly . " The hermits having besought the King ' s aid to drive away some demons that troubled their sacrificial rites , his majesty gladly accepts the pretest for prolonging his stay in the sacred gVove , He . therefore sends back his Jester to the palace , though ludicrously afraid that " the giddy fellow " will betray his present pursuit to the numerous ladies who own him as their lord . In the following act , the two lovers are represented as emaciated and feverworn , by allowing concealment to prey on their damask cheeks . The King hides himself , according to his custom , in an 'arbour of overhanging creepers , whence lie listens to the conversation of Sakoontala and her companions , to whom she at length confesses her passion . By their advice , she inscribes the following lines upon a lotus-leaf , with her nail , intending to drop them in the King ' s path— - for she is now aware of his rank :
I know not the secret thy bosoro . conceals , Thy form is not near me to gladden niy sight ; But sad is the tale that my fever reveals Of the love that consumes me by day and by night . Dushyanta , on hearing these lines read aloud , advances rapturously towards her , responding in like amatory strain : 2 K ny , Love does but warm thee , fair maiden , —thy frame Only droops like tho bud in the glare of the moon ; But me he consumes with a pitiless flame , As the beams of the day-star destroy the pale moon . The course of true love now runs on smoothly for a ¦ while . The King promises to neglect his other royal consorts , and to love Sakoontala alone . Following up his advantage , he proposes that they shall follow the example of the nymphs in Indra ' s heaven , where
No nuptial rites prevail , nor is tlio bride Led to tho altar by her future spouse ; But all in secret does the bridegroom pli ght His troth , and each unto the other , vow Mutual allegiance . Sakoontala coyly hesitates , but not denies , when the officious old lady who presides over the maidens of the hermitage conies to inquire after her health , and advises her to remain no longer in the open air . However , the prelude to the fourth act informs the audience that " Sakoontala has been happily united to a husband in every respect worthy of her , by the form of marriage prevalent among Indra's celestial mansions . " And now the plot may be said to commence—there are seven acts , gentle reader—but om
waning space compels us to refer the curious to Mr . Williams' elegant little volume for what " follows the King ' s departure and temporary desertion of his bride j the curse pronounced on Sakoontala by the choleric Sage Durvasas ; the monarch ' s consequent loss of memory ; the bride ' s journey to the palace of her husband ; the mysterious disappearance of the marriage token ; the public repudiation of Sakoontala ; her miraculous assumption to a celestial asylum ; the unexpected discovery of the ring by a poor fisherman ; the King ' s agony on recovering his recollection ; hia aerial voyage in the ear of Indraj his strange meeting with the refractory child in the groves of Kaayapa ; the boy ' s battle with the young lion ; the search for the amulet , by which the King is proved to be his father ; the return of Sakoontala , and the happy reunion of the lovers . "
Anecdotes Of Jurisprudence. Principles A...
ANECDOTES OF JURISPRUDENCE . Principles and Maxima of Jurhjirudcncu . By J . G . Phillimoro , M . I ' . J . " \ V . Parker . Mh . PuiiiLiMOint ' s plan is to append to the leading maxima of tho Roman law , a scries of illustrated commentaries on a modern as well as on an ancient basis . Though the primary object of his treatise is , to supply legal students with an exposition of the spirit of tho Roman jurists , and of the methods of interpretation adopted ia the transfer of their maxima to tho English statute book , lie offers , with n criticism on the body of existing laws , an argument it favour of their general codification . The principles laid down by Papinian , Ulpia » n , and PhuImh , sire developed in a thousand shapes , sometimes obliquely and scattered through a thousand volumes of enactments , confused : encumbered , often contradictory . That , with such an apparatus
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Citation
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Leader (1850-1860), April 12, 1856, page 19, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse2.kdl.kcl.ac.uk/periodicals/l/issues/cld_12041856/page/19/
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