Act Three
The forest near Dongurh.
SCENE I
Comol, Coomood, meeting in the forest.
COOMOOD CUMARY
Where were you hidden, Comol, all this morning?
COMOL CUMARY
I have been wandering in my woods alone
Imagining myself their mountain queen.
O Coomood, all the woodland worshipped me!
Coomood, the flowers held up their incense-bowls
In adoration and the soft-voiced winds
Footing with a light ease among the leaves
Paused to lean down and lisp into my ear,
Oh, pure delight. The forest's unnamed birds
Hymned their sweet sovran lady as she walked
Lavishing melody. The furry squirrels
Peeped from the leaves and waved their bushy tails,
Twittering, "There goes she, our beloved lady,
Comol Cumary," and the peacocks came
Proud to be seen by me and danced in front;
Shrilling, "How gorgeous are we in our beauty,
Yet not so beautiful as is our lady,
Comol Cumary." I will be worshipped, Coomood.
COOMOOD CUMARY
You shall be. There's no goddess of them all
That has these vernal looks and such a body
Remembering the glory whence it came
Or apt to tread with the light vagrant breeze
Or rest with moonlight.
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COMOL CUMARY
That was what they told me,
The voices of the forest, sister Coomood,
The myriad voices.
COOMOOD CUMARY
What did they tell you, Comol?
COMOL CUMARY
They told me that my hair was a soft dimness
With thoughts of light imprisoned in't; the gods,
They said, looked down from heaven and saw my eyes
Wishing that that were heaven. They told me, child,
My face was such as Brahma once had dreamed of
But could not no, for all the master-skill
That made the worlds recapture in the flesh
So rare a sweetness. They called my perfect body
A feast of gracious beauty, a refrain
And harmony in womanhood embodied.
They told me all these things, Coomood, they did,
Though you will not believe it. I understood
Their leafy language.
COOMOOD CUMARY
Come, you did not need
So to translate the murmurings of the leaves
And the wind's whisper. 'Twas a human voice
I'll swear, so deftly flattered you.
COMOL CUMARY
Fie, Coomood,
It was the trees, the waters; the pure, soft flowers
Took voices.
COOMOOD CUMARY
One voice. Did he roar softly, sweetheart,
To woo you ?
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COMOL CUMARY
Oh, he's a recreant to his duty.
He loves the wild deer fleeing on the hills
And the strong foeman's glittering blade, not Comol.
You must not talk of him, but of the hills
And greenness and of me.
COOMOOD CUMARY
And Edur, Comol ?
COMOL CUMARY
Edur! It is a name that I have heard
In some dim past, in some old far-off world
I moved in, oh, a waste of centuries
And many dreams ago. I'll not return there.
It had no trees, I'm sure, no jasmine-bushes,
No happy breezes dancing with linked hands
Over the hill-tops, no proud-seated hills
Softening the azure, high-coped deep-plunging rocks
Or flowery greenness round, no birds, no Spring.
COOMOOD CUMARY
We are the distance of a world from Edur.
Tomorrow is the May-feast's crowning day,
Comol.
COMOL CUMARY
Oh then we shall be happy breezes
And dance with linked hands upon the hills
All the Spring-morning.
COOMOOD CUMARY
It is a May to be
Remembered.
COMOL CUMARY
It is the May-feast of my life,
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Coomood, the May-feast of my life, the May
That in my heart shall last for ever, sweet
For ever and for ever. Where are our sisters ?
COOMOOD CUMARY
Nirmol is carrying water from the spring;
Ishany hunts the browsing stag today,
A sylvan archeress.
COMOL CUMARY
What have you in the basket?
COOMOOD CUMARY
Flowers I have robbed the greenest woodland of
For Bappa's worship. They must hide with bloom,
Sheva Ekling today. Tomorrow, sweet,
I'll gather blossoms for your hair instead
And weave you silver-petalled anklets, ear-rings
Of bright may bloom, zones of Spring-honeysuckle,
And hide your arms in vernal gold. We'll set you
Under a bough, our goddess of the Spring,
And sylvanly adore, covering your feet
With flowers that almost match their moonbeam whiteness
Or palely imitate their rose; our Lady,
Comol Cumary.
COMOL CUMARY
Will Bappa worship me ?
But I am an inferior goddess, Coomood,
And dare not ask the King of Paradise
To adore me.
COOMOOD CUMARY
You must adore him, that's your part.
COMOL CUMARY
I will, while 'tis the May.
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COOMOOD CUMARY
And afterwards ?
COMOL CUMARY
Coomood, we will not think of afterwards
In Dongurh, in (he springtide.
COOMOOD CUMARY
Tomorrow dawns
The seventh morning, Comol.
COMOL CUMARY
I did not hear you.
Are these our hunters ?
ISHANY
I have a better aim
Than yours.
Enter Prithuraj and Ishany.
PRITHURAJ
Did I deny it ? Oh, you shoot
Right through the heart.
ISHANY
I'll never marry one
Whom I outdo at war or archery.
You tell me you are famous Martund's son,
The mighty Gehlote. Wherefore lurk you then
In unapproachable and tangled woods
Warding off glory with your distant shafts,
While life sweeps past in the loud vale below ?
Not breast the torrent, not outbrave its shocks
To carve your names upon the rocks of Time
Indelibly?
PRITHURAJ
We will affront, Ishany,
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The Ganges yet with a victorious gleam
Of armour. But our fates are infant still
And in their native thickets they must wait
To flesh themselves and feel their lion strengths
Before they roar abroad.
ISHANY
Until they do,
Talk not of love.
PRITHURAJ
What would you have me do ?
O'erbear in arms the Scythian Toraman,
And slay the giant Hooshka ? Meet Ichalgurh
And come unharmed, or with my single sword
Say halt to a proud score of the best lances
You have in Edur ? This and more I can
For thee, Ishany.
ISHANY
You talk, but do it first.
Doers were never talkers, Prithuraj.
PRITHURAJ
Oh, that's a narrow maxim. Noble speech
Is a high prelude fit for noble deeds;
It is the lion's roar before he leaps.
Proud eloquence graces the puissant arm
And from the hall of council to the field
Was with the great and iron men of old
Their natural stepping.
ISHANY
You only roar as yet.
I beat you with the bow today; sometime
I'll fight you with the sword and beat you.
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PRITHURAJ
Will you?
Just as your lady did ?
ISHANY
She played, she played,
But I would aim in earnest at your heart.
One day we'll fight and see.
PRITHURAJ
Why, if we do,
I'll claim a conqueror's right on your sweet body,
Ishany.
ISHANY
And my heart ? You must do more,
If you'll have that.
PRITHURAJ
It cannot now be long
Before the mailed heel of Edur rings
Upon our hill-side rocks. Then I'll deserve it.
ISHANY
Till then you are my fellow hunter only,
Not yet my captain.
Enter Nirmol.
NIRMOL CUMARY
Idlers and ne'er-do-weels, home! Here have I carried twelve full jars from the spring, set wood on the stove, kindled the fire, while you play gracefully the sylvan gadabouts. Where is the venison ?
PRITHURAJ
Travelling to the cooking-pot on a Bheel's black shoulders.
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NIRMOL CUMARY
In your service, Ishany! or you shall not taste the stag you have hunted.
ISHANY
Child, do not tyrannize. I am as hungry with this hunting as a beef-swallowing Scythian.
Exit.
NIRMOL CUMARY
Off with you, hero, and help, her with your heroic shoulders.
Exit Prithuraj.
COMOL CUMARY
A pair of warlike lovers!
NIRMOL CUMARY
You are there, sister-truants? Have you no occupation but to lurk in leaves and eavesdrop upon the prattle of lovers ?
COMOL CUMARY
Why, Nirmol, I did my service before I came.
NIRMOL CUMARY
Yes, I know! To sweep one roomoh, scrupulously clean, for is it not Bappa's ? and to scrub his armour for a long hour till it is as bright as your eyes grow when they are looking at Bappa, do they not, Coomood ?
COOMOOD CUMARY
They do, like stars allowed to gaze at God.
NIRMOL CUMARY
Exact! I have seen her
COMOL CUMARY
Nirmol, I do not know how many twigs there are in the forest,
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but I will break them all on your back, if you persevere.
NIRMOL CUMARY
Do you think you are princess of Edur here that you threaten me ? No, we are in the democracy of Spring where all sweet flowers are equals. Oh, I will be revenged on you for your tyrannies in Edur. I have seen her, Coomood, when she thought none was looking, lay her cheek wistfully against the hilt of his sword, trying to think that the cold hard iron was the warm lips of its master and hers. I have seen her kiss it furtively
COMOL CUMARY (embracing and stopping her mouth)
Hush, hush, you wicked romancer.
NIRMOL CUMARY
Go then and cook our meal like a good princess and I will promise not to repeat all the things I have heard you murmur to yourself when you were alone.
COMOL CUMARY
Nirmol, you grow in wickedness with years.
Wait till I have you back in Edur, maiden;
I'll scourge this imp of mischief out of you.
NIRMOL CUMARY
I have heard her, Coomood,
COMOL CUMARY
I am off, I am away! I am an arrow from Kodal's bow.
Exit.
NIRMOL CUMARY
She is hard to drive, but I have the whip-hand of her.
COOMOOD CUMARY
Have you the crimson sandal-powder ready?
Flowers for the garlands Spring in sweet abundance
Provides us.
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NIRMOL CUMARY
Yes. She shall be wedded first
Before she knows it.
COOMOOD CUMARY
Unless my father's sword
Striking us through the flowery walls we hide in,
Prevent it, .Nirmol.
NIRMOL CUMARY
Coomood, our fragile flowers will weave
A bond that steel cannot divide, nor death
Dissever.
Exeunt.
Curtain
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Facsimile of the previous page from PRINCE OF EDUR
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