BIBLIOGRAPHICAL NOTE The VIZIERS OF BASSORA is one of the early works of Sri Aurobindo on a major scale. Written in Baroda, it has a curious history attached to it. Sri Aurobindo seems to have had especial fondness for this early creation of his. He particularly mentioned it in the Introduction to Collected Poems and Plays as one of the two works, lost—the other being a translation of Kalidasa's Meghaduta (Cloud-Messenger). By a strange turn of destiny the drama was recovered from the Government Archives in 1951 along with other manuscripts which had been exhibits in the Alipore Conspiracy Case. This play was published in Sri Aurobindo Mandir Annual, 1959, a

IDYLLS OF THE OCCULT Short Stories The Phantom Hour STURGE Maynard rose from the fireside and looked out on the blackish yellow blinding fog that swathed London in the dense folds of its amplitude. In his hand he carried the old book he was reading, his finger was still in the page, his mind directed, not with entire satisfaction, to the tenor of the writer's imaginations, for if these pleased his sense of the curious they disgusted his reason. A mystic, mediaeval in epoch and temperament, the old Latinist dealt with psychological fancies the modern world has long discarded in order to bustle to the polling booth and the counting-house. Numerous subtle- ties oc

SCENE III A room in Ajebe's house. Balkis, Mymoona. BALKIS Did he not ask after me ? I'm sick, Mymoona. MYMOONA Sick? I think both of you are dying of a galloping consumption. Such colour in the cheeks was never a good symptom. BALKIS Tell him I am very, very ill, tell him I am dying. Pray be pathetic. MYMOONA Put saffron on your cheeks and look nicely yellow; he will melt. BALKIS I think my heart will break. MYMOONA Let it do so quickly; it will mend the sooner. BALKIS (in tears) How can you be so harsh to me, Mymoona ? MYMOONA

Act Four SCENE I The sky near the doors of the sunrise; clouds everywhere. Chitralekha and Sahajanya. SAHAJANYA Dear Chitralekha, like a fading flower The beauty of thy face all marred reveals Sorrow of heart. Tell me thy melancholy; I would be sad with thee. CHITRALEKHA (sorrowfully) O Sahajanya! Sister, by rule of our vicissitude, I serving at the feet of the great Sun Was troubled at heart for want of Urvasie. SAHAJANYA I know your mutual passion of sisterliness. What after? CHITRALEKHA I had heard no news of her So many days. Then I collected vision Divine into myself to k

SCENE III The Slave-market. Muazzim and his man; Balkis and Mymoona, Ajebe, Aziz, Abdullah and other merchants. MUAZZIM Well, gentlemen, the biddings, the biddings! Will you begin, sir, for an example now? BALKIS Who is the handsome youth in that rich dress? MUAZZIM It is Ajebe, the Vizier's nephew, a good fellow with a bad uncle. BALKIS Praise me to them poetically, broker. MUAZZIM I promise you for the poetry. Biddings, gentlemen. A MERCHANT Three thousand for the pretty one. MUAZZIM Why, sir, I protest! Three thousand pieces! Look at her! A

SCENE III A cell in Almuene's house. Nureddene alone. NUREDDENE We sin our pleasant sins and then refrain And think that God's deceived. He waits His time And when we walk the clean and polished road He trips us with the mire our shoes yet keep, The pleasant mud we walked before. All ills I will bear patiently. Oh, better here Than in that world! Who comes? Khatoon, my aunt! Enter Khatoon and a slave. KHATOON My Nureddene! NUREDDENE Good aunt, weep not for me. KHATOON You are my sister's child, yet more my own. I have no other. Alt, mend his food

SCENE III Bappa's cot on the hillside. Bappa, the Captain, Coomood, decorating the cot with flowers. BAPPA Where was she when you had the script from her? CAPTAIN Singing of battle on the rocks alone With wrestling winds in her wild hair and raiment, A joyous Oread. BAPPA Said she anything? CAPTAIN She gave it me with glad and smiling eyes And laughed: "This for my noble Bheel, my sovereign Of caterans, my royal beast of prey, These to their mighty owners." COOMOOD CUMARY Will you read it? BAPPA (reads) "Cateran, I have given thy captain le

SCENE IV A house in Bassora. Doonya, Ameena. DOONYA Comfort, dear mother, comfort. AMEENA Oh, what comfort? My Nureddene is doomed, Murad is gaoled, We in close hiding under the vile doom This tyrant King decrees. DOONYA I did not think God was so keen-eyed for our petty sins, When great offences and high criminals Walk smiling. But there's comfort, mother, yet. My husband writes from prison. You shall hear. (reads) "Doonya, I have written this by secret contrivance. Have com- fort, dry thy mother's tears. There is hope. The Caliph comes to Bassora and the King will release me fo

VIKRAMORVASIE OR THE HERO AND THE NYMPH Translated from the Sanskrit Play of Kalidasa CHARACTERS PURURAVAS, Son of Budha and Ila, grandson of the Moon, King of the world, reigning at Pratisthana. MANAVAKA, A Brahmin, the King's jester and companion. LATAVYA, Chamberlain of the King's seraglio. CHITRARATH, King of the Gandharvas, musicians of Heaven. GALAVA,/ PELAVA,--------- = Disciples of Bharat, Preceptor of the Arts in Heaven. AYUS, Son of Pururavas. CHARIOTEER of Pururavas. THE QUEEN AUSHINARIE, Wife of Pururavas and daughter of the King of Kashi. URVASIE, An Apsara or Nymph of Heaven, born from the

SCENE IV Ibn Sawy's house. Anice-Aljalice, alone. ANICE-ALJALICE If Murad fails him, what is left ? He has No other thing to sell but only me. A thought of horror! Is my love then strong Only for joy, only to share his heaven? Can it not enter Hell for his dear sake ? How shall I follow him then after death, If Heaven reject him? For the path's so narrow Footing that judgment blade, to slip's so easy. Avert the need, O Heaven. Enter Nureddene. Has Murad failed him? NUREDDENE Murad refuses. This load of debt's a torture! ANICE-ALJALICE The dresses and the gems you m