SCENE III The Gardens outside the Pavilion. Haroun al Rasheed, Mesrour. HAROUN AL RASHEED See, Mesrour; the Pavilion's all alight . 'Tis as I said. Where is the Barmeky? MESROUR The Vizier comes, my lord. Enter Jaafar. JAAFAR Peace be with thee, Commander of the Faithful. HAROUN AL RASHEED Where is peace, Thou faithless and usurping Vizier ? Hast thou Filched my Bagdad out of my hands, thou rebel, And told me nothing? JAAFAR What words are these, O Caliph? HAROUN AL RASHEED What mean these lights then ? Does another Caliph Ho

PRINCE OF EDUR PERSONS OF THE DRAMA RANA CURRAN, Prince of Edur, of the Rahtore clan. VISALDEO, a Brahmin, his minister; formerly in the service of the Gehelote Prince of Edur. HARIPAL, a Rajpoot noble. General of Edur; formerly in the service of the Gehelote Prince. BAPPA, son of the late Gehelote Prince of Edur, in refuge among the Bheels. KODAL, a young Bheel, foster brother and lieutenant of Bappa. TORAMAN, Prince of Cashmere. CANACA, the King's jester of Cashmere. PRATAP, Rao of Ichalgurh, a Chouhan noble. RUTTAN, his brother. A CAPTAIN OF RAJPOOT LANCES. MENADEVI, wife of Curran; a Chouhan prin

SCENE IV A street in Madrid. ANTONIO This is the places BASIL 'Tis farther. ANTONIO This, I know it. Here's the square Velasquez. There in his saddle Imperial Charles watches the silent city His progeny could not keep. Where the one light Stands beckoning to us, is Don Mario's dwelling. O thou celestial lustre, wast thou kindled To be her light who is my sun ? If so, Thou art most happy. For thou dost inherit The sanctuary of her dear sleep and art The confidant of those sweet secrecies. Though thou live for a night, yet is thy short And noble ministry, more rich and costly, Than ages of the sun. F

SCENE II The women's apartments in the palace at Edur. Comol Cumary, Coomood Cumary. COMOL CUMARY Tomorrow, Coomood, is the feast of May. COOMOOD CUMARY Sweetheart, I wish it were the feast of Will. I know what I would will for you. COMOL COOMARY What, Coomood ? COOMOOD CUMARY A better husband than your father'll give you. COMOL CUMARY You mean the Scythian ? I will not believe That it can happen. My father's heart is royal; The blood that throbs through it he drew from veins Of Rajpoot mothers. COOMOOD CUMARY But the brain's too politic. A

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