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

SCENE IV Inside the pavilion. Nureddene, Anice-Aljalice, Shaikh Ibrahim. NUREDDENE Shaikh Ibrahim, verily thou art drunk. IBRAHIM Alas, alas, my dear son, my own young friend! I am damned, verily, verily, I am damned. Ah, my sweet lovely young father! Ah, my pious learned white-bearded mother! That they could see their son now, their pretty little son! But they are in their graves; they are in their cold, cold graves. NUREDDENE Oh, thou art most pathetically drunk. Sing, Anice. OUTSIDE Fish! fish! sweet fried fish! ANICE-ALJALICE Fish! Shaikh Ibrahim, Shaikh Ibrahi

Act Two The forest near Dongurh. SCENE I In the forest near Dongurh. Bappa, Sungram. The Captain and Rajput soldiers, guarded by Bheels. BAPPA Ponder it, captain. Sungram, see the bearers Released, but let those cowards first be scourged Who put their lives above their lady's honour. Give golden largess to the faithful four And send them with a script. Let Edur know That Bappa holds his cherished daughter fast And frees her not save for a lakh of mohurs, Her insufficient ransom. If it displease him, Let him come here with all his fighting men And take her from my grip. Word it to wound him So that he shall come thun

SCENE II Before Alaciel's house. MELANDER (alone) Now, for her widowed state is wooed by night The sable-vested air puts on her stars And in her bosom pins for brooch the moon. She from her diamond chalice soon will pour Her flowing glories on a rose's hair, In pity of my love. Sweet crimson rose, Alaciel's lamp, the beacon of my bliss, O kindle quickly at the moon thy rays. How happy art thou being near my love! For thou who hast the perfume of her breath, Why shouldst thou the spice-lipped Zephyr want? Her dove's feet whispering in the happy grass Are surely lovelier to thee than the dawn; Or wilt thou woo the world-embracing or

THE BIRTH OF SIN A Drama the revised form of The Birth of Sin appears in Volume V - COLLECTED POEMS PERSONS OF DRAMA LUCIFER, the Angel of Power. SIRIOTH, the Angel of Love. GABRIEL, the Angel of Obedience. MICHAEL, the Angel of War. RAPHAEL, the Angel of Sweetness. THE ELOHIM. BELIAL, the Angel of Reason. BAAL, the Angel of Worldly Wisdom. MOLOCH, the Angel of Wrath. SUN. ASHTORATH, the Angel of Beauty. MEROTH, the Angel of Youth. Page – 901 Prologue Act One LUCIFER Master of light and glory, lift thy rays Over the troubled flood; lift u

The Golden Bird IT WAS in the forests of Asan that the Golden Bird first flew out from a flower-besieged thicket and fluttered before the dazzled eyes of Luilla. It was in the forests of Asan, — the open and impenetrable, the haunt of the dancers and untrodden of human feet, coiling place of the cobra and the Python, lair of the lion and jaguar, formidable retreat of the fleeing antelope, yet the green home of human safety where a man and a maiden could walk in the moonlit night and hear unconcerned the far-off broil of the Kings of the wilderness. It was into the friendly and open places that the golden bird fluttered, but it came no less from the coverts of dread an

SCENE V . The forest near Dongurh. Enter bearers with Comol Cumary in the palanquin. 2ND BEARER Courage, brothers, courage! We are almost out of the wood. Enter Kodal, leaping down from a thicket in front. KODAL But it is too soon to hollo. Stop, you plain-frogs, or you shall gutturalize your last croak. 2ND BEARER Put down the palanquin; we are taken. Great emperor of Bheels, be merciful. KODAL Stand still, rogues. I must first haul the runaway Rajpootny out of her dog-box. As he approaches the palanquin, the bearer strikes him down suddenly and throws his bows and arr