Act IV   Bagdad.   Scene 1   The gardens of the Caliph's Palace outside the Pavilion of Pleasure. Anice, Nureddene.   ANICE This is Bagdad!   NUREDDENE Bagdad the beautiful, The city of delight. How green these gardens! What a sweet clamour pipes among the trees.   ANICE And flowers! the flowers! Look at those violets Dark-blue like burning sulphur! Oh, rose and myrtle And gillyflower and lavender; anemones As red as blood! All Spring walks here in blossoms And strews the pictured ground.   NUREDDENE Do you see the fruit, Anice? camphor and almond-apricots, Green, wh

  Act II   The forest near Dongurh.   Scene 1   In the forest near Dongurh. Bappa, Sungram. The Captain and Rajpoot 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 h

  Sri Aurobindo, c. 1903     The Viziers of Bassora   A Romantic Comedy     Persons of the Drama   HAROUN ALRASHEED, Caliph. JAAFAR, his Vizier. SHAIKH IBRAHIM, Superintendent of the Caliph's Gardens. MESROUR, Haroun's friend and companion. MOHAMAD BIN SULYMAN ALZAYNI, Haroun's cousin, King of Bassora. ALFAZZAL IBN SAWY, his Chief Vizier. NUREDDENE, son of Alfazzal. ALMUENE BIN KHAKAN, second Vizier of Bassora. FAREED, his son. SALAR, confidant of Alzayni. MURAD, a Turk, Captain of Police in Bassora. AJEBE, nephew of Almuene. SUNJAR, a Chamberlain of the Palace in Basso

  Act II   Scene 1   A room in Conrad's house. Conrad, a servant.   CONRAD Where is Flaminio?   SERVANT He's in waiting, Sir.   CONRAD Call him. Exit servant. I never loved before. Fortune, I ask one day of thee and one great night, Then do thy will. I shall have reached my summit. Enter Flaminio. FLAMINIO My lord?   [Work on the play was broken off here. What follows is a sketch by Sri Aurobindo of the plot of three scenes of Acts II and III.]   Act II Scene 1. Conrad and Flaminio arrange to surprise the Alcalde's house and carry off Euphrosyne; Brigida converses with Conrad.

  Act III   The Palace in Antioch. Under the hills.   Scene 1   The Audience-Chamber in the Palace. Nicanor, Phayllus and others seated; Eunice, Philoctetes, Thoas apart near the dais.   THOAS Is it patent? Is he the elder? do we know?   EUNICE Should he not rule?   THOAS If Fate were wise, he should.   EUNICE Will Timocles sack great Persepolis? Sooner I think Phraates will couch here, The mighty, steadfast, patient, subtle man, And from the loiterer take, the sensualist Antioch of the Seleucidae.   THOAS Perhaps. But shall I rise against the country's laws

  The Maid in the Mill or Love Shuffles the Cards   A Comedy   Dramatis Personae   CUPID. ATE. KING PHILIP OF SPAIN. COUNT BELTRAN, a nobleman. ANTONIO, his son. BASIL, his nephew. COUNT CONRAD, a young nobleman. THE FARMER. JACINTO, his son. JERONIMO, a student. CARLOS, a student. FRIAR BALTASAR, a pedagogue. EUPHROSYNE, the maid of the farm. ISMENIA, sister of Conrad. BRIGIDA, her cousin.   Page – 700 Act I   Scene 1   The King's Court at Salamanca. King Philip, Conrad, Beltran, Roncedas, Guzman, Antonio, Basil, Ismenia, Brigida; Grandees.

Note on the Texts Texts COLLECTED PLAYS AND STORIES comprises all of Sri Aurobindo's dramatic and fictional writings, with the exception of prose dialogues, verse dialogues more in the nature of poems than plays, and translations from Sanskrit drama. Writings in these three categories are published in Early Cultural Writings, Collected Poems, and Translations, volumes 1, 2 and 5 of THE COMPLETE WORKS OF SRI AUROBINDO. Collected Plays and Stories is divided into three parts according to type of material. The first part includes the five complete plays; the second, incomplete and fragmentary plays; the third, prose fiction, complete, incomplete and frag

  Act II   Scene 1   The audience-chamber in the Palace of Cepheus. Cepheus and Cassiopea, seated.   CASSIOPEA What will you do, Cepheus?   CEPHEUS This that has happened Is most unfortunate.   CASSIOPEA What will you do? I hope you will not give up to the priest My Iolaus' golden head? I hope You do not mean that?   CEPHEUS Great Poseidon's priest Sways all this land: for from the liberal blood Moistening that high-piled altar grow our harvests And strong Poseidon satisfied defends Our frontiers from the loud Assyrian menace.   CASSIOPEA Empty thy treasuries, glut him with gold. Let us be beggars rathe

Stories Occult Idylls 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 tenour of

  Vasavadutta   A Dramatic Romance   Characters     VUTHSA UDAIAN, King of Cowsamby. YOUGUNDHARÂYAN, his Minister, until recently Regent of Cowsamby. ROOMUNWATH, Captain of his armies. PARENACA, the King's door-keeper. CHUNDA MAHASEGN, King of Avunthy. RÉBHA, Governor of Ujjayiny, the capital of Avunthy. A CAPTAIN of Avunthy.   UNGÂRICÂ, Queen of Avunthy. VÂSAVADUTTÂ, daughter of Chunda Mahasegn and Ungarica. UMBÂ, her handmaiden. MUNJOOLICÂ, the servile name of Bundhumathie, the captive Princess of Sourashtra, serving Vasavadutta. A KIRÂTHA WOMAN.   The action of the roma