claimed-perhaps an elephant may break loose, and the prisoner escape in the confusion or perhaps a change of rulers may take place, and every one in bondage be set at large. Sams. (Apart.) A change of rulers. 1st Chan. Come, let us finish our reckoning. Sams. Be quick-be quick, get rid of your prisoner. (Retires.) 1st Cahn. Worthy Charudatta-we but discharge our duty-the king is culpable, not we, who must obey his orders: consider-have you any thing to say? Char. If virtue yet prevail, may she who dwells Have fixed upon me-Whither do you lead me? 1st Chan. Behold the place-the southern cemetery, where criminals quickly get rid of life; see where jackalls feast upon one half of the mangled body, whilst the other yet grins ghastly on the pointed stake. Char. Alas, my fate! (Sits down.) Sams. I shall not go till I have seen his death. How, sitting? 1st Chan. What! are you afraid, Charudatta? Char. (Rising.) Of infamy I am, but not of death. 1st Chan. Worthy sir, in heaven itself the sun and moon are not free from change and suffering; how should we, poor weak mortals, hope to escape them in this lower world? One man rises but to fall, another falls to rise again, and the vesture of the carcass is at one time laid aside, and at another resumed;-think of these things, and be firm. This is the fourth station, proclaim the sentence. (Proclumation as before.)" But make way for the Bauddha Mendicant and the dead-alive-the strangled Vasantasena! She flings herself on Charudatta's bosom, and the executioners stand aghast. The murderer absconds-but the one of those grim personages says to the other," Harkye, brother, we were ordered to put to death the murderer of Vasantasena-we had better then secure the Rajah's brother-inlaw." The rescued says to his de liverer "Behold, my sweet! these emblems that so late Denoted shame and death, shall now proclaim A different tale, and speak our nuptial joy, This crimson vesture be the bridegroom's garb, This garland be the bride's delightful present; And this brisk drum shall change its mournful sounds To cheerful tones of marriage celebration." Loud shouts are now heard from a distance-and cries of "Victory to Vrishabhaketu, the despoiler of Daksha's sacrifice. Glory to the sixfaced scatterer of armies, the foe of Krauncha; victory to Aryaka, the subjugator of his adversaries, and triumphant monarch of the wide spread, mountain-banner'd earth!" Of Palaka ascends our valiant chief, He joins hands with Charudatta, and raises them to his forehead. "In his way into your mansion, and bore me behold the plunderer who forced off the pledge intrusted to your care -I ask you mercy. To you who enabled the Son of the Cow-herd to escape from death, he gives authority in Ujayin, along the Veni's borders, Kusavati"-but another uproar— Bring him along-bring him along the Rajah's villanous brother-inlaw." Enter mob dragging along Samsthanaka, with his arms tied behind his back. "Sams. Alas, alas-how I am maltreated: bound and dragged along as if I were a restive ass, or a dog, or any brute beast. I am beset by the enemies of the state; will have recourse to him. (Approaches whom can I fly to for protection ?—yes, I Charudatta.) Preserve me. (Falls at his feet.) Mob. Let him alone, Charudatta; leave him to us, we'll despatch him. Sams. O, pray, Charudatta, I am helpless; I have no hope but you. Char. Banish your terror; they that sue for mercy Have nothing from their foes to dread. Ser. Hence with the wretch. And cast him to the dogs; saw him Or hoist him on the stake;-despatch, Char. Hold, hold-may I be heard? Sams. Most excellent Charudatta, I have flown to you for refuge-O protect me, spare me now; I will never seek your harm any more. Mob. Kill him, kill him,-why should such a wretch be suffered to live? (Va santusena takes the garland off Charudatta's neck, and throws it round Samsthanaka's.) Char. An humbled foe who prostrate at your feet Solicits quarter, must not feel your sword. Ser. Admit the law, then give him to the dogs. Char. Not so. His punishment be mercy. Ser. You move my wonder, but shall be obeyed. What is your pleasure? Char. Loose him, and let him go. Ser. He is at liberty. (Unties him.) Sams. Huzza!-I am again alive.” Another cry-for the noble wife of Charudatta, with her child vainly clinging to her raiment, seeks to enter of the weeping crowd. the fatal fire, in spite of the entreaties She had heard that her husband was condemned to death, and desired to die before him, and though informed by Chandanaka, the kind Captain of the Sams. Gentle daughter of a courtezan, have pity upon me, I will never kill you Watch, that he was safe," yet who, in again: Never, never. Ser. Give your commands, sir, that he may be removed, and how we shall dispose of him? Char. Will you obey in what I shall enjoin ? Ser. Be sure of it. Char. Then for the prisoner- Char. Set him free. Ser. Why so? A Ser. Lady Vasantasena, with your worth the agonies of despair, is susceptible of consolation or confidence ?" The scene in which she is beheld with Rohasena holding her garment, Maitreya and Radanika with the fire kindled, is supposed to be an interpolation-but to conjecture from the style, Professor H. Wilson says it is still ancient, and genuinely Hindu. Charudatta embraces his wife, who turning to Vasantasena says, "Welcome, happy sister." The curtain is about to drop on a happy ending. The king is well acquainted, and requests To hold you as his kinswoman. Vas. Sir, I am grateful. (Servillaka throws a veil over her.) Char. Speak, Sramana, your wishes. Sram. To follow still the path I have selected, For all I see is full of care and change. Char. Since such is his resolve, let him be made Chief of the monasteries of the Bauddhas. Ser. It shall be so. Sram. It likes me well. Ser. Sthavaraka remains to be rewarded. Char. Let him be made a free-man-slave no more. For these Chandalas let them be appointed Heads of their tribe, and to Chandanaka The power the Rajah's brother-in-law abused To his own purposes, be now assigned. Ser. As you direct: is there ought else? command. Since Aryaka enjoys the sovereign sway, To learn repentance for his former faults. Since my fair fame again is clear, and this Dear girl-my wife, and all I cherish most, Are mine once more, I have no further suit Full uddered be the kine, the soil be fertile, Of a Drama in Ten Acts, full of character and incident, description and reflection, it is perhaps not possible to give an adequate idea in one article; yet we cannot doubt that bur analysis and extracts will be read with great interest, for they give many animated pictures, not of Hindu life alone, but of human life at large, wherever it breathes and burns, acts or suffers, sinks or soars. It might be made an English play. But let it be as King Sudraka and Professor Horace Wilson have made it. The Translator has nobly done his duty; and his volumes are an important addition to Dramatic Literature. The strong and enduring charm of this extraordinary composition lies in the truth of its moral sentiments-in the perspicacity and fidelity of Conscience seeing and trusting in the Right. Charudatta is no perfect character-he had been too munificent, else had he not been so destitute; but in our respect and pity we can but gently blame the noble prodigal. Selfishness we so hate, as to love generosity, even when through excess it becomes a fault; and he who errs from an overkind disposition, seems, in most moods of our mind, to deserve praise, not pardon. We forget his weakness in their ingratitude who requite not his benefactions; and in his want see a reproach. The state of society shewn in the Drama in much is corrupt; but not rotten at the heart, for his virtue tells; painful as the sense of his poverty is to himself, it has not here its severest sting-it does not "make him ridiculous;" the poor Brahman of the Hindu is a more dignified character than the [Exeunt Omnes. "Poor Gentleman" of the English stage-for he, if we misremember not, is dressed in a suit of napless sables, and is the Impersonation of a Whine. We need not say a single word more for Vasantasena. Yet we hope that the poor creature is not now excluded from thy sympathiesThou who art pure as a flower and bright as a star! Alas! think what this world has made of women! and bless God that the Christian religion has kept thee his unspotted child. What if thou hadst sprung like a violet on unguarded ground, and heaven's dews had imbued thy leaves with beauty, while vilest hands were privileged to pluck them, and no pale was there between them and vilest feet! Lovely still must thou then have been even like Vasantasena; but woe to the Flower that in all its loveliness is treated-like a weed! Maitreya is worthy of being Charudatta's friend. True, he is a Viduskaka-a Gracioso; but he is as far as possible from a buffoon. He has humour and good humour-good temper-good disposition-good na.ture, and that comes close upon being a good man. He does not spunge on the bankrupt; but pays him for bed and board-both spare -in pleasantry and merriment, pitched to such a key as soothes melancholy thoughts, and his presence has all the restlessness and animation of sunshine dancing in a dark apartment. Leave but a chink, and it will steal in to gladden. He is a laughing philosopher. But believe it on our word, that there never was a laughing philosopher who knew not, when fitting, how to weep too; and that tears shed from such eyes are touching as showers in sunshine that revive the Spring. Servillaka is one of those mixed characters which, when naturally delineated, always please by the perpetual appeals they make to every man's own experiences of his better and worser nature. We are no cracksmen. Never broke we into a house (outhouses, perhaps, excepted) with felonious intent; and never out of one without the owner's acquiescence; yet we are burglars in posse, and cannot regard Servillaka's exploits without some sympathy, and much admiration. He robs to relieve; and by a purloined casket manumits a slave. He takes unlawful liberties with Charudatta's goods and chattels, that he may take lawful liberties with Madanika's personal charms; and to do him justice he knows at the time that he is acting wrong, and feels it afterwards-sincerely, as his conduct proves-for he is a trusty and deedful friend to that bold and brawny insurgent the Cowherd's Son, and asks Charudatta's forgiveness, whom he has helped to bring to the stake, not with remorse only, but with repentance. He was once a reprobate-may he not now be an honest-as assuredly he is a brave man ? But what think you of Samsthanaka? 'Tis a true Oriental character-and painted by a master's hand. Only in the East can we believe in the possibility of such-a Prince! He had been suffered from the cradle to kill flies-among the bummers and blue-bottles an infant Burke. He had fed tame spiders that with a stamp he might obliterate the big bowels. Hence his lust for inflicting-his fear of suffering pain. To see writhings became a delightto writhe a horror. Impale that wretch-but remove the doubled rose-leaf from my pillow; suffocate him in mire-but like flower-impregned air let me inhale the melted ruby! "Let famished nations die along the shore"- but let daintiest delicacies soothe me into surfeitfor is not mine the palate of a prince and is not mine a prince's stomach! In that word-Prince-lay the evil spell that transformed man into fiend-that word in which may lie a holy charm that transforms man into seraph. He was a rajah's brother-in-law, and not a brother-innature had he-let us hope-in all Hindostan. Twisted, distorted, deformed in his moral and intellectual being; his soul in the rickets-and with a shocking squint. Yet he waxed witty in his wickedness, and found fun in weeping and wailing and gnashing of teeth. He danced, and sung, and crowned his head with flowers, and believed himself beautiful in women's eyes, and the seducer would fain too be a ravisher; but was forced to be satisfied with murder. Like a panther that in domestication loses all his little catcourage, but acquires new cruelty from his cowardice, and crouching in fear of the lash, keeps lapping away at blood. Frivolous in the midst of all enormities-his conscience shrivelled away like a drunkard's liversometimes sized like a hazel-nut, and containing but dust. Laughing, weeping, crying, quaking, faintingand all for his own miserable self of slime in lubrication or in crust. Irreclaimable to humanity by rod, chain, or stake; and when pardoned on the brink of death, running away in gratitude composed of fear, and anger, to the perpetration of the same cruelties, like a mangy mongrel that you may flea alive without curing him of the disease of worrying sheep. A Prince! an Oriental Prince! Printed by Ballantyne and Company, Paul's Work, Canongate. SCENES AND HYMNS OF LIFE. BY MRS HEMANS. No. VIII. PRI 269 SONERS' EVENING SERVICE, WILLIAM BLACKWOOD, 45, GEORGE STREET, EDINBURGH; To whom Communications (post paid) may be addressed. PRINTED BY BALLANTYNE AND CO. EDINBURGH. |