Part 32 (1/2)

La fete du printemps approche; Ujjayini, la ville aux riches marchands et la capitale intellectuelle de l'Inde, glorieuse et prospere sous un roi victorieux et sage, se prepare a celebrer la solennite avec une pompe digne de son opulence et de son got.... L'auteur applaudi de Malavika ... le poete dont le souple genie s'accommode sans effort au ton de l'epopee ou de l'elegie, Kalidasa vient d'achever une comedie heroque annoncee comme un chef-d'oeuvre par la voix de ses amis.... Le poete a ses comediens, qu'il a eprouves et dresses a sa maniere avec Malavika. Les comediens suivront leur poete familier, devenu leur maitre et leur ami.... Leur solide instruction, leur got epure reconnaissent les qualites maitresses de l'oeuvre, l'habilete de l'intrigue, le juste equilibre des sentiments, la fraicheur de l'imagination ...

Vikramaditya entre, suivi des courtisans, et s'a.s.seoit sur son trone; ses femmes restent a sa gauche; a sa droite les rois va.s.saux accourus pour rendre leurs hommages, les princes, les hauts fonctionnaires, les litterateurs et les savants, groupes autour de Varaha-mihira l'astrologue et d'Amarasimha le lexicographe ...

Tout a coup, les deux jolies figurantes placees devant le rideau de la coulisse en ecartent les plis, et Duhsanta, l'arc et les fleches a la main, parait monte sur un char; son cocher tient les renes; lances a la poursuite d'une gazelle imaginaire, ils simulent par leurs gestes la rapidite de la course; leurs stances pittoresques et descriptives suggerent a l'imagination un decor que la peinture serait impuissante a tracer. Ils approchent de l'ermitage; le roi descend a terre, congedie le cocher, les chevaux et le char, entend les voix des jeunes filles et se cache. Un mouvement de curiosite agite les spectateurs; fille d'une Apsaras et creation de Kalidasa, cakuntala reunit tous les charmes; l'actrice saura-t-elle repondre a l'attente des connaisseurs et realiser l'ideal? Elle parait, vetue d'une simple tunique d'ecorce qui semble cacher ses formes et par un contraste habile les embellit encore; la ligne arrondie du visage, les yeux longs, d'un bleu sombre, langoureux, les seins opulents mal emprisonnes, les bras delicats laissent a deviner les beautes que le costume ascetique derobe. Son att.i.tude, ses gestes ravissent a la fois les regards et les coeurs; elle parle, et sa voix est un chant. La cour de Vikramaditya fremit d'une emotion sereine et profonde: un chef-d'oeuvre nouveau vient d'entrer dans l'immortalite.

FOOTNOTES:

[Footnote 1: The Hindu equivalent of ”for better, for worse.”]

[Footnote 2: _Le Theatre Indien_, pages 368-371. This is without compet.i.tion the best work in which any part of the Sanskrit literature has been treated, combining erudition, imagination, and taste. The book is itself literature of a high order. The pa.s.sage is unfortunately too long to be quoted entire.]

THE TWO MINOR DRAMAS

I.--”MALAVIKA AND AGNIMITRA”

_Malavika and Agnimitra_ is the earliest of Kalidasa's three dramas, and probably his earliest work. This conclusion would be almost certain from the character of the play, but is put beyond doubt by the following speeches of the prologue:

_Stage-director_. The audience has asked us to present at this spring festival a drama called _Malavika and Agnimitra_, composed by Kalidasa. Let the music begin.

_a.s.sistant_. No, no! Shall we neglect the works of such ill.u.s.trious authors as Bhasa, Saumilla, and Kaviputra? Can the audience feel any respect for the work of a modern poet, a Kalidasa?

_Stage-director_. You are quite mistaken. Consider:

Not all is good that bears an ancient name, Nor need we every modern poem blame: Wise men approve the good, or new or old; The foolish critic follows where he's told.

_a.s.sistant_. The responsibility rests with you, sir.

There is irony in the fact that the works of the ill.u.s.trious authors mentioned have perished, that we should hardly know of their existence were it not for the tribute of their modest, youthful rival. But Kalidasa could not read the future. We can imagine his feelings of mingled pride and fear when his early work was presented at the spring festival before the court of King Vikramaditya, without doubt the most polished and critical audience that could at that hour have been gathered in any city on earth. The play which sought the approbation of this audience shows no originality of plot, no depth of pa.s.sion. It is a light, graceful drama of court intrigue. The hero, King Agnimitra, is an historical character of the second century before Christ, and Kalidasa's play gives us some information about him that history can seriously consider. The play represents Agnimitra's father, the founder of the Sunga dynasty, as still living. As the seat of empire was in Patna on the Ganges, and as Agnimitra's capital is Vidisha--the modern Bhilsa--it seems that he served as regent of certain provinces during his father's lifetime. The war with the King of Vidarbha seems to be an historical occurrence, and the fight with the Greek cavalry force is an echo of the struggle with Menander, in which the Hindus were ultimately victorious. It was natural for Kalidasa to lay the scene of his play in Bhilsa rather than in the far-distant Patna, for it is probable that many in the audience were acquainted with the former city. It is to Bhilsa that the poet refers again in _The Cloud-Messenger_, where these words are addressed to the cloud:

At thine approach, Dasharna land is blest With hedgerows where gay buds are all aglow, With village trees alive with many a nest Abuilding by the old familiar crow, With lingering swans, with ripe rose-apples' darker show.

There shalt thou see the royal city, known Afar, and win the lover's fee complete, If thou subdue thy thunders to a tone Of murmurous gentleness, and taste the sweet, Love-rippling features of the river at thy feet.

Yet in Kalidasa's day, the glories of the Sunga dynasty were long departed, nor can we see why the poet should have chosen his hero and his era as he did.

There follows an a.n.a.lysis of the plot and some slight criticism.

In addition to the stage-director and his a.s.sistant, who appear in the prologue, the characters of the play are these:

AGNIMITRA, _king in Vidisha_.

GAUTAMA, _a clown, his friend_.

GANADASA } } _dancing-masters_.