How, O my child! shall my bereaved heart Forget its bitterness, when, day by day, Full in my sight shall grow the tender plants Reared by thy care, or sprung from hallowed grain Which thy loved hands have strewn around the door— A frequent offering to our household gods.” THE KING AND SAKOONTALÂ’S PORTRAIT. “My finger, burning with the glow of love, Has left its impress on the painted tablet; While here and there, alas! a scalding tear Has fallen on the cheek and dimmed its brightness. Go fetch the brush that I may finish it. A sweet Sirisha blossom should be twined Behind her ear, its perfumed crest depending Toward her cheek; and resting on her bosom, A lotus-fibre necklace, soft and bright As an autumnal moonbeam, should be traced.” While gazing on the picture, the king in his infatuation mistakes for reality a bee which he has himself painted in the act of settling on the rosy lips of his love, and after attempting to drive it off is apprised of his error by an attendant, whom he thus addresses:— “While all entranced I gazed upon her picture, My loved one seemed to live before my eyes, Till every fibre of my being thrilled With rapturous emotion. Oh! ’twas cruel To dissipate the day-dream, and transform The blissful vision to a lifeless image. Vain is the hope of meeting her in dreams, For slumber, night by night, forsakes my couch. And now that I would fain assuage my grief By gazing on her portrait, here before me, Tears of despairing love obscure my sight.” MONIER WILLIAMS. Sakoontalâ may justly be called the pearl of Eastern dramatic poetry. It has been translated into every European tongue, and has elicited the admiration of all civilized nations. In the language of Goethe:— “Would’st thou the young year’s blossom and the fruits of its decline, And all by which the soul is charmed, enraptured, feasted, fed— Would’st thou the earth and heaven itself in one sole name combine? I name thee, O Sakoontalâ! and all at once is said.” From the author of this drama we have two other pieces worthy of his fame, “the Hero and the Nymph” and a popular comedy. His era was the golden age of the Hindoo theatre. Other noted plays, a few out of many, are “the Toy Cart,” a domestic drama with a public underplot; “the Signet of the Minister,” which had a political bearing; “the Stolen Marriage;” and an allegorical play, “the Moonrise of Science.”