Page:History of Bengali Language and Literature.djvu/789

 VI. ] BENGALI LANGUAGE & LITERATURE. 747 and the poet lost all sense of proportion under the encouragement he received. He describes many incidents in Krisna’s life. The Prabhasa scene, for instance, had been worked up to the tenderest pathos by earlier poets. Daga- rathi, then, began by describing how a Brahmin, who was grovelling in abject poverty, went to Krisna owing to pressure from his wife to beg for alms, and came back dissappointed. The story is told with much artistic effect, and we can understand how the audience would enjoy it. But the seri- ous portion of the Prabhasa scene must follow, and the thoughtful amongst the audience were sitting waiting for it. The poet however dragged the in- cidental story of the Brahmin beggar to such an inordinate length, that the whole time was taken up by it, and he began and ended his Prabhasa with this single incident introduced by way of diversion and originally meant to supplement the main subject. Dacarathi had no sense of propor- tion. In the atmosphere of the vulgar he lost all idea of time and place, and if he claims a place in literature, it is only by right of his sparkling and artistic language, which makes his shortcomings and scurrilities half-pardonable in our eyes. The art of writing and appreciating literature was no longer confined to the higher classes. The crowd also began to feel that Bengali literature was theirs. 11 was the season, as it were, for a flood-tide in our let- ters, and the evil was inevitably mingled with the pure to cover the whole range of the Bengali language. The suggestive hits of a sharp wit, the majestic sweep of Sanskrit metres, the lofty spirit of self- sacrifice and higher ideals attracted the upper Without any sense of propor- tion.