Page:Rabindranath Tagore - A Biographical Study.djvu/114

 east has fostered a drama of its own, congenially influenced by the musical affinity of its themes. It does not, like our English stage, look for the comedy of differences or the sheer tragedy of circumstance. The old-style Indian playwright set out with a clear subject—say, the pursuit of beauty by the ordained lover, or the quest of the Golden Stag. There might be a few comic episodes by the way, but they were only for relief, a diversion, not a development, of the real argument. We have to reckon both with the tradition of a stage, as well as the temperament of a playwright in judging a kind of drama so new to us. Rabindranath Tagore may break the rules of our common stage-practice, but he breaks none that govern the leisurely drama of the open air and the courtyard, which he and his fellow-playwrights in India have in mind.