Page:Sacontala (Jones 1870).djvu/118

116

gay entertainments; and there must be some weighty reason for the prohibition.

Cham. [Aside.] The affair is publick; why should I not satisfy them?—[Aloud.]—Has not the calamitous desertion of Sacontalá reached your ears?

First Dams. We heard her tale from the governor, as far as the sight of the fatal ring.

Cham. Then I have little to add.—When the king's memory was restored, by the sight of his gem, he instantly exclaimed: "Yes, the incomparable Sacontalá is my lawful wife; and when I rejected her, I had lost my reason." He showed strong marks of extreme affliction and penitence; and from that moment he has abhorred the pleasures of life. No longer does he exert his respectable talents from day to day for the good of his people; he prolongs his nights without closing his eyes, perpetually rolling on the edge of his couch; and when he rises, he pronounces not one sentence aptly; mistaking the names of the women in his apartments, and through distraction, calling each of them Sacontalá; then he sits abashed, with his head long bent on his knees.

Misr. [Aside.] This is pleasing to me, very pleasing.

Cham. By reason of the deep sorrow which now prevails in his heart, the vernal jubilee has been interdicted.

Both Dams. The prohibition is highly proper.