Act Three  

The forest near Dongurh.  

 SCENE I

Comol, Coomood, meeting in the forest.

COOMOOD CUMARY

Where were you hidden, Comol, all this morning?

COMOL CUMARY

I have been wandering in my woods alone

Imagining myself their mountain queen.

O Coomood, all the woodland worshipped me!

Coomood, the flowers held up their incense-bowls

In adoration and the soft-voiced winds

Footing with a light ease among the leaves

Paused to lean down and lisp into my ear,

Oh, pure delight. The forest's unnamed birds

Hymned their sweet sovran lady as she walked

Lavishing melody. The furry squirrels

Peeped from the leaves and waved their bushy tails,

Twittering, "There goes she, our beloved lady,

Comol Cumary," and the peacocks came

Proud to be seen by me and danced in front;

Shrilling, "How gorgeous are we in our beauty,

Yet not so beautiful as is our lady,

Comol Cumary." I will be worshipped, Coomood.

COOMOOD CUMARY

You shall be. There's no goddess of them all
That has these vernal looks and such a body
Remembering the glory whence it came
Or apt to tread with the light vagrant breeze
Or rest with moonlight.

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COMOL CUMARY

That was what they told me,
The voices of the forest, — sister Coomood,
The myriad voices.

COOMOOD CUMARY

What did they tell you, Comol?

COMOL CUMARY

They told me that my hair was a soft dimness
With thoughts of light imprisoned in't; the gods,
They said, looked down from heaven and saw my eyes
Wishing that that were heaven. They told me, child,
My face was such as Brahma once had dreamed of
But could not — no, for all the master-skill
That made the worlds — recapture in the flesh
So rare a sweetness. They called my perfect body
A feast of gracious beauty, a refrain
And harmony in womanhood embodied.
They told me all these things, — Coomood, they did,
Though you will not believe it. I understood
Their leafy language.

COOMOOD CUMARY

Come, you did not need
So to translate the murmurings of the leaves
And the wind's whisper. 'Twas a human voice
I'll swear, so deftly flattered you.

COMOL CUMARY

Fie, Coomood,
It was the trees, the waters; the pure, soft flowers
Took voices.

COOMOOD CUMARY

One voice. Did he roar softly, sweetheart,
To woo you ?

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COMOL CUMARY

Oh, he's a recreant to his duty.
He loves the wild deer fleeing on the hills
And the strong foeman's glittering blade, not Comol.
You must not talk of him, but of the hills
And greenness and of me.

COOMOOD CUMARY

And Edur, Comol ?

COMOL CUMARY

Edur! It is a name that I have heard

In some dim past, in some old far-off world

I moved in, oh, a waste of centuries

And many dreams ago. I'll not return there.

It had no trees, I'm sure, no jasmine-bushes,

No happy breezes dancing with linked hands

Over the hill-tops, no proud-seated hills

Softening the azure, high-coped deep-plunging rocks

Or flowery greenness round, no birds, no Spring.

COOMOOD CUMARY

We are the distance of a world from Edur.
Tomorrow is the May-feast's crowning day,
Comol.

COMOL CUMARY

Oh then we shall be happy breezes
And dance with linked hands upon the hills
All the Spring-morning.

COOMOOD CUMARY

It is a May to be
Remembered.

COMOL CUMARY

It is the May-feast of my life,

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Coomood, the May-feast of my life, the May
That in my heart shall last for ever, sweet
For ever and for ever. Where are our sisters ?

COOMOOD CUMARY

Nirmol is carrying water from the spring;

Ishany hunts the browsing stag today,
A sylvan archeress.

COMOL CUMARY

What have you in the basket?

COOMOOD CUMARY

Flowers I have robbed the greenest woodland of

For Bappa's worship. They must hide with bloom,

Sheva Ekling today. Tomorrow, sweet,

I'll gather blossoms for your hair instead

And weave you silver-petalled anklets, ear-rings

Of bright may bloom, zones of Spring-honeysuckle,

And hide your arms in vernal gold. We'll set you

Under a bough, our goddess of the Spring,

And sylvanly adore, covering your feet

With flowers that almost match their moonbeam whiteness

Or palely imitate their rose; — our Lady,

Comol Cumary.

COMOL CUMARY

Will Bappa worship me ?
But I am an inferior goddess, Coomood,
And dare not ask the King of Paradise
To adore me.

COOMOOD CUMARY

You must adore him, that's your part.

COMOL CUMARY

I will, while 'tis the May.

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COOMOOD CUMARY

And afterwards ?

COMOL CUMARY

Coomood, we will not think of afterwards
In Dongurh, in (he springtide.

COOMOOD CUMARY

Tomorrow dawns
The seventh morning, Comol.

COMOL CUMARY

I did not hear you.

Are these our hunters ?

ISHANY

I have a better aim

Than yours.

Enter Prithuraj and Ishany.

PRITHURAJ

Did I deny it ? Oh, you shoot
Right through the heart.

ISHANY

I'll never marry one
Whom I outdo at war or archery.
You tell me you are famous Martund's son,
The mighty Gehlote. Wherefore lurk you then
In unapproachable and tangled woods
Warding off glory with your distant shafts,
While life sweeps past in the loud vale below ?
Not breast the torrent, not outbrave its shocks
To carve your names upon the rocks of Time
Indelibly?

PRITHURAJ

We will affront, Ishany,

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The Ganges yet with a victorious gleam
Of armour. But our fates are infant still
And in their native thickets they must wait
To flesh themselves and feel their lion strengths
Before they roar abroad.

ISHANY

Until they do,

Talk not of love.

PRITHURAJ

What would you have me do ?
O'erbear in arms the Scythian Toraman,
And slay the giant Hooshka ? Meet Ichalgurh
And come unharmed, or with my single sword
Say halt to a proud score of the best lances
You have in Edur ? This and more I can
For thee, Ishany.

ISHANY

You talk, but do it first.
Doers were never talkers, Prithuraj.

PRITHURAJ

Oh, that's a narrow maxim. Noble speech
Is a high prelude fit for noble deeds;

It is the lion's roar before he leaps.
Proud eloquence graces the puissant arm
And from the hall of council to the field
Was with the great and iron men of old
Their natural stepping.

ISHANY

You only roar as yet.
I beat you with the bow today; sometime
I'll fight you with the sword and beat you.

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PRITHURAJ

Will you?

Just as your lady did ?

ISHANY

She played, she played,
But I would aim in earnest at your heart.
One day we'll fight and see.

PRITHURAJ

Why, if we do,
I'll claim a conqueror's right on your sweet body,
Ishany.

ISHANY

And my heart ? You must do more,
If you'll have that.

PRITHURAJ

It cannot now be long
Before the mailed heel of Edur rings
Upon our hill-side rocks. Then I'll deserve it.

ISHANY

Till then you are my fellow hunter only,
Not yet my captain.

Enter Nirmol.

NIRMOL CUMARY

Idlers and ne'er-do-weels, home! Here have I carried twelve full jars from the spring, set wood on the stove, kindled the fire, while you play gracefully the sylvan gadabouts. Where is the venison ?

PRITHURAJ

Travelling to the cooking-pot on a Bheel's black shoulders.

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NIRMOL CUMARY

In your service, Ishany! or you shall not taste the stag you have hunted.

ISHANY

Child, do not tyrannize. I am as hungry with this hunting as a beef-swallowing Scythian.

Exit.

NIRMOL CUMARY

Off with you, hero, and help, her with your heroic shoulders.

Exit Prithuraj.

COMOL CUMARY

A pair of warlike lovers!

NIRMOL CUMARY

You are there, sister-truants? Have you no occupation but to lurk in leaves and eavesdrop upon the prattle of lovers ?

COMOL CUMARY

Why, Nirmol, I did my service before I came.

NIRMOL CUMARY

Yes, I know! To sweep one room—oh, scrupulously clean, for is it not Bappa's ? and to scrub his armour for a long hour till it is as bright as your eyes grow when they are looking at Bappa, — do they not, Coomood ?

COOMOOD CUMARY

They do, like stars allowed to gaze at God.

NIRMOL CUMARY

Exact! I have seen her —

COMOL CUMARY

Nirmol, I do not know how many twigs there are in the forest,

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but I will break them all on your back, if you persevere.

NIRMOL CUMARY

Do you think you are princess of Edur here that you threaten me ? No, we are in the democracy of Spring where all sweet flowers are equals. Oh, I will be revenged on you for your tyrannies in Edur. I have seen her, Coomood, when she thought none was looking, lay her cheek wistfully against the hilt of his sword, trying to think that the cold hard iron was the warm lips of its master and hers. I have seen her kiss it furtively —

COMOL CUMARY (embracing and stopping her mouth)

Hush, hush, you wicked romancer.

NIRMOL CUMARY

Go then and cook our meal like a good princess and I will promise not to repeat all the things I have heard you murmur to yourself when you were alone.

COMOL CUMARY

Nirmol, you grow in wickedness with years.
Wait till I have you back in Edur, maiden;

I'll scourge this imp of mischief out of you.

NIRMOL CUMARY

I have heard her, Coomood, —

COMOL CUMARY

I am off, I am away! I am an arrow from Kodal's bow.

Exit.

NIRMOL CUMARY

She is hard to drive, but I have the whip-hand of her.

COOMOOD CUMARY

Have you the crimson sandal-powder ready?
Flowers for the garlands Spring in sweet abundance
Provides us.  

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NIRMOL CUMARY

Yes. She shall be wedded first
Before she knows it.

COOMOOD CUMARY

Unless my father's sword
Striking us through the flowery walls we hide in,
Prevent it, .Nirmol.

NIRMOL CUMARY

Coomood, our fragile flowers will weave
A bond that steel cannot divide, nor death
Dissever.

Exeunt.

Curtain

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Facsimile of the previous page from PRINCE OF EDUR

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