{"id":1741,"date":"2013-07-13T01:36:56","date_gmt":"2013-07-13T01:36:56","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/localhost\/?p=1741"},"modified":"2013-07-13T01:36:56","modified_gmt":"2013-07-13T01:36:56","slug":"15-note-of-the-texts-vol-03-04-collected-plays-and-stories","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/worksofthemotherandsriaurobindo.org\/index.php\/01-works-of-sri-aurobindo\/03-cwsa\/03-04-collected-plays-and-stories\/15-note-of-the-texts-vol-03-04-collected-plays-and-stories","title":{"rendered":"-15_Note of the Texts.htm"},"content":{"rendered":"
\n\n\n
\n
\n
\n<\/p>\n

\nNote on the Texts Texts<\/b><\/p>\n

\n

<\/font>
\n<\/p>\n

\nCOLLECTED PLAYS AND STORIES<\/b><\/font>
\ncomprises all of Sri Aurobindo’s
\ndramatic and fictional writings, with the exception of prose dialogues,
\nverse dialogues more in the nature of poems than plays, and translations from Sanskrit drama. Writings in these three categories are published in
\nEarly Cultural Writings<\/i>, Collected Poems<\/i>, and Translations<\/i>,
\nvolumes 1, 2 and 5 of THE COMPLETE WORKS OF SRI AUROBINDO. <\/p>\n

<\/font><\/p>\n

\n
\nCollected Plays and Stories
\n<\/i>is divided into three parts according
\nto type of material. The first part includes the five complete plays;
\nthe second, incomplete and fragmentary plays; the third, prose fiction, complete, incomplete and fragmentary. The first two parts are
\narranged chronologically, from earliest to latest. The third is subdivided into two sections: Occult Idylls<\/i>, a series planned by the author,
\nfollowed by a section consisting of all other pieces of fiction, arranged
\nchronologically.
\n<\/font><\/p>\n

\n <\/p>\n

\n
\n
\nCOMPLETE PLAYS
\n<\/font>
\n<\/b><\/p>\n

\n <\/p>\n

\n
\nThe first of these plays was written around 1905, the last in 1915.
\nOnly one of them,
\nPerseus the Deliverer<\/i>, was published during Sri
\nAurobindo’s lifetime.
\n<\/font><\/p>\n

\n <\/p>\n

\n
\nThe Viziers of Bassora. <\/b>The manuscript of this play was seized by the
\npolice at the time of Sri Aurobindo’s arrest in connection with the
\nAlipore Bomb Case in May 1908. It seems to have been written a few
\nyears before that, towards the end of the period of his employment in
\nthe Baroda State (1893 \u00ad 1906).
\n<\/font><\/p>\n

\n
\nSri Aurobindo never saw the manuscript of The Viziers <\/i>after his
\narrest, and he is said to have particularly regretted its loss. Once in
\nPondicherry he tried to reconstruct one of the missing scenes using a
\npartial draft he had with him, but soon abandoned the effort. In March
\n1952, fifteen months after his passing, the manuscript was handed over
\n<\/font><\/p>\n

\n <\/p>\n


\nPage \u2013 1001<\/p>\n

<\/font><\/p>\n

\n

<\/font><\/p>\n

\n
\nto the Sri Aurobindo Ashram by the Government of West Bengal. It
\nwas transcribed and in 1959 published in the
\nSri Aurobindo Mandir<\/i> <\/p>\n

Annual<\/i>, as well as separately.
\n<\/font><\/p>\n

\n
\nThe source of the plot of The Viziers of Bassora
\n<\/i>is “Nur al-Din
\nAli and the Damsel Anis al-Jalis”, a story told in the Arabian Nights<\/i>
\n(thirty-fourth to thirty-eighth nights). Sri Aurobindo owned in Baroda
\na multi-volume edition of Richard Burton’s translation of the Arabic
\ntext (London, 1894), which he considered “as much a classic as the
\noriginal”. <\/p>\n

<\/font><\/p>\n

\n <\/p>\n

\n
\nRodogune. <\/b>Two complete, independent versions of this play exist. Sri
\nAurobindo wrote the first one in Baroda between 31 January and 14
\nFebruary 1906, on the eve of his departure from the state to join
\nthe national movement. In May 1908 the notebooks containing his
\nfair copy of
\nRodogune<\/i>, like the notebook containing The Viziers of<\/i> <\/p>\n

Bassora<\/i>, were seized by the police when Sri Aurobindo was arrested.
\nFortunately, other notebooks remaining in his possession contained
\nmuch of the penultimate draft of the 1906 version. Basing himself
\non these passages, he was able to reconstruct the play in Pondicherry
\naround 1912. This version was published in the Sri Aurobindo Mandir<\/i> <\/p>\n

Annual
\n<\/i>and separately in 1958. It supersedes the Baroda version, which
\nwas recovered in 1952.
\n<\/font><\/p>\n

\n
\nThe plot of Rodogune <\/i>derives ultimately from the history of
\nCleopatra, Queen of Syria, as recounted by such classical historians
\nas Appian, Justin and Josephus. The immediate source probably was <\/p>\n

Rodogune <\/i>(1645), by the French dramatist Pierre Corneille.
\n<\/font><\/p>\n

\n <\/p>\n

\n
\nPerseus the Deliverer.
\n<\/b>Sri Aurobindo wrote this play during the period
\nof his political activity, and its publication history is marked by the
\nuncertainties of that era. A notation from the now-lost manuscript,
\naccidentally set in type, gives 21 June 1906 as the date of the writing
\nor copying of Act III, Scene 1. Sri Aurobindo seems to have intended
\nthe play to be published in Baroda, and parts of it were composed
\nthere by August of the same year. This plan fell through, however, and
\nthe play did not appear until 1907, when it was brought out serially
\nbetween 30 June and 20 October in the weekly edition of the
\nBande<\/i> <\/p>\n

Mataram<\/i>, a journal of political opinion edited by Sri Aurobindo. The
\nnext year a book-edition was printed, but was destroyed by the printer<\/p>\n


\nPage \u2013 1002<\/p>\n

<\/font><\/p>\n

\n

<\/font><\/p>\n

\n
\nat the time of Sri Aurobindo’s arrest. In 1942 the Bande Mataram<\/i>
\ntext of
\nPerseus the Deliverer <\/i>\u2014  with the exception of three passages
\npublished in issues of the journal that were not then available, namely,
\nall of Act II, Scenes 2 and 3, and the end of Act V, Scene 3 \u2014  was
\nincluded in Sri Aurobindo’s Collected Poems and Plays<\/i>. Sri Aurobindo
\nrevised this text, adding a new ending but ignoring the missing scenes
\nof Act II. (The issues of Bande Mataram <\/i>containing these two scenes
\nwere subsequently rediscovered, and in 1955 they were restored to the
\ntext.)
\n<\/font><\/p>\n

\n
\nThe plot of Perseus the Deliverer <\/i>derives of course from the Greek
\nlegend of Perseus and Andromeda, the most important surviving classical source of which is the fourth book of Ovid’s
\nMetamorphoses<\/i>.
\nNotable among modern retellings of the story are Corneille’s An<\/i><\/font><\/font>dromede <\/i>(1650) and Charles Kingsley’s Andromeda <\/i>(1859), a poem in
\nEnglish hexameters with which Sri Aurobindo was familiar. <\/p>\n

<\/font><\/span><\/p>\n

\n <\/p>\n

\n
\n
\nEric. <\/b>Sri Aurobindo began work on this play in 1910, shortly after his
\narrival in Pondicherry, and continued intermittently over a period of
\nseveral years. No complete fair copy of the play survives. The fullest
\nmanuscript, a typed copy that contains the last version of Act II, breaks
\noff in the middle of Act IV, Scene 2. Handwritten versions subsequent
\nto the typed copy exist for Acts I and III and part of Act IV. There
\nis only a single draft of Act V. Its interlinear and marginal revisions
\npresent unusual textual difficulties. <\/font><\/span><\/p>\n

\n
\n
\nEric <\/i>was first published in 1960 in Sri Aurobindo Mandir Annual<\/i>
\nand as a separate book. The present text is thoroughly re-edited. As a
\nrule, the last version of each act has been transcribed as far as it goes;
\nwhere the last version is incomplete, the previous version is used for the
\nremainder of the act. The order in which the last two manuscripts of
\nActs I and III were written and revised is not entirely clear. The unused
\nversions of these two acts are reproduced in the reference volume
\n(volume 35), along with two partial rewritings of Act IV, Scene 1,
\nwhich could not be worked into the text of the play.
\n<\/font><\/span><\/p>\n

\n
\n
\nNo specific source of the plot of
\nEric <\/i>is known. Sri Aurobindo
\nseems to have made free use of names and events from the history of
\nNorway in the late tenth and early eleventh centuries, a period that
\nwas the subject of much mediaeval Scandinavian literature.<\/font><\/span><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

\n
\nPage \u2013 1003<\/p>\n

<\/font><\/p>\n

\n

<\/font><\/p>\n

\n
\n
\nVasavadutta. <\/b>This play was written in Pondicherry in 1915. The earliest extant draft is dated thus at the end: “Copied Nov. 2, 1915.
\nWritten between 18th & 30th October 1915. Completed 30th October.
\nPondicherry. Revised in April 1916.” The fair copy, used as the text
\nfrom Act III, Scene 4, to the end, gives details of this revision: “Revised
\nand recopied between April 8th and April 17th 1916.” Subsequently,
\non three or four different occasions, Sri Aurobindo began to rewrite
\nthe play, stopping at an earlier point each time. The editors have used
\nthe last version of a given passage as far as it goes and then reverted
\nto the previous version.
\n<\/font><\/span><\/p>\n

\n
\n
\nA typed copy of Vasavadutta <\/i>was prepared for Sri Aurobindo
\nsometime in the late 1930s or early 1940s, and he made a few scattered
\nrevisions to it. When its publication was proposed, he demurred, saying
\nit was “too romantic”. The play did not appear in print until 1957,
\nwhen it was published in the Sri Aurobindo Mandir Annual <\/i>and as a
\nseparate book.
\n<\/font><\/span><\/p>\n

\n
\n
\nAs stated by Sri Aurobindo in his author’s note, he took the plot of <\/p>\n

Vasavadutta
\n<\/i>from the Kathasaritsagara<\/i>, an eleventh-century Sanskrit
\nstory-cycle written by Somadeva Bhatta.
\n<\/font><\/span><\/p>\n

\n <\/p>\n

\n
\n
\n
\nINCOMPLETE AND FRAGMENTARY PLAYS (1891 \u00ad 1915)  <\/font><\/span>
\n<\/b><\/p>\n

\n <\/p>\n

\n
\n
\nThe Witch of Ilni. <\/b>Sri Aurobindo wrote this piece when he was an
\nundergraduate at Cambridge. The manuscript bears dates ranging
\nbetween October and December 1891.
\n<\/font><\/span><\/p>\n

\n
\n
\nThe source of the plot of The Witch of Ilni
\n<\/i>is not known, but the
\nplay evidently owes much to Milton’s Comus <\/i>and similar works. <\/p>\n

<\/font><\/span><\/p>\n

\n <\/p>\n

\n
\n
\nThe House of Brut.
\n<\/b>Sri Aurobindo wrote this fragment during the early
\npart of his stay in Baroda, probably in 1899.
\n<\/font><\/span><\/p>\n

\n
\n
\nThe idea for The House of Brut
\n<\/i>seems to have come from Geoffrey
\nof Monmouth’s Historia Regum Britanniae <\/i>or another chronicle of
\nearly Britain. <\/p>\n

<\/font><\/span><\/p>\n

\n <\/p>\n

\n
\n
\nThe Maid in the Mill. <\/b>This piece was written in Baroda, probably
\naround 1902.
\n<\/font><\/span><\/p>\n

\n
\n
\nThe source of the plot of The Maid in the Mill <\/i>was apparently The<\/i> <\/p>\n

Maid in the Mill <\/i>by John Fletcher and William Rowley (1647). The <\/p>\n

<\/font><\/span>
\n<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

\n
\nPage \u2013 1004<\/p>\n

<\/font><\/p>\n

\n

<\/font><\/p>\n

\n
\n
\ntwo plays have many characters and situations in common. Certain
\nplays of Shakespeare and Calderon may also have influenced the plot
\nof Sri Aurobindo’s play. <\/font><\/span><\/p>\n

\n <\/p>\n

\n
\n
\nThe Prince of Edur. <\/b>Editorial title. Sri Aurobindo wrote the three acts
\nof this incomplete play between 28 January and 1 February 1907, and
\ncopied them on 11 and 12 February. He was at that time staying at
\nhis family’s house in Deoghar, Bihar, during a brief respite from his
\npolitical activities.
\n<\/font><\/span><\/p>\n

\n
\n
\nThe plot of The Prince of Edur <\/i>is based loosely on the life of Bappa
\nRawal, the eighth-century Rajput hero. The scene, which includes parts
\nof what is now eastern Gujarat, was familiar to Sri Aurobindo, who
\nwas posted in the area while serving as a Baroda state officer. <\/font><\/span><\/p>\n

\n <\/p>\n

\n
\n
\nThe Prince of Mathura.
\n<\/b>Editorial title. This fragment, related in theme
\nto The Prince of Edur<\/i>, was written a few years later, probably in 1909
\nor 1910. <\/p>\n

<\/font><\/span><\/p>\n

\n <\/p>\n

\n
\n
\nThe Birth of Sin. <\/b>This fragment, written in the same notebook as The<\/i> <\/p>\n

Prince of Mathura<\/i>, must date from the same period, that is, 1909 \u00ad
\n10. In December 1909 a related piece, also entitle The Birth of Sin<\/i>,
\nwas published in the
\nKarmayogin<\/i>, a weekly newspaper edited by Sri
\nAurobindo. The Karmayogin <\/i>piece is more in the nature of a poem,
\nand was published as such in
\nCollected Poems and Plays <\/i>(1942). (It
\nis included in Collected Poems<\/i>, volume 2 of THE COMPLETE WORKS
\nOF SRI AUROBINDO.) The present draft is structured more as a drama,
\nand is published as such here. The exact relationship between the two
\ntexts is not clear. Both obviously owe much to Milton. <\/p>\n

<\/font><\/span><\/p>\n

\n <\/p>\n

\n
\n
\nFragment of a Play. <\/b>This piece was written in Pondicherry sometime
\naround 1915. The plot appears to be based on an episode in the
\nBhagavata Purana.
\n<\/font><\/span><\/p>\n

\n <\/p>\n

\n
\n
\nSTORIES
\n<\/font><\/span><\/b><\/p>\n

\n <\/p>\n

\n
\n
\nMore than once Sri Aurobindo remarked in conversation that he had
\nwritten some stories that subsequently were lost. “The white ants have <\/font>
\n<\/span>
\n<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

\n
\nPage \u2013 1005<\/p>\n

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\n

<\/font><\/p>\n

\n
\n
\nfinished them and with them has perished my future fame as a storyteller”, he noted ironically in 1939. All his known stories and fragments
\nof fiction are published here in two sections. <\/p>\n

<\/font><\/span><\/p>\n

\n <\/p>\n

\n
\n
\nOccult Idylls<\/b>
\n<\/font><\/span><\/p>\n

\n <\/p>\n

\n
\n
\nSri Aurobindo wrote fair copies of the two pieces published in this
\nsection in the same notebook. On the first page he wrote the general
\ntitle “Occult Idylls”. <\/p>\n

<\/font><\/span><\/p>\n

\n <\/p>\n

\n
\n
\nThe Phantom Hour. <\/b>Sri Aurobindo wrote this, his only complete story,
\nduring the early part of his stay in Pondicherry, 1910 \u00ad 12, or perhaps
\na year or two earlier. <\/font><\/span><\/p>\n

\n <\/p>\n

\n
\n
\nThe Door at Abelard. <\/b>This piece was written around the same time as <\/p>\n

The Phantom Hour<\/i>, but was never completed.<\/p>\n

\n <\/p>\n

\nIncomplete and Fragmentary Stories <\/b>(1891 \u00ad 1912) <\/p>\n

\n <\/p>\n

\nFictional Jottings.
\n<\/b>Sri Aurobindo wrote down these lines on two pages
\nof a notebook he used at Cambridge between 1890 and 1892. <\/p>\n

\n <\/p>\n

\nFragment of a Story.
\n<\/b>Sri Aurobindo wrote this piece around 1904,
\neither in Baroda or while on vacation in Bengal. <\/p>\n

\n <\/p>\n

\nThe Devil’s Mastiff. <\/b>Nothing is known for certain about the date of
\nthis piece, but it seems to belong to the period of “Occult Idylls” and
\nmay have been intended for that series. The manuscript was lost after
\nbeing published in the Advent <\/i>in February 1954. <\/p>\n

\n <\/p>\n

\nThe Golden Bird. <\/b>This piece was written in Pondicherr25, probably in
\n1911 or 1912.\n<\/p>\n

\n <\/p>\n

\nP<\/b><\/font>UBLISHING<\/font>
\nH<\/font>ISTORY<\/font><\/b>
\n<\/b><\/p>\n

\n <\/p>\n

\nAs mentioned above, Perseus the Deliverer <\/i>was published in the weekly <\/p>\n

Bande Mataram <\/i>in 1907, and in Collected Poems and Plays <\/i>in 1942.
\nAll the other pieces in the present volume were brought out posthumously. “Fictional Jottings” and “Fragment of a Story” appear here for
\nthe first time. All the texts have been checked against Sri Aurobindo’s
\nmanuscripts.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

\n
\nPage \u2013 1006<\/p>\n

<\/font>
\n<\/font><\/span><\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Note on the Texts Texts COLLECTED PLAYS AND STORIES comprises all of Sri Aurobindo’s dramatic and fictional writings, with the exception of prose dialogues, verse…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[39],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1741","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-03-04-collected-plays-and-stories","wpcat-39-id"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/worksofthemotherandsriaurobindo.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1741","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/worksofthemotherandsriaurobindo.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/worksofthemotherandsriaurobindo.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/worksofthemotherandsriaurobindo.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/worksofthemotherandsriaurobindo.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1741"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/worksofthemotherandsriaurobindo.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1741\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/worksofthemotherandsriaurobindo.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1741"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/worksofthemotherandsriaurobindo.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1741"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/worksofthemotherandsriaurobindo.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1741"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}