{"id":184,"date":"2013-07-13T01:26:26","date_gmt":"2013-07-13T01:26:26","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/localhost\/?p=184"},"modified":"2013-07-13T01:26:26","modified_gmt":"2013-07-13T01:26:26","slug":"17-the-viziers-of-bassora-act-4-sc-1-vol-07-collected-plays-part-ii-volume-07","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/worksofthemotherandsriaurobindo.org\/index.php\/01-works-of-sri-aurobindo\/01-sabcl\/07-collected-plays-part-ii-volume-07\/17-the-viziers-of-bassora-act-4-sc-1-vol-07-collected-plays-part-ii-volume-07","title":{"rendered":"-17_The Viziers of Bassora Act-4 Sc-1.htm"},"content":{"rendered":"\n\n
\n
\n
\n

\n
\nAct Four <\/font><\/p>\n

<\/b> <\/p>\n

\nBagdad.<\/i><\/font><\/p>\n

\n
\n SCENE I <\/font><\/b><\/span><\/p>\n

\n <\/p>\n

\n <\/div>\n<\/div>\n

\nThe gardens of the Caliph’s Palace outside the Pavilion of Pleasure.
\nAnice-Aljalice, Nureddene.<\/i><\/font> <\/font><\/p>\n

\n\tA<\/font>NICE<\/font>-A<\/font>LJALICE<\/font><\/p>\n

\nThis is Bagdad!<\/font>
\n<\/font><\/p>\n

\n\tN<\/font>UREDDENE
\n\t<\/font>\n<\/p>\n

\nBagdad the beautiful,
\nThe city of delight. How green these gardens!
\nWhat a sweet clamour pipes among the trees!<\/font>
\n<\/font><\/p>\n

\n\tA<\/font>NICE<\/font>-A<\/font>LJALICE
\n\t<\/font>\n<\/p>\n

\nAnd flowers! the flowers! Look at these violets
\nDark blue like burning sulphur! Oh, rose and myrtle
\nAnd gillyflower and lavender; anemones
\nAs red as blood! All spring walks here in blossoms
\nAnd strews the pictured ground.<\/font> <\/font><\/p>\n

\n\tN<\/font>UREDDENE
\n\t<\/font>\n<\/p>\n

\nDo you see the fruit,
\nAnice? Camphor and almond-apricots,
\nGreen, white and purple figs and these huge grapes,
\nRound rubies or quite purple-black, that ramp
\nO’er<\/b> wall and terrace; plums almost as smooth
\nAs your own damask cheek. These balls of gold
\nAre lemons, Anice, do you think? Look, cherries,
\nAnd mid these fair pink-budded orange-blossoms
\nRare glints of fruit.<\/font> <\/font><\/p>\n

\n\tA<\/font>NICE<\/font>-A<\/font>LJALICE
\n\t<\/font>\n<\/p>\n

\nThat was a blackbird whistled.<\/font>
\n<\/font><\/p>\n

\nPage \u2013 672<\/font><\/p>\n

\n

 <\/p>\n

\nHow the doves moan! It’s full of cooing turtles.
\nOh see, the tawny bulbuls calling sweetly
\nAnd winging! What a nutter of scarlet tails!
\nIf it were dark, a thousand nightingales
\nWould surely sing together. How glad I am
\nThat we were driven out of Bassora!<\/font> <\/font><\/p>\n

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

\nAnd this pavilion with its crowd of windows!
\nAre there not quite a hundred ?<\/font> <\/font><\/p>\n

\n\tA<\/font>NICE<\/font>-A<\/font>LJALICE
\n\t<\/font>\n<\/p>\n

\nDo you see
\nThe candelabrum pendent from the ceiling ?
\nA blaze of gold!<\/font> <\/font><\/p>\n

\n\tN<\/font>UREDDENE
\n\t<\/font>\n<\/p>\n

\nEach window has a lamp.
\nNight in these gardens must be bright as day.
\nTo find the master now! Here we could rest
\nAnd ask our way to the great Caliph, Anice.<\/font>
\n<\/font><\/p>\n

\nEnter Shaikh Ibrahim from behind.<\/i><\/font>
\n<\/font><\/p>\n

\n\tI<\/font>BRAHIM
\n\t<\/font>\n<\/p>\n

\nSo, so! So, so! Cavalier sirvente with your bona roba! You do
\nnot know then of the Caliph’s order forbidding entry into his
\ngardens? No? I will proclaim it then with a palmstick about
\nyour pretty back quarters. Will I not? Hoh!<\/font>
\n<\/font><\/p>\n

\nHe advances stealthily with stick raised.
\nNureddene and Anice turn towards him, he drops
\nthe stick and remains with arm lifted.<\/i><\/font>
\n<\/font><\/p>\n

\nN<\/font>UREDDENE<\/font>
Here is a Shaikh of the gardens. Whose garden is this, friend ?<\/font><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

\n\tA<\/font>NICE<\/font>-A<\/font>LJALICE<\/font><\/p>\n

\nIs the poor man out of the use of his wits?
\n<\/b>He stares open-mouthed.<\/font> <\/font><\/p>\n

\nPage \u2013 673<\/font><\/p>\n

\n

\n\tI<\/font>BRAHIM
\n\t<\/font><\/p>\n<\/p>\n

\nGlory to Allah who made you! Glory to the angel who brought
\nyou down on earth! Glory to myself who am permitted to look
\nupon you! I give glory to Allah for your beauty, O people of
\nParadise!<\/font> <\/font><\/p>\n

\n\tN<\/font>UREDDENE
\n\t<\/font>(smiling)<\/i><\/font>
\n\t<\/font>\n<\/p>\n

\nRather give glory to Him because he has given thee a fine old
\nage and this long silvery beard. But are we permitted in this
\ngarden? The gate was not bolted.<\/font> <\/font><\/p>\n

\n\tI<\/font>BRAHIM
\n\t<\/font>\n<\/p>\n

\nThis garden? My garden? Yes, my son; yes, my daughter. It is the fairer for your feet; never before did such flowers bloom
\nthere.<\/font> <\/font><\/p>\n

\n\tN<\/font>UREDDENE<\/font><\/p>\n

\nWhat, is it thine? And this pavilion?<\/font>
\n<\/font><\/p>\n

\n\tI<\/font>BRAHIM
\n\t<\/font>\n<\/p>\n

\nAll mine, my son. By the grace of Allah to a poor sinful old man.
\n‘Tis by his election, my son, and divine ordination and sanctification, and a little by the power of my prostrations and lustrations which I neglect not, neither morning nor noon nor evening
\nnor at any of the intervals by the law commanded.<\/font>
\n<\/font><\/p>\n

\n\tN<\/font>UREDDENE<\/font><\/p>\n

\nWhen did you buy or lay it out, old father?<\/font>
\n<\/font><\/p>\n

\n\tI<\/font>BRAHIM
\n\t<\/font>\n<\/p>\n

\nA grand-aunt left it to me. Wonder not, for she was indeed aunt’s
\ngrandmother to a cousin of the sister-in-law of the Caliph.<\/font>
\n<\/font><\/p>\n

\n\tN<\/font>UREDDENE<\/font><\/p>\n

\nOh then indeed! She had the right divine to be wealthy. But I<\/font>
\n<\/font><\/p>\n

\nPage \u2013 674<\/font><\/p>\n

\n

\ntrust thou hast good doctrinal justification for inheriting after
\nher?<\/font> <\/font><\/p>\n

\n\tI<\/font>BRAHIM
\n\t<\/font>\n<\/p>\n

\nI would not accept the Caliphate by any other. Oh my son,
\nhanker not unlawfully after perishable earthly goods; for, verily,
\nthey are a snare and verily, verily, they entrap the feet of the
\nsoul as it toileth over the straight rough road to Heaven.<\/font> 
\n<\/font><\/p>\n

\n\tA<\/font>NICE<\/font>-A<\/font>LJALICE
\n\t<\/font>\n<\/p>\n

\nBut, old father, are you rich and go so poorly robed? Were I
\nmistress of such a garden, I would float about it in damask and
\ncrimson and velvet; silk and satin should be my meanest apparel.<\/font> 
\n<\/font><\/p>\n

\n\tI<\/font>BRAHIM
\n\t<\/font>(aside)<\/i><\/font>
\n\t<\/font>\n<\/p>\n

\nShe has a voice like a blackbird’s! O angel Gabriel, increase this
\nunto me. I will not quarrel with thee though all Houridom break
\nloose on my garden; for their gates thou hast a little opened. (aloud)<\/i> Fie, my daughter! I take refuge with Allah. I am a poor
\nsinful old man on the brink of the grave, what should I do with
\nrobes and coloured raiment ? But they would hang well on thee.
\nPraise the Lord who has given thee hips like the moon and a waist
\nindeed! a small, seizable waist, Allah forgive me!<\/font>
\n<\/font><\/p>\n

\n\tA<\/font>NICE<\/font>-A<\/font>LJALICE<\/font><\/p>\n

\nWe are weary, old father; we hunger and thirst.<\/font>
\n<\/font><\/p>\n

\n\tI<\/font>BRAHIM
\n\t<\/font>\n<\/p>\n

\nOh, my son! Oh, my daughter! You put me to shame. Come in,
\ncome in; this my pavilion is yours and there is within it plenty
\nof food and drink, \u2014 such innocent things now as sherbet and
\npure kind water. But as for wine, that accursed thing, it is for-
\nbidden by the Prophet, whose name is a benediction. Come in,
\ncome in. Allah curse him that giveth not to the guest and the
\nstranger. <\/font><\/p>\n

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

\nIt is indeed thine ? we may enter ?<\/font>
\n<\/font><\/p>\n

\nPage \u2013 675<\/font><\/p>\n

\n

\n\tI<\/font>BRAHIM
\n\t<\/font><\/p>\n<\/p>\n

\nAllah, Allah! its floor yearns for thy beauty and for the fair feet
\nof thy sister. If there were youth now instead of poor venerable
\nme, would one not kiss the marble wherever her fair small feet
\nWill touch it ? But I praise Allah that I am an old man with my
\nthoughts turned to chastity and holiness.<\/font> 
\n<\/font><\/p>\n

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

\nCome, Anice.<\/font>
\n<\/font><\/p>\n

\n\tI<\/font>BRAHIM
\n\t<\/font>(walking behind them)<\/i><\/font>
\n\t<\/font>\n<\/p>\n

\nAllah! Allah! She is a gazelle that
\nspringeth. Allah! Allah!
\nthe swan in my lake waddleth less perfectly. She is as a willow
\nwhen the wind swayeth it. Allah! Allah!<\/font>
\n<\/font><\/p>\n

\nExeunt to the pavilion.<\/i><\/font><\/p>\n

\nPage \u2013 676<\/font><\/p>\n<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<\/table>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Act Four   Bagdad.  SCENE I     The gardens of the Caliph’s Palace outside the Pavilion of Pleasure. Anice-Aljalice, Nureddene. ANICE-ALJALICE This is Bagdad!…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-184","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-07-collected-plays-part-ii-volume-07","wpcat-6-id"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/worksofthemotherandsriaurobindo.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/184","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=184"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/worksofthemotherandsriaurobindo.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/184\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/worksofthemotherandsriaurobindo.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=184"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/worksofthemotherandsriaurobindo.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=184"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/worksofthemotherandsriaurobindo.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=184"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}