/*
My beloved is ever in my heart
That is why I see him everywhere,
He is in the pupils of my eyes
That is why I see him everywhere.
I went far away to hear his own words,
But, ah, it was vain!
When I came back I heard them
In my own songs.
Who are you who seek him like a beggar
from door to door!
Come to my heart and see his face in the
tears of my eyes!
*/
[Enter HERALDS and ADVANCE GUARDS of the KING]
FIRST HERALD. Stand off! Get away from the street, all of you!
FIRST CITIZEN. Eh, man, who do you think you are? You weren't
of course born with such lofty strides, my friend?--Why should we
stand off, my dear sir? Why should we budge? Are we street
dogs, or what?
SECOND HERALD. Our King is coming this way.
SECOND CITIZEN. King? Which King?
FIRST HERALD. Our King, the King of this country.
FIRST CITIZEN. What, is the fellow mad? Whoever heard of our
King coming out heralded by these vociferous gentry?
SECOND HERALD. The King will no longer deny himself to his
subjects. He is coming to command the festivities himself.
SECOND CITIZEN. Brother, is that so?
SECOND HERALD. Look, his banner is flying over there.
SECOND CITIZEN. Ah, yes, that is a flag indeed.
SECOND HERALD. Do you see the red <i>Kimshuk</i> flower
painted on it?
SECOND CITIZEN. Yes, yes, it is the <i>Kimshuk</i>
indeed!--what a bright scarlet flower!
FIRST HERALD. Well! do you believe us now?
SECOND CITIZEN. I never said I didn't. That fellow Kumbha
started all this fuss. Did I say a word?
FIRST HERALD. Perhaps, though a pot-bellied man, he is quite
empty inside; an empty vessel sounds most, you know.
SECOND HERALD. Who is he? Is he any kinsman of yours?
SECOND CITIZEN. Not at all. He is just a cousin of our village
chief's father-in-law, and he does not even live in the same part
of our village with us.
SECOND HERALD. Just so: he quite looks the seventh cousin of
somebody's father-in-law, and his understanding appears also to
bear the stamp of uncle-in-lawhood.
KUMBHA. Alas, my friends, many a bitter sorrow has given my poor
mind a twist before it has become like this. It is only the
other day that a King came and paraded the streets, with as many
titles in front of him as the drums that made the town hideous by
their din, ... What did I not do to serve and please him! I
rained presents on him, I hung about him like a beggar--and in
the end I found the strain on my resources too hard to bear. But
what was the end of all that pomp and majesty? When people
sought grants and presents from him, he could not somehow
discover an auspicious day in the Calendar: though all days were
red-letter days when we had to pay our taxes!
SECOND HERALD. Do you mean to insinuate that our King is a bogus
King like the one you have described?
FIRST HERALD. Mr. Uncle-in-law, I believe the time has come for
you to say good-bye to Aunty-in-law.
KUMBHA. Please, sirs, do not take any offence. I am a poor
creature--my sincerest apologies, sirs: I will do anything to be
excused. I am quite willing to move away as far as you like.
SECOND HERALD. All right, come here and form a line. The King
will come just now--we shall go and prepare the way for him.
[They go out.]
SECOND CITIZEN. My dear Kumbha, your tongue will be your death
one day.
KUMBHA. Friend Madhav, it isn't my tongue, it is fate. When the
bogus King appeared I never said a word, though that did not
prevent my striking at my own feet with all the self-confidence
of innocence. And now, when perhaps the real King has come, I
simply must blurt out treason. It is fate, my dear friend!
MADHAV. My faith is, to go on obeying the King--it does not
matter whether he is a real one or a pretender. What do we know
of Kings that we should judge them! It is like throwing stones
in the dark--you are almost sure of hitting your mark. I go on
obeying and acknowledging--if it is a real King, well and good:
if not, what harm is there?
KUMBHA. I should not have minded if the stones were nothing
better than stones. But they are often precious things: here, as
elsewhere, extravagance lands us in poverty, my friend.
MADHAV. Look! There comes the King! Ah, a King indeed! What a
figure, what a face! Whoever saw such beauty--lily-white,
creamy-soft! What now, Kumbha? What do you think now?
KUMBHA. He looks all right--yes, he may be the real King for all
I know.
MADHAV. He looks as if he were moulded and carved for kingship,
a figure too exquisite and delicate for the common light of day.
[Enter the "KING"]
[Transcriber's note: The author indicates the trumped up King as
"KING" in this play, enclosing the word King in double quotes to
help us distinguish the imposter from the real one.]
MADHAV. Prosperity and victory attend thee, O King! We have
been standing here to have a sight of thee since the early
morning. Forget us not, your Majesty, in your favours.
KUMBHA. The mystery deepens. I will go and call
Grandfather.[Goes out.]
[Enter another band of MEN]
FIRST MAN. The King, the King! Come along, quick, the King is
passing this way.
SECOND MAN. Do not forget me, O King! I am Vivajadatta, the
grandson of Udayadatta of Kushalivastu. I came here at the first
report of thy coming--I did not stop to hear what people were
saying: all the loyalty in me went out towards thee, O Monarch,
and brought me here.
THIRD MAN. Rubbish! I came here earlier than you--before the
cockcrow. Where were you then? O King, I am Bhadrasena, of
Vikramasthali. Deign to keep thy servant in thy memory!
"KING". I am much pleased with your loyalty and devotion.
VIVAJADATTA. Your Majesty, many are the grievances and
complaints we have to make to thee: to whom could we turn our
prayers so long, when we could not approach thy august presence?
"KING". Your grievances will all be redressed. [Exit.]
FIRST MAN. It won't do to lag behind, boys--the King will lose
sight of us if we get mixed up with the mob.
SECOND MAN. See there-look what that fool Narottam is doing! He
has elbowed his way through all of us and is now sedulously
fanning the King with a palm leaf!
MADHAV. Indeed! Well, well, the sheer audacity of the man takes
one's breath away.
SECOND MAN. We shall have to pitch the fellow out of that
place--is he fit to stand beside the King?
MADHAV. Do you imagine the King will not see through him? His
loyalty is obviously a little too showy and profuse.
FIRST MAN. Nonsense! Kings can't scent hypocrites as we do--I
should not be surprised if the King be taken in by that fool's
strenuous fanning.
[Enter KUMBHA with GRANDFATHER]
KUMBHA. I tell you--he has just passed by this street.
GRANDFATHER. Is that a very infallible test of Kingship?
KUMBHA. Oh no, he did not pass unobserved: not one or two men
but hundreds and thousands on both sides of the street have seen
him with their own eyes.
GRANDFATHER. That is exactly what makes the whole affair
suspicious. When ever has our King set out to dazzle the eyes of
the people by pomp and pageantry? He is not the King to make
such a thundering row over his progress through the country.
KUMBHA. But he may just have chosen to do so on this important
occasion: you cannot really tell.
GRANDFATHER. Oh yes, you can! My King cherishes no weathercock
fancy, no fantastic vein.
KUMBHA. But, Grandfather, I wish I could only describe him! So
soft, so delicate and exquisite like a waxen doll! As I looked
on him, I yearned to shelter him from the sun, to protect him
with my whole body.
GRANDFATHER. Fool, O precious ass that you are! <i>My</i> King
a waxen doll, and you to protect him!
KUMBHA. But seriously, Grandpa, he is a superb god, a miracle of
beauty: I do not find a single other figure in this vast assembly
that can stand beside his peerless loveliness.
GRANDFATHER. If my King chose to make himself shown, your eyes
would not have noticed him. He would not stand out like that
amongst others--he is one of the people, he mingles with the
common populace.
KUMBHA. But did I not tell you I saw his banner?
GRANDFATHER. What did you see displayed on his banner?
KUMBHA. It had a red <i>Kimshuk</i> flower painted on it--the
bright and glittering scarlet dazzled my eyes.
GRANDFATHER. <i>My</i> King has a thunderbolt within a lotus
painted on his flag.
KUMBHA. But every one is saying, the King is out in this
festival: <i>every one</i>.
GRANDFATHER. Why, so he is, of course: but he has no heralds, no
army, no retinue, no music bands or lights to accompany him.
KUMBHA. So none could recognise him in his incognito, it seems.
GRANDFATHER. Perhaps there are a few that can.
KUMBHA. And those that can recognise him--does the King grant
them whatever they ask for?
GRANDFATHER. But they never ask for anything. No beggar will
ever know the King. The greater beggar appears like the King to
the eyes of the lesser beggar. O fool, the man that has come out
to-day attired in crimson and gold to beg from you--it is him
whom you are trumpeting as your King! ... Ah, there comes my
mad friend! Oh come, my brothers! we cannot spend the day in
idle wrangling and prating--let us now have some mad frolic, some
wild enjoyment!
[Enter the MAD FRIEND, who sings]
/*
Do you smile, my friends? Do you laugh, my brothers? I roam
in search of the golden stag! Ah yes, the fleet-foot vision
that ever eludes me!
Oh, he flits and glimpses like a flash and then is gone, the
untamed rover of the wilds! Approach him and he is afar in a
trice, leaving a cloud of haze and dust before thy eyes!
Yet I roam in search of the golden stag, though I may never
catch him in these wilds! Oh, I roam and wander through
woods and fields and nameless lands like a restless vagabond,
never caring to turn my back.
You all come and buy in the marketplace and go back to your
homes laden with goods and provisions: but me the wild winds
of unscalable heights have touched and kissed--Oh, I know not
when or where!
I have parted with my all to get what never has become mine!
And yet think my moanings and my tears are for the things I
thus have lost!
With a laugh and a song in my heart I have left all sorrow and
grief far behind me: Oh, I roam and wander through woods and
fields and nameless lands--never caring to turn my vagabond's
back!
*/