h the shade of the tree as your canopy, and I will seat myself
by you quite comfortably.

KING.

Go you, and sit down first.

MA[T.]HAVYA.

Come along, then.

[_Both walk on a little way, and seat themselves_.

KING.

Ma[T.]Havya, it may be said of you that you have never beheld
anything worth seeing; for your eyes have not yet looked upon the
loveliest object in creation.

MA[T.]HAVYA.

How can you say so, when I see your Majesty before me at this
moment?

KING.

It is very natural that every one should consider his own friend
perfect; but I was alluding to [S']akoontala, the brightest
ornament of these hallowed groves.

MA[T.]HAVYA. [_Aside_.

I understand well enough, but I am not going to humour him.

[_Aloud_.

If, as you intimate, she is a hermit's daughter, you cannot
lawfully ask her in marriage. You may as well then dismiss her
from your mind, for any good the mere sight of her can do.

KING.

Think you that a descendant of the mighty Puru could fix his
affections on an unlawful object?

Though, as men say, the offspring of the sage,
The maiden to a nymph celestial owes
Her being, and by her mother left on earth,
Was found and nurtured by the holy man
As his own daughter, in this hermitage.
So, when dissevered from its parent stalk,
Some falling blossom of the jasmine[36], wafted
Upon the sturdy sun-flower, is preserved
By its support from premature decay.

MA[T.]HAVYA. [_Smiling_.

This passion of yours for a rustic maiden, when you have so many
gems of women at home in your palace, seems to me very like the
fancy of a man who is tired of sweet dates, and longs for sour
tamarinds as a variety.

KING.

You have not seen her, or you would not talk in this fashion.

MA[T.]HAVYA.

I can quite understand it must require something surpassingly
attractive to excite the admiration of such a great man as you.

KING.

I will describe her, my dear friend, in a few words,

Man's all-wise Maker, wishing to create
A faultless form, whose matchless symmetry
Should far transcend Creation's choicest works,
Did call together by his mighty will,
And garner up in his eternal mind,
A bright assemblage of all lovely things;
And then, as in a picture, fashion them
Into one perfect and ideal form--