t--a curious picture of manners in which the speaker
describes the different persons he meets at a spring festival in the
streets of Kolahalapur.[3] The satire of the farcical _prahasanas_ is
usually directed against the hypocrisy of ascetics and Brahmans, and the
sensuality of the wealthy and powerful. These trifles represent the
lower extreme of the dramatic scale, to which, of course, the principles
that follow only partially apply.

The "unities."

Unity of action is strictly enjoined by Hindu theory, though not
invariably observed in practice. Episodical or prolix interruptions are
forbidden; but, in order to facilitate the connexion, the story of the
play is sometimes carried on by narratives spoken by actors or
"interpreters," something after the fashion of the Chorus in _Henry V._,
or of Gower in _Pericles_. "Unity of time" is liberally, if rather
arbitrarily, understood by the later critical authorities as limiting
the duration of the action to a single year; but even this is exceeded
in more than one classical play.[4] The single acts are to confine the
events occurring in them to "one course of the sun," and usually do so.
"Unity of place" is unknown to the Hindu drama, by reason of the absence
of scenery; for the plays were performed in the open courts of palaces,
perhaps at times in large halls set apart for public entertainments, or
in the open air. Hence change of scene is usually indicated in the
texts; and we find[5] the characters making long journeys on the stage,
under the eyes of spectators not trained to demand "real" mileage.

Proprieties.

With the solemn character of the higher kind of dramatic performances
accord the rules and prohibitions defining what may be called the
_proprieties_ of the Indian drama. It has been already seen that all
plays must have a happy ending. Furthermore, not only should death never
be inflicted _coram populo_, but the various operations of biting,
scratching, kissing, eating, sleeping, the bath, and the marriage
ceremony should never take place on the stage. Yet such rules are made
to be occasionally broken. It is true that the mild humour of the
_vid[=u]shaka_ is restricted to his "gesticulating eating" instead of
perpetrating the obnoxious act.[6] The charming love-scene in the
_S[=a]kuntal[=a]_ (at least in the earlier recension of the play) breaks
off just as the hero is about to act the part of the bee to the honey of
the heroine's lips.[7] But late