med.

ACT V.--It now appears that Queen Dharini has relented and is willing
to unite Malavika with the king; for she invites him to meet her under
the ashoka-tree, and includes Malavika among her attendants. Word is
brought that the army despatched against the king of Vidarbha has been
completely successful, and that in the spoil are included two maids
with remarkable powers of song. These maids are brought before the
company gathered at the tree, where they surprise every one by falling
on their faces before Malavika with the exclamation, "Our princess!"
Here the Buddhist nun takes up the tale. She tells how her brother,
the counsellor of the captive prince, had rescued her and Malavika
from the king of Vidarbha, and had started for Agnimitra's court.

On the way they had been overpowered by robbers, her brother killed,
and she herself separated from Malavika. She had thereupon become a
nun and made her way to Agnimitra's court, and had there found
Malavika, who had been taken from the robbers by Agnimitra's general
and sent as a present to Queen Dharini. She had not divulged the
matter sooner, because of a prophecy that Malavika should be a servant
for just one year before becoming a king's bride. This recital removes
any possible objection to a union of Malavika and Agnimitra. To
complete the king's happiness, there comes a letter announcing that
his son by Dharini has won a victory over a force of Greek cavalry,
and inviting the court to be present at the sacrifice which was to
follow the victory. Thus every one is made happy except the jealous
young Queen Iravati, now to be supplanted by Malavika; yet even she
consents, though somewhat ungraciously, to the arrangements made.

Criticism of the large outlines of this plot would be quite unjust,
for it is completely conventional. In dozens of plays we have the same
story: the king who falls in love with a maid-servant, the jealousy of
his harem, the eventual discovery that the maid is of royal birth, and
the addition of another wife to a number already sufficiently large.
In writing a play of this kind, the poet frankly accepts the
conventions; his ingenuity is shown in the minor incidents, in stanzas
of poetical description, and in giving abundant opportunity for
graceful music and dancing. When the play is approached in this way,
it is easy to see the _griffe du lion_ in this, the earliest work of
the greatest poet who ever sang repeatedly of love between man an