ACT V SHAKUNTALA'S REJECTION
(Enter a chamberlain.)
Chamberlain (sighing). Alas! To what a state am I reduced!
I once assumed the staff of reed
For custom's sake alone,
As officer to guard at need
The ladies round the throne.
But years have passed away and made
It serve, my tottering steps to aid.
(Enter the chaplain and the chamberlain, conducting the two pupils of KANVA, With GAUTAMI and SHAKUNTALA.)
Chamberlain. Follow me, if you please.
Sharngarava. Friend Sharadvata,
The king is noble and to virtue true;
None dwelling here commit the deed of shame;
Yet we ascetics view the worldly crew
As in a house all lapped about with flame.
Sharadvata. Sharngarava, your emotion on entering the city is quite just. As for me,
Free from the world and all its ways,
I see them spending worldly days
As clean men view men smeared with oil,
As pure men, those whom passions soil,
As waking men view men asleep,
As free men, those in bondage deep.
You are the best of worthy men, they say;
And she, I know, Good Works personified;
The Creator wrought for ever and a day,
In wedding such a virtuous groom and bride.
Gautami. Bless you, sir. I should like to say that no one invites me to speak.
King. Speak, mother.
Gautami.
Did she with father speak or mother?
Did you engage her friends in speech?
Your faith was plighted each to other;
Let each be faithful now to each.
Shakuntala. What will my husband say?
King (listening with anxious suspicion). What is this insinuation?
Shakuntala (to herself). Oh, oh! So haughty and so slanderous!
Sharngarava. "What is this insinuation?" What is your question? Surely you know the world's ways well enough.
Because the world suspects a wife
Who does not share her husband's lot,
Her kinsmen wish her to abide
With him, although he love her not.
King. You cannot mean that this young woman is my wife.
Shakuntala (sadly to herself). Oh, my heart, you feared it, and now it has come.
King. It is just such women, selfish, sweet, false, that entice fools.
(All betray astonishment.)
King. My teacher, we have already settled the matter. Why speculate in vain? Let us seek repose.
(Exeunt omnes.)