Iowa County democrat. [volume] (Mineral Point, Wis.) 1877-1938, 1917-05-24
| Ten Minute Classics
: Famous Tales and Legends Told in Brief Form
The Masterpiece Of Shakespeares Great Indian Predecessor
BY j. M ULLER
Copyright By ]. W. Muller
Rv j. w. w e r

wept and tasted. He commanded that
there should be no spring festival that
year, he intermitted his daily audi
ence, and he could not bring himself to
sit in judgment. He could but wan
der, an unquiet ghost, wasted,
wretched, sunk in hopeless sorrow and
shame.
When he had suffered so for many a
long month, he stood one day on his
cloud balcony which overhung his pal
ace at such a height that even the
royal peacocks dared not fly to it. 1.-THE
royal line that flowed" he complained
aloud, "a river pure and grand, dies
in the childless king like streams in
desert sand!"
A chariot swept from the sky. It
was guided by Natal, the chafioteer of
1ndra, heavens king. "Enterr' said
Matali
The chariot bore Dushyanta to a
into the eastern and western seas,
there dripped gold as from cloud at
sunset. 1t was Golden Peak, the home
of the fairy Centaurs. There dwelled
a man so holy that for years he had
stood, pOstlike and desolate, in an ant
nil that had grown around him, while
vines tough and sere choked him as he
stood sun-Staring with dim eyes that
! knew no rest.
! In this holy sanctuary the king found
two hermit-Women who watched boy
! that played with lion cubs and dragged
them from their mother as if they were
kittens and she q harmless cat. ut
/ makes me thrill to see him." thought
Dushyanta. "Why should my heart go
! out to this child of stranger? All!
! What measureless content must fill the
man who calls this boy his OWn!''
AS the boy struggled with a cub, an
amulet slipped from his wrist. The
king stopped, and the hermit-women
screamed wildly at him not to touch it,
But he had it in his hand. "He has
touched it," they said, and looked at
him in astonishment
"a holy man gave it to the child,''
said they, wondering. at was decreed
! that if anyone touch it, instantly it
would turn into a serpent and sting
him to death. Many times have we
seen this, oh stranger! There be only
three may touch it in safety-the boy,
his mother, Shakuntala or his father.
Dushyanta''
They ran to call Shakuntala. Half
fearing, half-hopeful she advanced,
wearing her hair in one long braid in
token of being forsaken. Her worn
face looked at the kings countenance
that was drawn with long grief.
He fell at her feet and cried: ~4Black
madness flies! The loving star draws
to the moon!'
Natal stopped. "Was not this mat
ter known to Indra?" asked King Dush-
yanta humbEy.
What is hidden from the GodsY"
said Natal, smiling.
So little is known of KaNdasa
that 1t Is not even established
whether he lived IN the Fifth or the
Sirth century of our era But
though the Hindus haze been Curl
0usIy indifferent to such matters as
historical incidents and dates, they
haze dI'oays cared reverently for the
worhs Of their great 1vriters. There
fore, Kalidasa's dramas haze come
down through the ages IN autborito-
the purity, and there is no doubt
rs to their authorship. Of ~1Sha-
huntaza' Goethe said. "Wouzd qou
know IN one word the bloom of the
early gear, the fruit of the late one,
wouId you k'aoao all that tempts and
charms, all that nourishes and salts
fes, [ name <Shakuntaza' and all is
s0id."