Chapter 8Scene 2

The same. Mahasegn, Ungarica, Gopalaca, Vuthsa. GOPALACA King of Avunthy, see thy will performed. The boy who rivalled thy ripe victor years, I bring a captive to thy house. MAHASEGN Gopalaca, Thou hast done well, thou art indeed my son. Vuthsa, — VUTHSA Hail, monarch of the West. We have met In equal battle; it has pleased me to approach Thy greatness otherwise. MAHASEGN Pleased thee, vain boy! No, but thy fate indignant that thou strov’st Against heaven-chosen fortunes. VUTHSA Think it so. I am here. What is thy will with me or wherefore Hast thou by violence brought me to thy house? MAHASEGN To serve me as earth’s sovereign and thy own Assuming my great yoke as all have done

Act III, Scene 2 From Indus to the South. VUTHSA This is thy error. Thou hast not great Cowsamby’s monarch here, But Vuthsa only, Suthaneka’s son Who sprang from sires divine. MAHASEGN And where then dwells Cowsamby’s youthful majesty, if not In thee its golden vessel? VUTHSA Where my vacant throne In high Cowsamby stands. Thou shouldst know that. There is a kingship which exceeds the king. For Vuthsa unworthy, Vuthsa captive, slain, This is not captive, this cannot be slain. It far transcends our petty human forms, It is a nation’s greatness. This, O King, Was once Parikshith, this Urjoona’s seed, Janam´ejoya, this was Suthaneke, This Vuthsa; and when Vuthsa is no more, This shall live deathless in a hundred kings. MAHASEGN Thou speakest like the unripe boy thou seemst, With thoughts high-winging. Grown minds keep to earth’s More humble sureness and prefer her touches. I am content to have thy gracious body here, This earth of kingship; with things sensible I deal, for they are pertinent to our days, And not with any high and unseen thought. VUTHSA My body? deal with it. It is thy slave

Vasavadutta And captive by thy choice and by my own. What thou canst do with Vuthsa, do, O King; In nothing will I pledge Cowsamby’s majesty, But Vuthsa is a prisoner in thy hands. Him I defend not from thy iron will. MAHASEGN My prisoner, thou shalt not so escape My purpose. VUTHSA I embrace it. If escape Were my desire, I should not now be here. It is not bars and gates can keep me. MAHASEGN But I will give thee other jailors, boy, Surer than my armed sentries, against whom Thou dar’st not lift thy helpless hands. VUTHSA Find such; I am satisfied. MAHASEGN Grow humbler in thy bearing. Be Vuthsa or be great Cowsamby’s king, Know thyself only for a captive and a slave. VUTHSA I accept thy stern rebuke, as I accept Whatever state the wiser gods provide And bend my action to their mood and thought. MAHASEGN Thou knowst the law of the high sacrifice, Where many kings as menials serve the one,

Act III, Scene 2 And this compelled have many proud lords done Whose high beginnings disappear in time. Now I will make my throned triumphant days A high continual solemn sacrifice Of kingship. There shalt thou, great Bharuth’s heir, Dwell in my house a royal servitor, And as most fitting thy yet tender years, My daughter’s serf. She with her handmaidens Shall be thy jailors whose firm gracious cordon Thy strength disarmed stands helpless to transgress. To this Thy pride must, forced, consent. VUTHSA Not only consent, But welcome with a proud aspiring mind Since to be Vasavadutta’s servitor Is honour, happiness and fortune’s grace. My greatness this shall raise, not cast it down, King Mahasegn. MAHASEGN Lead now, Gopalaca, Thy gift, her servant, to thy sister’s feet. He has a music that the gods desire, His brush leaves Nature wondering and his song The luminous choristers of heaven have taught. All this is hers to please her. Boy, thou smilest? VUTHSA What thou hast said, is merely truth. And yet I smiled to see how strong and arrogant minds Think themselves masters of the things they do. Gopalaca goes out with Vuthsa towards Vasavadutta’s apartments. MAHASEGN This is a charming boy, Ungarica,

Vasavadutta Who vaunts and yields! UNGARICA What he has shown thee, King, Thou seest. MAHASEGN Wilt thou lend next this graceful child, Almost a girl in beauty, thoughts profound And practised subtleties? I have done well, Was deeply inspired. He goes out. UNGARICA For him and her thou hast. Our own ends seeking, Heaven’s ends are served.