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into tears of joy for, now appeared before them Sundara and Surupa stripped of their disguise and clad in their usual apparel. Drunk with joy at the sight of their missing son and daughter, they made haste to unite the hands of those who were already united in their hearts; and Surasena, convinced of the cruelty done to Nayavachana, ordered his release and begged his pardon. Then Surasena invited Satguna, Virendra and others to his metropolis and wished that a day should be fixed for the marriage. An astrologer was consulted, and the marriages of Ambujakshi, Suchila's daughter, to Sukumara and Kanakamalai to Nayavachana's son, Chandramukha, were proposed. Thus three marriages had to be celebrated. But three is a number of very bad omen, and so they arranged for the celebration of their marriages on the day,+Friday,+when happily fell the sixtieth-year ceremony of the laureate of the Pandian Court, Vidhya Sagara, the guru of Sundarananda and his associates. Thus was the objection obviated and the occasion made jubilant all round. r
“O world, thy slippery turns;–Fellest foes, Whose passions and whose plots have broke their sleep To take the one the other, by some chance, Some trick not worth on egg, shall grow dear friends And inter join their issues.”
Rupawati, the first fruit of the author, is excellent in its own ww. It contains magnificent speeches which would repay perusal, and the characters in it are almost all poetical or have poetry in them.
Rispawati, the heroine, is the only daughter of Surasena. Endowed by nature with the gifts of body and mind, she falls in love with the only son of Satguna. The parents of the lovers live only for their children, and but for them their life and dominion are trifles “light as air.’ The angelic heroine is a perfect dissembler and is well acquainted with the laws of fashion and etiquette. In Act I, Seene 2, her apparently innocent question will one swoon when he weeps? to continue the narrative, and the skilful-way in which she tries to draw out from her companions an unvarnished tale of her lover's character and digposition, and the sound rebuke administered to Kanakamalai for her interferance while speaking amply testify to the statement. Further, she is a poetic being and often speaks verses; she appreciates music and loves Songs: she exhibits the power of her tongue in the scene in which she brin g8 down Sundarananda to agree to their instant escape: she braves all fatigues and hardships, being supported by the strength of her love; she keeps a steady reserve in the court of Chola to avoid detection. Her part in this drama reminds us of the charming group of Shakespeare's women such as Julia, Viola, Portia, Rosalind, and Imogen who, under force of circumstances, assumed the disguise of male attire. What distinguishes Rupayati most is her learning, intelligence and fidelity in love. x
