love stood out in all the contrast of its
new tenderness and delicacy. The situation is indeed a very simple one,
and not peculiar to the Middle Ages. Any idealization of sexual love, in a
society where marriage is purely utilitarian, must begin by being an
idealization of adultery.' (C.S. Lewis, _The Allegory of Love_ (London,
1936), 13.)

Note 18, p. 77.

Much of the _Gita Govinda's_ power arises from the endowment of Nature
with romantic ardour, the forest itself being presented as a highly
sensitive and symbolic setting for the behaviour of lovers. The following
passage from _Tess of the D'Urbervilles_ is perhaps the nearest approach
in English to this kind of treatment.

'Amid the oozing fatness and warm ferments of the Var Vale, at a season
when the rush of juices could almost be heard below the hiss of
fertilization, it was impossible that the most fanciful love should not
grow passionate. The ready bosoms existing there were impregnated by their
surroundings. July passed over their heads and the weather which came in
its wake seemed an effort on the part of Nature to match the state of
hearts at Talbothays Dairy. The air of the place, so fresh in the spring
and early summer, was stagnant and enervating now. Its heavy scents
weighed upon them, and at mid-day the landscape seemed lying in a swoon.
Ethiopic scorchings browned the upper slopes of the pastures, but there
was still bright herbage here where the water courses purled. And as Clare
was oppressed by the outward heats, so was he burdened inwardly by waxing
fervour of passion for the soft and silent Tess.'

Note 19, p. 77.

The _Gita Govinda_ was one of the first Sanskrit poems to be rendered into
English--Sir William Jones publishing a mellifluous version in _Asiatick
Researches_ in 1792. Later in the nineteenth century it was translated
into Victorian verse by Sir Edwin Arnold. The present translation from
which all the extracts are taken is by George Keyt, the foremost modern
artist of Ceylon. It is greatly to be hoped that the entire translation,
hitherto available only in an Indian edition, will one day be published in
England.

Note 20, p. 86.

Poems 1 and 2 are based on versions by O.C. Gangoly (_Masterpieces of
Rajput Painting_, 29, 58); poems 3-11 are from new translations by Deben
Bhattacharya.

Note 21, p. 91.

For the originals of certain poems in the _Rasika Priya_ and their literal
translation, see Coomaraswamy, 'The