man, this isn't right at all. A good man never lets
grief get the upper hand. The mountains are calm even in a tempest.

_King_. My friend, I am quite forlorn. I keep thinking of her pitiful
state when I rejected her. Thus:

When I denied her, then she tried
To join her people. "Stay," one cried,
Her father's representative.
She stopped, she turned, she could but give
A tear-dimmed glance to heartless me--
That arrow burns me poisonously.

_Mishrakeshi_. How his fault distresses him!

_Clown_. Well, I don't doubt it was some heavenly being that carried
her away.

_King_. Who else would dare to touch a faithful wife? Her friends told
me that Menaka was her mother. My heart persuades me that it was
she, or companions of hers, who carried Shakuntala away.

_Mishrakeshi_. His madness was wonderful, not his awakening reason.

_Clown_. But in that case, you ought to take heart. You will meet her
again.

_King_. How so?

_Clown_. Why, a mother or a father cannot long bear to see a daughter
separated from her husband.

_King_. My friend,

And was it phantom, madness, dream,
Or fatal retribution stern?
My hopes fell down a precipice
And never, never will return.

_Clown_. Don't talk that way. Why, the ring shows that incredible
meetings do happen.

_King_ (_looking at the ring_). This ring deserves pity. It has fallen
from a heaven hard to earn.

Your virtue, ring, like mine,
Is proved to be but small;
Her pink-nailed finger sweet
You clasped. How could you fall?

_Mishrakeshi_. If it were worn on any other hand, it would deserve
pity. My dear girl, you are far away. I am the only one to hear these
delightful words.

_Clown_. Tell me how you put the ring on her finger.

_Mishrakeshi_. He speaks as if prompted by my curiosity.

_King_. Listen, my friend. When I left the pious grove for the city,
my darling wept and said: "But how long will you remember us, dear?"

_Clown_. And then you said----

_King_. Then I put this engraved ring on her finger, and said to
her----

_Clown_. Well, what?

_King_.

Count every day one letter of my name;
Before you reach the end, dear,
Will come to lead you to my palace halls
A guide whom I shall send, dear.

Then, through my madness, it fell out cruelly. _Mishrakeshi_. It was
too charming an agreement to be frustrated by fate.

_Clown_. But how did it get into a carp's mouth, as if it had been a
fish-hook?