38 ,, Sasibhustan Daqgupta Commemoratiott Volume

'
Kiilid6sa, Mdqikka-vdchakar, Harsha-vardhana. Sankardchdrya, Shakespeare in Bengal
Kablr, Chaitanya, Nahak, Tulasi-ddsa, Akbar the Great, DIr6, I

T. W. Clark
,sliikolr; ft66 Mohun Roy, Ramakrishna Paiamahamsa, 'Sw6mi
i
Vivekilnanda, Rabindranath Tagore, Ramaqa Maharshi, and In its issue of the 2nd May, 1964, the Calcutta journal De.f
others. And their greatness has been admitted in India in the I printed a statement which translated reads as follows.
triditionat way, by'conceiving of ' them as manifestations of the I

'The Shakespeare Birthday Jayanti is to take place in

" Divinity,ioltowing the siiirit of the'greatrlines of the Gttd I
Calcutta this week. A festival committee has been appointed,
',' yad.yad. vibh8ti-mat sattyatn t and several different theatrical cornpanies are to perforrn a
Sr-rmad urjitam Eva va : number of his plays. The newspapers too are not lagging behind
tat tad eudva$accha tvam I
in paying their homage to the great poet. It is reported in one
mama tCjo' r.h6a-sambhavam' (X, 41.) of the papers that an official of the British Information Service
(WJratever in this world is powerful, beautiful or gforious, that
I
has stated that probably nowhere outside England is
Shakespeare's birthday being celtbrated with greater enthusiasm
I

yoir.*uy know to have come forth from a fraction of my power

an& glory.;
,I and brilliance than it is in Calcutta. We Bengalis and residents
of C'.rlcutta are naturally pleased that this is so. What historians
I w-ill say about it I do not know, but I myself am convinced that
:T" t^i .CLk{<K the two things which unite England and Calcutta are the Bible

tN Brxen/
I

nud Shakespeare's works ... Shakespeare completely captivated

'S rlft KE.s(;fi.flL I the hearts of our forefathers. From VidydsEgar and Madhustdan
do-wn to Tagore v?riters have sung his praise.'
5 Dft|6U ?TA l
" Details o[ various programmes are set out in other parts of
the same journal : these jottings illustrate.
1 'The Shakespearean Drama Festival arra4ged by the
''
aj', R'o<, DnsGuPrfi, S/s ie KU{Y16' l Viivarupd Naiya Unnayan Parikalpand Pari;ad opened in the
ViSvarupd Theatre on the 26th April with the performance of a
!.
Dn5 i
Sanskrit version of A Merchant of Venice, The translator was
l

<OLKATft: lvr eN fr68 ) A,d, Dr. Y. B. Choudhuri. It is intended to produce one piay of
Shakespeare's every Saturday, holidays excepted, at 2. 30 p.m.
t
/'lyeh^;<P-n 116+ \ 'I The attractive progtartlrne will consist of Julius Caesar, on the
9th May, Hantlet, on the l6th, The Tempest, on the 30th, a
,.rtrl

.Tn
l Bengali version of The Taming of the Shrew, on the 6th June,
I
and As You l-ike.Ir, on the l3th.
N
On the 26th April also, at the Muktdgan Theatre, there was
of excerpts from Othello. The production was
1
a performance
1 by K;gqa Kuodu, who wrote the Bengali translation and acted
1 in the title role. This excellent performance, which was greatly
l enjoyed by the audience, was particularly notWorthy for the
I

I
$
ft
 40 Sasibhusan Dqsgupta Conrmemoratfon Volurne
Shakespeare in Bengal
41
high standard of its productioq. ,Govinda Ganguli was out- helping one another ?... Here,
I say, is an English King, whom
standing in his rendering of lago. The stage performance was no time or chance, parliament or'"oJirutiJ,
preceded by a lecture on Shakespeare can dethrone. !This of pa-rii";;,,
by S. Maitra and
- a- ,n"\:rp.ur", d;;;; il';ffi"j;
recitation of extracrs froil
the poet,s works ty K. Mukh.ti;. crowned sovereignty, 1-il,
over us all, as the noblest,
on the 23rd April, under the joint arispices of the shakes- strongesr of ralrving-signs...
? ,;;r*r:;;;
, peare Society of Bengal and the Rabindra Bhdrati,
a successful aloft over all the Nations
we can fancy rria-;.,ijiri
performance of A Merchqnt of Venice was presented.
of Englishmen, a thousand yiirs
hence. From Paramatta, from r
Tire N"ri.V"rf., wheresoever,,under
Shakespeare euatercentenary Festival Committee
amanged a four-day festival in the MahAjati IIall. It ;:i:H:;';i,-il;"f ":::'l:::;J:',-'J-{i'I,:i1F'*ffi
cornmenced on the 25th April, and was devoted mainly ours'. .What
to noble words ! yet how iu,
perfornrairces of Shakespeare's plays., this grand vision falls ! The
,fror,
"f
,h" il;;;;
Uounarof*iaxondom are now too
seen in the ccntext of this enthusiastic and obviousry sincere narrow for so great a
tribute to the
greatness of Shakespeare, Thomas Carlvle,s we have a Bengali writing
In this y.r,
\ing.: .Generatiom ;i;il;;;;;;ffi;;
prophetic vision of trndia and shakespeare is n:ovingly relevant. ug" Shakespeare,s soul
was sow'r as a seed amongst us,
here in Belgal
. 'call it worship, call it wrrat you wiil, is it not a right grorious ;
t.";;;;;;;
poetry, our drama and all_our Iiterary
thing that Shakespeare has brought us ? ... May we not call
-
as a king. ln very trurh he is
creations ,tir., ]olil
,",,u
ours. (tini dmader-i1-.,'-""-"
-it
(hinr) the... melodious priest of a rrue Catholicisrn, the Shakespeare first spoke to Englishm.,
univer- fro_ a ,tug.. So
sal Ch*rcir of the Future and of all times ?... Consider now, ir was to be in Bengal.__Calcutta\
nrst piaytrour.
*"r- ir,r, ll
if they asked us, Will you give-up your Indian Ernpire, or your Lal Bajar as earty as I756. lt was
followea i"--n'ii"
Shekespeare, you English; rlever have had any lndian Empire, by two others, the Calcutta Theatre,
or uever have had any Shlkespeare ? Really it were a grave
*t i.t, op.n"d ^;;',;r;;
direction of a Mr. Massing (?) who ";;;r^;;
naa Ueen ,;r; ;;;;";;
question. official persons would answer doubtless in official Garrick for that purpose ; unO th"
Cfrr*rirrfrre Theatre, which
language ; but we, for our part too, should not we be forced to gave its name to a well-known
Calcutta ,,i".r, firui."
*;.
answer : Indian Einpire or no Indiau Empire; we cannot do The Calcutta Theatre was built and
without Shakespeare.' Indian Ernpire will go, at any rate, some raised privaiely frorn the Byitish
maintain-J'O;;;d;;
resiaenis of ,O; ;;;;;"d;;
day; but this Shakespeare does not go, he lasts forever tvith us; intelded for their entertainment.
we cannot give-up our Shakespeare'. The first part of Carlyle,s
It presented English plays
only, including in its early repertoire'two
prophecy was fulfilled in 1947. The Indian Empire has gone; but Hamlet and Richard III. More theatres
by dJ;p;,";
came later.,Some of
that other empire, Shakespeare's, is far rnore wide-flung than them lasted only a short time;
but on;, il;;;ff ,r,
even Carlyle imegined. He saw Shakespeare as a king ruling private subscription, had a longer
life. fhe private **rrr"i
over and uniting nations of Englishrnen only. ,England, before Theatre, as it was called, was iounded
long,' he wrote, 'this Island of ours, wilt hol{ but a small
i" lgf :,'";ilr;;;;;#;;
and lasted until
1839, when it was destroyed by
fire. Its
fraction of the English : i* America, in New Holland, east and featured Henry tV (pt. ?) in 1814, Richard
west to the very Antipodes, there will be a Saxondom covering
ru i" igiS,;;;;;;
Me,rry Wives of ll'indsor in lglg. This
great spaces of the Globe. And now, what is it that can
theatre ;;il; ;;
' all tl-rese together into virtually one Nation, so that they keep
patronage of two Governors General,
Lord Moyru, 1*l; ;;;
do not - oresent on the opening night, and
Lord Bentin;.' ;;;; ;;
fall-out and fight, but live at peaqe, in brotherlike intercourse, destruction of the private Subscription
3A
Theatre, an;;;, ;;
 42 Sastibhusmt Ddsgupta Commewrorattioru Vo[ume
Sanq Souci, was brrilt in Calcutta in the subscription IisE
l8'4l",,
being headed by the Gove.nor General, Lord Auckland" The
rnanageureni and producers received help and advice from two
prominent citizens, H- H. Wilson, later the first Boden Professor
of Sanskrit at Oxford, and D- L- Richardson, a popular and
"'Britiih
lLs'the early playhouses were run solely as an amenity for the
iesidents, it is not surprising that they made little or no"
unpdct on the Bengali population, though after the. turn of the
cenLury thg names of a few wealthy Bengalis, notably the Tago-
res,'tiegan to appear in the audience lists. There was no tsengali
thdatie until 1832, apart from the short-lived venture of the
Russian g.ntiepreneur, Lebedoff, who floated a theatrical com-
pani in 1795 : He produced two plays, rboth of thern Bengali
translations of English works, and they seem to have. been well
.For
recbived" some Deason, whic'h is not recorded, he did not
continue. His decision not to do so may ,have been influenced
by the absence of suitable plays in the Bengali language. In
l&32, Prasanna Kumar Tagore opened the Hindu Theatre in
Caloitta. ' Its first performrnce consisted of a Bengali version
,of the Sanskrit drama (Jttarardmacaritam, followed by the flfth
act of lulius Caesar. H. H. Wilson played an important part in
the succ-gss of this initial venture. It was he who prepared
the Bengali text of Bhavabhuti's play. He also produced the
excerpt from lulius Caesar and coached the actors. Tagore?s
enterprise proved a precedent for others- Wealthy Bengalis
: begdn to 'vie with one another in producing elaborated
thEattisal shows'in their own grounds, These were notable
.rather for the lavishness of the costumes and scenic'effects
than'for the quality of the stagc production; but they were
too bostly to be qepeated often, and in any case they
werb Seer by o'ut a t*itt proportiqn of the population. The
vogue did not last long.
Among the generality of Bengalis active interest in the thea-
tre was'slow io manifest itself. One of the reasofls for this was
tAeii'lgnorance of English. At the beginning of the nineteenttr
century few had more than a smattering of English, and of those
Shakespeare in Bengal 43
still iewer could have known the language rvell etrough to lollow
-in 'it-
s.tage dialogue After the establishment of the Hindu
College in 1816 however, a change in thls regard wes soon
evident. The college, which was a private venture jointly sponso-
red by certain British and Bengali residents ol Calcutta" under-
took to provide young men with an English curriculum ol
studies taught the medium of English. By a fortu'nate coincidence''
two early recruits to the staff were Richardson, who has already
been mentioned, and his brilliant colleague, DeRozio. Both were
stimulating teachers, and they contributed largely to the arvaken-
ing in their students of a keen and abiding interest in the English
langua$e and its literature- Knowledge of spoken and written
English deepened rapidly. Within a few years Bengelis began to
speak English in preferance to their own tongue. and at least-one
admitted in an essay which was later publishecl that he knew
English better than Bengali, and preferred 'to write in it ; aud
there is no reason to suppose that he was exaggerating. There
was of course a utilitarian motive as well. because it was difficult
l
to obtain employment in the mercantile houses in Calcutta with-
out c reflsonable competence in English. It is not suryrising
therefore that ambitious young men, lvho had receivecl a western
education and obtained lucrative'employrnent as a result, should
begin to seek their entertainment in the now fashionable British
theatres. It was an era of culturai change, and the genesis and
f,ostering of it owed much to the precept and example of
Richardson and PeRozio
DeRozio taught at the Hindu College for little more than ten
years. He bscame involved in a religious controversy and :was
compelled to resign ; but Richardson remained to inspire many
generations of students. He was an eloquent taiker and his
recitations frorn English authors made a profound impressiorr
on his audiences. Even Macaulay was moved to say to him, 'I
can forget everything of India, but not your reading of Shakes-
peare'.: The Hindu College first gave Bengai an educated
rJriddle-class, and Richardgon played alarge part in instilling in
that rniddle-class a love of English literature in general and of
Shakespeare in particular. He encouraged his impressionable
 44 Sasibhusan Dasgputa Commemoration
Volume
young men to attend the
Shakespeare in Bengal M
theatre, and, we are totrd,
gave them tickets. A occasionally
contemp";";;;.rat noted the change. colleges from the lnt:rmediate classes
up, has played .a major
'It affords us pleasure to observe role in his absorption into Bengali 'culture.
a-numbe. of respectable ffre^
among the audience every natives those same text books which wJre "ofleg;s;;
play night. It indicates growing
a ,iriiua Uy ruo..riu!;;i}
taste for the English Arama
*ru"fi-i, an auspicious sign of tionof studenrs in England ; and there U" i"* .a';;;i*
"* ,"iV"rfrr. "
progress of Engrish riterature the Bengalis today who are not familiar
among ou. outiv" friends., with the
' That was the first phase but
; passive enjoyment came to Bengal in the ""_"
.;*,il i;d;ro
of spectator was so in the rore rus I*r"t_L"kespeare
orvn hrst, and later that of charles and Mary
rT:::*:,,. "," Lamu tool r-he -
18 3 7, st ud en,, ., j!{:li; lT"J'".,i# i::ff . *
Shakespeare as part of their annual
and in the same
immense; and it continued to gro*
i, ;;;;d .r"r'.rl',#",
year they enacted the whole "lr.*orr,
of ,S Aerciant of Veniceat
wrote Rabindrandth Tagore, .Shakespeare-U..u_"
. ff,_r*i
gal Lodge in the presence Vicere- god"' The mediation of a foreign
of Lord ar"tf"rO.
'"i"r*side
In the early. l g40s tongue hrd ;; ;;J;;;,
Bengalis began to apP_eal an irnpediment to appreciation]at
on the rr"g.
British actors an'y ,ate in literate circles
and one of them, Baisnab for middle of the century *uoy Brngrli, .;il;
mention for his performance in
Caran aafrr"., ;;;;.il,; if the
spoke English with fl-uency, u""o.u"y
;";;;;i
the title ,of" of Othelto. profes_ and undJrstunOing. .:e
sional producers, Mr. Ciinger number of them read little else,
of tn" iu* Souci and Mr. parker except for newspaper-, una
of tle clwrlnghee Theatre, magazines. The prestige of Bengali
u, u iit"rury ;;;G;;;
were emtrrloyed as .directors
and
Cn"u"or. Ii", ";;";
coaches. In 1g52, ,h.^r_"- a very low ebb. Even Bankimcandra
y:, a private' perfbrmance of Julius 'important artificer
Caesor in the house of Nabin CanAra garu
; and in 1g53, the in Bengali prose and the flrst ,r.ua ,;u;ft
students of rhe David in the language, wrote his earliest works
fare fSdemy produc I Urrrirri,"f in ergfirfi;]inffi;:
-Vetnice under the dir1t1o1
of Mr. ifirie"r. In "a Dutt, when challenged, justiflqd his
reading
under the direction ol their principal,
the same year,
than Bengali with the remark that -*r,
"i;-"rrfrii-r;;;;;
Jafflroy, the Metropolitan Acaderny
a i.ench barrister named
readingin Bengali. Tagore, in his
there *inf"* ;;rri
acted Julius Caesar; while autobiography, ,onnin, ,trui
the Oriental Seminary a stage rvas at he found little to read in his own
built b h.;;;;";L;*"#
"n" ;;;
and.renderinsswere'given'rio,ii,i,')';;ri:;:r:;\::;::t:"1 done much to prevent a cuftural
,u"u.,ir. il;;:;;;
I{enrr, fV @t.21. world of new stories and new paopfa,
urd it must have been
with relief that the educated ..ud.. turned
Meanwhile Shakespearean lore lvas
entering Bengal by ano- poetry of his own no longer satisfying
; iir"-f;;;
ther channel, Lamb,s Tales. Copies were tradition in til;;;
which
in circulatio, U.f-. if*
half-century, and they were first transiated characters always did and said the same
into Bengali in things.
dearth of native inspiration and of opportu"nity
Ir;;;;;#;;
1853. There is no documentary evidence
that I have been able f";;ll;;;
to find to show which of the two versons western; but soon the tide began to turn, at first slowly bit
w
read; but we do know ,,rui,r,"
rated in the curricula of schools, where
ir*ffi;;1#t;"H':#ff:1 presently in a flood. Within thirty years
covered his pride in his mother tongue;
the Bengali f,aO re-
it has remained upto the and Bengali
present. Many Bengalis today was born anew. yet though there ivas, with the literature
whose education has not *irun".J change, the
beyond the Middle School level and beginning of a distaste for some of the things
who have .never read or they h"J-;;.;;;
t"": Shakespeare play are nevertheless familiar from the west. the Bengalis kept Shakesp"u-..,
1
and characters. The teaching of
with his stories
Shakespeare in schools and
him as a citizen of their own Iand. "ia ,r,r."ffr"O
In the 1850s Bengali versions of the play began
to appear.
 46 Sasibhusqn Dasgupta Commemoration Volume
Shakespeare in Bengal 47
The very flrst attempt to g.ive the Bard a Bengali garb had been
Otbello, Romeo and Juliet (twice), Macbeth (twice) and,
made in 1806, the play .chosen being The Tempesl,. but the Hqmlet.
The cymbeline translation was made by Satyendianath
vnture was premature and there was. no repetition of it for Tagore,
an elder br-other of Rabindran5th who was then
ngarly'fifty years. It is generally assumed that Haraoandra six years .,
could it be that the poet, whose ties with his brother were "*..
Ghog's translation of A Merchant of Venice was made in 1g.52. very
close, met shakespeare here for the first time ?
It.was given a Bengali name, Bhdn:umati Cittabilds, as were the trn addition to
thb works mentioned I6varcandra Vidy5sigar, perhaps
draqratis personae; but the act and scene divisions of the original the most
noted scholar and writer of thii period, lent the prestige
were retained. The same structural feature is present in an of his
considerable reputation to Shakespearean translation
original Bengali play, Bhadydrjun, which was written about the by publi-
shing Bhrantibilas, a prose rendering of
saine time, if not a little. earlier. This important innovation I Comedy ol eorli
Tne year 1858 is marked by a new enterprise
whiih both writers share indicates that a beginning had been in the theatrical
world. Two Bengalis built a permanent theatre
made to study the form of the Shakespearean drama, as well.,as house at
Belgachia in Calcutta. l-litherto Bengali promotions
its characterisation and p1ots. A note left by TdrI CAd Sikdar, fruO U.*
restricted to one-night productions. This
th3 author of Bhadrdrjua, makes this a+sumption explicit. ,I have u,as ,nr;r;;;;
. to provide lacilities for regular performances.
, followed a new plan in the composition of my play. The events The experiment
was a success, and other wealthy citizens rvere
of the play and the places of oecurrence of the story have been moved to undcr_
take similar enterprises. Wjthin the next few years
denoted in the manner of the European drama. I have nor theatres equipped for regular performance
twelve
accepted the general dramatic technique which is approwd by the
were opened in
Caldutta and the.towns adjacenr to it. The climax
Sanskrit dramatists'. (my italics) One critic who finds the play of tlis phase
oltheatrical history carne in lgTl with tt," .rtrUtirt_,rn;;;;
ag a play 'extremely uninteresting and dull' nevertheless confirms GiriScandra Ghoq of.The National Theatre.
The Bengali theatre
that 'it is the earliest known attempt to escape from the traditi- now began to dispense with private patronage,
onal methods of the Sanskrit playwrights and to experiment, unJ .u_" ;,
time to rely for its support on box_offic. ,...ip,r.
however imperfectly, with the Europ6an form which afterwards t, *u, ,oi
";;
long either belore acrors, both male and flemale,
became aciepted by Bengali dramatists'. Haracanclra Ghog has b";;, ;;
paid salaries on a fully professional basis.
a srcond play to his credit, Carumukh Cittahdra, modelled on lt was an exciting time. The new playhouse provided the
Romeo and Juliet. There is yet another play of this period-the opportunity, and there were writers of ability to take advantage
aUthor's name has not been traced-wh_ich draws upon Hamlet; of it. outstanding arnong them were Michaer Madhusudan
particularly in the characterisation of the hero, This period was DatL
and Dinabandhu Mitra, both ex_students of the Hindu
one of experimentation, and though the works just referred to College.
The flrst play produced at Belgachia Theatre was a eeng-ah
may have tittle instrinsic merit, they are important in the history version of the Sanskrit play Ratndvali. The first p.rfor*ulnce
of Bengali dranla; and, meritoiious or not, they succeeded in were attended by Bengalis only, but when an English translation
creating 4 vouge of Shakespearean, translation, adaptation rand of the script was made by Madhusudan there was, we
imitation. They mark also the beginning of the study of ,Shakes. are told,
a ldistinguished Eurotriean audience'. Ttrris transration *r.
peare's dramatic att, a study which later playwrights were to Madhus[dan's introduction to dramatical work. It was
carry much further. By 1878 nine other translations or adapta- highly
praised by the Calcutta Dress, but Madhusfrdan himself"was
tions had appeared, the originals on which they were based being dissatisfied with it. He fert that as a play Rqtndvari was unsuita-
Cymbeline, The Tempest (twice), A Comedy qf Errors (twice), ble for the rnodern stage, and c,ommenced forthwith to prove
 48 Sasfbltusan Dasgupta Commemorstion Volume
e[peare in Bengal 49
Iris point ry cornposing an original wark, Sarnisyha.
,t' grounds fbr his condemnatio n af RsffidvalI were iirat it The, ff;u1;_,jir.,-l.I_fluy,
r1!mayon,- was ro- conrain ra major
was lnnpyarlon, the emplqyment for the,flrst time jn
written in conformity with the rules Iaid
d.ovm i,n* trre sanskrit turg:'gfrr+.Fr'ir{led verse, .oq the
Bpngali,liti-
dramatic canolI, and, he worte Smmisfua moder of' Erylish, blank,verse-. r{e
n be an exernptrer of app;qqqphQd the inno,v-atio-n with
what he considered modern stage conditions cautipn *O *i",i.ll
requir.a. -fflu
*
doing so provoked a debate on the principles
of dramatic art,
of.rhe di.fficutties involved. He explained
tqrY'M'Tag,re. 'I
htrJ;tili#tffi;;
";rriUBn
f'or as soon as sarmistrkd was conrpl.fed shourd like very much to seerBlankrverse,
it was subrni*ed-to g.radxallv iutrodrlced in our dramatic
Premcdd Tarkabagif, a }earned classical
scholar riterature. i;;;;,t"*; e

at the Sanskrit Coll.eSe, for an opinion. His""d ";;;i;r;.
judgrnent was
unfayourable. .This_is not drarna ut ull,, he
worte, :;;*"
to Sarskrit model- I sannot correctit without
rpoiting t;;;;
that I do not want to do. I believe it
comes from the pen of
some English-educated young man of
modern ideas., Mrdh;_
s[dan's riposte came in a ]etter to a friend. ,I
arn aware that
there will, iu all likelihood, be something
of a foreign ui, uUoui
my Dran-la;but if the ,anguage be *ot
,ng.r*nr"",i*I, ;;;;
thoughts be just and glowi'g, the plot interesting,
the characters
well rnaintained, what care I if there be
a foreiln air about the
thing ? Do you dislike-Moore,s poetry
lisnr ? Byron's poerry for its Asiatic iir,
because it,is fulr orienta_
Carlyr;;;;;;;;;';;;
Gernranism ? Besides, rernember thaf
I am writing for that
portion ol nry who think as I think, *n;r"^,rrrlri,
have been more or "ounrrymen
less imbued with Western
of thinking ; and that it is my intention
ideas ;;;;
i, !h** off"rd the fetters
forged for us by a servile admirationrof
everything Sanskrit.,
The play was enthusiastically received
,"d M;;;;;;;;_
delighted' The shakespearean form of
drama had been accepted
by the Calcutta theatre_going public, if
not by the pandits.
Viewed in the perspective of history
Sarmiptttdis not a radi_
cal departure frorn what Haracandra
Ghos had written a few
years earlier. Its division into
five acts, with trvo or three
scenes in each, was not an innovation
; neither can it be conside_
red a great play. Nevertheless it was popular,
as Gh"g;-;;;
had ,ot baen, and for that reason if
oft"ered a stronger;;r;;;;
to the traditional dramatic norms and
as such was condemned
by the pandits. Madhusldan however
was not repentaht. He
had got, as he put it, .the taste of blood,
and rvas soon ,at it
believe that ar first itshould be done *itf, gr"; c;;ri#;
judgment. Where the sentiment
is elevated or,ideqiS,so:tieal
there only should short and smooth "ir**i'_#
flowing p*r"g",
veRe be artempted, so that the audienc"
_uy b. l.gri"d;;;;
the bilief that rhey, are hearing the
self-same prose.to ,ini"t tn.y
are: acoustomed" (Sar.mis_1ha was in prose) _
only ,*r.;;;;,,iii .
cerfain.inherent music pleasing andnagteeable
to the eal. , nrt
ca.e rnust bctaken that they may, ir1 the
first ir.tuo"u,:, i. ,rJi,,
scared away by the rugged grandeur of
this form of u.rrin*tio"
nor disgusted by the rounded periods, replete
*ith ;;;;;:
which are jargon to the untutor"d
*;;t f;;;;';;;
make the thing at once unpopular and "i the ,.uu*. forrn*]
"ur, injure
y..u_r*j: folloWed his own precept in.writing poaii-
":.e,'He
vati. Unrimed verse occurs only five times in the pl-a51
;i;;
times in soliloquy, once in ttre epilogue, and
only once in a
dialogue. So unrimed verce, amitrdk;or as Maithusudu"
it; entered Bengal, and bgcame aceptbd ih tro&ra li;;;;"n*1ii
one of its major poetic forms. Later dramatists,
GiriScandra Ghog, Rabindran5th Tagore and D.
,";i;
L. Ra;
followed Madhusrldan,s lead. 1'
Meah*hile th.e debate on,drailraticcomposition oontinued.
Madhus[dan made his position quite clear. .If I should
[*;
writ other drarnas, you may .rest assure{ I shail :rot :allow
mysolf to be bound dowri'by the dicta of Mr. viswanath
of the
Sahitya-Darpan. I sha, look to the great Dramatists
E;r";;
for models.' Much however as he adrnired his European "f mode'ts,
he was an original thinker and writer, not a
mere imitator.
His tetters writteh during *he compOsitiorr'of iil;;;;^;;;
Kys4a-kumdri reveal the care with which t e- stuAi.J
hi, ;;;:
aird the* disb.rimirratioh which taught frim tfrri ind;;;;;
4
 5a Sasibhusan Dasgupta .Commemoration Vo{um:e
cotdd not:be in all respec.ts'the',same: as European. 'The position
of Eufopean females, bothdramatically as well as socially, is very
different. It would shock the audience if I were to introduce a
female (a virtuous one) discoursing with a man, unless that man
be her husband, brother or father; This describes a circle around
mb,beyond the boundary line of which I- cannot step;'The
cdosequence is, I am obliged to have a larger number of females
to give my plot an air of fulness, and I must here tell you, my
dear: G.,'what, I dare say, you will allow to some extent, viz.,
that we Asiatics are of a more romantic turn of mind than our
European neighbours. Look at the splendid Shakespearean
Drama. If you Ieave out the Midsummer Night's Dream, Romeo
afid,'Jutiet and perhaps ofle.or two more, what play would
desreive the name of Romantic ? Rromantic in the sense in which
i
L
Saeboiitala is Romantic ? In the great European Drama you
) have the stern realities of life, lofty passion, and heroism o[
sentiment. With us it is all softnesS, all romance. We lorget the
I
i
l
woila of reality and droem of Fairylands. The genius of the
Drama has not yet received even a moderate degree ol deveiop-
rnent in this: country. b.,rs are dramatics poem ; and even
Vfilson, the great admirer of our ancient literature, has been
o+mpelled to admit this, In the Sarmista I often stepped out of
the path of the Dramatist, for that of the mere poet. t often
forgot the real in seafch of the poetical. In the present play I
mean to establish a vigilant guard over myself. I shall not look
*,risway or that way for poetry ; if I find her befor6 me I shall
nofdriveheraway;and I fancy, I rnay safely reckon upon
comi*g-'across hel, n.oqp and then. I shall endeavour to
eharacters whc speak as nature suggests and nof mouth"rinr" mere
poetry :.. As for the lbriguage The Drama is to be written in, I,
shall' follow IX'. Johrrson's advice :- &trf lihere be,'t says he,
"what I'believe there is,'in every. nation a style wtricn'never
becomes obsolete, a certain mode of phraseology so consonant
an&.congeniatto the anaYogty; and principles of its respective
languags, as to remain settled and unaltered, thi, style is to be
probahty sOught in the cOrrin{on intercourse,of life, among those
who Speak only to be undlrstoo'd, without the ambition o6etega-
rt
ii
4
Shakespeare in Bengal 51
uce." And he comuends Shakespeare foi having adopted this
language ; and this advice I rnean to adopt except 'lvhere thE
thoughts rise high of their own accord and clothe themselves
withloftier diction, and that willbe in the Tragic parts o[ the
play ....F. S. Blank verse only in soliloquies ? What say 'y.ou ?
As this play will be f'ull of acting and dialogue, there won't be
many openings for Eiank verse ; but a little of it ,won't hurt .
anybody, I think-'
Here Madhus[dan makes mention of another irrportant
innovation, Tragedy. 'One of the charactcristic {eatures of the
Indian drama which strikes the western student is the entire
absence of tragedy.' I quote Macdonnell. 'The Sanskrit drama
is a mixed composition, in ,which joy is mingled rvith sorrow, ia
which the jester usually plays a prominant part, while the hero
and heroine are often in-the depths of despair. But it never has
a sad ending.' Madhustdan accepted tragedy as an ar:t folm
and wrote it without any concession by way of justification to
tlrc pandits rvho held by the Sdhitya-Darpan. His heroine,
Klqpakuman, stabs herself in the last act of the play wtrrich
bears het narne" t{e did however give thouglrt to the nature of
tragedyl and in particular to Shakespearean tragedy, with its
dombination of tragecly and comedy,'As the play (Krsnakumari)
''tr.have
is a tragedy,' he wrote, not thought it proper to begin
atiy scene with the dotermination of bEing comic ; in my humble
cipinion such a thing would no't be in keepiug with the nature of
'But
the Play' \l,heirever in thr course of the dialogue a pleasant
remark has suggeSteditselfi 'I have not neglected it... This J
believe to be Shakespeare's plan. Perhaps, you will not flnd
many scenes in his higher tragedies in which he is studiously
dornic.' In another part of the same letter he aclds this inter,esting
note: 'I wish Bullender to be seyious and light. like the
i'Bastard'; in King John.'
The analy'sis of the d.ifferance between Shakespearean 'and
Sanskrit'cirama was rnade the subject of an essay by Bankim-
candfa Chatter;i. trn it he leaves no doubt of the measure .of his
admiration lor Shakespeare. 'shakespeare is to be found in
every ,rlouse, and all of us can read him.' The greater parl of
 Sqsiblrusan Dasguptq Commemorqtion Volume
Shakesp'eare in Bengal 53
the essay is devotqd tq a com,parispn betwqqp. Sakunmla
yo4ng 4ge, and that veqy roughly. This is hsw .he "descr.i$es,it
and Miranda and Dgq{er.nona. The comparisen
betwepn himself. 'Gyan Babu was nowl our ltulor at-home ... {:&"*ead
SakuntalE. atd Desdeqqna he finds diffiqulr. in+ fre
attemfts Macbeth to me, first explaining the te;(t in Bengal!*ndtrhen
to resolve the difficulty by examining t_hp meaning urA
confining me to the school-room till I had .rendered $he &vk
applicationoflthe word t1d[ak'(drama). 'what we
cailL uatak reading into Bengali verse. In this rray he ,gt me to *t+Gte
in Irrdia is not quite the same as what they
. call nalak in tho whole ptray. i.was fortunate enougrrlto lose this .tranf,ffbn ,
Europe.- L:. 6oth regions ndlak is a p.oern which
is acted If was not 16st however before it had _been shovm*ao:soin,
(dyiya'kavydl, but in Europe they mean a little
more by_the leading scholars of the day, including Vidydsagar. O;; .f-dr*,
word ndlak than that. They say that there
are many po.*, who heard the boy read his effort admonished hirn .to be careful
which are preseqted as dy$yo.kavya,. but which
,stric y sp"aking to keep the language and metre of the Witche*s, .part=d.ifferent
arenoLni:dlak. By this it is not implied that all
the kivliwltich frorir that of the human characters'. Apparently he iliil, fur_a
are not nd[ak are i4ferior. Thgre 4re many excel
lent kdvya _of few lines of one of.the witches' scens have sgrvived, ad th+-y
this type, such a$ eoethe,s Faust and
Byron, s Manfred. But afe in rime, whereas the rest, according to -Kxipdd, #as
. whether they are good or bad they are ali kdvya
not ndfok. ir; probably in blank verse, the technique of wh-ich he may hare
this sense Shakespe4re,s TeTnpest and Kalidasrs
SakwntatA.arc aequired from reading Madhustdm. Surprisingly elou$ "a1re
kdvya. They are excellent updkhydn-kdvya (story-.p";;;t
form of nalak, but they are noi nd.!{tk, bppapse
;;" glrim manner of !.abindrandth's introdustion to Shakespearc4id
sueh up.dkltyAn not seerr to have left any distaste for the English p*tt rAi,
kdvya are very rare indeed ; orre rpight say thy ur" L*o*pu_
rable. trn India we should call both of thgm niind. On {he contragy he speaks.of hfrnin vely warm ,texus. {n
na{ak;,il;;" his Reminiscences, which cover his childhood and adolereenee,
Indian rhetoricians find in both of them all in"
triir-i i;;;; he writes, 'One literary gods then were Shakespeare,_Miltoa ad .
guishing,characteristics) of a ndtrak; but these ,
lak;ap are prese)rt Byron ; and the quality in the work which stimed -us m6t was
to a higher degree in the napk Otttello. Othello is'a
n:alitc, ait strengthof passion ... UncontrcIled excitemeH-was what we
on this analysis Sakunmla is an upakhyan_kdvya.,
Littfe'pulpoSi learnt to Iook on as the quintessence of English litexaqrre. In
would be served by analysing this analysis, or by
inqri.iog the impetuous declamation of Englis:h poetry by Atshayhow-
whether premc[d TarkabdgiS the Sandkrit scholar
Whd co;dbrn: dhury, our initiator into English literature, there was the {vitit,
ned Madhus0dan,s Sarmi;1ha on the grbunds that
it was not a ness of intoxication. The frenzy of Romeo's and Juliet,s:love,
nalak, would have accepted Baflkim's terminorogical i

distinctions, I
the fury of King Lear's impotent lamentatiun, the all-consuming
or whether he would have agreed ,that Othe,o iA,s
a na1ak. Ct; i

fire of Othello's jealousy, these wele the things that roused lrs
impo$ant point, tle one whieh is immediately
relevant to .uf 'to enthusiastic admiration.' At the.age of sixtetnT.a.bindran6th
present subject, is.that Bz{nkim who was a confirrhed
ua*i.ri ii visited England for the hrst time and -wosked for-a.shart period
lndia's ancient culture should have set Shakespea:e
with Kdlidas, and made comparison between them as ",i
; 1.";i-' under Henry Morley. 'I read Coriolanus with him and greatly
.quotr.- enjoyed it. His reading was very 'beautiful, Atid .there was
Earlier in this essay it urEis tentativeiy suggested thai
Rabin- Anthony and Cleopatra whi0h I liked very much.,
dranith Tagore may first have learned of Shutespe"..
,frr"rri Shakespearean influence is clear in RabindranEth's early
the translation his brother Satyendranath
made of C,r^t"i,nr;; plays. this'was not abcidehtal as he himself explains in the
1867. lVhether ttriere is any truth in this conjecture
o, ,ot, it i, inito[uttiOn to'bne of them, Mdlini. ,One day I heard Trevelyan
certain that the poet was confronted with
Shakespeare at a gxpfegs an bpinibh about it (Malini1. He is a poet andra scholar
 ii rtlrlitiiillll

&q Sasibhusan Dasgupta io**r*orotion Volume

Shakespeare in Bengal 55
of 6reek triterature. IIe told me that he saw certain resemblances
to Gfeek a,rj in. my play. I was not altogether sure what he ttel/ are composed provides a contrast to the verse speeches
by thqt, because, though I have read a few translations, which constitute the greater part of the play. fn.
t"rlrt ,r*rr"r."
Greek tragedy is an unknown field to me. My example in thernselves bring the outside world into
the palace and temple,
,drama has always been Shakespearean drama.' convenii,onal because, as in htlius Caesar where the
citizens have a similar
borrowings, as Thompson calls them, are fairly numerom role, it is a public disaster which threar"r,
und o, well as a private
o rlot difrcult to discern ; but Rabindrandth went deeper than tragedy" Their vuigarjokes, petty. self-concern
and superstition,
He grasped and made his.own much ofwhat Bradly calls and theif eagerness for ,bread and circuses,
lhes9. whenever they can
the osubstance' of tragddy. This is especiaily true in the be obtained, stand as a foil to the dignity and deep passions
case of
Visarjan, which Thompson rightly regards as the greatest of the main characters ; while at the same tirne they
of his show the
early plays. It is unfortunate howeve, that Thoirpron actioii in a wider context as it presses on inexorably
,""*, tragic conclusion.
to its
to have based most of his criticism on the English versisn.of
the
play, which is a totaily inadequate representation Yet it is in the hrndling of the conflict, in whjch
of the original, t
Bradley
To with, tha translation, abbrev,iated paraphrase would sees an essential constituent of tragedy,
.beein thatRabindranAth,s
be the more satisfactory term, is in prose, ,h"r"u. the greater debt to Shakespeare,s .example is- greatest.
+ The conflict in
pard of the original is in excellent unrimed verse. Visarjan has two strands, which are so vitally
This dJprives integrated that
the translation of most of its music and much of its fine rhetoric. one would lose lile without the other. OnL stran-d,
easier to
Furthetmore there are many and substantial omissions, which follow and less emotionally complex, is the
struggle b.t*.r;
in my view detract seriously from the building up of the strong the King, who prohibits animal sacrifices in the
temple,
atd moving climax. There is much more both of shakespeare and the priest F.aghupati, who in consequence
denounces
add df the full power of Rabindran6th in flre Berrgafi vtuatJan the King as a heretic and proclaims that
K6li can be appeased
th,id iii,its eniasculateci Edgtish rencieriflg, only by the shedding of his blood. One by one
the tclng l,
deserted by all the members of his court,
. ffre piay hes Cive acts, with two cir three scenes in each. including the q.re-en,
his brother and his army chiefs, though they
tt is writien.iri amilrdksar, except for a fdw lyrics_ and tlie refuse *rrnrr"ria,
townsrden;s dcenes; which ziib inlooiloquial pror., extrTortation to regicide ; and in the
ffri^Uf*f end he has to nee, us a
verse in many ways resembles that oF Shakespeare.s foreign army, strengthened, by the desertions
later which have
period, fr.uri-ori lines are frdquent, arid caedu*a ,ra *tr"r. weakened hirn, stands poised to take
over the kirg;o;, ;
are varied and free. sentences end lirhere the poet wrlrs situation similar to that' at the end of Hamret.
wittrout The conflict
fegard to posit(on in the line ; and where a speecii ettds irt leaches its point of no compromise at
the end of Act III, as it
jiid-line, the dext speeih picks up the rine fr.om that poirrt. does in Shakespeare,s plays, with the arrest of Raghupati and
fh" *e of lyrics was well k'lown in Bengali.dr..^, O;.;;;i;;;; the King's brother on a charge of the attempted
murder of the
King's foster son. Jn Act IV the two of them
i" at " indigdnoriS type known a, ,;6rOu where thy werd banished in a scene which in manner and
ore tried aJ
i1trgd,19d with profusion and sdnietimes at great r"iigih-oi substance has
niusicai iritdrludes, irt ttisafon lyrics lirb few anti sr.,oii, uni rbsemblances to the banishment of Bolingbroke
and ifA"*Ur"V
3erv6e at iii Str*tesp6are; to h"ightm the irt Rirhatd II ; but itr a moment of Weakrress,
fioierdn;;";;i;; the King a[o;
$iidatibili tO wtrich they are always relevant.' ffr" a"*rr-.r], Raghupati a shbrt period of grace: That was
, tr"giJ ..-i
scenes ars,rcrasonabty effective, and the coaise prose in which such as the lapse of judgment which brought disaster to Brutus
and his cause.
 56 Saiiibhusan Dasgupto Commemorat{on Volume
Shakesppare in Bengol 57
T,he other strand of the conflict is reqolved in Act V when of the differences between Shakespeare and *re later
.Iaysir.nlra,-foster son of Raghupati, stabs himself _,many
to death in the Rabifldpnath, there yet remains an underlying kinship
between
- femple before the image of the goddess. Closely associited the. ways they regarded and presented the- problem
with -Iaysirpha throughout is the girl Apar4d, whose pet goat of gooO
and evil.
had been stolen frorn irer to be slaughtered in the temple. She
is essentially Rabindra,ith's creation. I feel shakespeare had l. L. Raf,
mention,
a younger cqntemp;ray. of Taggreh, requires
if only briefly. He is best known for the' Uirr.rL"i
- noe part. in her"
A girl to begin with, she is, as the play plays he_ wrote at the beginning of this century. Itris subjects
advances, transrnuted into a voice, a disembodied spirit, -
he fgund in Indian history and he imbues them
who with ,n*"riiog
talks of love and voices the poet's own protest against cruerty of the patriotic sentiment which was stirring h b"r*"r-;;;
and blobd lust. Jaysirpha,s heart is pulled apart b; two forces, time ; but his dramatic inspiration was from
Shakespeare.
his growing.conviction on the one hand that Aparpi speaks W[gn in London he attended the Shakespeare theatres ,"gu1ur[,
the real voice of the goddess, lrd on the other his rove for, a4d.'. statqd in his autobiography that h" .first
started writing
a'nd ingrained obedie,ce. to , his'gt*u R aghupati. b|?p!, velse 04 tle model gf ,strakespearer. Like Madhusudai
She urges him ,

toflsfffronr-the evil precinctsof the temple ; he urges hi,r to be and Rabindranath. before him he was a self-avowed.
of
student
true-to hls guru and-appease the offended goddess by kiliing the tlE great Englishman, whgm Bengalis had now ,taken to
heretirkiug. The struggle ebbs and flows in Jaysimha.s soul, th,gppelves as a poet .and a dr4matist, as an exemplar
and a
until=in'-despair he, promises that the goddess shall have royal teacher.
blood;andkeeps hi_s promise with theshedding of his own, 19|6, Rabindrandttr su,mmgd up what Bengal thought of
forhetoo wasa Ksatriya. t{ere is the essence of tragedy, _,. .In
Slpkespeare in one of his Batdka poems. tn lt tne po"t
as shakespeare also conceived' it to be : not the triumph
of
of auil Strptford is not merely the king of Saxondom, as
Carlyle saw
but. the waste,of good. him, but viivq-kqvi, rhe pcet of the whole world.
Irr-his later-writings, Rabindran6th's genius went its own way. O poet of the world, when first you saw the light of day
It becomes di'tficult,a,d-in some of them almost iinpossible, to Beyond the distant seas,
detect any outward marks of Slukespeareen influence. The England clasped you to her breast,
sonventional features, such as the five-act structure iand Her son, she thought, and hers alone.
blank
verse, hrve disappeared. His characters too and trre situJon. She kissed your shining brow
i. which they are praced suggest ritrle simirarity of Shakespeare,s And held you close in her forest's arms.
characters and plots. yet though his material is his For a space she hid you beneath her cloak of mist
own,and
hs-handles,.it in his own way, Rabindranath never ceased
to be
aw-are of, and to depict, types of conflict in wrrich Where the grass was deep and wet with dewy flowersl
the human
wilit iscaught up in an agonising crash of external everrts from For as yet the island's leafy glades had not awaked
which it cannot escape. The interplay of forces both To the sun-poet's incantation.
human +
and, social, especia[y in his so-cailed symbolic plays; Then at a slow and silent signal
is at times
lifted-,out of-the world of ordinary people and the characters From a world that grows not old,
are
presented as poetic voices rather than as flesh-and-blood You rose from the arms of your island nurse,,
men
and women, but the dranratic denouement is tragic; ,nO tt" And, charioted like the sun,
tragedy, as in Shakespeare, lies in the .waste Of gooJ,.
In spite Rode dorvn the centuries through the noonday sky.
4A
58 Sasibhusart Dasgupta Commentoration Vo[urne

In many homes in many lands you alighted and spread.

your mat,
And the heart of all our world grew warrn.
Till now, behold, in time's own fulness,
. Your triumphal sorrg rings forth
On India's shores,
And the branching forest quivers and the palm trees sway.
: Then finally, in our own generation, the cinema came to
Bengal; and I think it fair to say that all the important screen
productions of shakespeare have been shown in Calcutta, where
the moving picture hasrfrom the time of its first introduction
been extraordinarily popular. The present writer has on numer-
ous occasions seen Shakespeare played on the screen to crowded
hbuses, and has heard the babble of ,enthusiastic comment as the
stream of people made its way to the street outside. This was
indeed Shakespeare with a universal appeal, the true viiva'kavi,
transcending all barriers of race and class, 'the melodious Friest
ofl a true Catholicism" During the 1939'45 war. when many
people in Calcutta had little liking for things British, they
nevertheless flocked to the cinema in crowds to see that most
English of all the plays, Henry V ; as if to say : This Shakes-
peare is no alien hete ; tini dmdder'i (he is ours).