afer the manner of temporary erections of the
kind in most other places—at a country-house
in England, for example. In front are a
sufficient number of seats for the more devoted
adherents of the drama, who take their places
at the beginning of the evening, and keep them
until the end, whenever that may be. The latter
period is a little doubtful, for nobody is in a
hurry, and the construction of the drama appears
to be such that it may end whenever the
performers or the audience please, and may be
carried on as long as either can keep awake. We
doubt whether any of the European guests ever
saw one out, especially if they have been paying
much attention to the supper up-stairs. But we
believe the performance generally lasts all night,
"and when they ring the morning bell the
battle scarce is done." The host and any
members of the family who please may go to
bed occasionally—the beds are great Paris or
London machines, placed in the public rooms,
and open to the observation of the company all
the evening—getting up again if it so suits
them, and looking in once more at the theatre;
for "going to bed" is not such a grave matter
in the East as in the West, and among the
natives, at any rate, involves very little change
of costume. The majority of the confirmed
playgoers, however, seem to sit up all night, which
they can do the more easily as they have probably
slept half the day; and they sit listening to the
eloquence of the author and the elocution of the
actors, in a greater state of rapture than, in the
case of a set of fat gentlemen in a perpetual
state of perspiration, would be associated with
Western ideas of comfort. The character of the
performance, as we have already remarked, is
decidedly dreary. The girls are personated
by boys, and the men by blackguards; and we
will back an Eastern blackguard against his
brother in the West, for a combination of almost
every quality that can make the exhibition of
human character unpleasant.

Everybody concerned in the exhibition
appears to labour under the impression that Art
is short, and Life is long, and that "take your
time, Miss Lucy," is a moral and a model maxim.
Action takes its chance, and dialogue has
everything its own way. A disgusting-looking rascal
on the stage, understood to be a king, has been
holding forth for half an hour to a feminine-
looking disreputability crouching at his feet.
The fellow talks so fast, and in a manner so
different from that in which you are accustomed to
hear the language spoken in private life, that
you don't understand what is going on. You
ask a native gentleman in the intervals of the
puffing with which he tries to dismiss his
perspiration, what the deuce it means? He
answers in general terms that the king is supposed
to be angry. Another of the characters, with
a most hang-dog appearance, has the conversation
all to himself for a mortal half-hour, droning
and whining to a distressing extent. You ask
a placid and pân-consuming native what this
personage is about, and you are informed in
reply that he is jealous. It takes a long time
to develop the passions—on the stage at least
—in the East, and playgoers should have the
patience of Job.

We mention these particulars in order to give
the reader some idea of the dramatic treatment
which the Nil Darpan would receive in its native
land, and of the singularly cheerless character of
the production which has made so much noise,
not only in that land, but in our own. What it
is "all about" we will now proceed to detail:
first, however, as in duty bound, giving a list
of the

PERSONS OF THE DRAMA,
who are:

MEN.
Goluk Chunder Basu.
Nobin Madhab,
                         } sons of Goluk Chunder.
Bindu Mahab,
Sadhu Churn, a neighbouring ryot.
Ray Churn, Sadhu's brother.
Gopi Churn Das, the dewan.
J. J. Rose,
                        } indigo-planters.
P. P. Wood,
The Amin, or land-measurer.
Akhalasi, a tent-pitcher.
Taidgir, native superintendent of indigo cultivation.
Magistrate, Amla, Attorney, Deputy-inspector,
       Pundit, Keeper of the Jail, Doctor, a Cow-
       keeper, a Native Doctor, Four Boys, a Lattial,
       or Clubman, a Herdsman.

WOMEN.
Sabitri, wife of Goluk Chunder.
Soirindri, wife of Nobin.
Saralota, wife of Bindu Madhab.
Reboti, wife of Sadhu Churn.
Khetromani, daughter of Sadhu.
Aduri, maid-servant in Goluk Chunder's house.
Podi Moyrani, a sweetmeat-maker.

The first scene of the first act is laid at the
gola, or storehouse, of Goluk Chunder Basu, a
head ryot, or cultivator. He and a friend,
Sadhu Churn, a neighbouring ryot, are
discovered sitting. They have a mutual grievance,
which both are discussing. They cannot live,
they say, in Svarapur (the name of the district),
where they used to be prosperous upon general
crops, but which the European landholder has
now reduced to a state of poverty (for everybody
but himself) through insisting upon the
plantation of indigo. He has even occupied,
for the purpose, the ground about the tank,
from which the women will henceforth be
excluded, and he has threatened that Nobin
Madhab, a son of Goluk Chunder Basu, shall
drink the water of seven factories—that is, be
confined therein—unless due submission be made;
nay, that the houses of the family shall be
thrown into the river, and that the family shall eat
their rice in the factory godown (cellar), unless
they consent to the Sahib's wishes. To them
enters Nobin, whom the father asks how he
has prospered in his interview with the planter.
"Sir," says Nobin," does the cobra shrink from
biting the little child on the lap of its mother, on
account of the sorrow of the mother? I
flattered him much, but he understood nothing by
that. He kept to his word, and said, 'Give
us sixty bigahs of land, secured by written
documents, and take fifty rupees, then we shall