same rich poetic diction, and the same musical variously modulated versification.
The Brajangana is a short and fragmentary poem in rhyme. It sings the woes of Radha during the days of her bereavement—a subject so often treated before, that novelty might seem to be impossible. Mr. Datta, however, has contrived to say much that is both new and beautiful, and he is just as successful in rhyme as in blank verse. In fact, his rhyme is the best in the language. Of his sonnets we are no great admirers, though they might serve to win a name for a less distinguished author. They were composed in Europe. One of them is dated from Versailles, and others are addressed to Dante, Professor Goldstücker, Tennyson, Victor Hugo and Italy,—a sufficiently miscellaneous list of subjects, it must be confessed.
As a dramatist, Mr. Datta is not generally successful. Among his plays are Sarmmisthá, Padmávati, and Krishna Kumari; and the first mentioned in particular is very generally admired. In our judgment none of them are of much value. No Bengali writer has yet shown any real dramatic power. Even Babu Dinabandhu Mitra, the best writer in this line, entirely fails when he attempts to portray any of the higher emotions, and as for Mr. Datta, his undoubted poetic genius seems entirely to desert him as soon as he sets about writing a play. His farces, however, are good. One of them, entitled Is this Civilization? is the best in the language. This little work deserves notice independently of its own really great merit.
The Bengali press at the present day is very prolific, but by far the largest part of the books published are mere servile imitations of some successful author. There are imitators of Vidyasagar, imitators of Tekchánd Thakur, of Hutam, of Babu Dinabandhu Mitra and of the author of Durgesnandini; but perhaps, no work has formed the model for so many imitators as Is this Civilization? It is a farce with a purpose, being intended chiefly to ridicule and so expose the vice of drunkenness and the other evils by which it is generally attended. The Burtolla Presses and shops actually overflow with little books, containing a dozen or twenty pages each, and selling for an anna or two, all directed against the vice of drunkenness. There are farces, too, of larger bulk, one of which, called Bujhile-ki-nâ, or Do you understand? is very popular, and often produced at private theatricals; and these, too, like the others, are mere copies of Is this Civilization? This little work, therefore, independently of its being in itself one of the two best farces in the language, gains additional importance from the large number of other books written after its model.
To give any adequate idea of this clever little work by translated extracts would be entirely impossible, because half the fun
