INTRODUCTORY RETROSPECT 43 at length nothing remains but artfulness and_ verbal jugglery. The consummate elegance of these writings is undoubted but the poet seldom transports. Lifeless des- eriptions, pompous similes, learned digressions—a style which cannot be summed up otherwise than by the term ‘ florid “—these mark the makeshifts by which the lack of genuine poetic emotion is sought to be made up. Pathos or tragedy in the strict and rare sense these poets seldom or never touch: and the way in which they have repainted the ideal heroes of old recall to one’s mind Dryden’s trave- sty of Milton or of Shakespeare. Admitting even the pictorial effect, the musical cadence and the wonderful spell of language which are the chief redeeming features of this poetry, the taste and style are sometimes so vitiated and vulgar that it fully deserves the nemesis of neglect which is gradually falling upon it. The degenerate court-influence went a long way not only in fostering a certain feminine langour and luxuriance of style, but it was also responsible for the taint of indecency which often mars its best passages. This grossness was, no doubt, partly conventional and sprang obviously from the poetic convention established by the later artificial schools of Sanserit Poetry; but, even admitting this, it must be said that attempts to excuse this utter want of decency and of morals have all proved futile, and the least valid of all is that which would shield this poetry under the mantle of the classies. The /utnis take the place of datis of Baisnaba songs; and the course of illicit love or lust, with all its intricacies of courtship, intrigue, and insolence was never suffered to flaunt itself with such shameless impudence. Even Ram-prasid, in spite of his religious songs, could not escape the contagion and the exquisite lyrics of the Kabiwalas were not wholly free from the taint,
