Page:Letters from India Vol 2.pdf/277

From Wikisource
Jump to navigation Jump to search
This page has been proofread, but needs to be validated.
LETTERS FROM INDIA.
265

not get seats, standing on their benches reading their Shakspeares, and then looking off at the stage, and then applauding on the backs of their books. At least one-third of the audience were natives, who were hardly admitted to the theatre when first we came, and certainly did not understand what they saw. The native generation who have been brought up at the Hindu College are perfectly mad about Shakspeare. What a triumph it is for him, dear creature! Plays that he wrote nearly 300 years ago acted to a race that were hardly known in his time, and who yet see the truth of his writing just as much as the courtiers of Queen Elizabeth did. I mean to mention it to him when I see him.

Saturday, 18th.

The news from Cabul is very unpleasant all this time, and also, what there is, is very uncertain; for the passes are closed, and the reports that make their way through are alarming.

Sunday, 14th.

We had a real good sermon from the Archdeacon this morning; one of those good