secret. By a curious regulation, the Jester is always a Bráhman, and
therefore of a caste superior to the king himself; yet his business is
to excite mirth by being ridiculous in person, age, and attire. He is
sometimes represented as grey-haired, hump-backed, lame, and ugly. In
fact, he is a species of buffoon, who is allowed full liberty of
speech, being himself a universal butt. His attempts at wit, which are
rarely very successful, and his allusions to the pleasures of the
table, of which he is a confessed votary, are absurdly contrasted with
the sententious solemnity of the despairing hero, crossed in the
prosecution of his love-suit. His clumsy interference in the intrigues
of his friend only serves to augment his difficulties, and occasions
many an awkward dilemma. On the other hand, the shrewdness of the
heroine's confidantes never seems to fail them under the most trying
circumstances; while their sly jokes and innuendos, their love of fun,
their girlish sympathy with the progress of the love affair, their
warm affection for their friend, heighten the interest of the plot,
and contribute not a little to vary its monotony.

Fortunately, in the '[S']akoontalá' the story is diversified and the
interest well sustained by a chain of stirring incidents. The first
link of the chain, however, does not commence until the Fourth Act,
when the union of the heroine with King Dushyanta, and her acceptance
of the marriage-ring as a token of recognition, are supposed to have
taken place. Then follows the King's departure and temporary desertion
of his bride; the curse pronounced on [S']akoontalá by the choleric Sage;
the monarch's consequent loss of memory; the bride's journey to the
palace of her husband; the mysterious disappearance of the
marriage-token; the public repudiation of [S']akoontalá; her miraculous
assumption to a celestial asylum; the unexpected discovery of the ring
by a poor fisherman; the King's agony on recovering his recollection;