प्रियदर्शिका नाटिका (सम्राट हर्षवर्धन - चतुरङ्क शास्त्रीय नाटिका सान्वय सटीक)

XXIX
garden attached to the Dhârâgṛha and the tank in it, it is clear
that autumn had just set in ; and that can be the autumn of
the next year. The time of action of the second Act
therefore, is some day in A'svina, as is evident also from the
Queen's observing a fast in honour of the great sage Agastya
and her intention to give a Svastivâyana on that occasion
which is done after Bhâdrapada, (see p. 24 and com. thereon,)
and the events mentioned therein take place late in the after-
noon, as it is sunset when the King retires to his palace
after his unexpected meeting with A'raṇyikâ.
Act III—opens with the entrance of Manoramâ, rather
late in the afternoon of the full-moon-day of A'svina. For
in her speech Manoramâ tells us that the remaining portion of
the play composed by Sâmkṛtyâyanî is to be acted before the
Queen on the Kaumudî festival, which falls on the fifteenth
day of A'svina, and that her friend A'raṇyikâ being absent-
minded committed a mistake in her acting on the day.
A'raṇyikâ then enters and appears from her conversation with
her confidante Manoramâ to have been deeply affected with
love for the King and pining for his company day and night.
And from the lips of the Vidûshaka who enters next we learn
that the King also is love-sick, passes his nights sleeplessly
and finds pleasure in nothing but devising means to obtain a
sight of A'raṇyika'. This shows that we must allow a period of
five or six days at least to intervene between the second and
the third Acts to account for the deep impression made on
the minds of the lovers by each other's sight at their first
meeting. When Manoramâ sees Vasantaka and learns from
him how helpless his friend was on account of her friend
A'raṇyikâ, she tells him how their meeting was to be brought
about that very night when the acting was to be performed
before the Queen. Vidûshaka then leaves her, and she starts
to go to the play-house with A'raṇyikâ, and by the time they
enter it, the twilight is already past (अतिक्कान्ता खलु सन्ध्या p. 31 ).
So the action of the third Act begins late in the afternoon of
the day and ends when it is bed time, after the breaking up of
the Mimic play, by the Queen. See p. 44, King's speech.
Act IV. A few days' interval separates the fourth Act from
the third. For in the opening speech of Manoramâ she
complains of the Queen's long continued anger and of the
hardships of confinement to which her friend has been subjected.