necessarily have passed the middle age and may be taken to snore in her sleep as generally happens with persons of advanced years. Further her old age prevents her from realising and sympathising with MANONMANI'S secret troubles; so immediately after questioning MANONMANI: "ஏதம்மா & c., (III.iii. 1) she falls into a sleep and snores away. Such touches should abound in a dialogue. Compare with this SUNDARA'S observation 'அன்பும் அறமுமே யாக்கையாக்கொண்ட நின்புதல்வி which is general to the verge of vagueness! There are places in many scenes where the dramatis personae could be made to converse in a more concrete and less general key. This will doubtless and considerably to the dramatic value of the play.

Poetry

Viewing, however, the play from a literary stand-point, as a composition in a new field of Tamil poetry, I have not the least doubt of its place and value. Manonmaniyam deserves to take a very high rank amongst the literary productions of the modern age. Both in conception and execution it is classical. The poet displays a thorough command over his instrument, language. His diction is choice and varied and, though it often times falls into the conventional rhyme and alliteration, is easy, natural and pleasing. In spite of exclamatory repetitions and jingles catching our ear sometimes, his powers of creating verbal harmonies are little below the highest. Read the description of MANONMANI'S love-fever from the mouth of the nurse : "அறியேம் யாங்கள் ஐய!..........முனம்போலவே சுரம்." (I.iii. 148-166) Again "கரும்பே! யாங்கள் விரும்புங்கனியே!............... முதற்சுடரே" (I.iv. 141-166). These show the author's consummate skill in wielding to perfection the metre chosen for the play. Turn again to சிவகாமி சரிதம் that 'beautiful cameo of remarkable brilliance' as I have described it elsewhere and you will be surprised to find its metrical melodies are such as your ears will love to linger upon even when your mind had lost the thread of the story. The quatrains are in the highest degree musical and enthralling and flow like running water aslant a gentle incline with a noiseless swiftness of its own, appropriate to the narration of an episodical incident. The language also is attractively simple and direct and is freed from unnecessary ornamentation. "Being unadorned, it is adorned the most." And it is because of this unadorned simplicity, that the verbal harmonies created chime in with our simple thoughts and feelings and produce the greatest effect. In no other poet, except Kamban and Ramalinga Swami, have I come across such perfect mastery of language, as is found in சிவகாமி சரிதம் and such ravishing metrical melodies. Like those great poets, our author too gains in effectiveness by gaining in simplicity, directness and clearness. I cannot yet believe how the author of சிவகாமி சரிதம் could have perpetrated that long-winded, laboured description of நன்செய் நாடு full of pompous