Round 20: Tossup 10
Description acceptable. This character proclaims himself “To every sad soul kin / That mourns a kinsman loved and lost” after changing his mind during a conversation with a portress about the inheritance of a childless sailor. In Arthur Ryder’s translation, this character compares love to “daylight shutting night-blooming flowers” when his beloved carves a poem into a waxy leaf. This character’s court poet urges him to ascend in a god’s chariot to battle demons, after which he encounters a boy playing with a lion cub. This character bows before an ascetic to acknowledge the sanctity of Kanva’s hermitage before his Gandharva wedding. After a fisherman brings this man a signet ring, a curse lifts allowing him to remember his forest-reared wife. For 10 points, identify this ruler who forgets and later “recognizes” his secret bride in a play by Kālidāsa. ■END■
ANSWER: Dushyanta [or Dushanta or King Dushyanta; accept on the king or the monarch from The Recognition of Shakuntala; accept the king or monarch from Abhijnanashakuntalam; accept the king or monarch from The Sign of Shakuntala; accept Shakuntala’s husband or spouse; reject “Shakuntala”]
<Editors, World Literature> | U. Finals 1 (Editors 11)
= Average correct buzzpoint
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