From this bee she is rescued by the
king, and is dismayed to find that the sight of the stranger affects her
with an emotion unsuited to the holy grove. She hurries off with her two
companions, but as she goes she declares that a prickly _kusa_-grass has
stung her foot; a _kuruvaka_-bush has caught her garment, and while her
companions disentangle it, she takes a long look at the king, who
confesses that he cannot turn his mind from Sakoontala. This is the
opening episode of their love.
The second act introduces the king's jester, a Brahman on confidential
terms with his master, who, while Dushyanta is thinking of love, is
longing to get back to the city. He is tired of the hot jungle, the
nauseating water of bitter mountain streams, the racket of fowlers at
early dawn, and the eternal galloping, by which his joints are bruised.
The king is equally tired of hunting, and confesses that he cannot bend
his bow against those fawns which dwell near Sakoontala's abode, and
have taught their tender glance to her. He calls back the beaters sent
out to surround the forest, takes off his hunting-suit, and talks to the
jester about the charms of Sakoontala--whom the Creator, he says, has
formed by gathering in his mind all lovely shapes, so as to make a
peerless woman-gem.
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