পাতা:মাইকেল মধুসূদন দত্তের জীবন-চরিত - যোগীন্দ্রনাথ বসু.pdf/৬৯৯

পরিশিষ্ট । ty established by the Paikpara Rajas, that used to meet weekly at first, in their Paikpara House, and afterwards in their Belgatchia Garden, and which, in time, led to the establishment of that theatre, it might perhaps be egotistical on my part to give an account of it. But as you have asked me to say something about the circumstances under which it sprang up, and as to the performances in the Belgatchia. Theatre, above all, is to be traced the important fact that Modhu's Muse took the cue of singing in his native tongue, and finally eventuating the introduction of blank verse into our language, it is with great pleasure I respond to your request. It was simply a desire to combine pastime with intellectual recreation, that "Our Own Club' at last expanded itself into, and took the name of, the Belgatchia. Theatre. Diverted into this ch, unnel, it proved an unprecedented success. Nobody foresaw its marvellous effect ; nobody anticipated the permanent mark it was to leave in the annals of our national amusements. The performances at the Belgatcha. Theatre, originally, and at the Pathuriaghatta. Theatre, latterly, have evived our earliest dramas, have given a higher tone and an improved character to our dramatic representations (ja tras ), and have developed a national taste for the histrionic art. It is perhaps scarcely known that the earliest attempt towards the revival of our Hindu Drama was made by the late babu Prosonno Coomar Tagore. The IDrama, Uttara Rama Charita, translated by Dr. Horace Hayman Wilson, from the original Sanskrit of Bhavabhuti, was acticd on the stage set up by the former, under the direction and personal superintendence of the IDoctor. Next during 1853-55, some of the ex-students of the Oriental Seminary formed a l)ramatic Corps under the drilling of Mr. Clinger who belonged to the old Sans-Souci Theatre, and opened a stage, called the "Oliental Theatre," in the premises of the Seminary, where they acted the plays of Othello, Merchant of Vence, &c., &c. These novel amusements, though after the fashion of English amateur theatricals, were not without their effect on the development of the histrionic art among our countrymen. They paved the way for the establishment of a national theatre in our midst. The credit of organizing the first Bengali Theatre belongs to the late Babu Jayaram Bysack of Churruck danga Street, Calcutta, who formed and drilled a Bengali dramatic corps and set up a stage in his house, on which was performed, in March 1857, the sensational Bengali play of Aulira Auda Sarvasva by Pandit Ramnarayana. The success and Popularity that attended this first experiment led the late Babu Gopal Das Sett to form a similar corps and set up a stage in his house in Rutton Sircar's Garden Street, on which the same play was repeated, before an