‘Betrayed By Hope’: A new play visits the life of poet and writer Michael Madhusudan Dutt
An excerpt from the work, by Namita Gokhale and Malashri Lal. A bust of Michael Madhusudan Dutt. | Indrajit Das / CC BY-SA 3.0
MICHAEL MADHUSUDAN DUTT
(Dismisses the Sutradhar with an impatient gesture and addresses the audience)
And so, dear friends, I begin this evening by invoking my beloved poet, the Right Honourable Lord Byron. My hero died young, when he was just thirty-six, from a fever contracted in Missolonghi while he was fighting the Greek War of Independence against the Ottoman Empire. What a life it was, my friends! He loved, from his heart, both men and women, and was as profligate with his expenses as he was with his amour. How shall I greet my hero? With his poetry and the spirit of Parnassus.