[A] [This date is much too early. It has been shown by H. Jacobi from the astrological data contained in the poem that the date of its composition cannot be placed earlier than about the middle of the fourth century A.D.]
[B] Goethe says:
Willst du die Blüthe des frühen, die Früchte des späteren Jahres,
Willst du was reizt and entzückt, willst du was sättigt and nährt,
Willst du den Himmel, die Erde, mit einem Namen begreifen;
Nenn' ich Sakontalá, Dich, und so ist Alles gesagt.
See also Schlegel's Dramatic Literature, Lect. II., and Humboldt's Kosmos, Vol. II. p. 40, and note.
[C] [Ten more cantos, of very inferior merit, have been published since this was written.]
[D] [With a Latin translation.]
PRELIMINARY NOTE.
PRONUNCIATION.
As a general rule, the Sanskrit vowels are to be sounded like those of the Italian alphabet, except the short or unaccented a, which has the sound of that letter in the word America: "pandit," a learned man, being pronounced pundit.