Oscar Wilde

The Happy Prince, and Other Tales Oscar Wilde

The Star-Child One evening, two Woodcutters find a Star-Child draped in a golden cloak in the wintry woods. One takes it home to raise him. The Star-Child grows handsomer every day and develops a keen sense of pride, cruelty, and scorn for weakness. His heart is hard and one day when he sees an ugly beggar-woman, he throws stones at her. Even after it is revealed that she is his long-lost mother, he still hates her for her ugliness. However, after he orders her away, he realizes he is now ugly, and he vows to find his mother and beg her forgiveness. He wanders for three years looking for her, suffering all the time. He arrives at a city gate and is not allowed in. An evil magician sees him and buys him as a slave. The Magician tells the boy he must go into the wood and find a piece of white gold, yellow gold, and red gold, or the Magician will beat him. The boy ventures into the woods the next day, unsure of what to do. When he rescues a Hare trapped in the woods, though, the Hare takes him to the piece of gold he needs. On the way back into the city, a leper at the gates asks for money. The Star-Child knows he will be beaten if he does not bring the gold, but sees the leper's need as greater than his own. This pattern is repeated for the other pieces of gold. Finally, as the Star-Child enters the gate empty-handed again, the soldiers bow before him and high officials and priests rush to him and announce he is the ruler who was prophesied. The Star-Child is shocked but says he must find his mother and is not worthy of ruling the kingdom. He espies the beggar-woman sitting next to the leper and rushes to her, apologizing for his terrible behavior. The beggar-woman and leper reveal themselves as the King and Queen, and embrace their son. The Star-Child is crowned and rules for three years until he dies. Following that untimely death, an evil ruler takes over.
The Young King. Once, a young Princess secretly marries a man beneath her station and bears a child, and the child is taken away to be raised by goatherds. The Princess dies and the child grows up unaware of his true identity. However, the old King feels remorse and decides to welcome the young man back and anoint him the successor to the throne. The young King is entranced by all things beautiful, and cannot stop thinking about his coronation robe, his crown, and his scepter. However, the night before the coronation he has a series of three dreams. In the first, he sees weavers toiling in squalid conditions and learns they are making his robe. In the second, he sees a ship full of slaves, and one slave, who later dies, being dropped in and out of the ocean to dive for pearls for the scepter. In the third dream, he sees hundreds of men digging in a dried-up riverbed. Death asks Avarice for a third of the men and she refuses, so he sends Ague and Plague. All the men die, and the young King learns that they were looking for gems for his crown. After the young King wakes from these dreams, he clads himself in simple raiment and a crown of wild briar. The high officials and priests are distressed by his appearance but he bids them no mind. He goes to the chapel and kneels before the likeness of God. The nobles burst in to seize him, convinced he is destroying the prestige of the crown, but when he turns and stands before them he is cloaked in dazzling holy light. All fall to their knees before him, and see that he is crowned by God.