Department of
English
Faculty of Arts,
Chulalongkorn University
The
Nightingale and the Rose
(1888)
Oscar Wilde
(October
16, 1854 – November 30, 1900)
"The Nightingale and the Rose"
Notes
This short story was first published
in the collection The Happy Prince and
Other Tales published in 1888 after Wilde's tour of the US and
Canada (1882) and after his marriage to Constance Lloyd (1884), when Wilde
was thirty-four years old, his first son Cyril was three and his second
son Vyvyan was two.
27 holm-oak tree: a large
tree with dense leaves, Quercus ilex
is a member of the oak family
- The
Holm Oak of Ventnor Downs, National Trust
The Holm oak, Quercus ilex, is
one of the few evergreen oak trees in the country but it is not a
British native. It was introduced from the Mediterranean in the 1600s
and brought to Ventnor around 1900 by the Victorians, who returned with
many exotic plants from their travels abroad.
- Quercus ilex, Royal
Horticultural Society
Q. ilex is a large evergreen
tree with black, finely cracked bark, developing a massive, rounded
crown. Glossy dark green, ovate leaves, whitish beneath contrast with
whitish young foliage and yellow catkins
27 Nightingale:
- nightingale,
The Royal Society for the Protection of Birds (with audio and video
clip)
Nightingales are slightly larger than robins, with a robust,
broad-tailed, rather plain brown appearance. They are skulking and
extremely local in their distribution in the UK while in much of
southern Europe, they are common and more easily seen. The famous song
is indeed of high quality, with a fast succession of high, low and rich
notes that few other species can match.
A secretive bird which likes nothing better than hiding in the middle of
an impenetrable bush or thicket.
They arrive in April and sing until late May and early June. They leave
again from July to September. They can be heard singing throughout the
day, as well as at night.
28 His hair is dark as the
hyacinth-blossom: Note that the hair comparison to the hyacinth
flower suggests an allusion to Hyacinthus of Greek mythology, the beautiful
youth loved by Apollo, the god of poetry. Do you think the homosocial
associations here are also intended?
- "Hyacinthus,"
A Dictionary of Greek and Roman
Biography and Mythology, vol. 2, ed. William Smith (London:
Taylor and Walton, 1846) 532.
HYACINTHUS (ϓάκινθος). 1. The youngest son of the Spartan king Amyclas
and Diomede (Apollod. iii. 10. § 3; Paus. iii. 1. § 3, 19. § 4), but
according to others a son of Pierus and Clio, or of Oebalus or Eurotas
(Lucian, Dial. Deor.
14; Hygin. Fab. 271.) He was a
youth of extraordinary beauty, and beloved by Thamyris and Apollo, who
unintentionally killed him during a game of discus. (Apollod. i. 3. §
3.) Some traditions relate that he was beloved also by Boreas or
Zephyrus, who, from jealousy of Apollo, drove the discus of the god
against the head of the youth, and thus killed him. (Lucian, l.
c; Serv. ad
Virg. Eclog. iii. 63;
Philostr. Imag. i.24; Ov. Met. x. 184.) From the blood of
Hyacinthus there sprang the flower of the same name (hyacinth), on the
leaves of which there appeared the exclamation of woe AI, AI, or the
letter ϒ, being the initial of ϓάκινθος.
- Philostratus the Elder, Imagines, trans. Arthur
Fairbanks (London: William Heinemann, 1931)
Read the hyacinth, for there is writing on it which says it sprang from
the earth in honour of a beautiful youth; and it laments him at the
beginning of spring, doubtless because it was born from him when he
died. Let no the meadow delay you with the flower, for it grows here
also, not different from the flower which springs from the earth. The
painting tells us that the hair of the youth is ‘hyacinthine,’ and that
his blood, taking on life in the earth, has given the flower its own
crimson colour. It flows from the head itself where the discus struck
it.
- Ovid, Metamorphosis, book
10, trans. Brookes More (Boston: Cornhill, 1922)
Then, when the youth and Phoebus were well stripped, and gleaming with
rich olive oil, they tried a friendly contest with the discus. First
Phoebus, well-poised, sent it awhirl through air, and cleft the clouds
beyond with its broad weight; from which at length it fell down to the
earth, a certain evidence of strength and skill. Heedless of danger
Taenarides [Hyacinthus] rushed for eager glory of the game, resolved to
get the discus. But it bounded back from off the hard earth, and struck
full against your face, O Hyacinthus! Deadly pale the God's face went—as
pallid as the boy's. With care he lifted the sad huddled form.
The kind god tries to warm you back to life, and next endeavors to
attend your wound, and stay your parting soul with healing herbs. His
skill is no advantage, for the wound is past all art of cure. As if
someone, when in a garden, breaks off violets, poppies, or lilies hung
from golden stems, then drooping they must hang their withered heads,
and gaze down towards the earth beneath them; so, the dying boy's face
droops, and his bent neck, a burden to itself, falls back upon his
shoulder: `You are fallen in your prime defrauded of your youth, O
Oebalides [Hyakinthos]!' Moaned Apollo. `I can see in your sad wound my
own guilt, and you are my cause of grief and self-reproach. My own hand
gave you death unmerited—I only can be charged with your
destruction.—What have I done wrong? Can it be called a fault to play
with you? Should loving you be called a fault? And oh, that I might now
give up my life for you! Or die with you! But since our destinies
prevent us you shall always be with me, and you shall dwell upon my
care-filled lips. The lyre struck by my hand, and my true songs will
always celebrate you. A new flower you shall arise, with markings on
your petals, close imitation of my constant moans: and there shall come
another to be linked with this new flower, a valiant hero shall be known
by the same marks upon its petals.'
And while Phoebus, Apollo, sang these words with his truth-telling lips,
behold the blood of Hyacinthus, which had poured out on the ground
beside him and there stained the grass, was changed from blood; and in
its place a flower, more beautiful than Tyrian dye, sprang up. It almost
seemed a lily, were it not that one was purple and the other white. But
Phoebus was not satisfied with this. For it was he who worked the
miracle of his sad words inscribed on flower leaves. These letters AI,
AI, are inscribed on them. And Sparta certainly is proud to honor
Hyacinthus as her son; and his loved fame endures; and every year they
celebrate his solemn festival.
- Hyakinthos,
Theoi Greek Mythology
30 cynic:
Beauty in America
The next thing particularly
noticeable is that everybody seems in a hurry to catch a train. This is a
state of things which is not favourable to poetry or romance. Had Romeo or
Juliet been in a constant state of anxiety about trains, or had their
minds been agitated by the question of return-tickets, Shakespeare could
not have given us those lovely balcony scenes which are so full of poetry
and pathos.
America is the noisiest country that
ever existed. One is waked up in the morning, not by the singing of the
nightingale, but by the steam whistle. It is surprising that the sound
practical sense of the Americans does not reduce this intolerable noise.
All Art depends upon exquisite and delicate sensibility, and such
continual turmoil must ultimately be destructive of the musical faculty.
There is not so much beauty to be
found in American cities as in Oxford, Cambridge, Salisbury or Winchester,
where are lovely relics of a beautiful age; but still there is a good deal
of beauty to be seen in them now and then, but only where the American has
not attempted to create it. Where the Americans have attempted to produce
beauty they have signally failed. A remarkable characteristic of the
Americans is the manner in which they have applied science to modern life.
—Oscar Wilde, Impressions
of America (1882)
Study Questions
- Consider
the if clauses that set requirements from each character
for the Nightingale. In what ways are the conditions
given by the various characters different or similar?
- The
introductory blurb to Wilde in The Happy Prince and
Other Stories (London: Puffin, 2003)
point out that "Although several of the stories are so
famous that they are thought to be traditional tales,
this is not so: they were all made up by Oscar Wilde for
his sons Vyvyan and Cecil." What characteristics does
"The Nightingale and the Rose" have that make it fairy
tale-like, and what aspects of it are not typical of
traditional fairy tales?
- Trace
descriptions or definitions of love through the story.
What do you notice about its meaning in your
investigation?
- Compare
the imagery associated with the Nightingale's songs with
those that the girl brings up and values more.
- Why
is the book at the end of the story dusty?
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Review Sheet
Characters
Student
– "'She said that she would dance with me if I brought her red
roses,' cried the young Student, 'but in all my garden there is no red
rose'" (27)
Nightingale
– "'Here at last is a true lover,' said the Nightingale" (28)
Oak-tree –"But
the Oak-tree understood, and felt sad, for he was very fond of the little
Nightingale who had built her nest in his branches" (34)
Girl
– "daughter of the Professor" (39); "'the Chamberlain's nephew has
sent me some real jewels, and everybody knows that jewels cost far more
than flowers" (40)
Sample Student
Responses to Oscar Wilde's "The Nightingale and the Rose"
Study Question:
Response 1:
Student Name
2202234
Introduction to the Study of English Literature
Acharn Puckpan
Tipayamontri
June 21, 2010
Reading
Response 1
Title
Text.
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Media
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- Oscar, dir.
Hugh Thomson, Omnibus, BBC (1997)
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- The Life and Loves of Oscar
Wilde, Timewatch (1995)
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- Simply
Wilde, Polygram (1997)
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- Wilde,
dir. Brian Gilbert, perf. Stephen Fry, Jude Law, Vanessa
Redgrave, and Jennifer Ehle (1997 film)
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- "The Nightingale and the Rose," Oscar Wilde's Classic
Children's Tales, narr. Ronnie Drew (2013)
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- The
Nightingale and the Rose, Universidad Rey Juan
Carlos (2013 ballet)
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- The Nightingale and the
Rose, dir. Del Kathryn Barton and Brendan
Fletcher, narr. Mia Wasikowska, Geoffrey Rush, and David
Wenham (2015 animation)
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Reference
Wilde,
Oscar. "The Nightingale and the Rose." The Happy Prince and Other Tales.
Illus. Walter Crane and Jacomb Hood. 1888. Boston: Roberts Brothers,
1894. 25–42. Print.
Further
Reading
Mason,
Stuart. Bibliography of Oscar Wilde.
London: T. Werner Laurie, 1914. Print.
McCormack,
Jerusha. "Telling Tales." The
Cambridge Companion to Oscar Wilde. Ed. Peter Raby. Cambridge:
Cambridge UP, 2004. 102–7. Print.
Wilde,
Oscar. De Profundis and Other
Writings. Middlesex: Penguin, 1979. Print.
Wilde,
Oscar. Essays and Lectures. 3rd
ed. London: Methuen, 1911. Print.
Wilde,
Oscar. Five Plays. New York:
Bantam, 1964. Print.
Wilde,
Oscar. Oscar Wilde. Ed. Isobel
Murray. Oxford: OUP, 1990. Print.
Wilde,
Oscar. Oscar Wilde's Oxford
Notebooks: A Portrait of Mind in the Making. Eds. Philip E.
Smith II and Michael S. Helfand. New York: OUP, 1989. Print.
Wilde,
Oscar. Plays, Prose Writings and
Poems. Introd. Terry Eagleton. London: David Campbell, 1991.
Print. Everyman's Library 42.
Wilde,
Oscar. The Picture of Dorian Gray.
London: Penguin, 1994. Print.
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