The Happy Prince

High above the city,

on a tall column, stood the statue of the Happy Prince.

He was gilded all over with thin leaves of fine gold.

For eyes, he had two bright sapphires,

and a large red ruby glowed on his sword-hilt.

He was very much admired indeed.

One night, there flew over the city a little swallow.

His friends had gone away to Egypt six weeks before...

but he had stayed behind.

Where shall I...?

All the next day, he sat on the Prince's shoulder

and told him storeys of things he had seen in strange lands.

Of the red ibises who stand in long rows on the banks of the Nile...

and catch goldfish in their beaks.

Of the King of the Mountains of the Moon, who is as black as ebony...

and worships a large crystal.

"Swallow, Swallow, little Swallow", said the Happy Prince.

"You tell me of marvellous things.

But more marvellous than this...

is the suffering of men and women.

There is no mystery so great as suffering.

Fly over my city, little Swallow...

and tell me what you see there."

So the Swallow flew over the great city...

and saw the rich making merry in their beautiful houses...

while the white faces of starving children

looked out listlessly at the black streets.

At a table sat a broken man,

a bunch of withered violets by his side.

He was a writer.

But he was too cold to finish his play.

It's a dream.

I rather agree with you.

Absolutely extraordinary!

- It was very good bottle. - Lovely place too!

I tell you what. When we're next in London, will you come to the club? Hmm?

I'd love to! Which one?

- Um... The Carlton. - Oh, marvellous!

- Never seen a man eat 30-- - I...

- What is it, my dear? - I, I think I left my fan.

Is she all right?

Mr Wilde!

Mr Wilde?

- Madam. - Surely you remember me.

It's Mrs Arbuthnot.

I came to all your first nights.

Of course, madam.

One never forgets such a face.

How kind of you to speak to me.

- You are well, I see. - Very well, sir.

- How are you? - Oh...

Lydia! Come here immediately!

I have to go.

You couldn't lend me £5, could you?

Things are a little tight at present. I feel ghastly asking like this but...

- Lydia! - I'm coming!

Mr Wilde, I...

I... just wish--

Never wish, madam. It might come true.

But thank you... for a moment's harmony in a discordant fugue.

Go back to Jeffrey at once.

If you ever speak to my wife again, I'll kill you. Do you hear me?

Five pounds.

See, see, my Christ blood streams

through the firmament.

I'm coming.

Shrouded in the symphony of adjacent copulation.

Ow!

Thanks.

For that.

Sit down.

My dear Boudicca.

Please!

Garçon.

Very well, sir.

And for you, sirs?

Ooh, Maurice.

Maurice! Maurice!

Maurice!

Oscar!

Brother.

Shut up.

The actors...

have given a charming rendering of a delightful play.

Your appreciation is most intelligent.

I congratulate you on the success of your performance.

Which persuades me that you think almost as highly of the play...

as I do myself.

Oscar Wilde.

The crime of which you have been convicted is so bad

that one has to put the sternest restraint

upon oneself from describing the sentiments,

which must rise to the breast of every man of honour.

It is no use to address you.

People who do these things must be dead to all sense of shame.

I shall, under such circumstances,

be expected to pass the severest sentence that the law allows.

The sentence of the court is that you be imprisoned

and kept to hard labour for two years.

Robbie.

My lonely rider of the Apocalypse.

You took me into exile, dear boy.

Where will you take me now?

- I'm not taking you anywhere. - What?

What ship? Ireland, you say?

No ships, Oscar.

I'm here in Paris. I have your allowance.

Oh, good. I have been dinnerless.

I'm in mortal combat with this wallpaper, Robbie.

One of us has to go.

Maurice says you made quite a scene last night.

It's more or less impossible to make good scenes

in such reduced circumstances as mine.

But I believe I did my best.

Last night, I dreamed I was dining with the dead.

You must've been the life and soul of the party, Oscar.

- What is this? - Morphia.

I am much distracted, dear boy.

I've had a very bad time lately. For two days, not a penny in my pocket.

So I had to wander around, filled with wild longings,

trapped in the circle of boulevards.

One of the worst in the Inferno.

Jumping off tables at your age.

What do you think, doctor?

The abscess has suppurated.

If things don't improve, I'm afraid we'll have to operate.

I shall never forget your kindness when I was released from prison.

What high hopes we had that day.

But I was doomed from the start.

Why does one run towards ruin?

Why does it hold such a fascination?

Oscar!

Robbie!

- Oscar. - Robbie!

- How are you? - Where's Reggie?

He's waiting for us at the hotel. He wanted to make sure there were no--

- What? - Difficulties.

- Have you got everything? - No.

I left Oscar Wilde at Newhaven.

And this is the last thing he wrote.

The great letter I told you about.

Make three copies, send one to Bosie Douglas,

one to me and keep the original under lock and key.

- Understood? - Come.

If anyone asks for your papers,

just say they're in your cabin trunk.

What?

Well, well, well.

Sebastian Melmoth.

- Reggie. - What an absolute joy!

- Your first time in Dieppe, Sebastian? - Sorry?

What fun.

Let me introduce you immediately to our good friend, the manager.

Melmoth, meet Monsieur Duroc.

Look after Mr Melmoth, would you? Best room, and all that.

Well, I'll leave you to it. You lunching?

Er, yes, probably.

- My favourite blue. - The case is from Reggie.

And here's £800 we raised while you were in prison.

No!

It'll keep you going until you begin to work again. Uh! I'll look after this.

Reggie!

Oh, darling Oscar.

How do you like your new name?

Almost as much as I loathe the old one.

Ah! Letters.

And look!

No exiled fairy's trousseau is complete

without a signed portrait of the great widow herself.

You must dance naked before it at the Jubilee next month.

- It's from him. - Oscar?

I may as well tell you both now

that I fully intend to effect a reconciliation with my wife.

If she will have me.

And rest assured, I shall never see Lord Alfred Douglas again.

That part of my life is behind me.

No, he was absolutely furious.

- Really? - Come on, Oscar, that's simply not true.

That's the whole point.

From what you say, Oscar, it would seem that Reading Gaol is an enchanted castle.

With the governor as its presiding elf.

Robbie...

- I met Christ in prison. - And what was she in for?

Don't joke, Reggie. In the cell, there is only God and man.

After three days in hell, Jesus rose from the dead...

broke open his tomb,

discarded his cerements and took his place forever in the heart of man.

After 700 days of hard labour, my tomb is opened.

I have tiptoed to the boat train and am born again,

through him, with him and in France.

Very good, Oscar. We'll make a Catholic of you yet.

Only unlike dear Jesus, you have luggage.