THE YOUNG KING

There was once an old King. He had no son to be King when he died. His people
were very worried.

"Who will be the next King?" they asked. But before the King died he revealed a
secret: his only daughter, the Princess, had a child. In secret, she married an ordinary
man and they had a son. Some people said her husband was an artist and some people
said he was a musician. But his identity was a mystery and nobody knew about their
secret son.

When the baby was a week old some men took him while his mother was sleeping.
The Princess died immediately. Some people said for sadness. Other people said
someone gave her poison in a cup of wine. The men left the baby with a very poor
family. This poor family lived in the forest and the boy became a shepherd. He looked
after goats all day.

The old King made an important decision: "The boy must be the new King when I
die," he said. He sent his servants into the forest. "Find the boy and bring him here."

The servants found the boy and brought him to the palace.

When the boy arrived he was very happy. He immediately fell in love with all the
beautiful things around him. He took off his old leather tunic and put on his fine new
clothes. Then he began to explore the castle. He ran from room to room admiring all
the beautiful statues, paintings and jewels in the palace. The people of the city talked
about him: "The young King spends all his time admiring statues," they said. "Beauty
and art are the most important things for him."

In fact, the young King was so fascinated with beautiful objects that he wanted more
of them. He sent merchants to India to buy ivory and jade. He sent men to Persia for
silk carpets, and others to find amber in the north. He sent servants to look for green
turquoise in the magic tombs of the Egyptian kings.

The young King thought about all these things but most of all he thought about his
coronation robe.

He was sixteen and it was his coronation day the next day. That night the young King
had a dream.

This was the young King's dream: He is in a horrible, dark building. There is a terrible
smell, the small windows have bars and not much sunlight can enter. But in the poor
light the young King sees lots of people working. They are making cloth. They are
very thin. Their faces are hungry and their hands tremble because they are tired. Pale,
ill children sit in the dark corners of the room. The young King watches them.

A man speaks to him angrily and asks, "Why are you watching me? Are you my
master's spy?"

"Who is your master?" asks the young King.

"A man like me, but I have poor clothes and I am very hungry. He wears beautiful
clothes and is very rich. We work for him all day. We make wine and he drinks it.
We work on the land but he eats the food. We are his slaves."

"But this is a free land," says the young King. "You are no man's slave."

"In war, weak men are the slaves of strong men. In peace, poor men are the slaves of
rich men."

"Are you all slaves?"

"Yes, the women and the children. The old and the young."

Suddenly the young King sees the cloth on the machine. It is gold. The young King
is terrified. "You are making some very beautiful gold cloth. What is it?"
"It is for the coronation robe of the young King," the man replies.

When the young King heard this he screamed and woke up. But then he saw the
yellow moon at the window and soon slept again. He had another dream.

This was his second dream:

He is on a long boat. The sun is very hot and a hundred slaves are rowing the boat
and working. The master of the boat is giving orders: he is black like ebony and has
a red silk turban on his head. In his ears he has big silver earrings. Someone is
whipping the slaves while they work.

Finally, the boat arrives in a small bay and the master throws the anchor and a long
rope ladder into the sea. Some men take the youngest slave. They tie a heavy stone
to him and throw him into the sea. The young slave disappears into the water but
returns to the boat many times. Every time he returns he has a beautiful pearl in his
hand. The master of the ship looks at the pearls and puts them into a little green bag.

The young slave returns to the boat for the last time. He is very pale and tired. In his
hand he has a very beautiful pearl. The pearl is round and white like the moon. But
the young slave's ears and nose are full of blood. He falls and dies but the master of
the boat laughs. He takes the pearl from the young slave's hand and the other slaves
throw his dead body into the sea. "This pearl is for the scepter of the young King,"
he says.

When the young King heard this he screamed and woke up but he saw the stars at the
window and soon slept again.

This was his third and last dream:

He is in a tropical forest. It is full of strange fruit and beautiful, poisonous flowers.

Death and Avarice are in a dark cavern. They are also watching the men. Death says
to Avarice, "Give me one third of your men," but Avarice refuses.

"No! They are my servants," she says.

Death is very angry when he hears this. He sends Malaria to kill one third of the men.
"What have you got in your hand?"

Death asks. "Three grains of corn. But why are you interested?" she asks.

Death says, "Give me one grain of corn to plant in my garden."

But Avarice replies, "No, it is my corn," and she hides the corn in her pocket.

Again, Death is very angry when he hears this and calls Fever. Fever comes in a red
robe like fire, he touches one third of the men and kills them.

"Now give me a grain of corn for my garden," says Death.

"No, never!" replies Avarice. Death is extremely angry and calls Plague.

Plague arrives from the sky, flying like a bird and kills the rest of the men.

Avarice screams and runs into the forest. Death takes his red horse and rides away,
fast like the wind. And then dragons and terrible monsters come out of the rivers and
the valleys.

The young King cries and says, "Who were those men? What were they doing?"

"They were looking for rubies for a king's crown," replies a voice behind him. The
young King turns and sees a man in white. This man has a mirror in his hand.

"Which king?" he asks.

He sees his face in the mirror screams and wakes up. He sees the sun shining at his
window. It is his coronation day.

A servant arrived with the coronation clothes. They were extremely beautiful but the
young King remembered his dreams. "Take these clothes away. I don't want to wear
them," he said.

"Is this a joke, Your Majesty?" asked the servant, but the young King told him about
his dreams.

"In my robe there is sadness and pain, in the rubies there is blood and in the pearl
there is death," he said.

The servant replied, "Please, forget your dreams. Put on the robe and the crown. The
people will not recognize a king without a crown and a scepter."

But the young King put on his old tunic from the forest and took his shepherd's staff.
"I arrived in the palace with these clothes and I will leave the palace with these
clothes," he said. "Now I am ready for my coronation."

A servant asked him, "Where is your crown?" And he took a briar of thorns from his
balcony. "This will be my crown," he replied.

The young King rode his horse to the cathedral. The people laughed when they saw
him. "This is not the King but the King's servant," they said.

He explained his dreams but one man was angry and said, "Do you not know that rich
people give poor people work. It is difficult to work for a hard master but it is more
difficult to work for no master. Please return to the palace and put on your coronation
robes."

"The rich and the poor are brothers," he replied, but the people laughed again.
He arrived at the great door of the cathedral but the soldiers stopped him.

"What do you want? Only the King can enter by this door."

"I am the King," he replied. The Bishop saw him and asked, "Where is your crown?
Where is your scepter?"

The young King told the Bishop of his dreams but the Bishop answered, "Listen to
me, I am an old man. There are many bad things in the world but you cannot change
them all. There are thieves and pirates and beggars but you can't make these things
disappear. They are too much for one person. Go back to the Palace and put on your
coronation clothes."

But the young King passed the Bishop and entered the cathedral. He went to the altar
and looked at the image of Christ. He saw the light of the candles and the smoke of
the incense. Suddenly a crowd of people ran into the cathedral. They had swords and
were very angry. "Where is this King dressed in beggar's clothes?" they cried. "We
must kill him because a beggar cannot rule us. He will be bad for our country." But
the young King prayed silently in front of the altar. Then he turned and looked at the
people sadly.

At that moment a ray of sun shone into the cathedral. It illuminated the young King
at the altar. The sun made a beautiful robe around him, red roses grew on his dry
crown of thorns and white lilies grew on his staff. The roses were redder than rubies
and the lilies were whiter than pearls. Music started to play and voices started to sing.
The glory of God filled the cathedral. The people knelt down.

"He is crowned by someone greater than me," the Bishop said and he knelt in front
of the young King. The boy came from the altar and passed the people. But they didn't
have the courage to look at his face because it was the face of an angel.
1. What was the author's purpose in writing the story?
2. What is the theme in "The Young King" by Oscar Wilde?
3. What was the dominant preoccupation of people of the time?
4. Distinguish 5 nouns and say what they might symbolize.
e.g. Angel – purity, belief, beauty, health, faith, protection
5. What values does the story reflect?
6. What is the moral of the story?