286: Prince Darling

Hi, welcome to Classical Stuff You Should Know, a podcast about classical education, old books, philosophy, stories, narratives, poetry, some art, all sorts of fun things. My name is Graham Donaldson, and I am joined by, with, I can't remember that, AJ Hanenberg. That's me. And Thomas Fletcher Magby.

Hello. I was delighted when Thomas came in, and when he was talking about what he was going to talk about today, it was clearly an episode about me. There it is. And it's so funny.

So this is like, what's that called when you do like something in honor of the long career of somebody? A fest trip. A fest trip. So when Magby came in and said he was going to do a fest trip about me, I was honored, I was touched.

So Magby, take it away. It makes sense why you want to do the intro. It makes a lot more sense. Well, it's, you know, it's probably framed.

I'm glad to hear it. So yeah, our story, we're going to continue on in the Blue Fairy Book, compiled by Andrew Lang. Prince Darling is the name of our story this time, which I assume is good. Thank you.

I think last time you were the Beauty of Beauty and the Beast, and now you're the Prince of Prince Darling. So this, Graham really is the main character. This is good. Beautiful boy.

Okay. Beautiful, beautiful, beautiful. This is great. No, keep going.

I had to point it out last time. I don't think I said when these stories were compiled. So Lang puts together this Blue Fairy Book, the one that we're going through in 1889. So it counts as a classic now, right?

It's old enough? Sure. I'll take it. These stories come from a myriad of different sources.

He will, in his preface, this comes from one that's the, I'm going to butcher French this entire episode, the Cabinette de Faye. Do you want to guess what that means? I can call it. F-E with a little accent mark, E-S.

Faye. Okay, cool. Cabinette de Faye. You want to guess what that means?

The Closet of Consuming Fairies. Fairies, yeah. Fairie Cabinette, Fairie Library. You'll see different translations of that.

But the stories from the Cabinette de Faye and from Madame D'Alene. Fairy closet, there you go. Are translated or rather adapted by Miss Minnie Wright, who also translated a few of the other stories. So there's this collection of stories.

Sorry, I'm having like, we're just pivoting so hard. We went through like the degradation of society with this book, Eight of Plato's Republic. We did an hour long in-between episode. It rules.

You should go listen to it. Patreon.com slash classical stuff. And now I'm going to talk about a fairy tale. So this is cool.

It's a hard left. This is the classical world. We got it. We have hard pivots.

We go from the sublime to the phoretical. No, it's fairy. What's the adjective for fairies? The phoretical sounds too close to pharise.

I don't love that. So I am leading the episode, though, so maybe it's appropriate. So there's this collection of French stories that's called the Cabinet de Fae. It's put together.

I'm not going to go into it. We don't have a lot of time. So there's a collection of stories. Andrew Lang picks up some of them, includes him in his Blue Fairy book.

This is one of the stories that comes from that. The author of the story is someone who did an adaptation of Beauty and the Beast. So that is, or better prepared. I don't have all this here.

I don't have it. But it's one of the names that we covered last. It's Jean-Marie Le Prince de Beaumont is where this story of Prince Darling comes from. Her story is brought into eventually the fairy cabinet and then eventually brought it to Andrew Lang.

Any relation to Prince Charming, like the cousins? You tell me. You are Prince Charming. So tell me the opening lines of the story.

What are the first four words? Once upon a time. Once upon a time. There lived a king who was so just and kind that his subjects called him the good king.

It happened one day. So he goes out hunting. He sees this little rabbit. And he doesn't want to hurt the rabbit because he's a good king.

So he kind of saves the rabbit, brings it with him, and eventually finds out this is not just any rabbit. This is actually a fairy. So the rabbit transforms into... It is the rabbit.

I can't help but think of the Monty Python. A lot of the story... Any rabbit was a fairy rabbit. That'd be wonderful.

No, this is good. There are a lot of turns throughout the story as well where it's kind of like, and then this happened. And it really is with as much transition as I'm giving it. So goes hunting, finds a rabbit, doesn't kill it, takes it home.

This rabbit turns out to be the fairy truth. Fairy truth says, I was passing through the woods. That's pretty odd. As a matter of fact, when you were out hunting, and I wished to find out if you were really good, as everybody said you were, so I took the shape of a little rabbit.

And then sure enough, you proved yourself to be good. The king has given a wish. The king can ask for anything. Gentlemen, you're given a single wish.

You can ask for anything. What do you go for? To be able to correctly and accurately give the love of virtue to my child. That's exactly what it was.

That was what the problem was, is they couldn't raise virtuous children. They clearly just need more fairies, and they could pass this on to their kids. Maybe the story is actually next to you. Let's see what you think by the end of the story.

Okay, Prince Darling. Prince Darling. See, he maybe cares about his honor more than he cares about his virtue. But let's see why he cares about it, because it's kind of funny.

So, a madam said to the good king, since you are a fairy, you no doubt know all my wishes. I have but one son whom I love very dearly. That is why he is called Prince Darling. If you are really good enough to wish to do me a favor, I beg that you will become his friend.

So that's the request. And the fairy agrees to this. Oh, no fairies near my kids. Well, because wouldn't you be worried about this?

Oh, I've read enough stories. Because if they are whimsical, they are not good parents. So, I'd be like, make my kids stay far away from my kids. Well, so the fairy says, you know, hey, you want me to be friends with him?

I can give him something, too. I can make him the richest. I can make him the most powerful. I can make him the handsomest.

Like, what do you want me to do? And the king says, I don't want any of those things. I want you to make him the best of princes. What good would it do him to be rich or handsome or to possess all the kingdoms of the world if he were wicked?

You know well, he would still be unhappy. Only a good man can really be contented. Oh, okay, that's good. The fairy completely agrees.

And this is the entire sentence where all of this plot development happens. Just get ready. The good king was quite satisfied with this promise, semicolon, and very soon afterwards he died. Well, more than one word you need.

Because the apotheosis of death is. Yeah, I mean, he's not only wished good for his kid, but he met a fairy. He met a fairy, and his wish was for his kid to get the benefit of it. Not, you know, the king could have asked for it forever, and instead he is a good king.

He is a good king. So, Prince Darling is understandably bummed. He loves his dad. And he then meets the fairy.

The fairy says, I promised your father that I would be your friend. And if you keep my word, I've come to bring you a present. So, I'm going to tell you about this present. It's a little gold ring.

Yeah, you're nervous about what's going to happen, right? No, it's very bad news. No, but I want to be clear. This is the fairy truth.

Does that make you feel any better? No, they'll say anything. I don't trust the fairy. Take care of this ring, she said.

It is more precious than diamonds. Every time you do a bad deed, it will prick your finger. But if in spite of it's pricking, you go on your own evil way, you will lose my friendship, and I shall become your enemy. How are you feeling about this ring?

I have a bad feeling about this. I think this is a great ring. If you had the chance to get this ring as well, would you take this ring? I don't take anything from fairies.

I wouldn't have eaten that pizza a little while ago. It would have just destroyed your finger. I would have cracked my finger and be like, really? You want all that processed, enriched wheat garbage in you?

I don't think it's quite like an eat well ring, but maybe... Isn't it even safe as an evil thing? The ring is? No, if you do a wicked thing.

Every time you do a bad deed, it will prick your finger. Isn't it like eating bad food a bad deed? You tell me. I don't know.

How does that hot dog feel right now? Yeah, this is why I'm taking it from fairies. The fine print is sometimes too small. How are you not an attorney?

You're wanting to go through the contract to see what if I signed up for this. He's in fairy law. Who wouldn't? No, you put that on your finger.

It's going to clamp down. You're never getting it off. I know fairies. There was fairy court in Beauty and the Beast in one of the older versions of it.

They actually got the evil fairy sent to jail or whatever. Not in the story. That's the damn thing to be done. That poor man.

Prince Darling gets the ring. He puts on the ring. For a long time, it's just a ring. He's a good kid.

Does his best. Things are fine. Until one day, he goes out hunting. He does really poorly at hunting.

He's not getting to catch the animals that he wants to. He's mad. He comes home. His dog is running up to him.

He wants to be nice. He wants to be kind. The prince kicks the dog. What?

That's messed up. On the line. Yeah, that's exactly right. Instantly.

Hope that ring sliced it off. Instantly, his ring pricked him sharply as if it had been a pin. I've lost all Jerry to work with Prince Darling. As you should.

I mean, it's messed up. That's not a good thing that he did. He gets pricked and he tries to blame the fairy. He's kind of what AJ is saying.

He thinks the fairy is playing a trick on him. The fairy is like, I'm not making fun of you. You committed three faults. First of all, you were out of temper because you could not have what you wanted.

And you thought all men and animals were only made to do your pleasure. Then, you were really angry, which is very naughty indeed. And lastly, you were cruel to a poor little animal who did not in the least deserve to be ill-treated. And she goes on, you know, you're in a position of authority, but you need to be good to those who are, like, just because he's your dog, you need to mistreat him like that.

And how does the prince respond? What do you think he does? He's pretty thrilling. He's probably like, you're right.

I feel bad. He's going to try it. That's exactly. You're always going to try it on the first thing.

It's like you've read the story before. You literally are pretty. We've lived the story. Folks, these stories are awesome.

I feel that way. That's where I want to get to. The prince saw how naughty he had been and promised to try to do better in the future, but he did not keep his word. The fact was that he had been brought up by a foolish nurse, who had spoiled him when he was little.

If he wanted anything, he only had to cry and fret and stamp his feet, and she would give him whatever he asked for. And you said that in the last episode, the aristocrats can't pass on the values today. Because of their, well, the concept is because of their moms. Well, this is because of the nurses, though.

Is he going to go through, like, elaborate lengths to try to, like, lessen the pain that the ring gives him all the time? Or is he just going to take it off? Yeah, he just takes it off eventually. His ring pricked him very often, and sometimes he left off what he was doing at once, but at other times he would not attend to it.

Strangely enough, it gave him only a slight prick for a trifling bolt, but when he was really naughty, it made his finger actually bleed. At last, he got tired of being constantly reminded and wanted to be able to do as he liked, so he threw his ring aside and thought himself the happiest of men to have got rid of his teasing pricks. And now he's in it with a fairy hand. Well, he's not.

Oh, that's interesting. Why do you say that? Because he's throwing the ring away. But the fairy...

Oh, she's not with him. That's exactly right. Look, y'all are... Again, you've read the story.

You've never trusted the fairy tale before. So he throws his ring away, and he thinks he's living the best life now. So he's walking around, and he sees a beautiful girl. Her name is Celia, and Celia, I believe, is a shepherdess.

You're breaking my heart. I was going to say, he sees Celia. You're shaking my confidence. Is it Celia or is it Celia?

It's it Celia. It's it Celia. I'm down on my knees. No, no, this is great.

I'm begging you, please. There it come on. I mean, we have to wrap this episode up. No, no, no, there it is.

Cool. Oh, no, okay. So... Come on, Tom.

Smart enough. You can easily... I'm not saying it along. He sees Celia.

He sees Celia. No, you're right. And in fact, she does break his heart. Aw, buddy.

That's always the beautiful farmer. Did he give her the ring? No, that would be really good. We'll be together forever, babe.

So Prince Darling fancied that Celia would think herself only too happy if he offered to make her a great queen. But she said fearlessly, Sire, I'm only a shepherdess and a poor girl, but nevertheless, I will not marry you. Dang. Yikes.

That's like... And Celia's telling him, I cannot help thinking you very handsome, but what good would riches be to me? And all the grand dresses and splendid carriages that you would give me, if the bad deeds which I should see you do every day, may me hate and despise you. Dang.

So Prince Darling is... Prince Dirtbag is probably right. The people of his kingdom are starting to see the fault lines. They're starting to see what's wrong in his character, and they remember his father.

They remember how good he had been. And there's a way to pull him back from the brink. Is there a way to go back, though? Can you get back to the Erysticcred?

Can you get back to the Erysticcred? Is he doomed to live a life of democratic pleasure? Only through magic, you know? We're still, unfortunately, not done with his wicked deeds.

So he also has a foster brother. Celia? Yeah, I know. So Celia shoots him down, which is a bummer.

And he has a foster brother. He also has some advisors who do not have his best interest in mind. They basically all want to take over the kingdom. They want to take it from Prince Darling.

And so they are encouraging him to kind of abuse and abuse his power. So he goes to his foster brother. He goes to his advisors. He tells them...

Prince Darling tells them about his Celia situation. And they are like, you are king. You can have whatever you want to. You can throw her in prison.

And if she won't marry, you cut her head off. Like, whatever you want. Nothing wins a girl if it's a threat of death. That's exactly right.

But Prince Darling is not totally given to this. Prince Darling says, would it not be a shame if I had an innocent girl, but the death for Celia really has done nothing to deserve punishment? And they're like, well, yeah. If you let people walk all over you, then you have this coming.

That's on you for not standing up for yourself. King Dormant. King Dormant. How many Ds can we get?

This is good. I like this. So Prince Darling is kind of persuaded by this. Because he's like, yeah, I don't want to lose my power.

I do want to be in control. So the foster brother is getting him convinced that he should just kind of lord his authority over Celia. Separately, Darling doesn't really want to do that. And so what they do, what his advisors do, what his foster brother does, is they convince him.

They're like, okay, if he won't go against Celia the way that we want him to, they try to get his rational faculties down. And so they talk him into imprisoning his old tutor, who's a man named Suleiman. And they say, hey, you should get Suleiman in here. And he's been talking trash about you.

He's been talking behind your back. He thinks he should be king instead of you. It's all made up. They bribe some witnesses to say that they also saw Suleiman say these things.

It's all fake. None of it's real. And Prince Darling also has this kind of harbored resentment against Suleiman. Because Suleiman does not suck up to him.

Suleiman tells him, you'll be a little punk. You need to be like your dad. And for a time, Prince Darling likes that. But now he resents it.

He wants to be in control. Our episodes fit together very well. I don't expect this. So Prince Darling says, you're right.

The Suleiman thing, not really crazy about that. But the Suleiman guy, we've got to kill him. He is the enemy. So he tells his advisors to go get an army together.

Go get Suleiman. Bring him here in chains. I'm going to kill this guy. So the army, isn't the guy a tutor?

He's like some soldiers. Go get some people with us. I was going to say, was he a really good shot? He isn't really not.

And this is when Prince Darling gives us a man, goes back to his room. And there is a thunderbolt in his room. So it's like a bright flash. I was going to say, I'm really pissed off rabbits back here.

And she says, go for it. I was just going to say, no one of that rabbits so mad in the Holy Grail. One Prince, to show you guys. And that's right.

So she shows up suddenly before him. And she says, I promised your father to give you good advice and to punish you if you refuse to follow it. You have despised my counsel and have gone your own evil way until you are only outwardly a man. Really, you are a monster.

The horror of everyone who knows you. It is time that I should fulfill my promise and begin your punishment. I condemn you to resemble the animals whose ways you have been imitated. You have made yourself like the lion by your anger, like the wolf by your greediness, like a snake you have ungratefully turned upon one who is second father to you.

Your churlishness has made you like a bull. Therefore, in your new form, take the appearance of all these animals. Sounds awesome. Wait, do you want to turn into this guy?

So you're going to be like a snake lion wolf bull? Yeah, let me tell you. You could have picked worse animals. Yeah, for being lazy or a slug.

For being like, you know, gross, you're an amoeba. But no, you're like a freaking... Let me run through it. So here's what he looks like.

He had a lion's head, a bull's horns, a wolf's feet, and a snake's body. Is this cool? Kind of. The snake's body a little bit less so, but that's pretty sick.

Although it's like, if you don't have the neck strength, your head's playing along. I mean, Celia's not marrying you for sure. Celia's not marrying you for sure. And as you might imagine, if anyone sees you, they're going to kill you.

Oh, no, not in a capitalist society. They would capture you and then show you to the public. King Kong. You read the story.

Really? He gets captured in a parade around? Kind of. I'm smart.

So he gets transformed and he gets teleported away out of the castle. So he's moved next to a lake. That's when he looks down and he sees himself and he's despairing. So he's like, I now need to go somewhere.

If I stay here, I'm going to get killed. So he starts walking and immediately falls into a hunter's trap. So he gets caught immediately and they don't kill him. It's kind of a parading thing.

They capture him. Hunter's comes up to travel. What the word? No one comments on it.

That's the weird part. This is not indigenous. No one's like, what is this thing? It's like another monster, I guess.

How come we're monsters back in the day? Because people seem pretty non-affected. They're pretty okay with this. So he gets captured.

What eventually happens is he's sold off to a collector of rare animals. So maybe that's the reason they're not asking a lot of questions because they're like, this is a major payday. This rules. So he gets captured.

They're taking him along. But as they're marching him around, he hears all this celebration. There's all these parties going on. He's like, it's not a holiday.

It's not a birthday. What's going on? It's because he's dead. All the people in the land are celebrating his death.

Yes, so the story is that this thunderbolt, like a judgment from God, has killed him and they're all celebrating. It's like they're so thankful that he's dead and what immediately happens is he dies. His main advisors try to take over the kingdom. They all get killed and what has happened is that Suleiman becomes king.

Oh, sweet! And everyone's like, Suleiman rules. He is much more like Prince Darling's father than Prince Darling was. We are in for a time of prosperity.

Let's go. This rules. And Prince Darling hears this and he is really cut to the core of he didn't realize that his people hated him for what he was doing. He thought he was just getting whatever was his and he hadn't thought about the impact on his kingdom, on how they suffered because of his moral failings, right?

So he's realizing this. He's like, that was wrong of me. I shouldn't have done that. But he's still a beast and he can't really do anything about it.

He's sold off. He gets taken to this... He's a lion bull snake. So things are going okay.

He gets sold off to this collector of rare animals. He's mistreated. He gets beaten as a part of being there and he's tied up to something in the house like he can't get out and attack the guy who's hurting him. So it's not a great life that he has right now.

But while he's there... Eustace the dragon. That's right. That's right.

But not far off from where we'll go in just a little bit. So the Prince Darling as a beast is in this traitor's house when there are other animals in there too, including a tiger. And this tiger, one night, escapes from its chains and is about to go and kill the traitor. So tiger in the house going to kill the traitor who has been beating, hurting Prince Darling as a beast.

And something has really changed in Prince Darling's heart where he's like, I have done wrong and I need to make right for the evils I brought into the world. And so he resolves in that moment. He says, I would return good for evil, he said to himself and save the unhappy man's life if he were able to, right? He's still changed to whatever it is in the house.

And he'd hardly wish this when his iron cage flew open with the cage instead. And he rushed to the side of the keeper who was awake and defending himself against the tiger when he saw the monster had got out and the hunter gave himself up for lost. But his fear was soon changed into joy for the kind monster threw himself upon the tiger and very soon killed it and then came and crouched to the feet of the man it had saved. Overcome with gratitude, the keeper stooped to caress the strange creature which had done him such a great service.

But suddenly a voice said in Prince Darling's ear, a good action... He's next. A good action should never go unrewarded. And at the same time...

She killed the trainer. She killed the... I think she kind of let the tiger out, honestly. She definitely let him out.

And then let the monster out. Prince Darling does not kill the keeper. So what happens is... Does the truth kill the keeper?

So the fairy is saying to Prince Darling the good deed should not go unrewarded. You're going to get a reward for this good thing you did of saving the keeper. And the reward is the monster disappeared and the keeper saw at his feet only a pretty little dog. So, Prince Darling...

He's now a cute little dog. Now a cute little dog. He's leveling up. He's a monster.

He's a level up. It could be like all... He does not. So Prince Darling is delighted by this change.

He's feeling pretty good about himself. The man is like, what just happened? He has seen this transformation happen in front of him. I got to quit drinking.

That's right. And because of this, he takes the dog to the king, to Sulamong, and tells this whole story of what's going on. So the king, they want to keep this dog in the castle. And so the dog gets to run around.

And so it's just kind of... But they give him to someone in the castle. I'm not going to go into all this. But basically, it's kind of nice because he gets a better life.

He's not getting kicked all the time. But the royal family doesn't want the dog to get too fat. So he doesn't get to eat as much as he wants to. So he's like, it's still kind of purgatory, right?

He's still getting starved. So he's not super happy. He's living a dog life. He's living a dog life.

Great, but it's not awesome. But it's not the best. So he's out in the palace. He gets this one loaf of bread every day for breakfast.

He's walking around with it. Is that right? Is bread bad? I'll make sure to tell them.

Put him on a paleo diet. But he knows the castle. So he's like, I want to go look around and see what's there. He takes his loaf of bread, walks around.

He wants to go see this brook that he was a big fan of. So he wants to see the body of water. He has to walk a little ways to get there. But once he gets there, he was surprised to find that the brook was gone and where it bends to a great house that seemed to be built of gold and precious stones.

Numbers of people splendidly dressed were going into it and sounds of music and dancing and feasting could be heard from the windows. The kingdom is cold. The kingdom is cold. It kind of feels like that, but it's also like, it's the club, right?

It's the retreat. Yeah, all these fancy people are going to this gold and ruby and emerald studded building. I guess so. But what seemed very strange was that those people who came out of the house were pale and thin and their clothes were torn and hanging in rags about them.

Some fell down dead as they came out before they had time to get away. Those are the best raves. Others lay on the ground fainting with hunger and back a morsel of bread from those who were going into the house, but they would not so much as look at the poor creatures. So Prince Starling, as a dog, has his loaf in his mouth, sees this poor person who's starving and he gives his bread away.

The dog, Prince Starling, realizes he's hungry but he's not starving and these people are dying. So he might as well give away what he has to one of these people. So he gives away. But this other weird thing is happening that out of this gold and precious stone encrusted out of this club, they're throwing food out.

So they're all starving but food is available anywhere. So the prince is thinking, I'm a dog, I'll just go eat some of that food on the ground. Yes, it is. But as soon as Prince Starling gets close to it, he's warned by this person who he gave bread to, don't eat it.

All of this food is poisoned. And the reason all of these people are dying is because they think that they are feeding, they think that they're going to enjoy this food, have a good time, but they're killing themselves as they do this. Like the pizza you had earlier. In the Andrew Lang version, this building is not named, but in the original version, I believe it's called the House of Pleasure.

And the original story, as I understand it, is more of a morality tale than the Lang version. This seems pretty morality tale, this Lang version. Well, what's weird is that this thing happens with, again, the House of Pleasure, but it's like an aside and the story keeps going as opposed to, it does not make the clear point that it's like, hey, your insatiable receipt of pleasure is going to kill you. The dog just goes for a walk in the woods and bumps into a heavy-handed metaphor.

Yes, continues on. I mean, honestly, it's exactly what happened. So as a dog, he catches a glimpse of Celia. Oh, is she married and happy?

No, I believe she's in the House of Pleasure. Oh, no! Celia! What book have you gone down?

Let me make sure. I think she's been kidnapped at this point. Yeah. Should have married the prince?

Should have married the prince. Yeah, he determined not to quit the place until he knew what had become of Celia and blamed himself for what had befallen her. So she's kidnapped. She's in the House of Pleasure, but not to partake, it looks like.

I think she might be the one throwing the food out the window, honestly. So he has a glimpse of Celia, sees these dying people outside this House of Pleasure and is warned by the girl that he gave his loaf of bread to. Hey, don't eat any of this food because you're going to die if that happens. So we have the next time that the fairy speaks to him.

So Prince Darling has done another good deed. He has given away his food when he didn't have to do that. He chose to save someone else instead of comfort for himself. And also the girl has helped him.

The good deeds of Prince Darling are the main point of the story, but there is this help back and forth between them. So Prince Darling hears the voice again. You see a good action, always brings its reward. And the prince found himself changed into...

What's the next one? What do you think the next? Give me another animal you want to be. Something better than a dog, but he's not going to be He remembered that white was the favorite color of the fairy truth and began to hope that he might at last win back her favor.

So he's like, is that level enough idea? But just now his first care was for Celia and rising into the air he flew round and round the house until he saw an open window but he searched through every room in vain. No trace of Celia was to be seen and the prince in despair determined to search for the world until he found her. He flew on for several days until he came to a great desert where he saw a caravan and to his delight there's that Celia.

So there's your plot device of... He just looked really hard at Bounder. Sometimes he finds what you're looking for. Which is what happens here.

So I guess it's a fairy tale, right? So he's very happy to have found her. He flies into the cave where they're hanging out and Celia kind of offhandedly makes a statement. I accept the gift that you make...

So the bird flies in lands on her shoulder Celia turns and just kind of makes an offhand statement. She's surprised and delighted. She says, I accept the gift that you make me of yourself and I will love you always. Now Celia is with this kind of what looks like this older person who's like sitting in a robe but looks like the person who has kidnapped Celia, right?

So it's Celia's captor plus Celia now a bird on her shoulder. The captor says, Take care what you were saying, Celia. Are you prepared to keep that promise? Indeed, I hope so, my sweet shepherdess, cried the prince who was at that moment restored to his natural shape.

You promised to love me always. Tell me that you really mean... He's on her shoulder? I guess he's like hot dog.

You promised to love me always. Tell me that you really mean what you said or I shall have to ask the fairy to give me back the form of the dove which pleased you so much. Celia says, You need not be afraid... I'm sorry, the person who looks like the captor is actually the fairy.

You need not be afraid that she will change her mind by the fairy throwing off the hermit's robes in which she had been disguised and appearing before them. Celia had loved you ever since she first saw you only she would not tell you while you were so obstinate and naughty. Now you have repented and need to be good so you deserve to be happy and so she may love you as much as she likes. Celia and Prince Darling threw themselves at the fairy's feet and the prince was never tired of thanking her for her kindness.

Celia was delighted to hear how sorry he was for all his past follies and misdeeds and promised to love him as long as she lived. It's good that she liked him beforehand because if she didn't then all of a sudden she's like, Oh, this bird, I'm going to love you forever. He's like, It's me. It's the boy you rejected.

She's like, You remember the one that everyone cheered when he died? It's me. I'm back. But she says yes and so the fairy teleports them back to the castle.

They go up to Suleiman. Suleiman, because he's good and noble, he had said before he was just holding the throne until the prince returned. They all thought he was dead. Suleiman knew because the fairy told him.

So Suleiman is more than happy to give up the throne, hand it back to the prince who I guess becomes king darling, I don't know. And then Celia and Prince Darling get married. They reign for many years but he was so determined to govern worthily and to do his duty that his ring, which he took to wearing again, never once pricked him severely. So he put the ring back on and lives a good life.

And so the answer to what to do about moral degradation in the person is either magic rings or getting called out by someone you respect, right? Yeah, you need fairies, right? So if we do want to start intellectualizing it, there does need to be some sort, these fairy stories say that there does need to be some sort of appeal to the transcendence. There needs to be the fairy, the whatever that comes in and says, I as the embodiment of the standard I'm here to remind you that you're not living up in the standard and I'm going to punish you if you don't.

And that sense, that needs to exist in the hearts of people for them to be able to right the ship. So AJ, I want you to take back all the mean things you said about the fairies because they ended up being the fairy do good. This fairy's all right. It was a little risky, right?

You never knew what they were going to do. And he didn't get turned into a monster. And then she was all like tricksy with the girl and I don't know. That's true.

That was a little strange. And he could have totally gone sideways and at the end she's like, you've been naughty and so I'm going to rule your kingdom and you're going to stay in a hole in the ground. You never know what fairies. But he deserved it.

I guess that's the... So the dad got what he wanted in the end but through a lot of pain and misery for the child. That's actually it. Maybe this is to AJ's point because the fairy could have been more direct and been like, at any point could have intervened and said, you are on a path where I will turn you into a monster.

And instead she kind of swoops in at the end. I guess it's just maybe like the true, you need to learn it yourself, right? This also even ties into what we were talking about in the in-between. How do you influence people?

Individual part change or big movements? The story is wise enough to know that unless the will won't move, nothing will force it. The individual heart needs to change and be oriented towards the good. Maybe that is a response also to the Plato degradation of society or the person is assuming that people are not learning any lessons along the way.

Yeah, yeah, oh, for sure. That they're just wanting the next value, again, from being good to being honorable. Yes, without rehashing last week's Plato episode, he makes lots of assumptions that that doesn't necessarily need to be the case. And that's one of them is that he assumes that you're going to be corrupted by money.

He assumes that you're never going to morally improve yourself. In many ways, Plato has that kind of like, what's the noonday sin? He kind of assumes that's built into the heart of people. So he doesn't think that...

Wasn't it claimed that you could not become more righteous, you're going to become less righteous? Maybe. That sounds like a thing Plato was doing. I think Aristotle said that you can learn virtue and you can recover it.

Plato pretty much said no. I think you're right. And hey, Plato did see the city murdering his favorite teacher. No, it's not great.

That's a cool story. It's a way to be pulled back from the brain. You can be pulled back from the brain. But you need fairies?

I mean, it's parents, right? You need someone who isn't... It doesn't have to be a parent. I appreciate in this example it's not literally the father or mother does not show up, right?

My big disappointment is Sumon. Why wasn't he doing this? He has parts where he's not a very good person. Again, he talks about he's only a temporary king will happily give up his authority when the prince comes back.

He also does not get killed which is what Prince Darling would have done to him. Well, my disappointment is that he wasn't a better guide to the prince, right? He should have been doing what the fairy was doing. Yeah, this is like the tension of tutors, right?

I think this is also just a paradox of parenthood. Parents, guides, tutors, we can only do so much but some kids are going to learn the hard way. And he chose the hard way. And the mystery is some kids don't.

Some kids just really take to heart when you tell them that the life of virtue is worth it and they believe it and do it and some don't and they have to learn the hard way or they never learn the hard way. It's kind of just like you plant seeds and there's no telling which ones will kind of be healthy. Yeah, I guess Prince Darling did have every opportunity. It was kind of like that comedian that points out that everyone is like Achilles, you're like why didn't she just heal too?

There's a comedian who points out things about Achilles. Yeah, so he said like everyone points out why didn't the mom just like grab his other heel and dip out of her heel and would have been totally impervious and he's like yeah, but does your mom have to do everything for you? Like you're impervious everywhere except your heel and you don't cover it? You don't like just one little step that's yours and the mother did everything else for you and I was like you know what?

That makes a lot of sense. It's not all the other. this is all right yeah but she's got the shining ankles maybe she doesn't want to dip those ankles right and well there's two different versions like one is he's in the river the other is he's held over the fire right and so like she's burned up her hands like i get it he's like uh toasted yeah except for on the peel right except for on the heel and she's got the nice ankles and i can't remember i thought it was the fire version had that but i don't know about the water one and he was like the only one that survived i thought that was yeah anyway yeah i mean this is a story about a kid who has to reckon with the fact that uh people are happy when he dies right and like that's so i just think that like it's a wonderful life yeah so it's not it has a cheery ending but it is pretty dark of it's like a tom saw your funeral but yeah right and um but it's just really but it's good but it's good right that he realizes that he is a far field of what his father wanted for him what his father wanted for him and he turns his life around so do you think we get to like sit at the pew on our own funeral and see what's going down i don't know i hope i don't know i want that i don't know although everyone's gonna be sad i would want to comfort them but i kind of want to hear what aj says on my eulogy would i be allowed to talk you might be dead already that's fair i'm older than you though yeah but i live a wilder life i'm out there biking and swimming and that's fair it's true like i'm like wrap myself in bubble raffle i read and yeah and take like a leisurely walk with your dog around the neighborhood and i'm like careening down a path downtown write your eulogies early so that you can hear them right i would i would get a killer eulogy i think you're feeling really good well let's do an in between because you should know you should live more lives you should listen to the rabbits um and you should contemplate how people will feel when you're dead as something to orient how you live i need to dig into why i hate fairy so much like this is a racist issue i gotta figure out too much dungeons like this is a dragon you don't mean something bye bye you