A BEAUTIFUL GIRL AND HER LOVER - BORGES - LEMOINE

A BEAUTIFUL GIRL AND HER LOVER - BORGES

Este fragmento de Wilde fue traducido por Jorge Luis Borges a la tierna edad de nueve años.

La ilustración que representa a este personaje es del francés Georges Lemoine. El personaje de la más bella de las damas de honor de la Reina/una bella muchacha (the loveliest of the Queen's maids-of-honour/a beautiful girl) se muestra en solitario, una dama dieciochesca de espaldas, con la espalda vuelta al palacio real de estilo rococó. Omitiendo al novio (lover), y acentuando la frialdad de la bella muchacha, se da una idea clara de la personalidad de este personaje secundario.

un vestido de raso que debe lucir, en el próximo baile de corte, la más bella de las damas de honor de la Reina.
Sobre el palacio real, se oyó la música de baile. Una bella muchacha apareció en el balcón con su novio.

-¡Qué hermosas son las estrellas -la dijo- y qué poderosa es la fuerza del amor!

-Querría que mi vestido estuviese acabado para el baile oficial -respondió ella-. He mandado bordar en él unas pasionarias, 

ORIGINAL DE WILDE:

a satin gown for the loveliest of the Queen's maids-of-honour to wear at the next Court-ball.

From the palace, one heard the sound of dancing. A beautiful girl came out on the balcony with her lover. "How wonderful the stars are," he said to her, "and how wonderful is the power of love!"
"I hope my dress will be ready in time for the State-ball," she answered; "I have ordered passion-flowers to be embroidered on it; "

ANALYSIS

The second couple in the tale are also heterosexual. The lovers on the balcony do not seem to be successful in their relationship and have communication problems. The man is romantic and passionate whereas the maid-of-honour is portrayed as being cold, selfish, vain, and loveless. For example, the man romances the girl saying: "How beautiful the stars are, and how wonderful is the power of love!"; however, she replies that she is worried her dress will not be ready for the State-Ball and complains that the seamstress is "so lazy". Jacobs predicts that the indifference of the maid-of-honour and her inability to understand the lives of those who work for her will break down the lovers' relationship and the girl will be to blame. The relationship between the lovers... The female character conveys an attitude towards life and is unfocused on the fundamental needs of her relationship.

It is interesting to note that prior to the twentieth century, it was fully acceptable for men to express themselves romantically with poets such as Keats, Shelley, and Wordsworth as their role models.

Jacobs writes that Wilde inverts the usual stereotypes of the "manly male" and the "romantic female" rendering the last as materialistic, callous, and aggressive.

And the romantic couple on the palace balcony are a surprise.

Readers usually expect the comment about the lovely stars and the wonderful power of love to be attached with 'she said to him' but it's 'he said to her', inverting the usual stereotypes of the manly male and the romantic female. Not only that but, in a particularly sharp and even brutal piece of manipulation by Wilde, the beautiful girl is shown to be not only unromantic, and not only materialistic and callous, but her coldly aggressive remark cruelly contradicts what we ourselves...

Wilde is merely presenting the Victorian society stereotypes rather than expressing a mysoginistic attitude of his own.

PS. Craig Russell's illustration!

Comic panels of the couple (my Wilde fairytale OTP!) by Craig Russell. The lover especially fits my idea of a husbando, beign a delicate sensitive guy with fair features, a visual extension of a young man expressing himself romantically, whom I totally imagine saying "How wonderful the stars are, and how wonderful is the power of love!" in the voice of Freddie Mercury... The features of the beautiful girl/loveliest of the Queen's maids-of-honour are more angular and her face has more of a fixed expression, reminding me of Greta Garbo...

LORAS TYRELL INSPIRATION?

Russian illustrations of the character. Medieval armour on the left, Renaissance armour on the right.

A rather secondary character in an Oscar Wilde story, a royal guard with very little storytime, is described as "one whose armour was inlaid with gilt flowers". 

Surely he must be an officer, given the detail of his attire (the Penguin Readers version omits any reference to his armour and calls him "an officer") 

He whose armour was inlaid with gilt flowers (although the flowers aren't much prominent in this depiction), Craig Russell

The one whose armour was inlaid with gilt flowers.

A thesis highlights that this is "splendid armour": ... the new guard’s splendid armour ... and tells of his action as he appears;’. . . inlaid with gilt flowers,'
"The same guard, comes forward. He is reintroduced with exactly the same syntactic structure as before ...
'. . . whose armour was inlaid with gilt flowers,'"


Possible inspiration for Loras Tyrell's character?

I'm planning to use this quote in my Snow Queen story "The Queen Beyond the Wall":

And then, through the crowd, she saw a blond breastplated knight from behind, golden locks cascading down the nape of his neck all the way to his back, loosely tied together with a green ribbon. She walked quickly towards him, her heart throbbing with excitement. There was so much they had to talk about!
Finally, the maiden stood a few steps away from him. She called his name out loud: "Jaime!" Suddenly, he turned around and stepped towards her... It wasn't Jaime!
The young knight did resemble Jaime, and he was certainly dashing as well: his hair was curly and a darker shade of blond, and his eyes were a more hazel colour. His armour was inlaid with gilt flowers.
From a distance, King Renly, dressed in gold and green, a dark strip of little hairs shading his upper lip, came towards them and asked what the matter was. He was doubtlessly dashing and tall, a true Baratheon. His bride Margaery, dark-haired as well and dressed in a lavender gown, followed him closely. She was petite and beautiful, teal-eyed and lilywhite with rosy lips.
And then, Brienne bowed before the royals and asked if she could explain the reason for that in private. And all four of them gathered in a grand hall inlaid with tapestries of great battles, where Brienne told them her tale: how much she loved Jaime, how much he had changed, how coldly they had parted... even the fact that Storm's End was under siege, and that she had been kept captive in the camp where heretics were burned.
"Oh! So you're a girl? No matter, we'll keep your secret. If discovered, it may lead to unpleasant consequences later on in your life."
"I don't think Storm's End will hold any longer... Our army is already prepared to retake our fallen lands! Nevertheless... having come from as far as Tarth... that's a feat of daring-do! Shouldn't we try to help you?", His Grace replied, with a wistful smile on his heart-shaped face.
The royals ordered that a supper should be prepared for Brienne. And thus, she had supper in the banquet hall where the bannermen had already supped, with the King and Queen and their Lord Commander (the maiden learned that he was Loras Tyrell, the Queen's youngest brother and the King's closest friend) for company. So, Brienne was served a cool fruit soup, peaches in honey, and fire-plum mousse, washed down with blood-red, sweet summer wine. She told the royals all about Jaime and more about her quest, and she thanked them for all of their kindness, though the words she could find were few.
No longer did she address them as His and Her Grace: they told her she was free to call them Renly and Margaery. And to call Loras by first name, without the "Ser", as well.
After supper, she was led into the Lord Commander's elegant bedroom and dressed in a fine negligé of crimson silk. Ser Loras courteously offered her to stay in his own bed: he would spend the whole night in the nearby Royal Bedchamber, watching for his crowned sister and brother-in-law.
He said he could do no more.
As Brienne wrapped herself in the soft mint-green brocade bedsheets and drew the golden velvet bed-curtains, she thought of the kindness she had encountered at the court. That night, sweet dreams came to her: she was leaving Highgarden, leaving the Reach, she came into an open field in more northern lands, a rider galloped towards her... it was Jaime, this time, no longer cold or detached, offering her his hand, and both of them riding away past holdfasts and cots. But it was only a dream, and thus, it faded away as soon as she awoke.
The King of the Reach himself peeped in through her bed-curtains, his attendants bringing forth an armour of cobalt blue steel, inlaid with bluebells and forget-me-nots.
So she was dressed in this blue armour, that sparkled on her reflection in the mirror that covered a whole panel of the bedroom wall.
As for Edric, he had eaten supper and then slept with the army officers, having already enlisted in the ranks of the Reach.
For breakfast, there were spiced honey cakes and various fruit pies, served with clear lager and with mint tea. The maiden sat to the left side of Queen Margaery, and the Lord Commander to the right side of King Renly, both royals sitting on the thrones that presided the banquet-hall table.
They talked about the invasion of Storm's End, and Brienne learned that the invaders' leader was also a Baratheon, one of Renly's older brothers, with whom he had broken ties long time ago. The vast army of the Reach had been already trained and prepared for the upcoming conflict.
The royals offered to have a notice about Jaime's whereabouts sent throughout the Seven Kingdoms, and detachments to carry on the inquiry Westeros-wide while the rest of the army was fighting the war.
Renly offered Brienne to enlist in his ranks and join them at the war front, where she could perform gallant feats, but she only asked for a horse, new weapons, and provisions to carry on her search for Jaime.
And thus, right before she crossed the garden gate, she beheld a white gelding, caparisoned in cobalt steel as well, with a green silk saddlecloth, on which the embroidered golden rose of Tyrell and stag of Baratheon shone brightly as stars. From the saddlecloth hung a fine longsword, with the sun and moon of Tarth on its hilt, in a finely ornate scabbard, aside from a fine mint-green silken bag, also embroidered with the Tyrell rose, containing a glass canteen full of summer wine and a dozen journey-cakes.
King Renly and Ser Loras helped her get on her steed, embraced her, and wished her good luck. So did the rest of the royal family. Even Edric came to say farewell, for he was going to war. The young bannerman looked like a child Renly in his breastplate and doublet. He had been given permission to be part of her escort, and thus, they should have a little more time together
"Farewell! Farewell!" said Loras and Renly, and Queen Margaery as well. Looking back at Highgarden for every now and then, the maiden crossed the garden gates with the detachment she had been given for an escort. At the borders of the Reach, the other riders departed to join the army, as Brienne took Edric in her arms and they kissed each other for maybe the last time.
"Farewell!", both said in tears, for maybe they wouldn't see each other anymore. Then, Edric departed with the rest of the riders, leaving Brienne on her own, riding up north. Maybe Jaime had joined the Night's Watch to escape his father's expectations. If so, she was most likely to meet him at the icy Wall where the known world came to an end.
So, she led her steed into more Northern lands. At the first inn, she had to exchange that horse for a dun mare after having had breakfast and spent the night there, unaware that there were also scoundrels at that very tavern, and that she'd better be careful with the rarities she carried.


one whose armour was inlaid with gilt flowers

einer, dessen Rüstung mit goldenen Blumen inkrustiert war 

uno cuya armadura tenía en incrustación flores doradas

uno, cuya armadura llevaba incrustadas flores doradas

un, dont la cuirasse était émaillée de fleurs d'or

egy harmadik katona, aranyvirágokkal díszített vértben

en man, vars rustning var prydd med blommor i guld

algú amb l'armadura encastada de flors daurades


Mivel hogy nem szép, nem is hasznos többé – jelentette ki a művészetek egyetemi professzora.
--Lo que carece de belleza es inútil --afirmó el profesor de Estética de la Universidad.

 a lo que le sigue una crítica ante la afirmación del profesor de estética según la cual lo que carece de belleza es inútil; De este modo, al amor en el dolor se le suma la idea de la muerte que cuestiona una vez más el esteticismo y la utilidad. Más que una crítica a la afirmación de la acción sin interés, cuestiona el sentido del común.