When I was alive and had a human heart,
I did not know what tears were,
for I lived in the Palace of Sans-Souci,
where sorrow is not allowed to enter.
In the daytime I played with my companions in the garden,
and in the evening I led the dance in the great hall.
Round the garden ran a very lofty wall,
but I never cared to ask what lay beyond it,
everything about me was so beautiful.
My courtiers called me the Happy Prince,
and happy indeed I was, if pleasure be happiness.
So I lived, and so I died.
And now that I am dead they have set me up here so high that I can see all the ugliness and all the misery of my city,
and though my heart is made of lead yet I cannot choose but weep…
— The Happy Prince (Oscar Wilde)
The Scribes Legacy 