Week 13 Reading B: The Rustic and the Nightingale

The Rustic and the Nightingale:

A Nightingale in a rose tree. This image is used for a fairy tales by Oscar Wilde titled,
"The Nightingale and the Rose." I thought it was fitting for this story.
Source: Memoria Press

• Summary:
• There once was a rustic who had a beautiful garden that was filled with beautiful plants, but the rustic's prized plant was his rose tree that grew the most beautiful and fragrant blossoms in the garden. This was his pride and joy. Every morning the rustic would walk among his flowers and bring the tree water. In the winter, he would even cover the ground beneath the tree with straw to protect its roots. One morning when the rustic was bringing the tree water, he noticed a nightingale playing with a bloom on his rose tree. He became angry and ran the bird off. The next morning, the nightingale was back in the tree, but this time the rustic noticed petal on the ground. He was livid and ran the bird off, but this time, he decided to set a snare to catch the bird and prevent further damage to his beloved tree. The next morning, he saw the nightingale was caught. She was flying around the cage frantically. The rustic carried the nightingale to his home. When they arrived, the nightingales asked why he had captured her. He told her it was because she was plucking petals from his roses. She told him that it was foolish to lock her up for life when she was thoughtlessly picking petals. She told that if he did not let her go, she would die of a broken heart. The rustic's heart was touched and he let the nightingale go. To show her thanks, she told the rustic where a pot of gold was so he could use it for his garden.
• My ideas:
• I really liked this story. I liked how an animal was incorporated and that dialogue was involved. I also liked how the rustic showed mercy on the poor nightingale. I feel like a lot of the stories that I have read this semester, a person that shows mercy is usually rewarded, and this story continued to follow the pattern. I think it would have been cool if the nightingale was a god and she would have made the rustic god of roses or something cool like that. I think I will change the perspective of the story and have the nightingale tell it in her perspective. Maybe she will be a god. There are a lot of options with this story.
• Bibliography:  "The Rustic and the Nightingale" from The Tortoise and the Geese and Other Fables of Bidpai by Maude Barrows Dutton. Source.