Listen, your Majesty. You’re a king. You want to marry that resistant shepherdess? Keep her in prison and feed her bread and water. Then see if she continues to refuse you. If she does, have her head cut off. You’ve got to start teaching people to respect and obey you. Otherwise you’ll have no power.

Don’t you understand? If you can’t make a mere shepherdess do your bidding, your subjects will soon forget that we are their masters, and that they are only put into the world for our pleasure.

The King’s Evil Advisor in Prince Darling, Blue Fairy Book. Painting by Edward Burne-Jones.

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