God grants a fish, a bird, a beast, a brook?"
This character compares life to a flowering almond tree which, blooming too early, dies at the first cold wind, and his last action is to imprison a soldier who helped free him. His first soliloquy describes a silver serpent among flowers as well as a feathered posy and asks "What law... can decree... that man alone should never know the joys... God grants a fish, a bird, a beast, a brook?" His "inborn rage" is first quieted when he meets a Russian girl disguised as a male who gives him a sword. After being twice drugged and manhandling Astolfo for touching his future wife Estrella, he is chained to a tower guarded by the general Clotaldo at the behest of his father. After a revolution, this lover of Rosaura convinces his father Basilio to relinquish the throne of Poland. For 10 points, name this prince who claims "this life is but a dream" in a play by Pedro Calderón de la Barca.
This character compares life to a flowering almond tree which, blooming too early, dies at the first cold wind, and his last action is to imprison a soldier who helped free him.
{Segismundo} [or {Sigismund}]