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Bed of roses

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
In Comforts of a Bed of Roses (1806), James Gillray caricatured Charles James Fox in the last few months of his life, which were neither easy nor peaceful.

Bed of roses is an English expression that represents a carefree life. This idiomatic expression is still popular.[1][2]

In the thirteenth-century work Le Roman de la Rose (called "The French Iliad" in Brewer's Dictionary of Phrase and Fable), a Lover recounts his dream of touring a garden and finding a beautiful bed of roses by the Fountain of Love.

The expression is also used by later poets. Here is a line in Christopher Marlowe's poem The Passionate Shepherd to His Love. This was published posthumously in 1599; Marlowe died in 1593, stabbed to death[3]

And I will make thee beds of roses

And a thousand fragrant posies,
A cap of flowers, and a kirtle

Embroidered all with leaves of myrtle;

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References

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  1. ^ "a bed of roses idiom". The Idioms.
  2. ^ "a bed of roses". TheFreeDictionary.com. Retrieved 2019-08-19.
  3. ^ "Roman de la rose | French poem". Encyclopedia Britannica. Retrieved 2019-08-19.