Bed of roses

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, which refers to a bed of roses prepared by Clytemnestra for her husband Agamemnon who had returned from the Trojan War (Iliad) in order to deceive and kill him while he was relaxing; or some sources cite that he was pierced and killed by the thorns of roses. Thus "Bed of roses" generally represent a very happy careless life, e.g., which can end tragically at any moment "Just because you sleep on a bed of roses," "Just because you've got an easy life." This idiomatic expression is still popular in English language and its examples can be found in news time to time. Here is one good example of this phrase, The life of the royal family is a bed of roses in Great Britain.^[1]

Originally from Homer's Iliad, 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

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;

In popular culture

• Bed of Roses (1996 film)—A 1996 romance film
• "Bed of Roses"—A 1989 Mondo Rock (Ross Wilson) song
• "Bed of Roses"—A 1993 Bon Jovi song
• "Bed of Rose's"—A 1971 Statler Brothers song
• Bed of Roses (1933 film)—A 1933 comedy film
• "Bed of Roses"—A song by Mindless Self Indulgence
• Bed of Roses (TV series)—An Australian television drama series
• "A Bed of Roses", a poem by Patti Smith from her 1996 book The Coral Sea
• A single by 1990s Grunge band Screaming Trees from the 1991 Studio album Uncle Anesthesia.
• Bed of Roses - a 2009 book, author Nora Roberts

References