A decline and fall story for the eponymous character told by his personal physician who needs to cover his training expenses and likes the comforts of his court position. As the prince has no real judgement or connection to realities and is utterly emotionally absorbed by his unfaithful mistress, the clear absence of hope for him is demonstrated by clumsy, backfiring efforts to save his rule based almost entirely on utter fantasy. For the physician there may be hope, but there isn't a lot that he will follow his better intentions. Long, without much in the way of flow, I suspect it was (self-righteous) prurient interest, not much satisfied, that gave this what popularity it had, but it is a portrait of life in an utterly corrupt and reality deficient administration and how it exhausts any positive intention. ( )