A young Hercules, who created the whole Milky Way and all the lilies of earth stands in front of Tintoretto’s famous painting of the origin of the Milky Way (the original hangs in the National Gallery in London)..  Hercules’ favorite lily is Lillie Langtry, the “most beautiful woman in all the world”.  He tells her story in song, beginning with her birth on the island of Jersey, her childhood pranks with her younger brother Reggie, who dies at a young age, marriage to the yachtsman Edward, fame in London, heartbreak at the birth of a daughter she was unable to claim as her mother until the child was a teenager, and success in America as an actress and vintner.  With her marriage to Hugo de Bathe after Edward’s death, she becomes Lady Lillie Langtry de Bathe. Lillie sells the Guenoc property, plays her farewell performance in New Orleans, visits Langtry, Texas, and comes to an understanding with her daughter, who arranges for Lillie to meet her granddaughter, Mary, to whom she gives a bicycle. Lillie retires to Monaco where she wins prizes as a florist, writes her memoirs and dies in 1929. Hercules returns to throw her star into the heavens to sparkle eternally.

Lillie Langtry, remembered for her dalliance with the Prince of Wales as much as for her acting qualities, became an icon of the pre-Raphaelite era and was painted by many of the significant artists of the late Eighteenth Century. She owned Guenoc vineyards from 1888 to 1906, bottling wine with her image on the labels. Edward VII asked her for tips on the horse races, Oscar Wilde asked her not to wear hip boots as Rosalind in As You Like It, and we jog in Jersey cloth thanks to the influence of the Jersey Lily.