Previous
Jane Pilkings
The praise-singer is a man who accompanies Elesin and acts as his conscience and spiritual guide. After Elesin is gone, the praise-singer will be the one responsible for singing about Elesin so that future generations remember him and know who he was. He and Elesin appear to be extremely close and the praise-singer is sad to lose Elesin to the afterlife; he offers to accept Elesin back with open arms if the gods and dead kings on the other side don't properly honor Elesin. As Elesin's moral compass, the praise-singer offers warnings about taking a bride and spending so much time with women, and he leads the dancing and chanting as Elesin dances closer to death.
The Praise-Singer Quotes in Death and the King’s Horseman
The Death and the King’s Horseman quotes below are all either spoken by The Praise-Singer or refer to The Praise-Singer. For each quote, you can also see the other characters and themes related to it (each theme is indicated by its own dot and icon, like this one:
).
Act 1 Quotes
Praise-Singer: They love to spoil you but beware. The hands of women also weaken the unwary.
Elesin: This night I'll lay my head upon their lap and go to sleep. This night I'll touch feet with their feet in a dance that is no longer of this earth. But the smell of their flesh, their sweat, the smell of indigo on their cloth, this is the last air I wish to breathe as I go to meet my great forebears.
Related Characters:
Related Themes:
Page Number and Citation:
Explanation and Analysis:
Ah, companions of this living world
What a thing it is, that even those
We call immortal
Should fear to die.
Related Characters:
Related Themes:
Page Number and Citation:
Explanation and Analysis:
Praise-Singer: I say you are that man who
Chanced upon the calabash of honour
You thought it was palm wine and
Drained its contents to the final drop.
Elesin: Life has an end. A life that will outlive
Fame and friendship begs another name.
What elder takes his tongue to his plate,
Licks it clean of every crumb? He will encounter
Silence when he calls on children to fulfill
The smallest errand! Life is honour.
It ends when honour ends.
Related Characters:
Related Themes:
Page Number and Citation:
Explanation and Analysis:
Act 3 Quotes
But will they know you over there? Have they eyes to gauge your worth, have they the heart to love you, will they know what thoroughbred prances towards them in caparisons of honor? If they do not Elesin, if any there cuts your yam with a small knife, or pours you wine in a small calabash, turn back and return to welcoming hands.
Related Characters:
Related Themes:
Page Number and Citation:
Explanation and Analysis:
Get the entire Death and the King’s Horseman LitChart as a printable PDF.
"My students can't get enough of your charts and their results have gone through the roof." -Graham S.
The Praise-Singer Character Timeline in Death and the King’s Horseman
The timeline below shows where the character The Praise-Singer appears in Death and the King’s Horseman. The colored dots and icons indicate which themes are associated with that appearance.
Act 1
...up for the day, Elesin dances through it and sings, accompanied by drummers and his praise-singer. The praise-singer teases Elesin about racing too quickly toward the women in the market and...
(full context)
Elesin assures the praise-singer that he doesn't need him to accompany him to the afterlife; instead, the praise-singer needs...
(full context)
Elesin and his praise-singer discuss that the world has never "wrenched from its true course," despite the city's history...
(full context)
The women in the market and the praise-singer ask Elesin if there's anything that will keep him from dying, but Elesin assures them...
(full context)
...his body should "be taken for a vagrant's." The women are still baffled, and the praise-singer tells Elesin to tell them what they need to do. Elesin says that a man...
(full context)
...fantastic farewell for him, unless he's already dead. He asks the surrounding women and the praise-singer if he's still in the market, or if he's gone. The praise-singer is concerned by...
(full context)
...hid a beautiful woman in a tree, he'd choose that tree to camp under. The praise-singer says that Elesin certainly has a reputation. He reminisces about the time that they caught...
(full context)
Act 3
The praise-singer asks Elesin if he can hear his voice and if Elesin's memory is still sound....
(full context)
The praise-singer again asks Elesin if Elesin can hear him, but Elesin seems deep in his trance....
(full context)
Act 5
...down, form a circle around it, and continue to chant with the drummer and the praise-singer. Pilkings asks what the object is, and Iyaloja says that it's the burden Pilkings made....
(full context)
The praise-singer reminds Elesin of how he said that if he cannot come, to ask his horse...
(full context)
The praise-singer tells Elesin that they gave him the power to keep the world in line, but...
(full context)
