A further commentary upon the Briar Rose series, in which an armed Prince has made his way through briars and now looks upon a maiden behind bars who mournfully returns his gaze. Here Burne-Jones has created a further barrier to the Prince on his quest. This may be an episode from Arthurian legend. Burne-Jones made continual references throughout his work to barriers between the sexes, as in his illustration to The Knight's Tale "Emilia in the garden, viewed by the brothers" and the design for a silver book cover and watercolour both titled "If hope were not Heart should Break" , and this drawing all dating from the 1890s. The idea suggested by the the thirteenth century proverb "If hope were not Heart should Break" first inspired a work in 1862 entitled Hope (inscribed with the motto) (Owned in 1957 by the Duke of Wellington).