Do you do you think that the prince was selfish in asking the swallow to stay back even though he knew that the winter was dangerous for the swallow?

To some extent, the prince acts selfishly by encouraging the swallow to stay behind in the deadly winter weather. Although all his friends have emigrated to Egypt, the swallow remains behind after falling in love with a river reed. Later in autumn, he tires of his lover and finally starts on his journey to Egypt. However, he does not make it past the prince’s city. He stops in the city for an overnight stay, his choice resting place being the prince’s statue. It is while he is resting at the foot of the statue that he is introduced to the Happy Prince, who’s crying because he is unable to help the destitute of his city: “When I was alive and had a human heart, I did not know what tears were, for I lived in the palace of Sans-Souci, where sorrow is not allowed to enter . . . so I lived and so I died. And now that I am dead they have set me up here so high that I can see the ugliness and all the misery of my city, and though my heart is made of lead yet I cannot choose but weep.” The prince then requests the swallow to run three errands: the first is to take a ruby to the seamstress whose son is very sick and needs oranges; the second is to take a sapphire to a young poor playwright; the third is to take another sapphire to a poor little match girl. The precious stones come from various parts of the prince's body. At the end of the three days that it takes to complete the assignments, the swallow decides not to go to Egypt after all. The prince then asks the swallow to take away “leaf after leaf of the fine gold” that covers his body to give to the poor of the city. Meanwhile, the weather becomes colder as the snow falls. The swallow becomes so cold that he finally dies. It is important to note that when the swallow dies, the prince’s leaden heart cracks into two. The prince is heartbroken; he too dies with his friend, the swallow. The swallow dies of the cold because he spends his precious time doing errands given to him by the prince. The story suggests that there were also sparrows in the city. Sparrows are winter birds—thus, they can survive the cold and frost. Perhaps the prince could have used the sparrows to achieve his goal. But then again, it seems that it is only the swallow who stops by the prince’s statue. The errands that the swallow runs are kindly acts done to help poor people. Thus, both the prince and the swallow exhibit great kindness in their actions.
Again, one can say that the prince is not intentionally selfish, as he urges the swallow to get on with his journey to Egypt after completing three errands. However, the swallow makes the choice to stay.