The Prince and the Pauper
Mark Twain (1835-1910)
Tom Canty, the pauper of Offal Court, and Edward Tudor, Prince of Wales, born the same day and alike to the life, meet at the palace gate and change clothes for a game - and then the prince is thrown out of his own palace as a beggar while Tom is taken for mad when he insists he is not king. Twain uses the swap for both satire and sweetness: Tom, well-meaning, reforms the cruelties of the court from the throne, while Edward, thrown among his subjects, learns what his laws do to them. Miles Hendon, the disgraced soldier who shelters the boy-king without believing a word of his story, is one of Twain's best-beloved characters.
Text sourced from Project Gutenberg (public domain in the United States); the Project Gutenberg trademark and license text have been removed on import. Public-domain status determined by the author's death year + 50 years rule.
Table of Contents
- 001 Produced by David Widger. 2635 words
- 002 Privately, after a while, Tom organised a royal court! 2522 words
- 003 “Take that, thou beggar’s spawn, for what thou got’st me from his… 2546 words
- 004 “I pray thee of thy grace believe me, I did but speak the truth, most… 2613 words
- 005 There was a pause now, a sort of waiting silence which Tom could not understand. 2509 words
- 006 His voice failed; an ashen pallor swept the flush from his cheeks… 2515 words
- 007 “Now,” said Canty, “to bed, all of ye. 2679 words
- 008 And while Tom, in his high seat, was gazing upon this ‘wild’ dancing… 2600 words
- 009 “Thou art good to me, yes, thou art very good to me. 2603 words
- 010 And so he had. He did as men have always done, and probably always… 2538 words
- 011 “We be going to the dogs, ’tis plain. 2614 words
- 012 Still, nothing could stop that fourth day, and so it came. 2503 words
- 013 “The law doth not permit a child to make or meddle in any weighty… 2511 words
- 014 Hobbs and Hugo fell to talking together, in low voices, and the King… 2534 words
- 015 CHAPTER XVIII. The Prince with the Tramps. The troop of vagabonds… 2526 words
- 016 While stroking its sleek warm back--for it lay near him and within… 2563 words
- 017 And how glad he was when at last he caught the glimmer of a light! 2529 words
- 018 “O good sir, peradventure you mean the ragged regal vagrant that tarried here the night. 2523 words
- 019 Hugo had seen enough--his enemy was captured and the law would get… 2538 words
- 020 The next day, and the day after, they jogged lazily along talking… 2510 words
- 021 The next moment Sir Miles’s thoughts had gone back to the recent episode. 2518 words
- 022 This news struck his Majesty dumb with amazement, and plunged him… 2566 words
- 023 Hendon made no outcry under the scourge, but bore the heavy blows… 2527 words
- 024 In Fenchurch Street a ‘fair child, in costly apparel,’ stood on a… 2546 words
- 025 Now the robed and mitred great heads of the church, and their… 2560 words
- 026 “Long live the true King!” For five minutes the air quaked with… 2548 words
- 027 “Oh, body o’ me! _this_ my pauper! This my lunatic! This is he whom… 2523 words
- 028 NOTES to Chapter XXIII. Death for Trifling Larcenies. When… 1160 words