The Prince and the Pauper

When we think of Mark Twain, the books that come to mind are probably Tom Sawyer and Huckleberry Finn but another book written in 1882 is my favourite. I first read it as a child and then many, many years later as an adult and still found myself enjoying the book. The Prince and The Pauper revolves around the young prince Edward VI, son of Henry VIII from his third wife, Jane Seymour.

Will a twenty-first century reader enjoy this book written in 1882 and set in 1537? Definitely, because replace the prince with any scion of a Fortune 500 billionaire and the pauper with a boy from our urban slums and the reader will find that nothing has changed in the intervening two centuries. The streets are lined with slums “packed full of wretchedly poor families”. The prince making his way through these slums, friendless and abused, learns first hand about their  “bitterness, heartbreak, and tears”. He witnesses the harshness of a judicial system where people are convicted on flimsy evidence and burned at the stake, pilloried, and flogged. A distraught prince exclaims:

 “That which I have seen, in that little moment, will never go out from my memory, but will abide there; and I shall see it all the days, and dream of it all the nights, till I die. Would God I had been blind!

I am probably giving a wrong impression about the book. For all its grim portrayal of poverty and misery, the mood is not tragic. There is swashbuckling adventure which this poster with the so droolworthy Errol Flynn highlights

Here is an episode from the book:

Early in the story, Miles Hendon after rescuing the prince, whom he knows only as a poor wretched stripling, is forced to stand because protocol dictates that no subject sit in the presence of the king. When permitted to ask for a boon, he quickly asks for the right to sit. The bedraggled boy whom Hendon thinks is mad grants the petition solemnly “Whilst England remains and the crown continues, the privilege shall not lapse”.

The time comes after the young boy regains his throne, an astounded Hendon unable to believe his eyes, pulls a chair and sits down to the outrage of the court.

 A buzz of indignation broke out, a rough hand was laid upon him and a voice exclaimed–

 “Up, thou mannerless clown! would’st sit in the presence of the King?”

 The disturbance attracted his Majesty’s attention, who stretched forth his hand and cried out–

 “Touch him not, it is his right!”

 The throng fell back, stupefied.  The King went on–

 “Learn ye all, ladies, lords, and gentlemen, that this is my trusty and well-beloved servant, Miles Hendon, who interposed his good sword and saved his prince from bodily harm and possible death–and for this he is a knight, by the King’s voice.  Also learn, that for a higher service, in that he saved his sovereign stripes and shame, taking these upon himself, he is a peer of England, Earl of Kent, and shall have gold and lands meet for the dignity.  More–the privilege which he hath just exercised is his by royal grant; for we have ordained that the chiefs of his line shall have and hold the right to sit in the presence of the Majesty of England henceforth, age after age, so long as the crown shall endure.  Molest him not.”

There are plenty of ha-ha moments too.  The royal antics of the young prince are a never ending source of merriment. Okay, maybe not the rolling in the aisle kind of laughter but the comic confusion of mistaken identity fills the book.  Twain could not make the boys twins because then there would be another claimant to the throne. This does not stop him from making the two boys so alike that not even their families notice the switch.

 At a time marked by great cruelty and harsh laws, the short reign of Edward VI, who ascended the throne at the young age of nine, was benevolent and peaceful. The cause could be this story which Twain tells us “may not have happened, but could have happened”.  As the young king tells a lord demanding harsh punishment “What dost thou know of suffering and oppression? I and my people know, but not thou.”

Mark Twain too knew something about hardship. He was forced to leave school at the age of twelve when his father died and educated himself in public libraries while working. It is this boy that went on to be lauded as the “Father of American Literature”.

Language Lesson

Tip 27: How to insult without using swear words or abusive language – A Free Course from Mark Twain:

Politicians and Diapers must be changed often, and for the same reason.

Man is the only animal that blushes or needs to.

To be good is noble; but to show others how to be good is nobler and less trouble.

A banker lends you his umbrella when the sun is shining but wants it back the minute it begins to rain.

I didn’t attend the funeral, but I sent a nice letter saying I approved of it.