What do paupers have in common with royalty

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In the ancient city of London, on a certain autumn day in the second quarter of the sixteenth century, a boy was born to a poor family of the name of Canty, who did not want him.

On the same day another English child was born to a rich family of the name of Tudor, who did want him. All England wanted him too. England had so longed for him, and hoped for him, and prayed God for him, that, now that he was really come, the people went nearly mad for joy.

Mere acquaintances hugged and kissed each other and cried. Everybody took a holiday, and high and low, rich and poor, feasted and danced and sang, and got very mellow; and they kept this up for days and nights together. By day, London was a sight to see, with gay banners waving from every balcony and housetop, and splendid pageants marching along. By night, it was again a sight to see, with its great bonfires at every corner, and its troops of revellers making merry around them.

There was no talk in all England but of the new baby, Edward Tudor, Prince of Wales, who lay lapped in silks and satins, unconscious of all this fuss, and not knowing that great lords and ladies were tending him and watching over him—and not caring, either.

But there was no talk about the other baby, Tom Canty, lapped in his poor rags, except among the family of paupers whom he had just come to trouble with his presence. Chapter II. Tom's early life. Let us skip a number of years.

Tom's life went along well enough, especially in summer. He only begged just enough to save himself, for the laws against mendicancy were stringent, and the penalties heavy; so he put in a good deal of his time listening to good Father Andrew's charming old tales and legends about giants and fairies, dwarfs and genii, and enchanted castles, and gorgeous kings and princes. His head grew to be full of these wonderful things, and many a night as he lay in the dark on his scant and offensive straw, tired, hungry, and smarting from a thrashing, he unleashed his imagination and soon forgot his aches and pains in delicious picturings to himself of the charmed life of a petted prince in a regal palace.

One desire came in time to haunt him day and night: it was to see a real prince, with his own eyes. He spoke of it once to some of his Offal Court comrades; but they jeered him and scoffed him so unmercifully that he was glad to keep his dream to himself after that By-and-by Tom's reading and dreaming about princely life wrought such a strong effect upon him that he began to act the prince, unconsciously.

His speech and manners became curiously ceremonious and courtly, to the vast admiration and amusement of his intimates. But Tom's influence among these young people began to grow now, day by day; and in time he came to be looked up to, by them, with a sort of wondering awe, as a superior being.

He seemed to know so much! And besides all the poor folks who anticipate the pomp and ceremony, there are just as many nobles and their ladies who also look forward to the coronation. Indeed, the vast sea of diamonds and other jewels glitter so brilliantly that one can hardly see. Finally, in all of this grand ceremony, the Archbishop of Canterbury finally lifts the crown above the head of the "trembling mockking" and, at that moment, from a hiding place, a boy appears; he is "bareheaded, ill-shod, and clothed in coarse garments.

I am the king! There is sudden panic everywhere. Then the Lord Protector recovers his self-control and instructs the assembly to "mind not his majesty, his malady is upon him again-seize the vagabond. Tom Canty then approaches Edward and swears fealty to him. It is then that the Lord Protector and others notice the amazing similarity between the two boys.

The Lord Protector then has an idea: he asks Edward — if he be king — the whereabouts of the Great Seal of England which has never been found, for, he says, ". After awhile, however, the Lord St. John returns with horrifying news: "Sire the Seal is not there!

He asks Edward to recall the first day that they met and to remember all the details about that day. The king can remember almost everything, but he has to be prompted on a few details. For example, Tom reminds him how they exchanged clothes and, afterward, when the king noticed Tom's injured hand, he rushed forth from the royal palace.

But before he did so, he looked for a place to put the Great Seal. It is then that the young king remembers where he put the Seal! He instructs the Lord St. John to go to the Milanese armor and look in the arm piece; there, he will find the Great Seal.

The Lord St. John leaves and returns with the Seal, and everyone acknowledges Edward as the "true king. He reminds his uncle, the Lord Protector, that his conduct is not becoming to him because it was through Tom Canty that he became a duke and, tomorrow, he must "sue to me, through him, for its confirmation, else no duke, but a simple earl, shalt thou remain. Edward then turns to Tom and asks him how he knew where the Great Seal was; Tom blushes and explains that without realizing its true function, he had been using it all this time as a nutcracker!

The subject matter specifically allowed Twain to utilize his vast knowledge of history and biography, two subjects which occupied much of Twain's reading time, and this novel also allowed him to meditate on the injustices inherent in human nature or "the damned human race," as it was termed in his later work, The Mysterious Stranger. The subject matter also allowed Twain to indulge in one of his favorite pastimes — using a language different from that used by either the common people or the educated people; the idioms and dialects of Tom Sawyer and Huck Finn and the archaic language of The Prince and the Pauper and A Connecticut Yankee are all illustrations of Twain's penchant for utilizing different sorts of language.

The Prince and the Pauper is also Twain's most elaborately plotted novel. Seemingly an insignificant incident, the whereabouts of the Great Seal of England, becomes the key to the real identity of the new king. Likewise, Tom's knowledge of Latin and his early role as a friend and counselor to the people of Offal Court influence his actions later as the surrogate king.

The prince wanders in rags and hardships and the pauper suffers the to him horrible miseries of princedom, up to the moment of crowning in Westminster Abbey, when proof is brought and the mistake rectified.

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