The Prince and the Pauper (23 page)

COMMENTS & QUESTIONS

In this section, we aim to provide the reader with an array of perspectives on the text, as well as questions that challenge those perspectives. The commentary has been culled from sources as diverse as reviews contemporaneous with the work, letters written by the author, literary criticism of later generations, and appreciations written throughout the work’s history. Following the commentary, a series of questions seeks to filter Mark Twain’s The Prince and the Pauper through a variety of points of view and bring about a richer understanding of this enduring work.

COMMENTS

H. H. BOYESEN

So far as Mark Twain is concerned, [The Prince and the Pauper] is an entirely new departure; so much so as to make it appear inappropriate to reckon it among that writer’s works. It is indisputably by Clemens; it does not seem to be by Twain,—certainly not by the Twain we have known for a dozen or more years as the boisterous and rollicking humorist, whose chief function has been to diffuse hilarity throughout English-reading communities and make himself synonymous with mirth in its most demonstrative forms. Humor, in quite sufficient proportion, this tale does assuredly contain; but it is a humor growing freely and spontaneously out of the situations represented,—a sympathetic element, which appeals sometimes shrewdly, sometimes sweetly, to the senses, and is never intrusive or unduly prominent; sometimes, indeed, a humor so tender and subdued as to surprise those who are under its spell with doubts whether smiles or tears shall be summoned to express the passing emotion.

—
Atlantic Monthly
(December 1881)

ATHENEUM

To the innumerable admirers of
Roughing It and A
Tramp Abroad,
The Prince and the Pauper
is likely to prove a heavy disappointment. The author, a noted representative of American humour, has essayed to achieve a serious book. The consequences are at once disastrous and amazing. The volume, which deals with England in the days of Edward VI., and is announced as “A Tale for Young People of All Ages,” is only to be described as some four hundred pages of careful tediousness, mitigated by occasional flashes of unintentional and unconscious fun. Thus Mr. Clements, who has evidently been reading history, and is anxious about local colour, not only makes a point of quoting documents, and parading authorities, and being fearfully in earnest, but does so with a look of gravity and an evident sense of responsibility that are really delicious. On the whole, however, of Mr. Clements’s many jokes,
The Prince and the Pauper
is incomparably the flattest and worst. To this, as a general reflection it may be added that if to convert a brilliant and engaging humourist into a dull and painful romancer be necessarily a function of the study of history, it cannot be too steadily discouraged.

—December 24, 1881

JOEL CHANDLER HARRIS

The book comes upon the reading public in the shape of a revelation. Mr. Clemens is known wherever the English language is spoken as the foremost exponent of that species of humor which is peculiar enough to be called American, but which, in reality, is the humor of the broadest, and wildest, and most boisterous burlesque. Of this humor, “The Jumping Frog” is a fair specimen. In this field and in this vein, Mr. Clemens is without rival, albeit a host of writers have sprung up to pay him the tribute of imitation. In
The Prince
and the Pauper, however, he has made a wide departure from his old methods—so much so that the contrast presents a phase of literary development unique in its proportions and suggestions. The wild western burlesquer, the builder of elephantine exaggerations and comicalities has disappeared, and in his stead we have the true literary artist. All that is really vital in the wild humor of Mark Twain is here, but it is strengthened and refined. The incongruities are nature’s own, and they are handled with marvelous skill and deftness.

—
Atlanta
Constitution
(December 25, 1881)

WILLIAM DEAN HOWELLS

[Twain’s] powers as a story-teller were evident in hundreds of brief sketches before he proved them in
Tom Sawyer
and
The Prince and the Pauper
. Both of these books, aside from the strength of characterization, are fascinating as mere narratives, and I can think of no living writer who has in higher degree the art of interesting his reader from the first word. This is a far rarer gift than we imagine, and I shall not call it a subordinate charm in Mark Twain’s books, rich as they otherwise are.

—Century
(September 1882)

Questions

1. In literature, deviations from plausible reality are sometimes caused by the author’s inattention or ignorance. Sometimes the writer wants to achieve satire or burlesque, allegory or symbolism. Which do you think is the case here?

2. The subtitle of
The Prince and the Pauper
is “A Tale for Young People of All Ages.” What can such a description mean? Would the book be better if it had been written expressly for young or for mature readers?

3. Who or what does Twain blame for the poverty, crime, and misery in this novel?

4. Do you see the novel as a satire of idealized or romanticized fictions about the “merrie olde England” of the medieval and renaissance periods?

5. Is Twain’s depiction of Tudor England convincing? Is it convincing only for people who do not have expert knowledge of the era? How does Twain achieve plausibility for the rest of us? When he fails, what causes the failure?

6. Would you say this novel has a motive? Does it try to make a point? Does it try to convince us about something? Warn us about something? Criticize or advocate something? Or do you think Twain’s purpose was simply to tell a good story, make money, or prove he was not just a humorist?

FOR FURTHER READING

Camfield, Gregg, ed.
The Oxford Companion to Mark Twain.
New York: Oxford University Press, 2003. A new and excellent encyclopedic volume on all aspects of Twain’s life and career.

Fishkin, Shelley Fisher, ed.
A
Historical Guide to Mark Twain.
New York: Oxford University Press, 2002. A volume that places Twain in historical context.

Kaplan, Fred.
The Singular Mark
Twain: A Biography.
New York: Doubleday, 2003. The latest and most comprehensive biography of Mark Twain.

Kaplan, Justin. Mark Twain and His World. New York: Simon and Schuster, 1974. A lively illustrated overview of Twain’s life and times.

.
Mr.
Clemens
and Mark Twain
. New York: Simon and Schuster, 1966. A classic biography on a classic subject; winner of the 1967 Pulitzer Prize for biography.

Robinson, Forrest G., ed.
The Cambridge Companion to Mark Twain.
New York: Cambridge University Press, 1995. A thoughtful collection of critical essays.

Ward, Geoffrey, ed. Mark Twain. New York: Alfred A. Knopf, 2001. A companion to the recent PBS documentary directed by Ken Burns.

a

Parker was not a cranky, old-fashioned New England divine. He was the first Congregationalist minister in the Northeast to celebrate Christmas.

b

Play on words:
Offal
refers to the entrails and internal organs of a slaughtered animal;
pudding,
in this case, is archaic slang for “offal.”

c

The practice of begging.

d

Soft cloth or leather boots.

e

Raiment
is an archaic term for clothing;
lackeys
are male servants, especially foot-men in livery (uniform).

^t
Archaic term for keeper of small amounts of money.

f

See Twain’s note 1, p. 211.

^t
Indeed; Tudor- and Elizabethan-era oath derived from the practice of swearing by the Virgin Mary.

^‡
Gallows; also used to display the dead body of the executed.

g

See Twain’s note 2, p. 211.

h

Archaic form of “perhaps.”

i

See Twain’s note 3, p. 211.

j

Curse me.

k

Starched frilled or pleated collar of lace, muslin, or other fine fabric worn by men and women in the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries.

l

See Twain’s note 4, p. 212.

m

See Twain’s note 5, p. 212.

n

Richly embroidered tapestry or other fabric, named for the French town of its origin.

o

Soldiers armed with halberds—that is, long-handled weapons equipped with both spear and battle-ax.

^t
Loose, embroidered tunic worn over armor and emblazoned with the wearer’s coat of arms.

‡ Or miniver; white fur used to trim the edges of ceremonial costumes.

§
Pourpoints
are quilted military doublets (closefitting jackets);
damask
is a patterned fabric of silk, linen, wool, or cotton.

p

Hunting breeches (French).

q

Rendered fat of horses, cattle, sheep, or pigs, used in cheap candles and soaps.

^†
Unkempt; slovenly.

r

Low, slapstick pantomimes.

s

Infect, or corrupt; a canker is a rotting or spreading sore.

^†
Loyal; faithful.

t

See Twain’s note 6, p. 212.

u

Closefitting jackets, with or without sleeves.

v

Archaic form of mummery (see footnote on p. 54).

w

See Twain’s note 7, pp. 212-213.

x

Thin mucous discharges; similar to
humors,
thought in Tudor times to cause disease.

y

He refers to the order of baronets, or baronettes,—the
barones minores,
as distinct from the parliamentary barons;—not, it need hardly be said, the baronets of later creation (Twain’s note).

z

The lords of Kingsale, descendants of De Courcy, still enjoy this curious privilege (Twain’s note).

aa

Misled or deceived through trickery.

ab

Hume (Twain’s note).

^†
Hume (Twain’s note).

ac

See Twain’s note 8, p. 213.

ad

Certainly; truly (archaic).

ae

See Twain’s notes to chapter XV, p. 213.

af

Leigh Hunt’s
The Town,
p. 408. Quotation from an early tourist (Twain’s note).

ag

From “The English Rogue”: London, 1665 (Twain’s note).

t Canting terms for various kinds of thieves, beggars, and vagabonds and their female companions (Twain’s note).

ah

See Twain’s note 10, p. 214.

ai

In truth! Indeed!

aj

Fire made of twigs and sticks.

ak

That is, a miniscule sum; a farthing is a former English coin worth about a quarter of a penny.

al

Clumsy.

^t
Wooden weapons used in hand-to-hand combat: A
singlestick
is a sword-length piece of wood fitted with a hand guard; a
quarterstaff
is a stout, eight- to nine-foot staff traditionally held at the middle of its length.

am

From “The English Rogue”: London, 1665 (Twain’s note).

an

Thirteen and a half pennies; one and a half pennies more than a shilling (former English coin equal to twelve pence).

ao

See Twain’s notes to chapter XXIII, pp. 214-215.

ap

Gibberish Latin meaning, “Not of sound mind law of retaliation thus passes the glory of the world.”

^t
Gibberish Latin meaning, “To the person purify the existing state of affairs.”

aq

Rude rustic man; churl.

ar

See Twain’s notes to chapter XXVII, p. 215.

as

Hume’s England (Twain’s note).

at

See Twain’s notes to chapter XXXIII, pp. 215-217.

au

See Dr. J. Hammond Trumbull’s Blue Laws, True and False, p. 11 (Twain’s note).