THE PRINCE AND THE PAUPER by Mark Twain Part 1. Hugh Latimer Bishop of Worcester to Lord Cromwell on the birth of the Prince of Wales (afterward Edward VI.). From the National Manuscripts preserved by the British Government. Ryght honorable Salutem in Christo Jesu and Syr here ys no lesse joynge and rejossynge in thes partees for the byrth of our prynce hoom we hungurde for so longe then ther was (I trow) inter vicinos att the byrth of S. J. Baptyste as thys berer Master Erance can telle you. Gode gyffe us alle grace to yelde dew thankes to our Lorde Gode Gode of Inglonde for verely He hathe shoyd Hym selff Gode of Inglonde or rather an Inglyssh Gode yf we consydyr and pondyr welle alle Hys procedynges with us from tyme to tyme. He hath over cumme alle our yllnesse with Hys excedynge goodnesse so that we are now moor then compellyd to serve Hym seke Hys glory promott Hys wurde yf the Devylle of alle Devylles be natt in us. We have now the stooppe of vayne trustes ande the stey of vayne expectations; lett us alle pray for hys preservatione. Ande I for my partt wylle wyssh that hys Grace allways have and evyn now from the begynynge Governares Instructores and offyceres of ryght jugmente ne optimum ingenium non optima educatione deprevetur. Butt whatt a grett fowlle am I! So whatt devotione shoyth many tymys butt lytelle dyscretione! Ande thus the Gode of Inglonde be ever with you in alle your procedynges. The 19 of October. Youres H. L. B. of Wurcestere now att Hartlebury. Yf you wolde excytt thys berere to be moore hartye ayen the abuse of ymagry or mor forwarde to promotte the veryte ytt myght doo goode. Natt that ytt came of me butt of your selffe etc. (Addressed) To the Ryght Honorable Loorde P. Sealle hys synguler gode Lorde. To those good-mannered and agreeable children Susie and Clara Clemens this book is affectionately inscribed by their father. I will set down a tale as it was told to me by one who had it of his father which latter had it of HIS father this last having in like manner had it of HIS father--and so on back and still back three hundred years and more the fathers transmitting it to the sons and so preserving it. It may be history it may be only a legend a tradition. It may have happened it may not have happened: but it COULD have happened. It may be that the wise and the learned believed it in the old days; it may be that only the unlearned and the simple loved it and credited it. Contents. I. The birth of the Prince and the Pauper. II. Tom's early life. III. Tom's meeting with the Prince. IV. The Prince's troubles begin. V. Tom as a patrician. VI. Tom receives instructions. VII. Tom's first royal dinner. VIII. The question of the Seal. IX. The river pageant. X. The Prince in the toils. XI. At Guildhall. XII. The Prince and his deliverer. XIII. The disappearance of the Prince. XIV. 'Le Roi est mort--vive le Roi.' XV. Tom as King. XVI. The state dinner. XVII. Foo-foo the First. XVIII. The Prince with the tramps. XIX. The Prince with the peasants. XX. The Prince and the hermit. XXI. Hendon to the rescue. XXII. A victim of treachery. XXIII. The Prince a prisoner. XXIV. The escape. XXV. Hendon Hall. XXVI. Disowned. XXVII. In prison. XXVIII. The sacrifice. XXIX. To London. XXX. Tom's progress. XXXI. The Recognition procession. XXXII. Coronation Day. XXXIII. Edward as King. Conclusion. Justice and Retribution. Notes. 'The quality of mercy . . . is twice bless'd; It blesseth him that gives and him that takes; 'Tis mightiest in the mightiest: it becomes The thron-ed monarch better than his crown'. Merchant of Venice. Chapter I. The birth of the Prince and the Pauper. 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. London was fifteen hundred years old and was a great town--for that day. It had a hundred thousand inhabitants--some think double as many. The streets were very narrow and crooked and dirty especially in the part where Tom Canty lived which was not far from London Bridge. The houses were of wood with the second story projecting over the first and the third sticking its elbows out beyond the second. The higher the houses grew the broader they grew. They were skeletons of strong criss-cross beams with solid material between coated with plaster. The beams were painted red or blue or black according to the owner's taste and this gave the houses a very picturesque look. The windows were small glazed with little diamond-shaped panes and they opened outward on hinges like doors. The house which Tom's father lived in was up a foul little pocket called Offal Court out of Pudding Lane. It was small decayed and rickety but it was packed full of wretchedly poor families. Canty's tribe occupied a room on the third floor. The mother and father had a sort of bedstead in the corner; but Tom his grandmother and his two sisters Bet and Nan were not restricted--they had all the floor to themselves and might sleep where they chose. There were the remains of a blanket or two and some bundles of ancient and dirty straw but these could not rightly be called beds for they were not organised; they were kicked into a general pile mornings and selections made from the mass at night for service. Bet and Nan were fifteen years old--twins. They were good-hearted girls unclean clothed in rags and profoundly ignorant. Their mother was like them. But the father and the grandmother were a couple of fiends. They got drunk whenever they could; then they fought each other or anybody else who came in the way; they cursed and swore always drunk or sober; John Canty was a thief and his mother a beggar. They made beggars of the children but failed to make thieves of them. Among but not of the dreadful rabble that inhabited the house was a good old priest whom the King had turned out of house and home with a pension of a few farthings and he used to get the children aside and teach them right ways secretly. Father Andrew also taught Tom a little Latin and how to read and write; and would have done the same with the girls but they were afraid of the jeers of their friends who could not have endured such a queer accomplishment in them. All Offal Court was just such another hive as Canty's house. Drunkenness riot and brawling were the order there every night and nearly all night long. Broken heads were as common as hunger in that place. Yet little Tom was not unhappy. He had a hard time of it but did not know it. It was the sort of time that all the Offal Court boys had therefore he supposed it was the correct and comfortable thing. When he came home empty-handed at night he knew his father would curse him and thrash him first and that when he was done the awful grandmother would do it all over again and improve on it; and that away in the night his starving mother would slip to him stealthily with any miserable scrap or crust she had been able to save for him by going hungry herself notwithstanding she was often caught in that sort of treason and soundly beaten for it by her husband. No 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. He often read the priest's old books and got him to explain and enlarge upon them. His dreamings and readings worked certain changes in him by-and-by. His dream-people were so fine that he grew to lament his shabby clothing and his dirt and to wish to be clean and better clad. He went on playing in the mud just the same and enjoying it too; but instead of splashing around in the Thames solely for the fun of it he began to find an added value in it because of the washings and cleansings it afforded. Tom could always find something going on around the Maypole in Cheapside and at the fairs; and now and then he and the rest of London had a chance to see a military parade when some famous unfortunate was carried prisoner to the Tower by land or boat. One summer's day he saw poor Anne Askew and three men burned at the stake in Smithfield and heard an ex-Bishop preach a sermon to them which did not interest him. Yes Tom's life was varied and pleasant enough on the whole. 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 he could do and say such marvellous things! and withal he was so deep and wise! Tom's remarks and Tom's performances were reported by the boys to their elders; and these also presently began to discuss Tom Canty and to regard him as a most gifted and extraordinary creature. Full-grown people brought their perplexities to Tom for solution and were often astonished at the wit and wisdom of his decisions. In fact he was become a hero to all who knew him except his own family--these only saw nothing in him. Privately after a while Tom organised a royal court! He was the prince; his special comrades were guards chamberlains equerries lords and ladies in waiting and the royal family. Daily the mock prince was received with elaborate ceremonials borrowed by Tom from his romantic readings; daily the great affairs of the mimic kingdom were discussed in the royal council and daily his mimic highness issued decrees to his imaginary armies navies and viceroyalties. After which he would go forth in his rags and beg a few farthings eat his poor crust take his customary cuffs and abuse and then stretch himself upon his handful of foul straw and resume his empty grandeurs in his dreams. And still his desire to look just once upon a real prince in the flesh grew upon him day by day and week by week until at last it absorbed all other desires and became the one passion of his life. One January day on his usual begging tour he tramped despondently up and down the region round about Mincing Lane and Little East Cheap hour after hour bare-footed and cold looking in at cook-shop windows and longing for the dreadful pork-pies and other deadly inventions displayed there--for to him these were dainties fit for the angels; that is judging by the smell they were--for it had never been his good luck to own and eat one. There was a cold drizzle of rain; the atmosphere was murky; it was a melancholy day. At night Tom reached home so wet and tired and hungry that it was not possible for his father and grandmother to observe his forlorn condition and not be moved--after their fashion; wherefore they gave him a brisk cuffing at once and sent him to bed. For a long time his pain and hunger and the swearing and fighting going on in the building kept him awake; but at last his thoughts drifted away to far romantic lands and he fell asleep in the company of jewelled and gilded princelings who live in vast palaces and had servants salaaming before them or flying to execute their orders. And then as usual he dreamed that HE was a princeling himself. All night long the glories of his royal estate shone upon him; he moved among great lords and ladies in a blaze of light breathing perfumes drinking in delicious music and answering the reverent obeisances of the glittering throng as it parted to make way for him with here a smile and there a nod of his princely head. And when he awoke in the morning and looked upon the wretchedness about him his dream had had its usual effect--it had intensified the sordidness of his surroundings a thousandfold. Then came bitterness and heart-break and tears. Chapter III. Tom's meeting with the Prince. Tom got up hungry and sauntered hungry away but with his thoughts busy with the shadowy splendours of his night's dreams. He wandered here and there in the city hardly noticing where he was going or what was happening around him. People jostled him and some gave him rough speech; but it was all lost on the musing boy. By-and-by he found himself at Temple Bar the farthest from home he had ever travelled in that direction. He stopped and considered a moment then fell into his imaginings again and passed on outside the walls of London. The Strand had ceased to be a country-road then and regarded itself as a street but by a strained construction; for though there was a tolerably compact row of houses on one side of it there were only some scattered great buildings on the other these being palaces of rich nobles with ample and beautiful grounds stretching to the river--grounds that are now closely packed with grim acres of brick and stone. Tom discovered Charing Village presently and rested himself at the beautiful cross built there by a bereaved king of earlier days; then idled down a quiet lovely road past the great cardinal's stately palace toward a far more mighty and majestic palace beyond--Westminster. Tom stared in glad wonder at the vast pile of masonry the wide-spreading wings the frowning bastions and turrets the huge stone gateway with its gilded bars and its magnificent array of colossal granite lions and other the signs and symbols of English royalty. Was the desire of his soul to be satisfied at last? Here indeed was a king's palace. Might he not hope to see a prince now--a prince of flesh and blood if Heaven were willing? At each side of the gilded gate stood a living statue--that is to say an erect and stately and motionless man-at-arms clad from head to heel in shining steel armour. At a respectful distance were many country folk and people from the city waiting for any chance glimpse of royalty that might offer. Splendid carriages with splendid people in them and splendid servants outside were arriving and departing by several other noble gateways that pierced the royal enclosure. Poor little Tom in his rags approached and was moving slowly and timidly past the sentinels with a beating heart and a rising hope when all at once he caught sight through the golden bars of a spectacle that almost made him shout for joy. Within was a comely boy tanned and brown with sturdy outdoor sports and exercises whose clothing was all of lovely silks and satins shining with jewels; at his hip a little jewelled sword and dagger; dainty buskins on his feet with red heels; and on his head a jaunty crimson cap with drooping plumes fastened with a great sparkling gem. Several gorgeous gentlemen stood near--his servants without a doubt. Oh! he was a prince--a prince a living prince a real prince--without the shadow of a question; and the prayer of the pauper-boy's heart was answered at last. Tom's breath came quick and short with excitement and his eyes grew big with wonder and delight. Everything gave way in his mind instantly to one desire: that was to get close to the prince and have a good devouring look at him. Before he knew what he was about he had his face against the gate-bars. The next instant one of the soldiers snatched him rudely away and sent him spinning among the gaping crowd of country gawks and London idlers. The soldier said -- Mind thy manners, thou young beggar! The crowd jeered and laughed; but the young prince sprang to the gate with his face flushed and his eyes flashing with indignation and cried out -- How dar'st thou use a poor lad like that? How dar'st thou use the King my father's meanest subject so? Open the gates, and let him in! You should have seen that fickle crowd snatch off their hats then. You should have heard them cheer and shout "Long live the Prince of Wales!" The soldiers presented arms with their halberds opened the gates and presented again as the little Prince of Poverty passed in in his fluttering rags to join hands with the Prince of Limitless Plenty. Edward Tudor said-- Thou lookest tired and hungry: thou'st been treated ill. Come with me. Half a dozen attendants sprang forward to--I don't know what; interfere no doubt. But they were waved aside with a right royal gesture and they stopped stock still where they were like so many statues. Edward took Tom to a rich apartment in the palace which he called his cabinet. By his command a repast was brought such as Tom had never encountered before except in books. The prince with princely delicacy and breeding sent away the servants so that his humble guest might not be embarrassed by their critical presence; then he sat near by and asked questions while Tom ate. What is thy name, lad? Tom Canty, an' it please thee, sir. 'Tis an odd one. Where dost live? In the city, please thee, sir. Offal Court, out of Pudding Lane. Offal Court! Truly 'tis another odd one. Hast parents? Parents have I, sir, and a grand-dam likewise that is but indifferently precious to me, God forgive me if it be offence to say it--also twin sisters, Nan and Bet. Then is thy grand-dam not over kind to thee, I take it? Neither to any other is she, so please your worship. She hath a wicked heart, and worketh evil all her days. Doth she mistreat thee? There be times that she stayeth her hand, being asleep or overcome with drink; but when she hath her judgment clear again, she maketh it up to me with goodly beatings. A fierce look came into the little prince's eyes and he cried out-- What! Beatings? Oh, indeed, yes, please you, sir. "What dost thou make of this?" "Ah, good your worship, require me not to answer. It is not meet that one of my degree should utter the thing." "Then will _I_ utter it. Thou hast the same hair, the same eyes, the same voice and manner, the same form and stature, the same face and countenance that I bear. Fared we forth naked, there is none could say which was you, and which the Prince of Wales. And, now that I am clothed as thou wert clothed, it seemeth I should be able the more nearly to feel as thou didst when the brute soldier--Hark ye, is not this a bruise upon your hand?" "Yes; but it is a slight thing, and your worship knoweth that the poor man-at-arms--" "Peace! It was a shameful thing and a cruel!" cried the little prince, stamping his bare foot. "If the King--Stir not a step till I come again! It is a command!" In a moment he had snatched up and put away an article of national importance that lay upon a table, and was out at the door and flying through the palace grounds in his bannered rags, with a hot face and glowing eyes. As soon as he reached the great gate, he seized the bars, and tried to shake them, shouting-- "Open! Unbar the gates!" The soldier that had maltreated Tom obeyed promptly; and as the prince burst through the portal, half-smothered with royal wrath, the soldier fetched him a sounding box on the ear that sent him whirling to the roadway, and said-- "Take that, thou beggar's spawn, for what thou got'st me from his Highness!" The crowd roared with laughter. The prince picked himself out of the mud, and made fiercely at the sentry, shouting-- "I am the Prince of Wales, my person is sacred; and thou shalt hang for laying thy hand upon me!" The soldier brought his halberd to a present-arms and said mockingly-- "I salute your gracious Highness." Then angrily--"Be off, thou crazy rubbish!" Here the jeering crowd closed round the poor little prince, and hustled him far down the road, hooting him, and shouting-- "Way for his Royal Highness! Way for the Prince of Wales!" Chapter IV. The Prince's troubles begin. After hours of persistent pursuit and persecution, the little prince was at last deserted by the rabble and left to himself. As long as he had been able to rage against the mob, and threaten it royally, and royally utter commands that were good stuff to laugh at, he was very entertaining; but when weariness finally forced him to be silent, he was no longer of use to his tormentors, and they sought amusement elsewhere. He looked about him, now, but could not recognise the locality. He was within the city of London--that was all he knew. He moved on, aimlessly, and in a little while the houses thinned, and the passers-by were infrequent. He bathed his bleeding feet in the brook which flowed then where Farringdon Street now is; rested a few moments, then passed on, and presently came upon a great space with only a few scattered houses in it, and a prodigious church. He recognised this church. Scaffoldings were about, everywhere, and swarms of workmen; for it was undergoing elaborate repairs. The prince took heart at once--he felt that his troubles were at an end, now. He said to himself, "It is the ancient Grey Friars' Church, which the king my father hath taken from the monks and given for a home for ever for poor and forsaken children, and new-named it Christ's Church. Right gladly will they serve the son of him who hath done so generously by them--and the more that that son is himself as poor and as forlorn as any that be sheltered here this day, or ever shall be." He was soon in the midst of a crowd of boys who were running, jumping, playing at ball and leap-frog, and otherwise disporting themselves, and right noisily, too. They were all dressed alike, and in the fashion which in that day prevailed among serving-men and 'prentices{1}--that is to say, each had on the crown of his head a flat black cap about the size of a saucer, which was not useful as a covering, it being of such scanty dimensions, neither was it ornamental; from beneath it the hair fell, unparted, to the middle of the forehead, and was cropped straight around; a clerical band at the neck; a blue gown that fitted closely and hung as low as the knees or lower; full sleeves; a broad red belt; bright yellow stockings, gartered above the knees; low shoes with large metal buckles. It was a sufficiently ugly costume. The boys stopped their play and flocked about the prince, who said with native dignity-- "Good lads, say to your master that Edward Prince of Wales desireth speech with him." A great shout went up at this, and one rude fellow said-- "Marry, art thou his grace's messenger, beggar?" The prince's face flushed with anger, and his ready hand flew to his hip, but there was nothing there. There was a storm of laughter, and one boy said-- "Didst mark that? He fancied he had a sword--belike he is the prince himself." This sally brought more laughter. Poor Edward drew himself up proudly and said-- "I am the prince; and it ill beseemeth you that feed upon the king my father's bounty to use me so." This was vastly enjoyed, as the laughter testified. The youth who had first spoken, shouted to his comrades-- "Ho, swine, slaves, pensioners of his grace's princely father, where be your manners? Down on your marrow bones, all of ye, and do reverence to his kingly port and royal rags!" With boisterous mirth they dropped upon their knees in a body and did mock homage to their prey. The prince spurned the nearest boy with his foot, and said fiercely-- "Take thou that, till the morrow come and I build thee a gibbet!" Ah, but this was not a joke--this was going beyond fun. The laughter ceased on the instant, and fury took its place. A dozen shouted-- "Hale him forth! To the horse-pond, to the horse-pond! Where be the dogs? Ho, there, Lion! ho, Fangs!" Then followed such a thing as England had never seen before--the sacred person of the heir to the throne rudely buffeted by plebeian hands, and set upon and torn by dogs. As night drew to a close that day, the prince found himself far down in the close-built portion of the city. His body was bruised, his hands were bleeding, and his rags were all besmirched with mud. He wandered on and on, and grew more and more bewildered, and so tired and faint he could hardly drag one foot after the other. He had ceased to ask questions of anyone, since they brought him only insult instead of information. He kept muttering to himself, "Offal Court--that is the name; if I can but find it before my strength is wholly spent and I drop, then am I saved--for his people will take me to the palace and prove that I am none of theirs, but the true prince, and I shall have mine own again." And now and then his mind reverted to his treatment by those rude Christ's Hospital boys, and he said, "When I am king, they shall not have bread and shelter only, but also teachings out of books; for a full belly is little worth where the mind is starved, and the heart. I will keep this diligently in my remembrance, that this day's lesson be not lost upon me, and my people suffer thereby; for learning softeneth the heart and breedeth gentleness and charity." {1} The lights began to twinkle, it came on to rain, the wind rose, and a raw and gusty night set in. The houseless prince, the homeless heir to the throne of England, still moved on, drifting deeper into the maze of squalid alleys where the swarming hives of poverty and misery were massed together. Suddenly a great drunken ruffian collared him and said-- "Out to this time of night again, and hast not brought a farthing home, I warrant me! If it be so, an' I do not break all the bones in thy lean body, then am I not John Canty, but some other." The prince twisted himself loose, unconsciously brushed his profaned shoulder, and eagerly said-- "Oh, art HIS father, truly? Sweet heaven grant it be so--then wilt thou fetch him away and restore me!" "HIS father? I know not what thou mean'st; I but know I am THY father, as thou shalt soon have cause to--" "Oh, jest not, palter not, delay not!--I am worn, I am wounded, I can bear no more. Take me to the king my father, and he will make thee rich beyond thy wildest dreams. Believe me, man, believe me!--I speak no lie, but only the truth!--put forth thy hand and save me! I am indeed the Prince of Wales!" The man stared down, stupefied, upon the lad, then shook his head and muttered-- "Gone stark mad as any Tom o' Bedlam!"--then collared him once more, and said with a coarse laugh and an oath, "But mad or no mad, I and thy Gammer Canty will soon find where the soft places in thy bones lie, or I'm no true man!" With this he dragged the frantic and struggling prince away, and disappeared up a front court followed by a delighted and noisy swarm of human vermin.