The Prince and the Pauper is a novel by American author Mark Twain. It was first
published in 1881 in Canada, before its 1882 publication in the United States.
The novel represents Twain's first attempt at historical fiction. Set in
1547, it tells the story of two young boys who are identical in appearance:
Tom Canty, a pauper who lives with his abusive father in Offal Court off
Pudding Lane in London, and Prince Edward, son of King Henry VIII.
Plot Tom Canty, youngest son of a poor family
living in Offal Court, London has always aspired to a better life, encouraged by
the local priest. Loitering around the palace gates one day, he sees a prince.
Coming too close in his intense excitement, Tom is nearly caught and
beaten by the Royal Guards; however, Edward stops them and invites Tom into
his palace chamber. There the two boys get to know one another, fascinated by
each other's life and their uncanny resemblance; they were born on the same
day. They decide to switch clothes "temporarily". The Prince momentarily
goes outside, quickly hiding an article of national importance, but dressed as
he is in Tom's rags, he is not recognised by the guards, who drive him
from the palace, and he eventually finds his way through the streets to the home
of the Canty's. There he is subjected to the brutality of Tom's abusive father,
who he manages to escape from, and meets one Miles Hendon, a soldier and nobleman
returning from war. Although Miles does not believe Edward's claims to royalty,
he humours him and becomes his protector. Meanwhile, news reaches them
that King Henry VIII has died and Edward is now the king..
Tom, posing as the prince, tries to cope with court customs and manners. His
fellow nobles and palace staff think "the prince" has an illness which has
caused memory loss and fear he will go mad. They repeatedly ask him about the
missing "Great Seal", but he knows nothing about it; however, when Tom is
asked to sit in on judgments, his common-sense observations reassure them
his mind is sound. As Edward experiences the brutish life
of a pauper firsthand, he becomes aware of the stark class inequality in
England. In particular, he sees the harsh, punitive nature of the English
judicial system where people are burned at the stake, pilloried, and flogged. He
realizes that the accused are convicted on flimsy evidence, and vows to reign
with mercy when he regains his rightful place. When Edward unwisely declares to
a gang of thieves that he is the king and will put an end to unjust laws, they
assume he is insane and hold a mock coronation.
After a series of adventures, Edward interrupts the coronation as Tom is
about to celebrate it as King Edward VI. Tom is eager to give up the throne;
however, the nobles refuse to believe that the beggarly child Edward appears
to be is the rightful king until he produces the Great Seal that he hid
before leaving the palace. Tom declares that if anyone had bothered to describe
the seal he could have produced it at once, since he had found it inside a
decorative suit of armor and had been using it to crack nuts.
Edward and Tom switch back to their original places and Miles is rewarded
with the rank of earl and the family right to sit in the presence of the
king. In gratitude for supporting the new king's claim to the throne, Edward
names Tom the "king's ward". Themes
The Introductory quote is part of the "quality of mercy" speech from
Shakespeare's The Merchant of Venice. While written for children, The Prince
and the Pauper is a criticism of judging others by appearances.
History Twain wrote The Prince and the Pauper
having already started The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn. Twain wrote, "My idea
is to afford a realizing sense of the exceeding severity of the laws of that
day by inflicting some of their penalties upon the King himself and
allowing him a chance to see the rest of them applied to others..." Having
returned from a second European tour which formed the basis of A Tramp
Abroad, Twain read extensively English and French history. Initially intended
as a play, it was originally set in Victorian England, before he decided to
set it further back in time. The "whipping-boy story" was published
in the Hartfod Bazar Budget of July 4, 1880 before he deleted it from the novel
at the suggestion of William Dean Howells. he book was published by
subscription by James R. Osgoode of Boston, with illustrations by F.T.
Merrill. The book bears a dedication to his
daughters, Susie and Clara Clemens and subtitled "A Tale For Young People of
All Ages". Adaptations
The Prince and the Pauper was adapted for the stage, an adaptation which
involved Twain in litigation with the playwright. It opened on Broadway in
1920 under the direction of William Faversham, with Ruth Findlay playing
both Tom Canty and Prince Edward. In 1946, the story was adapted by Classic
Comics to comic book format in issue 29. The novel has also been the basis of
several films. A much-abridged 1920 silent version was produced by Alexander
Korda in Austria entitled Der Prinz und der Bettelknabe. The 1937 version
starred Errol Flynn and twins Billy and Bobby Mauch as Tom Canty and Edward
Tudor, respectively. In 1957 CBS' DuPont Show of the Month
offered an adaptation of The Prince and the Pauper, with Johnny Washbrook of My
Friend Flicka as Tom Canty and Rex Thompson as Prince Edward. A 1962
three-part Walt Disney's Wonderful World of Color television adaptation featured
Guy Williams as Miles Hendon. Both Prince Edward and Tom Canty were played
by Sean Scully, using an early version of the split-screen technique which the
Disney studios would later use in The Parent Trap with Hayley Mills. The
Prince and the Pauper had been filmed in Shepperton, England a year earlier. The
21st episode of The Monkees, aired on February 6, 1967, was entitled "The
Prince and the Paupers". A 1975 BBC television adaptation started
Nicholas Lyndhurst in the starring role. In a 1976 ABC Afterschool Special, Lance
Kerwin played the dual role in a modern American-based adaptation of the story
entitled P.J. and the President's Son. The BBC produced a television adaptation
by writer Richard Harris, consisting of six thirty-minute episodes, in 1976.
Nicholas Lyndhurst played both Prince Edward and Tom Canty. It was adapted
again in 1996. A 1977 film version of the story,
starring Oliver Reed as Miles Hendon, co-starring Rex Harrison, Mark Lester
and Raquel Welch and directed by Richard Fleischer, was released in the UK as The
Prince and the Pauper and in the US as Crossed Swords.
Ringo, a 1978 TV special starring Ringo Starr, involves the former Beatles
drummer trading places with talentless look-alike.
The Walt Disney Company made a 1990 animated 24-minute short film, inspired
by the novel and starring Mickey Mouse. In this version, Mickey trades places
with himself and is supported by other Disney characters. In 2000, it was
adapted again as a live-action version. In 2004 it was adapted yet again, this
time into an 85-minute CGI-animated musical, Barbie as the Princess and the
Pauper, with Barbie playing the blonde Princess Anneliese and the brunette
pauper Erika. In 2006 Garfield's second live-action film, entitled Garfield: A
Tail of Two Kitties, was yet another adaptation of the classic story.
It Takes Two, starring twins Mary-Kate and Ashley Olsen, is a loose translation
of this story in which two girls switch places in order to experience each
other's lives. In 1996 C&E, a Taiwanese software
company, released an RPG video game for Sega Genesis entitled Xin Qigai Wangzi.
Its story was inspired by the book, with the addition of fantastic elements such
as magic, monsters and other RPG themes. The game was ported to PC in 1998. It
was eventually licensed in an English translation and released in 2006 as
Beggar Prince by independent game publisher Super Fighter Team. This was
one of the first new games for the discontinued Sega platform since 1998,
and is perhaps the first video-game adaptation of the book.
A 2000 film directed by Giles Foster starred Aidan Quinn, Alan Bates,
Jonathan Hyde, Jonathan and Robert Timmins. An Off-Broadway musical with
music by Neil Berg opened at Lamb's Theatre on June 16, 2002. The original
cast included Dennis Michael Hall as Prince Edward, Gerard Canonico as Tom
Canty, Rob Evan as Miles Hendon, Stephen Zinnato as Hugh Hendon, Rita Harvey as
Lady Edith, Michael McCormick as John Canty, Robert Anthony Jones as the
Hermit/Dresser, Sally Wilfert as Mary Canty, Allison Fischer as Lady Jane and
Aloysius Gigl as Father Andrew. The musical closed August 31, 2003. A 2007
film, A Modern Twain Story: The Prince and the Pauper starred identical twins
Dylan and Cole Sprouse. In some versions, Prince Edward carries
identification when he assumes Tom's role. While animations such as the
Mickey Mouse version retell the story, other cartoons employ parody (including
an episode of Johnny Bravo in which Twain appears, begging cartoonists to
"let this tired story die". A Hindi film version, Raja Aur Runk, was
released in 1968 and directed by Kotayya Pratyagatma. The film "Indianized" many
of the episodes in the original story. Raju Peda Telugu version adaptation of
the novel was played by N. T. Rama Rao and it was directed by B. A. Subba Rao.
The BBC TV comedy series Blackadder the Third has an episode where the Prince
Regent believes that the Duke of Wellington is after him. The prince
swaps clothes with Blackadder and says, "This reminds of that story 'The Prince
and the Porpoise'." Blackadder corrects him: "Pauper. The Prince and the
Pauper." Since Blackadder the Third is set during the early 1800s, this is an
anachronism. An episode of Phineas and Ferb follows a similar storyline, with
Candace switching places with Princess Baldegunde of Duselstein and discovering
that royal life is dull. Film critic Roger Ebert has suggested that Trading
Places has similarities to Twain's tale due to the two characters' switching
lives. In 2012, a second CGI musical adaptation
was released, entitled Barbie: The Princess and the Popstar. In it, Barbie
plays a princess blonde named Victoria, and a brunette popstar named Keira. Both
crave the life of another, one day they meet and magically change places.
English playwright Jemma Kennedy adapted the story into a musical drama which was
performed at the Unicorn Theatre in London 2012–2013, directed by Selina
Cartmell and starring twins Danielle Bird and Nichole Bird as the Prince and
Pauper and Jake Harders as Miles Hendon. The popular television series Once Upon
a Time features a character named "Prince Charming" whose origin story is
loosely based on The Prince and the Pauper. David, a poor shepherd,
discovers his twin brother James was given to King George as his heir in a
deal with Rumplestiltskin. When Prince James is killed in battle, David takes
his place and name in exchange for the prosperity of his mother's farm.
See also Mark Twain bibliography
References ^ Cope, Jim and Cope, Wendy. A Teacher's
Guide to the Signet Classic Edition of Mark Twain's The Prince and the Pauper
^ a b c Emerson, Everett. Mark Twain, A Literary Life, University of
Pennsylvania Press, 2000, ISBN 9780812235166
^ Staff. "The Prince and the Pauper". IBDB Internet Broadway Database. The
Broadway League. Retrieved 1 July 2012. ^ Staff. "The Prince and the Pauper: The
Pauper King". IMDb. IMDb.com, Inc. Retrieved 1 July 2012.
^ Staff. "The Prince and the Pauper: The Merciful Law of the King". IMDb.
IMDb.com, Inc. Retrieved 1 July 2012. ^ Staff. "The Prince and the Pauper:
Long Live the Rightful King". IMDb. IMDb.com, Inc. Retrieved 1 July 2012.
^ Ebert, Roger. "Trading Places Movie Review & Film Summary | Roger Ebert".
Rogerebert.suntimes.com. Retrieved 2013-04-10.
^ [1] External links
The Prince and the Pauper – searchable, indexed e-text.
The Prince and the Pauper public domain audiobook at LibriVox
Illustrations for The Prince and the Pauper
The Disney version of The Prince and the Pauper at The Encyclopedia of Disney
Animated Shorts