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. This my son is mad; but it is not permanent. Overstudy hath done this, and somewhat too much of confinement. Away with his books and teachers!
Pleasure him with sports, beguile him in wholesome ways, so that his health come again. And hear ye further, and proclaim it: whoso speaketh of this his distemper worketh against the peace and order of these realms, and shall to the gallows! But lived ever an impostor yet, who, being called prince by the king, prince by the court, prince by all, denied his dignity and pleaded against his exaltation?
By the soul of St. Swithin, no! This is the true prince, gone mad! In a moment all the heavy sorrow and misery which sleep had banished were upon him again, and he realized that he was no longer a petted prince in a palace, with the adoring eyes of a nation upon him, but a pauper, an outcast, clothed in rags, prisoner in a den fit only for beasts, and consorting with beggars and thieves. Uttered I here a command, the which none but a king might hold privilege and prerogative to utter, would such commandment be obeyed, and none rise up to say me nay?
In thy person bides the majesty of England. Thou art the king—thy word is law. Up from thy knees and away! To the Tower and say the king decrees the duke of Norfolk shall not die! The words were caught up and carried eagerly from lip to lip far and wide over the hall, and as Hertford hurried from the presence, another prodigious shout burst forth—. A messenger returned, to report that the crowd were following a man, a woman, and a young girl to execution for crimes committed against the peace and dignity of the realm.
Death—and a violent death—for these poor unfortunates! The spirit of compassion took control of him, to the exclusion of all other considerations; he never thought of the offended laws, or of the grief or loss which these three criminals had inflicted upon their victims, he could think of nothing but the scaffold and the grisly fate hanging over the heads of the condemned.
His concern made him even forget, for the moment, that he was but the false shadow of a king, not the substance[. To the rest of the world the name of Henry VIII brought a shiver, and suggested an ogre whose nostrils breathed destruction and whose hand dealt scourgings and death; but to this boy the name brought only sensations of pleasure, the figure it invoked wore a countenance that was all gentleness and affection.
He called to mind a long succession of loving passages between his father and himself, and dwelt fondly upon them, his unstinted tears attesting how deep and real was the grief that possessed his heart.
He enjoyed his splendid clothes; and ordered more: he found his four hundred servants too few for his proper grandeur, and trebled them. The adulation of salaaming courtiers came to be sweet music to his ears. He remained kind and gentle, and a sturdy and determined champion of all that were oppressed, and he made tireless war upon unjust laws: yet upon occasion, being offended, he could turn upon an earl, or even a duke, and give him a look that would make him tremble.
At first he pined for them, sorrowed for them, longed to see them, but later, the thought of their coming some day in their rags and dirt, and betraying him with their kisses, and pulling him down from his lofty place, and dragging him back to penury and degradation and the slums, made him shudder. At last they ceased to trouble his thoughts almost wholly.
And he was content, even glad; for, whenever their mournful and accusing faces did rise before him now, they made him feel more despicable than the worms that crawl. At this point, just as he was raising his hand to fling another rich largess, he caught sight of a pale, astounded face which was strained forward out of the second rank of the crowd, its intense eyes riveted upon him.
A sickening consternation struck through him; he recognized his mother! His grandeurs were stricken valueless: they seemed to fall away from him like rotten rags.
And for that he hath been a king, it is meet that other than common observance shall be his due; wherefore, note this his dress of state, for by it he shall be known, and none shall copy it; and wheresoever he shall come, it shall remind the people that he hath been royal, in his time, and none shall deny him his due of reverence or fail to give him proper salutation.
The Prince and the Pauper. Plot Summary. All Themes Appearances vs. Twain tries to give us a happy ending for Tom when he tells us how Edward gave Tom and his family money to make their lives better; that's great and all, but the fact that this probably would never happen in reality drives home the point there are some serious problems with a system that keeps people like Tom poor and hopeless.
Parents Home Homeschool College Resources. Study Guide. By Mark Twain. Previous Next. Tom Canty Tom Canty is the underdog. A Pauper What's a pauper? On top of everything else, the part of London he lives in is pretty violent: 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.
Now, if you were living Tom's life, wouldn't you dream of something better? A Dreamer Tom's a dreamer. Father Andrew's the one who teaches Tom how to read, write, and think about things like princes: [H]e 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.
A Kind King If you could pick one word to describe Tom, it might be "kind. And everyone notices. When Tom's mom shows up at the coronation parade, Tom starts to hate being king all of a sudden: She embraced his leg, she covered it with kisses, she cried, "O, my child, my darling! What's Up With the Ending? Setting What's Up With the Epigraph?
Tired of ads? Join today and never see them again. Get started. King Henry VIII The loving father of Edward, Prince of Wales; he is anxious to see his son installed as the heir apparent before it is discovered that the prince is mad. John Canty The unloving and harsh father of Tom Canty; he keeps his son in tow solely so that young Tom can beg money for him.
Father Andrew The good, retired priest who teaches Tom how to read and write and also teaches him a bit of Latin, a talent which he later uses at court. At various times, they are kind or sarcastic to Tom Canty, who they believe to be the real prince.
John Two lords of the realm in charge of overseeing the welfare of the Prince of Wales. Miles Hendon A "diamond in the rough," so to speak; he is a good friend of young Edward Tudor, and he represents the best of Englishmen; he thinks that the young prince is ill, and because he feels sorry for him, he becomes his protector as they wander throughout the English countryside. When he protests that he is the Prince of Wales, the guards merely think that he is crazy.
Edward struggles to survive amongst England's poor. He is taken home by Tom's abusive family and later escapes from them. He comes under the protection of Miles Hendon, a man from a noble family. Hendon initially thinks that the boy is mad and is suffering from the delusion that he is the Prince of Wales.
When Hendon's younger brother Hugh, who has replaced him as master of Hendon Hall, pretends not to know him and insists that Miles Hendon is dead, Hendon begins to see that the boy's story is plausible. Although Tom initially protests that he is not the Prince of Wales, and is considered mad for doing so, he comes to enjoy life as a royal. Edward knows that he has to prevent Tom from being crowned. He arrives at Westminster Abbey at the moment that the crown is about to be placed on Tom's head.
Tom admits that he is not the true king and that Edward is. Edward is forced to prove that he is the true king by saying where the Great Seal of England can be found. When the seal is not found where Edward says it is, Tom explains that he took it and used it as a nutcracker. At that point, there is no longer any doubt amongst the laughing courtiers that Tom is not the rightful king. Tom Canty and Miles Hendon remain at the Court as favorites of the king.
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