The Prince And The Pauper
contributor: Eric Lease Morgan (Infomotions, Inc.)
creator: Twain, Mark
date: 0000-00-00
extent: 406330
format: text/plain
language: en
publisher: Eris Etext Project
rights: http://creativecommons.org/licenses/GPL/2.0/
source: 2
subject: king
subject: tom
subject: prince
subject: hendon
subject: pauper
subject: tale
subject: people
subject: ages
subject: mark
subject: twain
subject: preface
subject: will
subject: set
subject: told
subject: father
subject: american
subject: literature
type: text
local mirror: twain-prince-30.txt
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plain html: twain-prince-30.htm
sort title: Prince And The Pauper, The
full text: 1881 THE PRINCE AND THE PAUPER A TALE FOR YOUNG PEOPLE OF ALL AGES by Mark Twain PREFACE PREFACE 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 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. 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. I. 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 Inglond, or rather an Inglyssh Gode, yf we consydyr and pondyr welle alle Hys procedynges with us from tyme to tyme. He hath overcumme alle our yllness with Hys excedynge goodnesse, so that we ar now moor then compelled to serve Hym, seke Hys glory, promott Hys wurde, yf the Devylle of alle Devylles be natt in us. We have now the stoppe of vayne trustes ande the stey of vayne expectations; lett us alle pray for hys preservation. And 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 depravetur. Butt whatt a grett fowlle am I! So, whatt devotione shoyth many tymys butt lytelle dyscretione! Ande thus the G…