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.
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