aps the drama
was not, after all, his forte; he dropped "Simon Wheeler," lost his
interest in "Ah Sin," even leased "Colonel Sellers" for the coming
season, and so, in a sort of fury, put theatrical matters out of his
mind.

He had entered upon what, for him, was a truer domain. One day he picked
up from among the books at the farm a little juvenile volume, an English
story of the thirteenth century by Charlotte M. Yonge, entitled, The
Prince and the Page. It was a story of Edward I. and his cousins,
Richard and Henry de Montfort; in part it told of the submerged
personality of the latter, picturing him as having dwelt in disguise as
a blind beggar for a period of years. It was a story of a sort and with
a setting that Mark Twain loved, and as he read there came a correlative
idea. Not only would he disguise a prince as a beggar, but a beggar as
a prince. He would have them change places in the world, and each learn
the burdens of the other's life.--[There is no point of resemblance
between the Prince and the Pauper and the tale that inspired it. No
one would ever guess that the one had grown out of the readings of the
other, and no comparison of any sort is possible between them.]

The plot presented physical difficulties. He still had some lurking
thought of stage performance, and saw in his mind a spectacular
presentation, with all the costumery of an early period as background
for a young and beautiful creature who would play the part of prince.
The old device of changelings in the cradle (later used in Pudd'nhead
Wilson) presented itself to him, but it could not provide the situations
he had in mind. Finally came the thought of a playful interchange of
raiment and state (with startling and unlooked-for consequence)--the
guise and personality of Tom Canty, of Offal Court, for those of the son
of Henry VIII., little Edward Tudor, more lately sixth English king of
that name. This little prince was not his first selection for the part.
His original idea had been to use the late King Edward VII. (then Prince
of Wales) at about fifteen, but he found that it would never answer
to lose a prince among the slums of modern London, and have his proud
estate denied and jeered at by a modern mob. He felt that he could not
make it seem real; so he followed back through history, looking along
for the proper time and prince, till he came to little Edward, who was
too young--but no matter, he would do.

He decided to begin his ne