Contrastive Expressions in Mark Twain's

The Prince and the Pauper

O. Ueda

ABSTRACT

In Mark Twain's The Prince and the Pauper(1881), the prince Edward and

the pauper Tom are suddenly forced to change their places, and experience

the different ways of life. Thus, this story develops in the two plots-that of

Tom in Court and that of Edward among the populace. Such a contrastive

plot seems to be brought into relief by the author's cumulative use of con-trastive expression appearing in each scene on thematic dimensions like

"dignity," "wealth," "truthfulness," etc. Put in another way, his contrastiveexpression may be regarded as one of the rhetorical devices which build up

the author's style in this novel.

It is the aim of the present article to examine the qualities of the language of

The Prince and the Pauper and to approach the relation between his con-

trastive expression and the themes of this work including Twain's satirical

view on the society in the sixteenth-century England.

Introduction

In his Modern English in the Making McKnight, mentioning the role Mark

Twain played in the history of the American language, states: "Since his time

there has been an increasing freedom from the inhibitions that oppressed earlier

American writers and a development of freedom and natural ease in the use of

the native idiom." 1) This remark may be true of Mark Twain's master-

pieces like Tom Sawyer (1876), Hucklebero, Finn (1884), etc. if we take into con-

sideration his frequent use of dialect and colloquial speech. However, his The

Prince and the Pauper (1881) has a salient quality different from that which Torn

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Sawyer and Huckleberry Finn have in common with each other. That is to say,

the former depicts the court, feudalism and history of England from an

American point of view, whereas the latter describes American nature, people

and life. Moreover, this work, unlike the others, —as its title suggests—has

some contrastive aspects closely related to the subject-matter. The first is con-

trastive feature of the development of the plot, which has been long studied; and,

what is more important, the second is verbal contrast, which abounds in this

work and has escaped critics' minute observations. In this work, Twain often

describes, by way of contrast, Torn and Edward, the two boys' feelings and the

children and adults on the dimensions of "wealth," "dignity," "truthfulness,"

and so on. By using such a way of writing, the author seems to make the double

plot of the text clear and lively. In this sense, Twain's contrastive expression

may be regarded as one of the thematic devices which formulates the style of

this novel. So it may be fruitful to examine such a contrast from the lexical and

semantic viewpoint and to approach the stylistic features of The Prince and the

Pauper. 2

In general, a lexical approach will be made, with some references to colloca-

tion, syntax and figure. In Chapter I, we will survey the cases of semantic con-

trast in the immediate context. In Chapter II, we will observe contrast in relation

to irony, which appears in the author's views on courtiers, the life style of Court

and the growth of the two boys.

I 1.0. In this chapter, we will focus our attention on the cases in which there oc-

curs in the immediate context semantic contrast which tends to happen on the

dimensions of "wealth," "truthfulness," "dignity" and "the boys' state of mind."

So our study of the contrast of this novel will throw light on one of Mark Twain's

thematic devices.

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1.1. In the first place, we will examine the cases where one item semantically

contrasts with another on the same dimension . This kind of contrast may he

represented by the following diagram:

The sign "A" indicates a subject of the scene, "X" one item, and "—X" its contrastive one. The horizontal line signifies dimension.

Let us take as a typical example a contrastive relationship between some

words in the following passage:3)

The next day the foreign ambassadors came, with their gorgeous trains;

and Tom, throned in awful state, received them. The splendors of the

scene delighted his eye and fired his imagination, at first, but the audience

was long and dreary, and so were most of the addresses—wherefore, what

began as a pleasure, grew into weariness and homesickness by and by.

(Ch.XV)

The above sentences describe the transition of Tom's impression of life in

Court. Here, words expressive of his pleasant feeling such as "splendors," "delighted

," "fired" and "pleasure" are used contrastively with those indicative

of his unpleasant feeling "long," "dreary," "weariness" and "homesickness."

Above all, the author seems to make use of the word "pleasure" and the words

"weariness" and "homesickness" as the context -bound antonyms on the dimen-

sion of Tom's state of mind. They are shown in the following way:

— 78 —

In the next passage from the scene where Miles Hendon is dubbed earl by Ed-

ward, the semantic contrast as shown above functions not only in the immediate

context but also in the context of this work as a whole textual one, and helps

create the flavour of dramatic irony:

(Hendon does not believe that the child Edward is a real king and thinks

he is a deranged boy)

He (Hendon) said to himself, "... Better these poor mock dignities of mine,

that come unasked, from a clean hand and a right spirit, than real ones bought

by servility from grudging and interested power." (Ch. XXVIII)

The items "mock dignities" and "real ones (dignities)" in the sentence above are

contrastive with each other on the dimension of truthfulness. The pairs of ex-

pressions such as "a clean hand and a right spirit"—"grudging and interested

power" and "that come unasked"—"bought by servility" could be regarded as

representations by context- bound antonyms. The relation of one to another may

be summarized in the following diagram:

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The point to notice in the contrastive expression shown above may be that they

happen in Miles Hendon's monologue which puts us into the situation apparent-

ly free from the narrator's control. Here, Hendon does not understand that the

title of earl given to him is a real one because Edward is a real king. So the

author's employment of the semantic contrast in Hendon's monologue seems to

stress a flavour of dramatic irony.

1.2. Unlike the case in the preceding section, in this section we will look at

cases where though one item (X) contrasts in meaning with another (—X) on the

same dimension, the whole sentence of the contrastive expression functions as

the re-wording of (X) by the help of Twain's syntactic devices. This type of con-

trast seems to be schematized as follows:

The sign "X*" indicates "X" with some syntactic devices.

— 80 —

The sentence shown below may be a typical example:

(After Miles Hendon saved Edward from being whipped in the presence

of a mob)

• . .nobody went so far as to venture a remark in favor of the prisoner

(Hendon), or in compliment to him; but no matter, the absence of abuse was

a sufficient homage in itself. (Ch.XXVIII)

In this passage, the words "abuse" and "homage" are used contrastively on the

dimension of public respect. However, by the collocation of the word "abuse"

with the word of a negative meaning "absence," the two are equivalent in mean-

ing in the syntactic form S + V + C:

The mob's attitude toward Hendon

With the phrases "in favor of" and "in compliment" such a contrastive depiction

is the clue that indicates Twain is aiming for a rhetorical build-up of the mob's

respect for Miles Hendon.

The next passage illustrates Edward's miserable feeling, in which the author's

successive use of the contextually and semantically related words seems to bring

the contrast of this scene into relief:

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 out-

cast, clothed in rags, prisoner in a den fit only for beasts, and consorting

— 81 —

with beggars and thieves. (Ch. X)

The contrastive relation of words in the sentence above may be summarized in

the following diagram:

All these contrastive groups may serve gradually to increase the sorrow of the

prince who is forced to fall from a high degree to a lower one. Above all, the re-

wording of the phrase "no longer a petted prince" and the successive use of the

three synonymous words "pauper," "outcast" and "prisoner" strongly produce a

miserable atmosphere.

1.3.0. In the present text, we often come across cases where on the same

dimension two things are contrasted as displayed in the following diagram:

(A) is a thing mentioned against (B), and vice versa.

1.3.a. We will look at some typical examples of this pattern of contrast. Con-

sider the following:

— 82 —

The soldiers presented arms, with their halberds, opened the gates, and

presented again as the little Prince of Poverty (Tom) passed in, in his flutter-

ing rags, to join hands with the Prince of Limitless Plenty. (Ch. III)

In the above passage, the two boys Tom and Edward are portrayed with a pair

of contrastive words "Poverty" and "Limitless Plenty," which are in opposition

in meaning on the dimension of wealth:

A further point to be noticed is that there is an associative discord between

"Prince" and "Poverty"/"in his fluttering rags," while the collocation between

"Prince" and "Limitless Plenty" is a usual one . Such a collocative clash may

stress the humorous atmosphere of this scene where the soldiers present arms

to the pauper Tom Canty.

The next instance is a similar one:

Whilst the true king wandered about the land; poorly clad, poorly fed; cuff-

ed and derided by tramps, one while; herding with thieves and murderers

in a jail, another; and called idiot and impostor by all, impartially, the mock

king, Tom Canty, enjoyed a quite different experience. (Ch.XXX)

The contrastive relation of the words in the above passage is shown below:

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In the above instance, besides such a semantic contrast, Twain's use of colloca-

tion may be remarkable. In the first place, in the normally collocated words

"true king" and "mock king," we find the contrastive items "true" and "mock."

And in the second place, the inharmonious impression produced by the com-

bination "the true king" and "wandered" seems to be heightened by the

cumulative employment of the participial construction like "poorly clad," "poor-

ly fed," "cuffed," "derided," "herding" and "called." Moreover, the author's use

of the conjunction "while" seems to aid in comparing Edward's suffering with

Tom's comfort.

1.3.b. Unlike the instances in 1.3.a., here we will look at more complicated

cases where the varieties of word origins and the syntactic parallelism serve to

produce an outstanding contrast in the depictions of Tom and Edward. Consider

the following:

A few minutes later, the little Prince of Wales was garlanded with Tom's

fluttering odds and ends, and the little Prince of Pauperdom was tricked out

in the gaudy plumage of royalty. (Ch.III)

In the quotation just given, the phrases "Prince of Wales" and "Prince of

Pauperdom" are in opposition in meaning on the dimension of dignity, and the

phrases "fluttering odds and ends" and "gaudy plumage of royalty" are the

context-bound antonyms on the dimension of wealth:

What is interesting as well as these verbal contrasts is the collocation between

Germanic words and Romanic ones:

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the little Prince of Wales

was garlanded with Tom's fluttering odds and ends (R) (G) (G) (G)

the little Prince of Pauperdom

was tricked out in the gaudy plumage of royalty (R) (R) (R) (R)

(R) Romanic word (G) Germanic word

The author may make a gap of association in the combination of Romanic words

and Germanic ones such as between "garlanded" and "fluttering odds and ends"

and between "Prince of Pauperdom" and "tricked"/"the gaudy plumage of

royalty." Moreover, the collocation of "garlanded" and "odds and ends" is

unusual, likewise "Prince of Pauperdom" is an unusual collocation in usual con-

text. Such an associative incongruity of the collocation seems to intensify the

oddness of this scene.

The next example is from the first chapter of this novel, where Tom and Ed-

ward are portrayed with the author's various devices of contrast:

In the ancient city of London, on a certain autumn day in the second

quarter of the sixteenth century, a boy was born to a poor family of the name

of Canty, who did not want him. On the same day another English child was

born to a rich family of the name of Tudor, who did want him.

. . .

There was no talk in all England but of the new baby, Edward Tudor,

Prince of Wales, who lay lapped in silks and satins, unconscious of all this

fuss, and not knowing that great lords and ladies were tending him and

watching over him—and not caring, either. But there was no talk about the

other baby, Tom Canty, lapped in his poor rags, except among the family of

paupers whom he had just come to trouble with his presence. (Ch. I)

The above passage depicts the births of Tom and Edward. There prevails syn-

tactic parallelism with many contrastive variable elements as the following

— 85 —

display shows:

Structural Repetition Variable elements

1) S + was + born

a boy was born a boy

another English child was born another English child

2) to + a + Adjective + family

to a poor family poor

to a rich family rich

3) of + the + name + of + Noun

of the name of Canty Canty

of the name of Tudor Tudor

4) lapped + in + Noun/Noun-phrase

lapped in his poor rags his poor rags

lapped in silks and satins silks and satins

5) who + did + (not) + want + him

who did not want him

who did want him

6) there + was + no + talk + Noun-phrase

there was no talk about the other baby

there was no talk. . . but of the baby

A glance at these linguistic features will lead us to notice that each group of

variable elements is a contrastive pair as shown below:

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Twain's stylistic implication of this sentence may be apparent when we notice

that the parallelism demonstrates the similarity and difference between the two

children. Put in another way, the structural repetition shown above may suggest

that both of Tom and Edward are the same in boyhood, but the contrastive

elements represent their difference in dignity and wealth. The notable point is

that such a contrastive tone intensified by syntactic parallelism as shown above

in the beginning of the text may be maintained throughout the course of this

novel.

II

2.0. In this chapter we will apply our view of contrast to the cases of irony,

which "may be defined as a double significance which arises from the contrast in

values associated with two different points of view.") In other words, we will

treat not only verbal contrasts but also "a contrast between a point of view stated

or implied" and "the assumed point of view of the author or of the reader.")

2.1. In the novel under discussion, the most outstanding ironic tone of the

author may be derived from the particular context where people around the two

boys do not know that they change their social positions. This may be a sort of

dramatic irony. So in the first place we will consider such cases. The next ex-

tract contains a typical instance:

(Miles Hendon believes that Edward is a deranged boy)

Hendon wished to guard against over-fatiguing the boy; he judged

that hard journeys, irregular meals, and illiberal measures of sleep

would be bad for his crazed mind; whilst rest, regularity, and moderate

exercise would be pretty sure to hasten its cure; he longed to see the

stricken intellect made well again and its diseased visions driven out of the

tormented little head; therefore he resolved to move by easy stages

toward the home .... (Ch. XXV)

- 87 --

In the passage above, the author sees Edward from Hendon's point of view.

Glancing at the italicized phrases, the reader, knowing the context where this

passage appears, cannot help being invited to draw implicatures both from Hen-

don's thought and Twain's attitude to this scene and interpret this as dramatic

irony. The contrastive features of this passage will be illustrated as in the follow-

ing diagram:

The next passage is a similar case:

(In Hendon's monologue, after he was dubbed knight by Edward)

After a little, he went on, "And so I am become a knight of the Kingdom

of Dreams and Shadows. A most odd and strange position, truly, for one

so matter-of-fact as I. I will not laugh—no, God forbid, for this thing

which is so substanceless to me is real') to him. And to me, also, in one

way, it is not a falsity, for it reflects with truth the sweet and generous

spirit that is in him." (Ch. XII)

2.2.a. In the foregoing chapter, we have mentioned some instances of unusual

collocations. Besides them, we will consider the cases of an unusual collocation

which serve to produce ironic tones. The author often demonstrates to us the in-

stances of unusual collocation whose components are associatively inhar-

monious. The sentence below is extracted from the dinner scene in Court:

The room was half filled with noble servitors. A chaplain said grace,

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and Tom was about to fall to, for hunger had long been constitutional

with him, but was interrupted by my lord the Earl of Berkeley, who

fastened a napkin about his neck— for the great post of Diaperers to the

Princes of Wales was hereditary in this nobleman's family .(Ch. VII)

In the italicized clause, there is an associative discord in the way words are com-

bined: the absurd qualities implied by the author's coinage "Diaperers") sug-

gestive of the triviality of the role may influence its more grave neighbours "the

great post," "the Princes of Wales," "hereditary" and "nobleman's family."

Such a unique collocation appears to illustrate Twain's satiric view of the tradi-

tional ceremonies in the English Court.

The passage below is a similar one:

Tom said with genuine anguish—

"I crave your indulgence —my nose itcheth cruelly! What is the

custom and usage in this emergence? Prithee speed, for 'tis but a little

time that I can bear it." ....Alas, there was no Hereditary Scratcher!

(Ch. VII)

2.2.b. We will consider cases of irony produced by the collocation used

especially in the description of Edward and Tom. In this novel, before the scene

of the exchange of their clothes, Twain seems to make an effort to imprint the

elegant qualities of Edward and the poor ones of Tom on the reader's mind. The

following descriptions of their outward appearances will demonstrate some of

this trial:

The description of Edward

Within was a comely boy, tanned and brown with sturdy out-door

sports and exercises, whose clothing was all of lovely silks and satins,

shining with jewels; at his hip a little jeweled sword and dagger; dainty

buskins on his feet, with red heels, and on his head a jaunty crimson cap

with drooping plumes fastened with a great sparkling gem. (Ch. III)

- 89 -

The description of Tom

...Torn Canty, lapped in his poor rags,...(Ch. I)/...he lay in the dark on

his scant and offensive straw, tired, hungry, and smarting from a

thrashing,.. .(Ch. II)!.. .he grew to lament his shabby clothing and his

dirt, and to wish to be clean and better clad. (Ch. II)/...he would go

forth in his rags and beg a few farthings,...(Ch. II)/etc.

As shown above, the author attempts to attach an elegant impression to Edward

and a dirty one to Tom from Chapter I to III of this novel. After the scene of ex-

changing their clothes, we often come across cases in which such associations

are not in keeping with the author's use of collocation. Consider the following

passage:

The description of Edward

The lights began to twinkle, it came on to rain, the wind rose, and a

raw and gusty night set in. The houseless prince, the homeless heir to the

throne of England, still moved on, drifting deeper into the maze of

squalid alleys where the swarming hives of poverty and misery were

massed together. (Ch. IV)

Considering that a prince lives in a palace, we cannot but assume that both of the

italicized phrases "houseless prince" and "homeless heir to the throne of

England" may apply the ironic signals to Edward. The words "houseless" and

"homeless" may associatively discord with the words and phrases suggestive of

the quality of high rank—"prince" and "heir to the throne of England."

Moreover, Twain juxtaposes these phrases from superordinate terms to

hyponymous ones: "houseless prince" is the superordinate terms and "homeless

heir to the throne of England" the hyponymous ones. Such a way of writing may

strengthen the gradual increase of misery in Edward's mind.

Let us consider the next example:

(In the scene of the river pageant)

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A prolonged trumpet-blast followed, and a proclamation, "Way for

the high and mighty, the lord Edward, Prince of Wales!"—high aloft on

the palace walls a long line of red tongues of flame leaped forth, with a

thunder-crash; the massed world on the river burst into a mighty roar

of welcome, and Torn Canty, the cause and hero of it all, stepped into

view and slightly bowed his princely head! (Ch. IX)

The passage just given provides us an example of the author's use of double-

meaning; that is, the lexical meaning of the word "princely" disagrees with its

contextual meaning. This instance of double-meaning gives us two standpoints

to Tom Canty: the standpoint from those who do not know the fact that Tom is a

pauper, and that from the omniscient author Twain. So we may say the use of

the word "princely" aids in creating the tone of dramatic irony.

Similarly in the passages below, the things referred to by the words which

follow the possessive pronoun "his" do not, in fact, belong to Tom or Edward.

This fact may intensify the tone of dramatic irony:

When he (Tom) at length emerged from this master's hands, he was a

gracious figure and as pretty as a girl, in his mantle and trunks of purple

satin, and purple-plumed cap. He now moved in state toward his

breakfast room, through the midst of the courtly assemblage; and as he

passed, these fell back, leaving his way free, and dropped upon their

knees.

After breakfast he was conducted, with regal ceremony, attended by

his great officers and his guard of fifty Gentlemen Pensioners bearing gilt

battle-axes, to the throne-room, where he proceeded to transact

business of state. His "uncle," lord Hertford, took his stand by the

throne, to assist the royal mind with wise counsel. (Ch. XIV)

And he (Edward) added that the king his father would not let her

(Tom's mother's) loyal kindness and devotion go unrewarded. This

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return to his "madness" broke her heart anew,... (Ch. X)

2.3. Finally in this section we will look at some instances of figurative expres-

sion in which the contrastive expressions serve to imply the author's irony. Let

us see the following:

Now began a movement of the gorgeous particles of that official group

which was slow, scarcely perceptible, and yet steady and persis-

tent—a movement such as is observed in a kaleidoscope that is turned

slowly, whereby the components of one splendid cluster fall away and join

themselves to another—a movement which little by little, in the present

case, dissolved the glittering crowd that stood about Tom Canty and

clustered it together again in the neighborhood of the new-corner (Ed-

ward)....So at last Tom Canty, in his royal robes and jewels, stood wholly

alone and isolated from the world, a conspicuous figure, occupying an elo-

quent vacancy. (Ch. XXXII)

The clause / phrases "a movement such as is observed in a kaleidoscope," "the

components of one splendid cluster" and "fall away" appear as the simile to "a

movement of the gorgeous particles," "glittering crowd" and "dissolved"

respectively. Besides, the word "particles" referring to courtiers may suggest

their meanness. Accordingly the collocation of "gorgeous" and "particles"

seems to be a-normal. And making use of the italicized words "gorgeous,"

"kaleidoscope," "splendid" and "glittering," Twain may render the way of the

official group's sneaking away from Tom and that of shifting colors in a

kaleidoscope with a gorgeous association. But such a gorgeous implication of

the figure contravenes the mean qualities of the courtiers' act. In such opposite

implications between the figures and the contents, we notice the author's ironic

attitude toward the courtiers. And in relation to this irony, we have some col-

locational incongruities in the portrayal of Tom Canty. The phrases "in his royal

robes and jewels" and "conspicuous figure" may suggest a gorgeous impres-

- 92 -

sion, while "alone," "isolated from the world" and "an eloquent vacancy" may

suggest Tom's isolation. All these gaps between the stated meaning and the im-

plied one seem to stress the author's irony toward the courtiers.

This ironic impression may be strongly backed up by the following sentence

which happens just after the above scene:

(As Edward cannot tell correctly about the Great Seal, the official

group again believes Tom is a real king)

A mob does not melt away from the presence of a plague-patient with

more haste than the band of pallid and terrified courtiers melted away

from the presence of the shabby little claimant of the crown (Edward).

(Ch. II)

The sentence above is a comparative expression by the parallelism "X (does not)

melt(ed) away from the presence of Y." However, Twain's satiric attitude to the

courtiers is not straightforward but euphemistic as shown by the clause "the

band...the crown" as a subordinate clause of the sentence. The author's ironic

implication would be weakened in a sentence such as:

The band of pallid and terrified courtiers melted away from the

presence of the shabby little claimant of the crown with more haste

than a mob melts away from the presence of a plague-patient.

The next example will show the author's irony to Court where nonsensical

ceremonies abound:

(At the dinner table)

Tom said with genuine anguish— "I crave your indulgence —my nose itcheth cruelly! What is the

custom and usage in this emergence? Prithee speed, for 'tis but a little

time that I can bear it."

None smiled, but all were sore perplexed, and looked one to the other

in deep tribulation for counsel. But behold, here was a dead wall, and

93

nothing in, English history to tell how to get over it. The Master of

Ceremonies was not present; there was no one who felt safe to venture

upon this uncharted sea, or risk the attempt to solve this solemn problem.

Alas, there was no Hereditary Scratcher! (Ch. VII)

In the above passage, Twain seems to multiply his ironic implication by

repetitive hyperbole like "sore perplexed," "in deep tribulation," "a dead wall,"

"nothing in English history," "get over," etc., among which the phrase "this un-

charted sea" is adopted as a metaphor to the courtiers' trivial problem of the

scene. Such mingling of two registers—that of voyage and that of Court—may be

ironical.

Besides these devices, we have another ironic signal in the collocation of

"Hereditary Scratcher ." In this context, the word "Hereditary" may suggest a

dignified and ceremonious act, on the other hand the word "Scratcher" suggests

a nonsensical one.

Conclusion

In this article, we have tried to take a new look at the contrastive features of

The Prince and the Pauper from a linguistic point of view. In Chapter I, the

semantic contrast happening in the immediate context has been examined. Our

observations show that the author repeatedly treats, with contrastive view, the

class distinctions, the differences between the rich and the poor/adults and

children on the dimensions of "dignity," "wealth" and "truthfulness." In Chapter

II, we have applied the notion of contrast to the cases of irony and made a closer

approach to the relation between the author's style and the theme of this novel.

Such an examination may lead us to notice that the author's ironic views of

Court, courtiers and adults are frequently seen in the contrastive values between

the stated meaning and the contextually implied ones.

In The Prince and the. Pauper, as is well known, the exchange of the two boys'

- 94 -

social positions and the description of their experiences in the form of a double-

plot show the author's various attitudes to Court, the ceremonies of Court and

class distinction in England. In communicating these views to the reader, Twain

makes repetitive use of contrastive expressions with multifarious devices. Such

contrastive ways of writing seem to be in keeping with the development of plot

of this novel. So we may say that Twain's cumulative use of the technique of

contrast shown above is one of the main thematic rhetorical devices which in

part makes up the style of The Prince and the Pauper.

Another thing to be said is that these linguistic features are not only necessary

ones derived from, and effective rhetoric closely related to, the content of this

novel, but also indicative of an aspect contrary to "a revolt from the conven-

tional" or "an unwillingness to submit to discipline in language") as a tendency

of American English towards the end of the nineteenth century. In other works

like The Innocent Abroad (1889) and A Connecticut Yankee in King Arthur's Court

(1889), in which Mark Twain represents the feudality, the history of England,

etc., we can see these American flavours as different from what is seen in such

works as Tom Sawyer (1876) and Huckleberry Finn (1884). So in order to search

out the underlying structure of Mark Twain's language, any future study will

need to carry out more exhaustive investigation from a larger viewpoint, com-

paring the language of his other works.

Notes

1) George H. McKnight, Modern English in the Making (New York: Appleton-

Century-Crofts, 1928), p. 550.

2) All quotations from The Prince and the Pauper are from The Works of Mark

Twain (Berkeley: Univ. of California Press, 1978).

3) All the italics in this paper are mine.

4) G.N. Leech and M.H. Short, Style in Fiction: A Linguistic Introduction to

English Fictional Prose (London: Longman, 1981), p.278.

— 95 —

5) Ibid., p. 278

6) The word "real" is the author's italics.

7) The word "diaperer," being not recorded in OED and Webster, is regarded

as a nonce-word. R.L. Ramsay's and F.G. Emberson's A Mark Twain 1.C.1-

icon (1938; rpt. New York: Russell & Russell, 1963) states "Here M.T. seems

to have invented a mythical office, but he does not explain its duties in full

detail."

8) George H. McKnight, Modern English in the Making (New York: Appleton-

Century-Crofts, 1928), p. 552.

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