Explanatory Notes
Headnote
Apparatus Notes
Headnotes
CHAPTER 2  King Arthur’s Court
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CHAPTER 2emendation
  King Arthur’s Court

The moment I got a chance I slipped aside privately and touched an ancient common-looking man on the shoulder and said, in an insinuating, confidential way—

“Friend, do me a kindness. Do you belong to the asylum, or are you just here on a visit, or something like that?”

He looked me over, stupidly, and said—

“Marry, fair sir, meseemethemendation—”

That willalteration in the MS do,” I said; “I reckon you arealteration in the MS a patient.”

I moved away, cogitating, and at the same time keeping an eye out for any chance passenger in his right mind that might come along and give me some light. I judged I had found one, presently; so I drew him aside and said in his ear—

[begin page 61]

“If I could see the head keeper a minute—only just a minute—”

“Prithee do not let me.”

“Let you what?

Hinder me, then, if the word please theeemendation better.” Then he went on to say he was an under-cook and could not stop to gossip, though he would like it another time, for it would comfort his very liver to know where I got my clothes. As he started away he pointed and said yonder was one who was idle enough for my purpose, and was seeking me besides, no doubt. This was an airy slim boy in shrimp-coloredalteration in the MS tights that made him look like a forked carrot; the rest of his gear was blue silk and daintyemendation laces and ruffles; and he had long yellow curls, and wore a plumedalteration in the MS pink satin cap tilted complacently over his ear. By his look, he was good-naturedemendation; byalteration in the MS his gait,emendation textual note he was satisfied with himself. He was pretty enough to frame. He arrived, looked me over with a smiling and impudent curiosity; said he had come for me, and informed me that he was a page.

“Go ’long,” I said, “you ain’t more than a paragraph.”

It was pretty severe, but I was nettled. However, it never fazedemendation textual note him; he didn’t appear to know he was hurt. He began to talk and laugh, in happy, thoughtless, boyish fashion, as we walked along, and made himself old friends with me at once; asked me all sorts of questions about myself and about my clothesemendation, but never waited for an answer —always chattered straight ahead, as if he didn’t know he had asked a question and wasn’t expecting any reply; until at last he happened to mention that he was born in the beginning of the year 513.

It made the cold chills creep over me!emendation I stopped, and said, a little faintly:

“Maybe I didn’t hear you just right. Say it again—and say it slow. What year was it?”

“513.”

513!emendation You don’t look it!emendation Come my boy, I am a stranger and friendless: be honest and honorable with me. Are you in your right mind?”

He said he was.

“Are these other people in their right minds?”

He said they were.

“And this isn’t an asylum? I mean, it isn’t a place where they cure crazy people?”

He said it wasn’t.

[begin page 62]

“Well, then,” I said, “either I am a lunatic or something just as awful has happened. Now tell me, honestalteration in the MS and true, where am I?”

In King Arthur’s court emendation alteration in the MS.”

I waited a minute, to let that idea shudder its wayalteration in the MS home, and then said:

“And according to your notions, what year is it now?”

“528—nineteenth of June.”alteration in the MS

I feltalteration in the MS a mournful sinking at the heart, and muttered: “I shall never see my friends again—never, never againemendation. They will not be born for more than thirteen hundred years yet.”

I seemed to believe the boy, I didn’t know why. Something emendation in me seemed to believe him—my consciousness, as you may say; but my reason didn’t. My reason straightwayemendation began to clamor; that was natural. I didn’t know how to go about satisfying it, because I knew that [begin page 63] the testimony of men wouldn’t serve—my reason would say they were lunatics, and throw out their evidence. But all of a sudden I stumbled on the very thing, just by luck. I knew that the only total eclipse of the sun in the first half of the sixth century occurred on thealteration in the MS 21st of June, a. d. 528, O. S.alteration in the MS, and began at 3 minutes after 12 noon.alteration in the MS I also knew that no totalalteration in the MS eclipse of the sun was due in what to me was the present year—i.e., 1879.alteration in the MS So, if I could keep my anxiety and curiosity from eating the heart out of me for forty-eight hours, I should then find out for certain whether this boy was telling me the truth or not.

Wherefore, being a practical Connecticut man,alteration in the MS I nowalteration in the MS shoved this whole problemalteration in the MS clear out of my mind till its appointed day and hour should come, in order that I might turn allrejected substantive my attention to the circumstances of the present moment, and be alert and ready to make the most out of them that could be made. One thing at a time, is my motto—and just play that thing for all it isalteration in the MS worth, evenemendation if it’s only twoemendation pair and a jackalteration in the MS. I made up my mind to two things: if it was still the nineteenth century and I was among lunatics and couldn’t get away, I would presentlyalteration in the MS boss that asylum or know the reason why; and if on the other hand it was really the sixth century, all right, I didn’t want any softeremendation alteration in the MS thing: I would boss the whole country inside of three months; for I judged I would have the start of the best educated man in the kingdom by a matter of thirteen hundred yearstextual note and upwards. I’m not a man to waste time afteralteration in the MS my mind’s made up and there’salteration in the MS work on hand; so I said to the page—

“Now, Clarence, my boy—if that might happen to be your name—I’llemendation get you to post me up a little if you don’t mind. What is the name of that apparitionalteration in the MS thatemendation rejected substantive brought me here?”

“My master and thine? That is the good knight and great lord Sir Kay the Seneschal, foster brother to our liege the king.”

“Very good; go on, tell me everything.”

He made a long story of it; but the part that had immediate interest for me was this. He said I was Sir Kay’s prisoner, and that in the due coursealteration in the MS of custom I would be flung into a dungeon and left there on scant commons until my friends ransomed me—unless I chanced to rot, first. I saw that the last chance had the best show, but I didn’t waste any bother about that; time was too precious. The page said, further, that dinner was about ended in the great hall by this time, and that as soon as the sociability and the heavy drinking should begin, Sir Kay [begin page 64] would have me in and exhibit me before Kingalteration in the MS Arthur and his illustrious knights seated at the Table Round, and would brag about his exploit in capturing me, and would probably exaggerate the facts a little, but it wouldn’t be good form for me to correct him, and not over safe, either; and when I was done being exhibited, then ho for the dungeon; but he, Clarence, would find a way to come and see me every now and then, and cheer me up, and help me get word to my friends.

“go ’long,” i said, “you ain’t more than a paragraph.”

Get wordalteration in the MS to my friends!emendation I thanked him; I couldn’t do less; and about this time a lackey came to say I was wanted; so Clarence led me in and took me off to one side and sat down by me.alteration in the MS

[begin page 65]

Well, it was a curious kindtextual note of spectacle, and interesting. It was an immense place, and rather naked—yes, and full of loud contrasts. It was very, very lofty; so lofty that the banners depending from the arched beams and girders away up there floated in a sort of twilight; there was a stone-railed gallery at each end, high up, with musicians in the one, and women, clothed in stunning colors,emendation textual note in the other. The floor was of big stone flags, laid in black and white squares, rather battered by age and use, and needing repair. As to ornament, there wasn’t any, strictly speaking; thoughalteration in the MS on the walls hung some huge tapestries which were probably taxedalteration in the MS as works of art: battle pieces, they were, with horses shaped like those which children cut out of paper or create in gingerbread; with men on them in scale armor whose scales are represented by round holes—so that the man’s coat looks as if it had been done with a biscuit-punch. There was a fire place big enough to camp in; and its projecting sides and hood, of carvedalteration in the MS and pillared stone-work, had the look of a cathedral door. Along the walls stood men-at-arms, in breastplatealteration in the MS and morion, with halberds for their only weapon—rigid as statues; and that is what they looked like.

In the middle of this groined and vaulted public square was an oaken table which they called the Table Round. It was as large as a circus ring; and around it sat a great company of men dressed in such various and splendid colors that it hurtalteration in the MS one’s eyes to look at them. They wore their plumed hatsexplanatory note, right along; except that whenever one addressed himself directly to the king, he lifted his hat a trifle just as he was beginning his remark.

Mainly they were drinking—from entire ox horns; but a few were still munching bread or gnawing beef-bonesemendation. There was about an average of two dogs to one man; and these sat in expectant attitudes till a spent bone was flung to them, and then they went for it by brigades and divisions, with a rush, and there ensued a fight which filled the prospect with a tumultuousalteration in the MS chaos of plunging heads and bodies and flashing tails, and the storm of howlings and barkings deafened all speech for the time; but that was no matter, for the dog-fight was always a bigger interest anyway; the men rose, sometimes, to observe it the better and bet on italteration in the MS; and the ladies and the musicians stretched themselves out over their balustersalteration in the MS with the same object; and all broke into delighted ejaculations from time to time. In the end, the winning [begin page 66] dog stretched himself out comfortably with his bone between his paws, and proceeded to growl over it, and gnaw it, and grease the floor with it, just as fiftyalteration in the MS others were already doing; and the restalteration in the MS of the court resumed their previous industries and entertainments.

As a rule, the speech and behavior of these people were gracious and courtly; and I noticed that they were good and serious listeners when anybody was telling anything—I mean, in a dog-fightless interval.alteration in the MS And plainly, too, they were a childlike and innocent lot; telling lies of the stateliest pattern with a most gentle and winning naivetyemendation, and ready and willing to listen to anybody else’s lie, and believe it, too. It was hard to associate them with anything cruel or dreadful; and yet they dealt in tales of blood and suffering with a guileless relish that made me almost forget to shudder.

I was not the only prisoner present. There were twenty or more. Poor devils, many of them were maimed, hacked, carved, in a frightful way; and their hair, their faces, their clothing, were caked with black and stiffened drenchings of blood. They were suffering sharp physical pain, of course; and weariness, and hunger and thirst, no doubt; and at least none had given them the comfort of a wash, or even the poor charity of a lotion for their wounds; yet you never heard them utter a moan or a groan, or saw themalteration in the MS show any sign ofalteration in the MS restlessness, or any disposition to complain. The thought was forced upon me: “The rascals— they alteration in the MS have served other people so, in their day;alteration in the MS it being their ownalteration in the MS turn, now,alteration in the MS they were not expecting any better treatment than this; so their philosophical bearing is not an outcome of mental training, intellectual fortitude, reasoning; it isalteration in the MS merealteration in the MS animal training; they are white Indians.”alteration in the MS

Editorial Emendations CHAPTER 2  King Arthur’s Court
  CHAPTER 2 (I-C)  ●  Chap. 3. A reads “CHAPTER II.”  (MS) 
  meseemeth (I-C)  ●  me-  |  seemeth (MS) 
  thee (A)  ●  you (MS) 
  dainty (A)  ●  not in  (MS) 
  good-natured (A)  ●  good-  |  natured (MS) 
  gait, (A)  ●  gait  (MS) 
  fazed (I-C)  ●  phazed (MS) 
  and about my clothes (A)  ●  not in  (MS) 
  me! (A)  ●  me. (MS) 
  513! (A)  ●  513. (MS) 
  it! (A)  ●  it. (MS) 
  King Arthur’s court  (I-C)  ●  King Arthur’s court A reads Court  (MS) 
  —never, never again (A)  ●  not in  (MS) 
  Something  (A)  ●  Something (MS) 
  straightway (A)  ●  straight-  |  way (MS) 
  even (A)  ●  not in  (MS) 
  two (A)  ●  2 (MS) 
  softer (A)  ●  better (MS) 
  boy—if . . . name—I’ll (A)  ●  boy, I’ll (MS) 
  apparition that (A)  ●  man/labrick who (MS) 
  Get . . . friends! (A)  ●  not in  (MS) 
  colors, (A)  ●  colors  (MS) 
  beef-bones (I-C)  ●  beef-  |  bones (MS) 
  naivety (A)  ●  gravity (MS) 
Rejected Substantives CHAPTER 2  King Arthur’s Court
  all (MS,A,E)  ●  not in  (Pr) 
  apparition that (A)  ●  man who (MS,E) 
Alterations in the Manuscript CHAPTER 2  King Arthur’s Court
 That will] originally ‘That’ll’; ‘will’ interlined above canceled ‘ ’ll’.
 you are] originally ‘you’re’; ‘are’ interlined above canceled ‘ ’re’.
 shrimp-colored] ‘shrimp’ interlined in pencil above canceled ‘flesh’.
 plumed] interlined.
 by] mended from ‘but’.
 honest] written over wiped-out ‘on’.
  In . . . COURT] the MS reads ‘In King Arthur’s court’; in black ink Mark Twain drew a double underline beneath the lowercase letters, then canceled the underline beneath ‘King . . . court’; emended.
 shudder its way] interlined in black ink above ‘soak’ canceled in pencil.
 —nineteenth of June.”] added following a canceled period and canceled closing quotation marks.
 felt] followed by canceled ‘—felt’.
 on the] interlined following canceled ‘at’ and canceled ‘in the afternoon of the’.
 A. D. 528, O. S.] interlined, ‘O. S.’ in black ink.
 at . . . noon.] interlined in black ink above canceled ‘a little after three oclock in the afternoon.’
 total] interlined.
 1879.] originally ‘1895.’; ‘79’ interlined above canceled ‘95’, then the entire date canceled in pencil and ‘1879’ interlined in pencil.
 man,] followed by canceled ‘and’.
 now] interlined.
 problem] interlined without a caret above canceled ‘thing’.
 it is] originally ‘it’s’; ‘is’ interlined above the canceled apostrophe and ‘s’.
 if . . . jack] interlined in pencil following a comma added on the line; emended.
 presently] interlined.
 softer] the MS reads ‘better’; original ‘better’ canceled and ‘softer’ interlined, then ‘softer’ canceled in turn and ‘better’ interlined; emended.
 after] interlined above canceled ‘when’.
 there’s] follows canceled ‘when’.
 apparition] the MS reads ‘man/labrick’; ‘labrick’ is interlined in pencil above uncanceled ‘man’; emended.
 course] follows canceled ‘and’.
 King] follows canceled ‘all the’.
 word] originally ‘words’; ‘s’ canceled.
 and took . . . me.] appears to have been added following a canceled period.
 though] follows canceled ‘—that is, from’; the semicolon preceding added.
 taxed] written over wiped-out ‘n’ and two or three unrecovered letters.
 of carved] follows canceled ‘were’.
 in breastplate] follows canceled ‘with’.
 hurt] interlined above canceled ‘troubled’.
 a tumultuous] follows canceled ‘plun-  |  ’.
 and bet on it] interlined in black ink.
 balusters] follows canceled ‘balconies’.
 fifty] interlined above canceled ‘twenty’.
 rest] follows canceled ‘other’.
 —I mean . . . interval.] interlined in black ink above a canceled period and over ‘and wasn’t unrecovered word dog-fight’ interlined in pencil without a caret then erased or smeared.
 saw them] interlined.
 sign of] interlined.
  they] ‘they’ underlined in pencil.
 in their day;] interlined above canceled ‘before now;’.
 own] interlined.
 now,] interlined.
 it is] follows ‘no,’ canceled in pencil.
 mere] interlined.
 

Indians.”] followed by a paragraph added in black ink which was revised then canceled in pencil. The canceled passage is reproduced below. The superior numbers refer to Mark Twain’s revisions, which are listed following the passage.

‘This1 thought plunged me into a dream, and the burden of it was this fancy: if I could but see all of these poor people2 here present lifted up and made Presbyterians. I was born and reared a Presbyterian. I had lived in that light all my life. All that I was, I owed to it.3 To this reverie I owed the only moment of deep and serene spiritual peace I had known since these late disasters had come upon me. Figuratively, I slept this moment; then woke again to the realities about me.’

1.   This] ‘LEAVE OUT’ added in pencil above the canceled passage.
2.   people] written over wiped-out ‘souls’.
3.   it.] followed by canceled ‘In all essentials, indeed, but the name, Arthur’; ‘all’ follows one or two separately canceled unrecovered words.
Textual Notes CHAPTER 2  King Arthur’s Court
 gait,] The first American edition’s comma, absent in the manuscript, is retained as Mark Twain’s addition in the typescript or in proof to parallel the comma after “look” in the first clause. Its use in such constructions is characteristic of Mark Twain: compare 433.20.
 fazed] The manuscript and the first American edition read “phazed” here and “phased” at 398.7, which the Oxford English Dictionary quotes as its example of this “erroneous spelling of Faze.” Ramsay and Emberson list it as one of Mark Twain’s fifty favorite words, words which “seem to have given Mark Twain especial pleasure, judging by the frequency with which he used them,” and mention that “only once did he, or his printers, permit it to be spelled correctly” ( Lex , pp. cx, 79).
 hundred years] Between these words, which are on separate lines in the manuscript, Mark Twain, or possibly someone else, penciled the number “11” half-circled with a line extending a short way into the page.
 Well . . . kind] In the lower left corner of the manuscript page, adjacent to this last line, Mark Twain, or perhaps someone else, wrote the number “4” and below it “20,” both in pencil.
 colors,] Syntax requires either the addition of this comma (as in the first American edition) or the elimination of the manuscript’s comma after “women.”
Explanatory Notes CHAPTER 2  King Arthur’s Court
  illustration] “Sarah Bernhardt is there as a page,” Beard recalled in his autobiography, and in one of the copies of A Connecticut Yankee which he annotated to identify his models, he wrote, “In this picture I used a photo of the ‘Divine Sarah’ ” (Hardly a Man, p. 337; “Dan Beard Tells,” p. 5). Teona Gneiting has identified the photograph he used, one showing Bernhardt, wearing a costume like Clarence’s, in the role of the boy troubadour in Le Passant (“Picture and Text,” p. 246). “George Morrison, a real Connecticut Yankee who was experimenting in a photoengraving establishment adjoining my studio” posed for the drawing of Hank (Hardly a Man, p. 337); in the annotated copy, next to this picture, Beard added, “From him all the drawings of the Yankee himself were made” (“Dan Beard Tells,” p. 5).
 They wore their plumed hats] In his Memoirs, the duc de Saint-Simon describes how William of Orange received the news of James II’s death: “He was at table . . . when the news arrived; . . . blushed, pulled down his hat, and could not keep his countenance.” Next to this sentence in his copy of Saint-Simon, Clemens wrote, “So they ate with their hats on, in that day” (1:231).