The following texts have been collated, and the collation results are reported in the textual apparatus because of the light they shed on the writing and revision of The Prince and the Pauper. The symbols on the left are used in this volume to identify the texts. Following the description of texts is a list of the specific copies of each edition used in the preparation of this volume.
MS Manuscript. HM 1327 in the Henry E. Huntington Library, San Marino, California. A full description of the manuscript will be found in the list of alterations in the manuscript, pages 455–458.Pr Prospectus. Boston: James R. Osgood and Company, 1882. The prospectus contains five leaves of front matter—including the dedication and the photographic facsimile and transcript of the Latimer letter, but not the epigraph from The Merchant of Venice or the introductory paragraph that immediately precedes the first chapter in the book. The text of the prospectus, which was printed in a single impression from the plates prepared for the first American edition, corresponds to the following passages in this edition:
| 47 title–9 | CHAPTER . . . holiday, |
| 50.4–38 | organized . . . Latin, |
| 53.3–54.4 | splashing . . . wrought |
| 55.7–56.9 | eat . . . before |
| 57 title–10 | CHAPTER . . . street—but |
| 59.8–60.13 | fastened . . . out: |
| 61.7–62.1 | “Doth . . . always |
| 62.31–63.1 | neither . . . more.” |
| 64.21–66.2 | then at the . . . shouting: |
| 68.6–16 | jumping . . . costume. including footnote |
| 73 title–12 | CHAPTER . . . be if |
| 74.12–75.14 | ante-chamber . . . lord?” |
| 77.8–78.3 | Poor . . . reverence, |
| 78.14–79.29 | “Thou . . . toward the |
| 80.5–16 | a growing . . . replied— |
| 82.17–83.8 | One . . . place. including footnote |
| 85 title–86.1 | CHAPTER . . . proceed, Hertford |
| 87.17–88.13 | such . . . again. |
| 90.2–30 | in the styes . . . play. wherefore |
| 91.8–92.4 | the asking . . . came straightway |
| 94.14–95.7 | St. John . . . held it |
| 97 title–98.5 | CHAPTER . . . highness the |
| 99.14–100.2 | of importing . . . dead including footnote |
| 101.8–102.5 | By his . . . naturally |
| 103 title–104.16 | CHAPTER . . . what |
| 107 title–108.14 | CHAPTER . . . roses, and |
| 109.7–110.15 | satin . . . this! |
| 111 title–22 | CHAPTER . . . one— |
| 113.1–14 | “O, poor . . . wandering |
| 114.37–115.20 | to their . . . would |
| 117.6–25 | to sleep . . . William!” |
| 118.19–119.16 | thy . . . into |
| 120.31–121.15 | imaginary . . . treason. including footnote |
| 123 title–125.7 | CHAPTER . . . knife. |
| 127.1–13 | troop . . . assemblage |
| 131 title–133.3 | CHAPTER . . . before |
| 134.31–135.3 | would . . . odds |
| 137.3–16 | He . . . ill-conditioned |
| 138.9–139.28 | Hendon . . . rich, without footnote |
| 142.18–33 | ragamuffin . . . get |
| 145.2–12 | wrought . . . content.” |
| 147 title–16 | CHAPTER . . . this.” |
| 155 title–157.2 | CHAPTER . . . more be |
| 157.34–158.13 | to the . . . enough in |
| 159.19–29 | a form, and . . . for?” |
| 162.34–163.8 | to happen . . . forgetting! |
| 164.20–165.13 | Tom . . . reason |
| 167.20–28 | totally . . . succeeded. |
| 169 title–22 | CHAPTER . . . all |
| 171.5–25 | “I would . . . victims, |
| 173.4–17 | dress . . . comparison.” |
| 175.34–177.21 | “Let . . . again. |
| 296.4–16 | He . . . make |
| 299 title–10 | CHAPTER . . . thousand |
| 301.4–33 | nigh . . . upon. |
| 305.11–17 | splendors . . . greatness |
| 306.10–307.11 | vapors . . . again!” |
A First American edition. Boston: James R. Osgood and Company, 1882 ( BAL 3402), and New York: Charles L. Webster and Company, 1885–1891. This is the only edition for which Mark Twain read proof. Collation indicates that the text, printed from electrotype plates, occurs in two states, here designated Aa and Ab. Comparison of wear, damage, and repair of type in some fifteen copies shows that the three readings that identify the first state occur only in the copies printed earliest and suggests that those readings were altered after the first impression had left the press and before the second impression was begun. The bindings of the Osgood copies of this edition also occur in two states, noted by Jacob Blanck, who correctly stated that two sets of brasses must have been used to stamp them.1 However, there is no absolute correlation between the earliest state of the text and the binding that Blanck identifies as the earliest binding—copies of both states of the text are found with both states of the binding.
E First English edition. London: Chatto and Windus, 1881–1882 ( BAL 3396). Collation indicates that the text of this edition, set from American proofsheets and printed from standing type, occurs in three states, here designated Ea, Eb, and Ec. Of the copies examined, only the third state bears the 1882 date on the title page.
C First Canadian edition. Montreal: Dawson Brothers, 1881 ( BAL 3397). This edition was set from American proofsheets and printed from stereotype plates. All copies examined are textually identical, although later copies substitute a title page with the added words “Author's Canadian Edition.”
The following editions of The Prince and the Pauper were found to be derivative and without authority.
Continental edition. Leipzig: Bernhard Tauchnitz, 1881.
Unauthorized Canadian edition. Toronto: Rose-Belford Publishing Company, 1882 ( BAL 3629).
Unauthorized Canadian edition. Toronto: John Ross Robertson, 1882.
Third English edition. London: Chatto and Windus, 1891.
Second American edition. New York: Charles L. Webster and Company, 1892.
Third American edition. New York: Harper and Brothers, 1896.
Fourth American edition. Hartford: American Publishing Company, 1899, and New York: Harper and Brothers, 1903.
The following sight and machine collations were performed in the course of preparing this edition.2 All emendations, manuscript revisions, and readings that were confused or obscure on the microfilm of the manuscript were exhaustively checked against the manuscript itself, and at every stage variant readings were checked in every relevant copy available in the Mark Twain Papers; the University of California Library, Berkeley; and the collection of Theodore H. Koundakjian. Printer's copy for this edition is an emended photocopy of MTP Morrison.
Aa (Koundakjian copy 3) vs. Pr (MTP copy, missing one leaf, pp. 113 and 116)
Pr (MTP) vs. photocopy of Pr (CWB copy PS 1316.A1.1882a)
Aa (Koundakjian copy 3) vs. Ab (MTP Tufts); Ab (MTP Morrison); Ab, University Press imprint (MTP Hibbitt); and Ab, Webster 1885 (MTP W. Webster)
In addition, a photocopy of the manuscript and copies of the prospectus, first American, first English, and first Canadian editions were sight collated at the University of Iowa Textual Center, along with copies of the second, third, and fourth American editions, and the third English edition. Several copies of the first American edition were machine collated, as were copies of the first English edition and later American editions—in particular, several impressions of the fourth American edition.