ABSTRACT
AYankeeattheCourtofKi11gArtlmr,byMarkTwain(SamuelL. Clemens),publishedbyMessrs.Chatto&Windus,isaratherlaborious pieceoffunwithasortofpurposeinit.Oneoftheillustrations,early inthevolume,representsaYankeeticklingwithastrawthenoseofa giganticstatueofalion,andindicatesthegeneralnatureoftheserious purportofthe525pagesofthatveryAmericankindofAmerican humourofwhich'MarkTwain'isthechiefmaster.Laughingat Britishinstitutions,andshowingthatthegoodoldtimeswereuncommonlybadtimesforthepeople,andthatnotafewofthehistorical privilegeswhichstillexistdonotsuittheideasofthegreatrepublicof theWest,affordagooddealofharmlessamusementandopportwuties forverytritecomment.Itisamistaketodecidethatridiculecastupon
the story of Arthur is an offence in any way other than in the matter of taste in jokes. Sir Thomas Malory and Lord Tennyson will survive. Masterpieces will stand any amount of parody. 'The Burial of Sir John Moore' and Gray's 'Elegy' are just as impressive and admirable as if they had not been parodied with all sorts of jocularity and ribaldry scores of times. One may easily read Mark Twain's book without any ill will; but it is a harder task to read it with sustained merriment. By writing so much the author has shown how mechanical his method really is, and, with all respect for the cleverness of the writers of Gaiety burlesques, one doubts if anybody could be amused by reading one of them ifit ran to five hundred pages. That is, however, the sort of task which Mark Twain offers to his readers. One may be pardoned for confessing that the task has proved too severe. A trial of several chapters taken at random shows that the author is still as fresh as ever in his racy contrasts between things ancient and modern, and as quaint in his droll expressions. He can raise a laugh once, twice, or even twenty times, but not a thousand.
