The Prince and the Pauper

This treasured historical satire, played out in two very different socioeconomic worlds of 16th-century England, centers on the lives of two boys born in London on the same day: Edward, Prince of Wales, and Tom Canty, a street beggar. During a chance encounter the two realize they are identical and, as a lark, decide to exchange clothes and roles — a situation that briefly but drastically alters the lives of both youngsters. The Prince, dressed in rags, wanders the city's boisterous neighborhoods among the lower classes and endures a series of hardships; meanwhile, poor Tom, now living with the royals, is constantly filled with the dread of being discovered for who and what he really is.