The King's Clothes by Koloman Mikszáth
King Morus rules an unnamed land where chroniclers disagree even on its location. One afternoon he escapes the tedium of signing seventy documents by having his Minister, Narciz, stamp the royal seal on a blank death sentence, which he then pockets. He confides to Narciz that he intends to give the sentence to a beautiful woman so she can be rid of her husband and grant the King her favor, and he orders the exchange recorded in the Golden Book of the realm as an example of royal grace. The King proceeds to his private garden on the Nile, unaware that Narciz's son, Rogus, has overheard the remark and, suspecting the truth, bribes the garden watchman to trade clothes with him so he can follow. Both men pass unseen among the bowing lilies, roses, and azaleas, which whisper the name Florilla — Rogus's own stepmother, Narciz's stepdaughter — while Rogus, unlike the King, tramples the flowers. Rogus trails Morus to the riverside villa the King had earlier given him as a gift. There the King whistles for Florilla, who appears on her balcony. He tells her he has left her husband occupied at court and hands her the sealed death sentence to be delivered within the hour, after which she will send her serving women to sleep and admit him. Waiting, the King is overcome by the heat and undresses to bathe in the Nile, leaving his royal garments — golden robe, yellow shoes with golden spurs, purple cloak, jeweled vest, and silver whistle — on the grass, certain no one would dare intrude on that forbidden shore. When he emerges, the clothes are gone. Frantic, he searches every bush, rails at the earth and the moon, and finally resolves to return to the palace for fresh garments, planning to have the watchmen executed for whatever mockery follows. Naked and humiliated, he is refused help by a beggar, then attacked by street dogs, then turned away and beaten in effigy by watchmen at two different gates who take him for a lunatic or impostor, despite his repeated, increasingly desperate insistence that he is King Morus. He finally persuades the beggar to trade his ragged covering for the King's promise of future gold, since the beggar has never actually seen the King's face on a coin. Covered only in the beggar's rags, Morus makes his way to Rogus's villa, where a crowd of his own courtiers — men he had personally enriched, including Kabul and Niles — gather but fail to recognize him and scorn his filthy covering. He begs for Florilla to be brought to confirm his identity, only for the Minister's herald to emerge bearing Florilla's severed head on a spear, accompanied by a proclamation sealed with the Minister's seal, to the crowd's rejoicing. Only the beggar, moved by pity, leads the stunned, will-less King away from the jeering crowd. Crossing the square, Morus spots Narciz and embraces him, but the Minister, not recognizing this ragged, hoarse-voiced stranger, mocks his resemblance to the King and taps him with the cane the King himself once gave him, then proceeds cheerfully into the palace — where the real occupant of the throne room is now revealed to be Rogus, wearing the King's clothes. Rogus explains to his father how he overheard the tryst, took the King's garments during the bath, and wrote Florilla's name on the blank death sentence himself. The narrator declines to relate what chroniclers claim happened afterward, professing not to believe that part of the story.
By Koloman Mikszáth · First published 1921 · Genre: Satire, Fairy Tale, Allegory · 3,578 words
First lines
Chroniclers are sometimes mistaken. They tell us the story of King / Morus but they forget to state over what land he ruled. Yet this / does not have anything to do with the subject, because who believes / believes. I will relate it truthfully.[5]
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The King's Clothes is listed on Textopian as a short story by Koloman Mikszáth, dated 1921 CE.
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- Work type: Short story
- Author: Koloman Mikszáth
- Date: 1921 CE
- Language: English
- Genres: Satire, Fairy Tale, Allegory, Dark Comedy, Parable
- Length: 3,578 words
- Structure: 1 section, 92 paragraphs
- Reading fit: Easy (6th Grade)
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- Work identity for The King's Clothes by Koloman Mikszáth
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Genres
- Satire — The work satirizes power, authority, and royal institutions through ironic reversals where the king becomes powerless and unrecognized without his external symbols of status
- Fairy Tale — Employs fairy tale structure with a kingdom setting, royalty, moral lesson, and archetypal narrative arc of consequences and justice
- Allegory — Functions as an allegory exploring how power and identity are constructed through external symbols and social recognition rather than inherent qualities
- Dark Comedy — Uses dark, ironic humor throughout to depict the king's tragic predicament and the absurdity of his loss of recognition and authority
Tags
satire · royalty · monarchy · Hungarian literature · political satire · appearance · illusion · social commentary · power dynamics · critique · 19th century · fiction