Chapter 22 Summary: Sherburn Faces the Mob, the Circus, and the Royal Nonesuch
Chapter 22 of The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn opens with a furious mob swarming toward Colonel Sherburn's house, bent on lynching him for the cold-blooded shooting of the town drunk, Boggs, in the previous chapter. The crowd tears down Sherburn's fence and surges forward, but Sherburn steps calmly onto his porch roof with a double-barrel shotgun. His mere presence silences the mob. He stares them down one by one until each person drops their gaze. Then he delivers one of the most memorable speeches in the novel—a blistering indictment of mob cowardice and human nature.
Sherburn's Speech on Mob Mentality and Cowardice
Sherburn mocks the crowd for thinking they have the courage to lynch a man. He declares that the average man is a coward, whether from the North or the South. In the North, people let others walk over them and pray for humility. In the South, a single man can rob a stagecoach in broad daylight. Sherburn argues that juries acquit murderers because jurors fear being shot in the back, and that real lynchings happen only at night, carried out by masked men. He singles out Buck Harkness as the "half-a-man" who whipped the mob into action and tells them they are "beneath pitifulness" without a real leader. The crowd scatters in shame, and Huck, who watched the whole scene, decides not to stay.
The Circus and the "Drunk" Rider
Huck sneaks into a traveling circus and is dazzled by the spectacle—elegant riders, beautiful women in glittering costumes, and a quick-witted clown. The highlight comes when a seemingly drunk man from the audience demands to ride one of the horses. The crowd laughs as the horse bucks wildly and the man clings on for dear life. Huck is genuinely frightened for the man's safety. Then the rider steadies himself, stands upright on the galloping horse, strips off seventeen layers of clothing to reveal a dazzling performer's outfit, and takes a graceful bow. The audience erupts with delight. Huck feels "sheepish" for being fooled and pities the ring-master, who apparently did not know the rider was one of his own men—though Huck's gullibility here is itself part of Twain's humor.
The Duke's Plan: The Royal Nonesuch
That evening, the duke and the king stage their Shakespeare show, but only about twelve people attend and they laugh throughout. The duke concludes that these "Arkansaw lunkheads" have no taste for Shakespeare and decides to give them what they really want: low comedy, or something worse. He paints handbills advertising "The King's Camelopard, or The Royal Nonesuch" at the courthouse for three nights only, with admission at fifty cents. The final line on the poster reads: "LADIES AND CHILDREN NOT ADMITTED." The duke confidently predicts this forbidden-fruit marketing will pack the house—setting the stage for one of the novel's most outrageous con jobs in the chapters to follow.