True Jim, but do we care what the British did with it?   I'll use the THE if
you'll forever call FTE by its British title, MORE TRAMPS ABROAD. You'll
also have to call MOBY DICK by it's British title THE WHALE, etc.

THE  also was used in the note to the HF extracts in `The Century.'  But
Twain's manuscript for the first edition supplies the title without the THE.
I don't think he noticed or cared about later uses of this article in that
title. But I can think of only one caveat. Twain did review some proofs for
the 1899 collected edition. I'd love to know if he reviewed those for HF and
if it was he who inserted THE into the title at that time. I'm doubtful he
proofed the HF sheets, and doubtful he'd have changed the title, but that
very remote possibility does exist.

It's carries no authorial weight, but I have a large poster printed to
advertise the first edition of HF and it also uses THE in the title.

In view of the Faulkner confusion I'll change my example from THE HAMLET to
THE ROMEO AND THE JULIET.  And let's not get carried away and take the THE
out of any famous titles or we'll end up with the play OLLO, MOR GOOSE
rhymes, and the like.

Kevin Mac Donnell
Austin TX 78730