The Emperor's New Clothes

This is a short passage from The Emperor's New Clothes by Hans Christian Andersen. What is the meaning of 'then' in this passage? Can it be simply put 'which accordingly' instead of 'then'?

Many years ago, there was an Emperor, who was so excessively fond of new clothes, that he spent all his money in dress. He did not trouble himself in the least about his soldiers; nor did he care to go either to the theatre or the chase, except for the opportunities then afforded him for displaying his new clothes.

Here is another passage from The Emperor's New Clothes. What is the meaning of 'to be sure'? Is this for style, or something else?

To be sure, he thought he had nothing to risk in his own person; but yet, he would prefer sending somebody else, to bring him intelligence about the weavers, and their work, before he troubled himself in the affair.

Paul N.

"nor did he care to go either to the theatre or the chase, except for the opportunities then afforded him for displaying his new clothes. "

I suppose "then" in that sentence means "which were, at that time."

nor did he care to go either to the theatre or the chase, except for the opportunities which were, at that time, afforded him for displaying his new clothes.

Then means that the theater or chase specifically offered him the opportunity to dress up.

Adam's sentence doesn't make grammatical sense to me, I'm afraid.

And yes, "to be sure" is a stylistic usage, but it is standard English as well, and there is nothing odd about it being in that sentence.

Adam, Uriel,

Thank you both for helping me with the sentences.

Regarding Adam's sentence I suspect it may make sense, grammatically when slightly rephrased. I believe it needs the word ‘TO’ to be added before the word ‘HIM’. So, the phrase ‘which were at that time, afforded him’ can be read as ‘which were at that time, afforded to him’.

Consequently, the whole passage can be rephrased:

“nor did he care to go either to the theatre or the chase, except for the opportunities, which were, at that time, afforded to him for displaying his new clothes”.

I suppose, the above passage corresponds to the original one, in a way:

“nor did he care to go either to the theatre or the chase, except for the opportunities then afforded him for displaying his new clothes”.

My guess is that Adam (probably deliberately) omitted the word ‘TO’. The original text also calls for ‘TO’ to be dropped from the sentence. Am I am right? Please, correct me if I’m wrong.

Paul N.

Actually, I'm wrong, upon re-reading Adam's sentence, it does work just fine. However, honestly, I would just use "then", as in the original text.