A Man for All Seasons
"I believe that you believe that. You're a constant regret to me, Thomas. If you could just see facts flat on, without that horrible moral squint; with just a little common sense, you could have been a statesman."
Cardinal Wolsey
"More! You should have been a cleric!"
Cardinal Wolsey
"No, Catherine's his wife and she's as barren as a brick. Are you going to pray for a miracle?"
Cardinal Wolsey
"It is perverse! To start a play made up of Kings and Cardinals in speaking costumes and intellectuals with embroidered mouths, with me."
Common Man
"Mm...Oh, when I can't touch the bottom I'll go deaf, blind, and dumb."
Common Man
"My master Thomas More would give anything to anyone. Some say that's good and some say that's bad, but I say he can't help it-and that's bad...because some day someone's going to ask him for something that he wants to keep; and he'll be out of practice. There must be something he wants to keep. That's common sense."
Common Man
"Oh, he's a deep one that Sir Thomas More...Deep...It takes a lot of education to get a man as deep as that...and a deep nature to begin with to."
Common Man
"The Loyal Subject...A pub."
Common Man
"The Sixteenth Century is the Century of the Common Man. Like all other centuries. And that's my proposition."
Common Man
"The great thing's not to get out of your depth...What I can tell them's common knowledge! But now they've given money for it and everyone wants value for his money."
Common Man
"Whether we follow tradition in ascribing Wolsey's death to a broken heart, or accept Professor Larcomb's less feeling diagnosis of pulmonary pneumonia, its effective cause was the King's displeasure...England's next lord chancellor was Sir Thomas More..."
Common Man
"I have no Queen! Catherine is not my wife and no priest can make her so, and they that say she is my wife are not only liars...but traitors! Mind it, Thomas!"
King Henry VIII
"Oh Lady Alice, I must go. I want to catch the tide. To tell the truth, Lady Alice, I have forgotten in your haven how time flows past outside. Affairs call me to court."
King Henry VIII
"The Great Harry...I steered her, Thomas, under sail."
King Henry VIII
"Thomas, Thomas, does a man need a Pope to tell him when he's sinned? It was a sin, Thomas; I admit it; I repent. And God has punished me; I have no son..."
King Henry VIII
"Thomas, that I stand in peril of my soul. It was no marriage; she was my brother's widow. Leviticus: 'Thou salt not uncover the nakedness of thy brother's wife.' Leviticus, Chapter eighteen, Verse sixteen."
King Henry VIII
"Well, I dance superlatively! That's a dancer's leg, Margaret!...Shall I show them, Howard?...Shall I?"
King Henry VIII
"But every man has a price!"
Richard Rich
"I'm adrift. Help me."
Richard Rich
"I'm lamenting. I've lost my innocence."
Richard Rich
"It would depend what I was offered."
Richard Rich
Who NOT found guilty of high treason?
Richard Rich and the Common Man ~ They both died in their beds instead ~ Richard Rich became a Knight and Solicitor-General, a Baron and Lord Chancellor
Author of A Man for All Seasons
Robert Bolt
Ascetic
Self-Disciplined ~ Example: fasting
Great Harry
Ship that King Henry VIII guided down the river
Chapuys
Spanish ambassador ~ Has an attendant
"At eight o'clock Lady Anne likes to dance."
St. Sir Thomas More
"But what matters to me is not whether it's true or not but that I believe it to be true, or rather, not that I BELIEVE it, but that I believe it...I trust I make myself obscure?"
St. Sir Thomas More
"I neither could nor would rule my king. But there's a little...little, area...where I must rule myself. It's very little-less to him than a tennis court."
St. Sir Thomas More
"If Wolsey fell, the splash would swamp a few small boats like ours. There will be no new chancellors while Wolsey lives."
St. Sir Thomas More
"Listen, Roper. Two years ago you were a passionate Churchman; now you're a passionate Lutheran. We must just pray that when your head's finished turning your face is to the front again."
St. Sir Thomas More
"No, sheer simplicity. The law, Roper, the law, I know what's legal not what's right. And I'll stick to what's legal."
St. Sir Thomas More
"Oh? And when the last law was down, and the Devil turned round on you-where would you hide, Roper, the laws all being flat? This country's planted thick with laws from coast to coast, man's laws, not God's-and if you cut them down-and you're just the man to do it-d'you really think you could stand upright in the winds that would blow then? Yes, I'd give the Devil benefit of the Law, for my own safety's sake."
St. Sir Thomas More
"That you should put away Queen Catherine, Sire? Oh, alas as I think of it I see so clearly that I can not come with Your Grace that my endeavor is not to think of it at all."
St. Sir Thomas More
"The nobility of England, my lord, would have snored through the Sermon on the Mount."
St. Sir Thomas More
"Well...I believe, when statesmen forsake their own private conscience for the sake of their public duties...they lead their country by a short route to chaos. And we shall have my prayers to fall back on."
St. Sir Thomas More
"You see, we speak of being anchored to our principles. But if the weather turns nasty and you up with an anchor and let it down where there's less wind and the fishing's better. And 'look,' we say, 'look I'm anchored!...To my principles!'"
St. Sir Thomas More
Four Thousand Pounds
The amount of money the bishops tried to bribe Thomas More with
A Defence of the Seven Sacraments
The book that Thomas More helped basically wrote in the King's name ~ The king was named "Defender of the Faith" by the pope for this book
"Are you coming in my direction, Rich?"
Thomas Cromwell
"Get sure...No, it's not like that, it's much more a matter of convenience, administrative convenience."
Thomas Cromwell
"I think you'd make a good Collector of Revenues for York Diocese."
Thomas Cromwell
Who was found guilty of high treason?
Thomas Cromwell, Norfolk, Thomas Cranmer, and Thomas More
Law
A reasonable ordinance made by proper authority must be properly promulgated for the common good ~ It's the very pattern of society
Cranmer
Archbishop of Canterbury
Howard
Duke of Norfolk
Legalist (Duke of Norfolk)
Held together by a rigid adherence to the minimal code of conventional duty
Matthew
Household steward of Sir Thomas More (the common man)
1:00 AM
Time that the jailer came to get Thomas More to have him meet with Cromwell, Norfolk, and Cramner
"Must everything be made convenient? I'm not a convenient man, Meg-I've got an inconvenient conscience!"
Will Roper
"The Church is heretical! Doctor Luther's proved that to my satisfaction."
Will Roper
Cardinal Wolsey
~ "A big decayed body in scarlet" ~ Has "an almost megalomaniac ambition unhappily matched by an excelling intellect" - Mega~ big - Maniac~ crazy ~ Lives in "a lonely den of self-indulgence and contempt" ~ Corrupt ~ Chancellor of England - Non-royal and secular position appointed by the king ~ Like the position of Prime Minister at that time
Richard Rich
~ "An academic hounded by self-doubt to be in the world of affairs and longing to be rescued from himself" ~ Wants the following 3 things from Sir Thomas More: - Power - Prestige - Possessions ~ Thomas More views him as a friend, but he ONLY wants to be More's friend in order to get things ~ Thomas More offered him a job as teacher but he declined ~ More gave him the silver cup/goblet ~ Became the Collector of Revenues for York Diocese
Common Man
~ "Crafty" ~ "Loosely benevolent" ~ "Base humor" ~ One major purpose and goal is to pull the audience into the play ~ Has multiple roles: - Narrator - Household Steward of Sir Thomas More (Matthew) - Boatman - Publicant (in charge of the pub) - Jailer - Foreman of the Jury (John Dauncey) - Headsman
Duke of Norfolk
~ "Held together by a rigid adherence to the minimal code of conventional duty" - Legalist ~ Heavy ~ Active ~ Sportsman ~ Soldier ~ First name: Howard ~ Close, personal friend of Thomas More who is his equal
King Henry VIII
~ "The Golden Hope of the New Learning throughout Europe' ~ "Only the levity with which he handles his absolute power foreshadows his future corruption" ~ Renaissance man ~ Spoke Latin but was NO match for St. Thomas' daughter ~ Lives in Richmond
Thomas Cromwell
~ "The king's ear" ~ A self-conceit that can cradle gross crimes in the name of effective action. In short, an intellectual bully" ~ Renaissance man (like the king) ~ Master Secretary
Will Roper
~ Future son-in-law of Sir Thomas More ~ His request to marry Margaret was NOT originally approved by St. Thomas More because he considered him a heretic since he was Lutheran - Before the play (2 years ago), Roper was Catholic ("a passionate Churchman") - He and Meg are married later in the play ~ Lawyer
St. Sir Thomas More
~ Main character ~ Has "an adamantime sense of his own self" - A man with a strong sense of his own self ~ "Hero of selfhood" ~ Good man who everyone knew was a good man - This is why the king wanted his signature on the dispensation so badly ~ Could NOT be accused of any incapacity for life ~ Man of conscience ~ Moral man ~ Ascetic ~ Lawyer ~ Lives in Chelsea
Margaret (Meg) More
~ St. Thomas More's daughter ~ Marries Will Roper ~ Fluent in Greek and Latin - Spoke Latin better than King Henry
Alice More
~ St. Thomas More's wife ~ Described by Thomas More as a "lion" ~ "Absurd at a distance" (over dressed) ~ Worships Thomas and society, and so is troubled by both of them
Catherine Anger
~ The "woman" ~ Came from Lincoln ~ Had a property case in the Court of Requests that More was presiding over ~ Tried to bribe More with an Italian silver cup/goblet that she bought for 100 shillings ~ More got rid of it by giving it to Richard Rich
