A Man for Today

Oscar Wilde has remarked that not only are there books to read but there are books to reread. So also for plays and A Man for All Seasons by Robert Bolt is one of them. The edition used in this review is published by Bellhaven House of Scarborough, Ontario, Canada. The additional material found in this edition include a short biographical sketch of Bolt, a fairly lengthy preface by Bolt, and the cast listing for the London production in July, 1960 and the New York production in November, 1961. The only duplicate cast member was, of course, Paul Scofield, who also starred in the film version. Scofield was More, on stage and on screen. Scofield won the Oscar as best actor with a screenplay by Bolt himself who also won an Oscar.

Additionally, this edition contains a long section at the end filled with historical notes that enhance the reading of the play.

There are many reasons why the play resonates with readers. It is the story of a good man, a saint really, standing on principle only to have the other end of his anatomy chopped off for that principle. The play peers inside the mind of a man who offers good advice that will prevent another from his own destructive desire for power. In the first scene in the play, More advises Richard Rich to "be a teacher." Rich replies, "And if I was who would know it?" Every teacher should frame More's response; "You, your pupils, your friends, God. Not a bad public." Rich dispenses with the advice and eventually wheedles his way to become the Attorney-General for Wales.

An even more important reason for reading the play is the advice More gives to contemporary readers. In one scene, More, his wife Margaret, William Roper, his son-in-law to be, and Richard Rich talk. Rich stalks off to inform on More. Margaret and Roper advise More to arrest Rich. More counters with legal details giving Roper the right of law until he should break it. The following dialogue is as appropriate today as it was in the sixteenth century.

Alice (exasperated, pointing after Rich): While you talk, he's gone.
More: And go he should if he was the devil himself until he broke the law.
Roper: So now you'd give the Devil benefit of law!
More: Yes. What would you do? Cut a great road through the law to get after the Devil?
Roper: I'd cut down every law in England to do that!
More: (roused and excited);Oh? (Advances on Roper.) And when the last law was down, and the devil turned round on you where would you hide, Roper, the laws being all flat? (Leaves him.) This country's planted thick with laws from coast to coast--Mans laws, not God's--and if you cut them down--and you're just the man to do it--do you really think you could stand upright in the winds that would blow then? (Quietly.) Yes, I'd give the Devil benefit of law, for my own safety's sake.

It is hard to read these words without seeing how true they still are today, laws being cut down to catch the contemporary Devil.

A last reason to read the play is to understand the power of books. While in jail, More receives visits and books from Alice and Roper. Reading gives More hope, if not the power invested in words. A small segment of conversation between More and Cromwell.

More: (hesitates): Might I have one or two more books?
Cromwell: You have books?
More: Yes.
Cromwell: I didn't know; you shouldn't have.

Wilde was right; there are books to read again and again, slowly and deliberately. This is one of them.