The main quotes from the play Man for all seasons Explained.

The main quotes from Man for all 

seasons explained !!! ☺

Hope this will be help full......... ☻

1. “The Sixteenth Century is the Century of the Common Man. Like all the other centuries. And that’s my proposition.” Act 1, p. 3, 4.

This line spoken by the character The Common Man, who is a narrator and plays different roles in the play, can be taken more than one way. Historically, it could mean that in the Sixteenth Century, certain middle class men began to rise in station, like Cardinal Wolsey and Thomas Cromwell. From the character’s point of view, it means that he thinks he has the most pragmatic outlook on life. The Common Man is smug because he is a survivor among the important people around him who are caught up in political intrigue. He goes on, performing the small tasks while the great men rise and fall from power. Bolt may also be thinking of “Common” as coarse. A Sir Thomas More is a rare man in any age, and he is never appreciated or understood by the men of common soul...................

2.    “A man should go where he won’t be tempted.” Act 1, p 7.

This is Sir Thomas More’s advice to Richard Rich who comes looking for a job. Rich wants position and power, but More sees, even from the beginning that Rich is weak. He tries to explain that public life is full of bribery and temptation. He should go back to Cambridge and become a teacher......................

3.    “My master Thomas More would give anything to anyone . . . .some day someone’s going to ask him for something that he wants to keep.” Act 1, p. 17.

The Common Man as More’s butler comments on his generosity, predicting that there will come a time when he won’t be able to say yes to everything. The something he will want to keep to himself is his opinion on the King’s second marriage and the Act of Supremacy......................

4.    “You don’t know how to flatter.” Act 1, p. 59

More’s wife Alice is begging him to keep up a good friendship with the King. He says he is trying, but Alice thinks he does not know how to act like a courtier.....................

5.    “I have not disobeyed my sovereign. I truly believe no man in England is safer than myself.” Act 1, p. 68

More has just said no to discussing the King’s divorce with him because he was promised he could stay out of it. Now the King is begging for a public statement, but when More says he cannot, the King says he respects his conscience. More thinks he has escaped the pressure....................

6.    “What’s in me for him to miss?” Act 2, p. 97.

More has resigned the office of Chancellor because he does not agree to go with the bishops in supporting the King. His property and income are confiscated; he has to let the servants go. He asks his butler Matthew (The Common Man) if he will stay for smaller wages. He refuses, so More says that he will miss him. Matthew turns to the audience and asks why More would miss someone like him. He can see through him and knows he cheats. Matthew cynically concludes that it was just a line to manipulate him.....................

7.    “We feel that since you are known to have been a friend of More’s, your participation will show that there is nothing in the nature of a ‘persecution,’ but only the strict processes of law.” Act 2, p. 103

Cromwell informs Norfolk that the King wants him to be involved in bringing down Sir Thomas More. Norfolk is angry and bitter, because the More family is very dear to him. He is being blackmailed to bring pressure on More to yield, or hunt him down for treason............................

8.    “To frighten a man there must be something in the cupboard, must there not?” Act 2, p. 118.

More is not intimidated by Cromwell’s methods of interrogation, and says he has but an empty cupboard. Cromwell says there is something in the cupboard and produces a writ of the King’s, denouncing More as a traitor. This is the moment More knows it is all over. He can no longer hide in silence. He must give in or lose his head...................

9.    “In matters of conscience, the loyal subject is more bounden to be loyal to his conscience than to any other thing.”  Act 2, p. 153

More at his trial explains he is not treasonous to the King or England by being loyal to his own conscience. Every citizen should be...................................

10. “You have long known the secrets of my heart.” Act 2, p. 161

More’s last words of comfort to his daughter, Margaret, as he ascends the scaffold compliment her as the one who knows him best. He has taught her all his knowledge. She understands what he lives and dies by........................

11) “You, your pupils, your friends, God. Not a bad public, that.” - More, pg. 9.

Sir Thomas was listing for Richard Rich those who would admire him if he chose to be a good teacher. More was trying to show Rich that there are other valuable things to strive to obtain besides riches and high position................

12)  “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.” More, pg. 22

The message is that statesmen, like the rest of us, should be guided by their own private consciences, not by political expediency.......................

13 “I am a fool....What else but a fool to live in a Court, in a licentious mob-when I have friends with gardens.” Henry, pg. 51.

Henry seems to truly believe that life in the country is better than his life as a king. The simple pleasures are the best...........................

14  “There are those like Norfolk who follow me because I wear the crown, and there are those who follow me because they are jackals with sharp teeth and I am their lion, and there is a mass that follows me because it follows anything that moves-and there is you.” Henry - This was spoken to Sir Thomas More, pg. 55.

This is a short, to the point, succinct description of the people over whom Henry reigned.......................

15 “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.”More, pg. 59.

This is Sir Thomas More's description of his conscience, which he was unwilling to give up under penalty of death. It is the one area that he will not surrender to his King.................

16  “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 law, for my own safety's sake.” More, also, pg. 66.

These two quotes (7 & 8) were spoken to Roper. These quotes eloquently describe how civilization benefits from a legal system..................

17 “The Apostolic Succession of the Pope is-...Why, it's a theory, yes; you can't see it; can't touch it; it's a theory. 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...” More, pg. 91

More explains that his conscience is important to him because it is his conscience, more than because of what it contains..................

18  “And what would you do with a water spaniel that was afraid of water? You'd hang it! Well, as a spaniel is to water, so is a man to his own self.” More, p. 123.

By saying this, More describes how useless a man is without that little part of him that is his alone.......................

19 “But, Man he (God) made to serve him wittily, in the tangle of his mind! If he suffers us to fall to such a case that there is no escaping, then we may stand to our tackle as best we can, and yes, Will, then we may clamor like champions...if we have the spittle for it. And no doubt it delights God to see splendor where He only looked for complexity. But it's God's part, not our own, to bring ourselves to that extremity! Our natural business lies in escaping...” More, p. 126

With this explanation we understand that Sir Thomas is not looking forward to becoming a martyr. Man's natural way is to save himself, he believes..................

20 “I'd let him out if I could but I can't. Not without taking up residence in there myself. And he's in there already, so what'd be the point? You know the old adage? 'Better a live rat than a dead lion,' and that's about it.” The Common Man, p. 127.

The Common Man is talking about Sir Thomas, who is in jail. True to form, the Common Man says that he is not going to help someone else if it endangers himself..................

21  “Some men think the Earth is round, others think it flat; it is a matter capable of question. But, if it is flat, will the King's command make it round? And, if it is round, will the King's command flatten it?” More, p. 133.

Sir Thomas gives an example of the limits to Henry's power......................

 22 “When a man takes an oath, Meg, he's holding his own self in his own hands. Like water. And, if he opens his fingers then -he needn't hope to find himself again.” More , pg. 140

More explains to Meg the seriousness of an oath....................

23 “...As for understanding, I understand that you are the best man that I ever met, or am likely to; and, if you go-well, God knows why I suppose-though as God's my witness God's kept deadly quiet about it!” Alice, p. 145.

Alice voices her inability to understand why More is doing what he is doing, along with her admiration and love for him.....................

24 “The law is a causeway upon which, so long as he keeps to it, a citizen may walk safely.” More, p. 153.

Again, More speaks admiringly of the law and its importance in the lives of

 men................................

25  “What you have hunted me for is not my actions, but the thoughts of my heart. It is a long road you have opened. For first men will disclaim their hearts and presently they will have no hearts. God help the people whose Statesmen walk your road.” More, pg. 157

More might have said that when men disclaim their consciences they quickly have no consciences............................

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