A play set in England in the early 1500s; written in the early 1950s, firs! performed for the London stage in 1960.
by Robert Bolt
Synopsis
Sir Thomas More refuses to endorse King Henry VIII's divorce from Queen Katherine and marriage to Anne Boleyn. Though More does not condemn the king's actions, he is nevertheless beheaded.
Events in History at the Time the Play Was Written
The Play in Focus
Events in History at the Time the Play Takes Place
Born near Manchester, England, in 1924, Robert Bolt writes about what he calls the human conflict-the struggle between living by one's principles and selling one's soul for earthly rewards. A Man for All Seasons studies the human tendency to conform rather than to stand gby one's principles-and risk being ostracized or even condemned to death. Bolt concentrates on a controversy of the 1500s that dramatically incorporated these choices, which he portrays in the characters of the Common Man and Sir Thomas More.
For More Information
Bolt, Robert. A Man for All Seasons. New York: Random House, 1960.
Chapman, Hester W. The Challenge of Anne Boleyn. New York: Coward, McCann & Geoghegan, 1974.
Churchill, Winston S. Great Destiny. New York: G. P. Putnam's Sons, 1965.
Cross, Colin. The Fall of the British Empire. New York: Coward-McCann, 1968.
Lamont, Peter. The Philosophy of Humanism. New York: Frederick Ungar, 1977.
Machiavelli, Niccolo. The Prince. London: Penguin, 1981.
Plowden, Alison. Tudor Women. New York: Atheneum, 1979.
Simon, Edith. The Reformation. New York: Time-Life, 1966.
Literature and Its Times © 1997 Joyce Moss and George Wilson © 2007 The Gale Group, Inc. All rights reserved.
