A Man for All Seasons (Characters)

Characters

Attendant to Signor Chapuys

The attendant is present to indicate the status of the Spanish Ambassador.

Signor Chapuys (Sha-Pwees)

Signor Chapuys, the Spanish Ambassador, at first glance appears to do little more in the play than walk on at key moments to testify to the piety and integrity of Sir Thomas More. He pays the boatman a few coins for revealing More’s pious habits and he attempts to deliver a message from the King of Spain expressing the Catholic King’s approval of More’s resistance to Cromwell and the Reformation movement. More realizes that even reading the missive will be taken as evidence of treason, so he refuses to accept the envelope. Chapuys is flabbergasted because he has misread More’s moral stance as a political one; this scene thus alerts the viewer to another of More’s rigorous ethical standards. Chapuys’s purpose in the play is to illuminate the political issues surrounding the taking of the King’s oath. Chapuys informs More, much to More’s dismay, that Yorkshire and Northumberland are ready to launch an insurrection (that Chapuys and his cohorts may have instigated) against Henry. His message indicates to More the gravity of his situation.

The Common Man

The Common Man is a pot-bellied, middle-aged man, a base and crafty figure who dons different costumes to enact the roles of More’s steward, boatman, jailer, foreman of the jury, and executioner (called “headsman”). He also serves as intermediary between the audience and the play, summarizing off-stage events and commenting on the meaning of the play, a device (often used by playwright Bertolt Brecht) meant to remind viewers of the play’s artifice. Within the play, the Common Man represents the antithesis of Sir Thomas More in terms of his ethical motivation, yet he shares with More a talent for self-preservation. Leo McKern, die actor who played the Common Man in the London production, was quoted in Gambill as saying the role is “one of the best ever written for a true character actor.”

Cranmer, Archbishop of Canterbury

Cranmer does not appear until More is jailed in the Tower. There he joins in with Cromwell and Norfolk in attempting to sway More. He fails as dismally as have the others. Cranmer swears the jailer in oath to report any treason spoken by More against the king, and quickly reminds the jailer not to perjure himself when Cromwell offers him fifty guineas if he brings forth any evidence. As Archbishop, Cranmer has the authority to absolve More of sins before his execution; but More, contemptuous of Cranmer’s own morals, refuses his services at the gallows.

Thomas Cromwell

King Henry assigns Cromwell the unwelcome task of bringing More around to accepting the King’s annulment to Catherine and his appointment as Head of the Church of England, called the Act of Supremacy. The historical Cromwell was an effective statesman who served his king well, though he was reportedly as shrewdly exploitive as Bolt portrays him. Cromwell enjoys the prestige and power of his official role as Cardinal Wolsey’s solicitor and his unofficial role as “ear to the King.” However the assignment to convert More to Henry’ s way of thinking puts Cromwell into a precarious position. If he fails, he not only will have to execute an innocent man but he also runs the great risk of earning the King’s disfavor. (In fact, the Common Man announces that only a few years after More’s beheading, the historical Thomas Cromwell was executed, under the charge of High Treason.) Cromwell ‘s only salvation lies in unhinging More from his allegiance to the salvation of his soul. He expresses his frustration over More’s obstinacy in an invective against the soul: “A miserable thing, whatever you call it, that lives like a bat in a Sunday School! A shrill, incessant pedagogue about its own salvation — but nothing to say of your place in the State! Under the King! In a great native country!”

Duke of Norfold

More’s close friend the Duke of Norfolk is a worldly man who enjoys gaming and who recognizes his own “moral and intellectual insignificance” as compared to the likes of Sir Thomas, whom he admires greatly. Norfolk succumbs to pressure and ratifies the Act of Supremacy, thereby causing a rift between himself and More. Norfolk foolishly badgers More to relent and join the King’s supporters, not realizing the depth of More’s integrity, integrity being a smaller matter to the Duke. Norfolk coolly conducts the trial for High Treason against his former friend, never aware that More had eased his passage from trusted friend to state enemy by purposely offending him.

Howard

See Duke of Norfold

King Henry, VIII

Bolt portrays Henry in his exuberant youth, at the beginning of the period of corruption for which the historical Henry VIII is best known. The onstage Henry is brash and impulsive; he makes an unannounced visit to More to try his own hand at bringing More around to his point of view on the Acts of Succession and Supremacy. Masking his real purpose, he playfully tries to match wits with the more serious scholar, Margaret, and then shores up his own confidence by boasting of his skills at dancing and boat steerage when she clearly outranks him. Failing in his match with the elder More as well, he impulsively turns his attention to the social pleasures of dinner. But this is a man whose affections turn on and off at the strike of a clock — he just as impulsively departs after hearing the 8 o’clock bells, in order not to miss Anne Bolyn’s dance hour. To compound More’s danger, the monarch is incapable of loyalty, and what he wants for himself become for him matters of state. His henchmen know that they might be next on his list of treasonous subjects, but cannot oppose his imperious will.

Alice More

Historically, Alice More was Sir Thomas’s second wife, his first wife having died soon after giving birth to Margaret. In Bolt’s play, Alice — illiterate, a great cook, and a delighted newcomer to nobility — never fully understands the full political and theological implications of her husband’s moral stand, but she willingly accepts the severely reduced station in life imposed upon her by his downfall because of her unflinching admiration for and trust in her husband as a man.

Margaret More

The historical Sir Thomas More educated his daughter more thoroughly than was conventional. In the play, Margaret shows herself more erudite than King Henry, but she cleverly avoids upstaging him in a match of Latin wit. Margaret loves her father but is independent enough to love Will Roper, a young man whom her father initially dislikes because of his heretical ideas about the Church.

Sir Thomas More

Sir Thomas More is the central character of A Man for All Seasons. He is an intelligent man who enjoys life, loves his family, and respects his king. However, his fatal “flaw,” a deeply ingrained sense of integrity, causes him to choose death over compromising his soul. To Cardinal Wolsey, concerned for matters of the state, More’s ethics are a “horrible moral squint” that prevent More from cooperating with the reigning powers of England. Sir Thomas More’s decision to refuse Henry VIII did not come easily. Up until the Act of Supremacy and the oath Henry VIII required his countrymen to take, More had supported his king in both state and religious policy. Bolt also demonstrates the pain More’s decision causes his family. Resigning the position of Lord Chancellor of England puts More’s beloved family into poverty; continuing to defy his king puts them into disgrace. More is also a man who enjoys the humble pleasures of life — a good wine, the stuffed swan specially prepared for King Henry’s unannounced visit, or the pudding Alice made him during the precious last minutes he spends with her. But none of this deters More in upholding his virtue and principles.

More is a man of deep religious convictions who counters Wolsey’s concerns for the state by insisting that he’d rather govern the country by prayers. At the same time, he trusts the law to protect him on earth, and he considers it his God-given duty to become expert enough in legal intricacies to defend himself from the King. More says that God made Man capable of serving him “wittily, in the tangle of his mind!” Ultimately, More believed a man’s duty was to sort out the conflicts between religion and state according to his own conscience, saying “In matters of conscience, the loyal subject is more bounden to be loyal to his conscience than to any other thing.”

In his attempt to present the man with “an adamantine sense of self” Bolt carefully integrated many of More’s own words, taking material from William Roper’s biography of his father-in-law, from the writings of More’s contemporaries, and from More’s own writings.

Richard Rich

Richard Rich prostitutes his ethic for political advancement and perjures himself to secure his place of power. He begins humbly enough as librarian to More’s friend the Duke of Norfolk. He quickly shows himself of use, however, to Cromwell, who gives him a position as Collector of Revenues in the hope of obtaining “tidbits of information” about Thomas More. Rich willingly tells him the little he knows, and when Rich seems rueful over his lost innocence, Cromwell assures him that playing the informer will grow easier as time goes on. Rich’s cool-headed delivery of a complete lie at More’s trial (saying that More, after refusing to reveal to anyone else his position on the King’s naming himself Head of the Church, suddenly intimated it to Rich) proves Cromwell’s prediction true.

William Roper

William Roper, suitor to Margaret More, is a young man who swings from a passionate Churchman to passionate Lutheran — and back again. More accepts his bid for Margaret’s hand when Roper returns to the Church, but chides him for anchoring to his principles, but moving the anchor “when the weather turns nasty.” Roper remains loyal to More throughout his trial, but betrays his own lack of moral conviction by urging More to go ahead and take the oath, a violation of principle More would never commit.

Will

See William Roper

Cardinal Wolsey

The aging Cardinal capitulates to Henry’s pressure to seek an annulment of his marriage to Catherine. Fearing a bloody fight for the kingship if no heir appears to secure the King’s lineage, Wolsey chooses to play the statesman in his position as Lord Chancellor of England. However, he fails to persuade the Pope to “dispense with his dispensation” that permitted Henry to marry his brother’s widow Catherine, whose male offspring have not survived. Thus making it illegal and immoral for the King to marry Anne Bolyn and perhaps obtain the needed male heir. Wolsey’s last act of naming More to replace him is puzzling because Wolsey well knew that More would not succumb as easily as he himself did; on the other hand he knew that More was possibly the one man in England capable of persuading the Pope.

Woman

Perhaps the same woman who tried to bribe Sir Thomas and failed, “the woman” stops him on his way up the gallows to chide him for a “false judgement” against her. More very quickly recognizes her and spiritedly rebukes her, saying that if he had the judgement to do again he would not change her sentence.

Media Adaptations

• Robert Bolt’s first version of A Man for All Seasons was a radio play produced for the BBC (British Broadcasting Corporation) in 1954. Three years later, BBC-TV televised the play.
• Robert Bolt adapted his play for the screen in 1966 and the Columbia film, starring Paul Scofield as More, Robert Shaw as King Henry VIII, and Orson Welles as Cardinal Wolsey, won 6 Acade my awards, including Best Picture, Best Adapted Screenplay, Best Director (Fred Zinnemann), and Best Actor for Scofield, who had played the part on stage in London.
• In 1988 Charleton Heston directed and starred in a cable TV version of the play with Vanessa Redgrave and John Gielgud. This version has not enjoyed the popularity of the Zinnemann film.