Chapter 11
part conquered the conquerors.
" It is hard to say whether they be craftier in lay-
ing an ambush or wittier in avoiding the same. You
would think they intend to fly, when they mean noth-
ing less; and contrariwise, when they go about that 25
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purpose you would believe it were the least part of J
their thought. For if they perceive themselves either
overmatched in number or closed in too narrow a
place, then they remove their camp either in the night
5 season with silence, or by some policy they deceive
their enemies ; or in the day-time they retire back so
softly 0 that it is no less jeopardy to meddle with
them when they give back than when they press on.
They fence and fortify their camp surely with a deep
10 and a broad trench. The earth thereof is cast inward.
Nor they do not set drudges and slaves awork about '
it : it is done by the hands of the soldiers themselves :
all the whole army worketh upon it, except them that
watch in harness before the trench for sudden adven- j
15 tures.° Therefore, by the labor of so many, a large
trench closing in a great compass of ground is made
in less time than any man would believe.
" Their armor or harness which they wear is sure
and strong to receive strokes and handsome for all
20 movings and gestures of the body, insomuch that it is j
not unwieldy to swim in. For in the discipline of
their warfare, among other feats they learn to swim in
harness. Their weapons be arrows afar off, which
they shoot both strongly and surely 0 ; not only foot-
25, men but also horsemen. At hand-strokes they use
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not swords but poll-axes, which be mortal, 0 as well in
sharpness as in weight, both for foins° and down
strokes. Engines for war they devise and invent
wonders wittily ; which when they be made they keep
very secret, lest if they should be known before need 5
require, they should be but laughed at and serve to no
purpose. But in making them hereunto they have
„ chief respect, that they be both easy to be carried and
handsome to be moved and turned about.
" Truce taken with their enemies for a short time 10
they do so firmly and faithfully keep that they will
not break it ; no, not though they be thereunto pro-
voked. They do not waste nor destroy their enemies'
land with foragings, nor they burn not up their corn.
Yea, they save it as much as may be from being over- 15
run and trodden down, either with men or horses;
thinking that it groweth for their own use and profit.
They hurt no man that is unarmed, unless he be
an espial. All cities that be yielded unto them, they
defend ; and such as they win by force of assault, they 20
neither despoil nor sack. But them that withstood
and dissuaded the yielding up of the same they put to
death ; the other soldiers they punish with bondage.
All the weak multitude they leave untouched. If
they know that any citizens counselled to yield and 25
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render up the city, to them they give part of the con-
demned men's goods. The residue they distribute
and give freely among them whose help they had in
the same war ; for none of themselves taketh any por-
s tion of the prey.
"But when the battle is finished and ended, they
put their friends to never a penny cost of all the
charges that they were at, but lay it upon their necks
that be conquered. 0 Them they burden with the
10 whole charge of their expenses, which they demand of
them partly in money, to be kept for like use of
battle, and partly in lands of great revenues, to be
paid unto them yearly forever. Such revenues they
have now in many countries ; which by little and little
is rising of divers and sundry causes, be increased above
seven hundred thousand ducats 0 by the year. Thither
they send forth some of their citizens as lieutenants,
to live there sumptuously like men of honor and
renown ; and yet, this notwithstanding, much money
20 ig saved, which cometh to the common treasury,
unless it so chance that they had rather trust the
country with the money; which many times they do
so long until they have need to occupy it. And it
seldom happeneth that they demand all. Of these
25 lands they assign part unto them which at their
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request and exhortation put themselves in such
jeopardies as I spake of before. If any prince stir up
war against them, intending to invade their land, they
meet him incontinent out of their own borders wifch
great power and strength; for they never lightly 5
make war in their own country. Nor they be never
brought into so extreme necessity, as to take help out
of foreign lands into their own island.
OF THE RELIGIONS IN UTOPIA
" There be divers kinds of religion, not only in
sundry parts of the island, but also in divers places of 10
every city. Some worship for God the sun, some
the moon, some some other of the planets. 0 There be
that give worship to a man that was once of excellent
virtue or of famous glory, not only as God, but also
as the chiefest and highest God. But the most and 15
the wisest part, rejecting all these, believe that there
is a certain godly power unknown, everlasting, incom-
prehensible, inexplicable, far above the capacity and
reach of man's wit, dispersed throughout all the
world, not in bigness, but in virtue and power. Him 20
they call the father of all. To him alone they
attribute the beginnings, the encreasings, the pro-
ceedings, the changes, and the ends of all things.
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Neither they give 0 divine honors to any other than
to him.
" Yea, all the other also, though they be in divers
opinions, yet in this point they agree altogether with
s the wisest sort in believing that there is one chief and
principal God, the maker and ruler of the whole world;
whom they all commonly in their country language
call Mythra. 0 But in this they disagree, that among
some he is counted one, and among some another.
10 For every one of them, whatsoever that is which he
taketh for the chief God, thinketh it to be the very
same nature, to whose only divine might and majesty
the sum and sovereignty of all things, by the consent
of all people, is attributed and given. Howbeit, they
is all begin by little and little to forsake and fall from
this variety of superstitions, and to agree together in
that religion which seemeth by reason to pass and
excel the residue. And it is not to be doubted but all
the other would long ago have been abolished; but
20 that, whatsoever unprosperous thing happened to any
of them as he was minded 0 to change his religion, the
fearf ulness of the people did take it not as a thing
coming by chance but as sent from God out of heaven ;
as though the God whose honor he was forsaking
25 would revenge that wicked purpose against him.
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"But after they heard us speak of the name of
Christ, of his doctrine, laws, miracles, and of the no
less wonderful constancy of so many martyrs, whose
blood willingly shed brought a great number of nations
throughout all parts of the world into their sect, you 5
will not believe with how glad minds they agreed unto
the same, whether it were by the secret inspiration of
God, or else for that they thought it next unto that
opinion which among them is counted the chiefest.
Howbeit, I think this was no small help and further- 10
ance in the matter, that they heard us say that Christ
instituted 0 among his all things common, and that
the same community doth yet remain amongst the
Tightest Christian companies. 0 Verily, howsoever it
came to pass, many of them consented together in our is
religion and were washed in the holy water of baptism.
"But because among us four 0 (for no more of us
was left alive, two of our company being dead) there
was no priest, which I am right sorry for, they, being
entered and instructed in all other points of our 20
religion, lack only those sacraments which here none
but priests do minister. Howbeit, they understand
and perceive them and be very desirous of the same.
Yea, they reason and dispute the matter earnestly
among themselves, whether, without the sending of a 25
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Christian bishop, 0 one chosen out of their own people
may receive the order of priesthood. And truly they
were minded to choose one, but at my departure from
them they had chosen none. They also which do not
s agree to Christ's religion fear no man from it, nor
speak against any man that hath received it, saving
that one of our company 0 in my presence was sharply
punished. He, as soon as he was baptized, began
again st our wills, with more earnest affection 0 than
10 wisdom, to reason of Christ's religion ; and began to
wax so hot in his matter that he did not only prefer
our religion before all other, but also did utterly de-
spise and condemn all other, calling them profane and
the followers of them wicked and devilish 0 and the
is children of everlasting damnation. When he had
thus long reasoned the matter, they laid hold on him,
accused him, and condemned him into exile ; not as a
despiser of religion, but as a seditious person and a
raiser up of dissension among the people. For this is
20 one of the ancientest laws among them : that no man
shall be blamed for reasoning in the maintenance of
his own religion. 0
"For King 0 Utopus, even at the first beginning,
hearing that the inhabitants of the land were before
25 his coming thither at continual dissension and strife
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among themselves for their religions ; perceiving also
that this common dissension, whiles every several
sect took several parts 0 in fighting for their country,
was the only occasion of ° his conquest over them all ;
as soon as he had gotten the victory, first of all he 5
made a decree that it should be lawful for every
man to favor and follow what religion he would,
and that he might do the best he could to bring
other to his opinion; so that he did it peaceably,
gently, quietly, and soberly, without hasty and con- 10
tentious rebuking and inveighing against other. If
he could not by fair and gentle speech induce them
unto his opinion, yet he should use no kind of vio-
lence and refrain from displeasant and seditious words.
To him that would vehemently and fervently in this is
cause strive and contend, was decreed banishment or
bondage.
"This law did King 0 Utopus make, not only for
the maintenance of peace, which he saw through con-
tinual contention and mortal hatred utterly extin-20
guished, but also because he thought this decree
should make for the furtherance of religion ; whereof
he durst define and determine nothing unadvisedly,
as doubting whether God, desiring manifold and
divers sorts of honor, would inspire sundry men with 25
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sundry kinds of religion. And this surely he thought ]
a very unmeet and foolish thing and a point of arro-
gant presumption, to compel all other by violence and i
threatenings to agree to the same that thou belie vest
s to be true. 0 Furthermore though there be one religion
which alone is true, and all other vain and supersti- .
tious, yet did he well foresee (so that the matter were
handled with reason and sober modesty), that the
truth of the own power 0 would at the last issue out
ioand come to light But if contention and debate in
that behalf should continually be used, as the worst
men be most obstinate and stubborn and in their evil
opinion most constant, he perceived that then the best
and holiest religion would be trodden under foot and
i 5 destroyed by most vain superstitions; even as good
corn is by thorns and weeds overgrown and choked:.
Therefore all this matter he left undiscussed and
gave to every man free liberty and choice to believe
what he would, saving that he earnestly and straitly
20 charged them that no man should conceive so vile and
base an opinion of the dignity of man's nature as to
think that the souls do die and perish with the body
or that the world runneth at all adventures, 0 governed
by no divine providence. And therefore they believe
25 that after this life vices be extremely punished and
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virtues bountifully rewarded. Him that is of a con-
trary opinion they count not in the number of men,
as one that hath avaled the high nature of his soul to
the vileness of brute beasts' bodies ; much less in the
number of their citizens, whose laws and ordinances,
if it were not for fear, he would nothing at all esteem.
For you may be sure that he will study either with
craft privily to mock, or else violently to break, the
common laws of his country, in whom remaineth no
further fear than of the laws nor no further hope than
of the body. Wherefore he that is thus minded is de-
prived of all honors, excluded from all offices, and
reject from all common administrations in the weal
public. And thus he is of all sort 0 despised as of an
unprofitable and of a base and vile nature. Howbeit,
they put him to no punishment, because they be per-
suaded that it is in no man's power to believe what he
list. 0 No, nor they constrain him not with threaten-
ings to dissemble his mind and show countenance
contrary to his thought ; for deceit and falsehood and
all manner of lies, 0 as next unto fraud, they do mar-
vellously detest and abhor. But they suffer him not
to dispute in his opinion; and that only 0 among the
common people ; for else, apart among the priests and
men of gravity, they do not only suffer but also exhort
o
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him to dispute and argue, hoping that at the last that I
madness will give place to reason.
" There be also other, and of them no small num-
ber, which be not forbidden to speak their minds, as
s grounding their opinion upon some reason, being in
their living neither evil nor vicious. Their heresy is
much contrary to the other ; for they believe that the
souls of brute beasts be immortal and everlasting, but
nothing to be compared with ours in dignity, neither
10 ordained and predestinate to like felicity. For all
they 0 believe certainly and surely that man's bliss |
shall be so great that they do mourn and lament every
man's sickness but no man's death, unless it be one |
whom they see depart from his life carefully 0 and
15 against his will. For this they take for a very evil
token, as though the soul, being in despair and vexed
in conscience through some privy and secret fore-
feeling of the punishment now at hand, were afeared
to depart ; and they think he shall not be welcome to
20 God, which when he is called runneth 0 not to him
gladly, but is drawn by force and sore against his |
will. They therefore that see this kind of death do
abhor it, and them that so die they bury with sorrow
and silence ; and when they have prayed God to be
25 merciful to the soul and mercifully to pardon the in-
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firmities thereof, they cover the dead corpse with
earth.
" Contrariwise, all that depart merrily and full of
good hope, for them no man mourneth, but followeth
the hearse with joyful singing, commending the souls s
to God with great affection ; and at the last, not with
mourning sorrow but with a great reverence, they
burn the bodies, 0 and in the same place they set up
a pillar of stone with the dead man's titles therein
graved. When they be come home they rehearse 10
his virtuous manners and his good deeds, but no part
of his life is so oft or gladly talked of as his merry
death. They think that this remembrance of their 0
virtue and goodness doth vehemently provoke and
enforce the quick to virtue ; and that nothing can 15
be more pleasant and acceptable to the dead, whom
they suppose to be present among them when they
talk of them, though to the dull and feeble eyesight
of mortal men they be invisible. For it were an
unconvenient thing that the blessed should not be 20
at liberty to go whither they would; and it were
a point of great unkindness in them to have utterly
cast away the desire of visiting and seeing their
friends to whom they were in their lifetime joined
by mutual love and charity, which in good men after 25
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their death they count to be rather encreased than
diminished. They believe therefore that the dead j
be presently conversant 0 among the quick, as be- |
holders and witnesses of all their words and deeds, i
5 Therefore they go more courageously to their business, i
as having a trust and affiance in such overseers ; and '
this same belief of the present conversation 0 of their '
forefathers and ancestors among them feareth them 1
from all secret dishonesty.
io " They utterly despise and mock soothsayings and
divinations of things to come by the flight or voices i
of birds, 0 and all other divinations of vain super- 1
stition which in other countries be in great observa- j
tion. But they highly esteem and worship miracles 0
15 that come by no help of nature as works and witnesses
of the present power of God. And such they say
do chance there very often. And sometimes in great
and doubtful matters by common intercession and
prayers they procure and obtain them with a sure
20 hope and confidence and a steadfast belief. 4
"They think that the contemplation of nature |
and the praise thereof coming 0 is to God a very
acceptable honor. Yet there be many so earnestly
bent and affectioned to religion that they pass no
2s thing for learning, nor give their minds to no knowl-
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edge of things. 0 But idleness they utterly forsake
and eschew, thinking felicity after this life to be
gotten and obtained by busy labors and good exer-
cises. Some therefore of them attend upon the sick,
some amend highways, cleanse ditches, repair bridges, 5
dig turfs, gravel, and stones, fell and cleave wood,
bring wood, corn, and other things into the cities
in carts; and serve not only in common works, but
also in private labors, as servants, yea, more than
bondmen. For whatsoever unpleasant, hard, and 10
vile work is anywhere, from the which labor, loath-
someness, and desperation doth fray other, all that
they take upon them willingly and gladly ; procuring
quiet and rest to other, remaining in continual work
and labor themselves, not embraiding others there- 15
with. They neither reprove other men's lives nor
glory in their own. These men, the more serviceable
they behave themselves, the more they be honored
of all men.
" Yet they be divided into two sects. The one is of 20
them that live single and chaste, abstaining not only
from the company of women but also from the eating
of flesh, and some of them from all manner of beasts ;
which, utterly rejecting the pleasures of this present
life as hurtful, be all wholly set upon the desire of the 25
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I
life to come ; by watching and sweating, hoping shortly
to obtain it, being in the mean season merry and lusty.
The other sect is no less desirous of labor, but they
embrace matrimony ; not despising the solace thereof,
s thinking that they cannot be discharged of their
bounden duties towards nature without labor and toil
nor towards their native country without procreation
of children. They abstain from no pleasure that doth
nothing hinder them from labor. They love the flesh
10 of four-footed beasts, because they believe that by that
meat they be made hardier and stronger to work. The
Utopians count this sect the wiser, but the other the
holier 0 ; which, in that they prefer single life before
matrimony, and that sharp life before an easier life, if
15 herein they grounded upon reason, they would mock
them ; but now, forasmuch as they say they be led to
it by religion, they honor and worship them. There
is nothing in which they are more cautious than in
giving their opinion positively concerning any sort of
20 religion. 0 And these be they whom in their language
by a peculiar name they call buthrescas, 0 the which
word by interpretation signifieth to us, men of reli-
gion, or religious men.
" They have priests of exceeding holiness, and there-
25 fore very few 0 ; for there be but thirteen in every city,
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according to the number of their churches, saving when
they go forth to battle ; for then seven of them go
forth with the army, in whose steads so many new be
made at home. But the other, at their return home,
again reenter every one into his own place. They 5
that be above the number, until such time as they
succeed into the places of the other at their dying, be
in the mean season continually in company with the
bishop 0 ; for he is the chief head of them all. They
be chosen of the people, as the other magistrates be, 10
by secret voices for the avoiding of strife. After their
election they be consecrate of their own company. 0
They be overseers of all divine matters, orderers of re-
ligions, 0 and as it were judgers and masters of man-
ners; and it is a great dishonesty and shame to be is
rebuked or spoken to by any of them for dissolute and
incontinent living.
" But as it is their office to give good exhortations
and counsel, so it is the duty of the prince and the
other magistrates to correct and punish offenders, sav- 20
ing that the priests, whom they find exceeding vicious
livers, them they excommunicate from having any
interest in divine matters. 0 And there is almost no
punishment among them more feared; for. they run in
very great infamy and be inwardly tormented with a 25
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secret fear of religion and shall not long scape free
with their bodies ; for unless they by quick repent-
ance approve the amendment of their lives to the
priests, they be taken and punished of the council as
s wicked and irreligious. i
" Both childhood and youth is instructed and taught !
of them. Nor they be not more diligent to instruct I
them in learning than in virtue and good manners;
for they use with very great endeavor and diligence
10 to put into the heads of their children whiles they be
yet tender and pliant good opinions and profitable for i
the conservation of their weal public; which, when '
they be once rooted in children, do remain with them j
all their life after and be wonders profitable for the
is defence and maintenance of the state of the common-
wealth, which never decayeth but through vices rising
of evil opinions.
" The priests, unless they be women 0 (for that kind
is not excluded from priesthood ; howbeit few be
20 chosen, and none but widows and old women) — the
men priests, I say, take to their wives the chief est
women in all their country ; for to no office among
the Utopians is more honor and preeminence given,
insomuch that if they commit any offence they be
25 under no common judgment but be left only to God
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and themselves ; for they think it not lawful to touch
him with man's hand, be he never so vicious, which
after so singular a sort 0 was dedicate and consecrate
to God as a holy offering. This manner may they
easily observe because they have so few priests and do
choose them with such circumspection ; for it scarcely
ever chanceth that the most virtuous among virtuous,
which in respect ouly of his virtue is advanced to so
high a dignity, can fall to vice and wickedness. And
if it should chance indeed, as man's nature is mutable
and frail, yet by reason they be so few and promoted
to no might nor power, but only to honor, it were not
to be feared that any great damage by them should
happen and ensue to the commonwealth. They have
so rare and few priests, lest, if the honor were com- 1
municate to many, the dignity of the order, which
among them now is so highly esteemed, should run
in contempt ; specially because they think it hard to
find many so good as to be meet for that dignity, to
the execution and discharge whereof it is not sufficient
to be endued with mean virtues. 0
" Furthermore, these priests be not more esteemed
of their own countrymen than they be of foreign and
strange countries; which thing may hereby plainly
appear, and I think also that this is the cause of it :
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for whiles the armies be fighting together in open |
field, they a little beside, not far off, kneel upon their
knees in their hallowed vestments, holding up their
hands to heaven ; praying, first of all for peace, next
5 for victory of their own part, but to neither part a ,
bloody victory. 0 If their host get the. upper hand, 0
they run into the main battle 0 and restrain their own
men from slaying and cruelly pursuing their van- <
quished enemies, which enemies, if they do but see
iothem and speak to them, it is enough for the safe-
guard of their lives ; and the touching of their clothes
defendeth and saveth all their goods from ravin and
spoil. This thing hath advanced them to so great
worship and true majesty among all nations that
is many times they have as well preserved their own
citizens from the cruel force of their enemies as they
have their enemies from the furious rage of their own
men : for it is well known that when their own army
hath reculed and in despair turned back and run
20 away, their enemies fiercely pursuing with slaughter
and spoil, then the priests coming between have
stayed the murder and parted both the hosts; so
that peace hath been made and concluded between
both parts upon equal and indifferent conditions. 0
25 For there was never any nation so fierce, so cruel
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and rude but they had them in such reverence that
they counted their bodies hallowed and sanctified,
and therefore not to be violently and unreverently
touched.
" They keep holy day the first and the last day of s
every month and year ; dividing the year into months,
which they measure by the course of the moon, as
they do the year by the course of the sun. The first
days they call in their language cynemernes, 0 and the
last trapemernes 0 ; the which words may be inter- 10
preted primifest and finifest, or else in our speech
first feast and last feast.
" Their churches be very gorgeous, and not only of
fine and curious workmanship, but also, which in the
fewness of them was necessary, very wide and large is
and able to receive a great company of people. But
they be all somewhat dark. Howbeit, that was not
done through ignorance in building but, as they say,
by the counsel of the priests, because they thought
that over-much light doth disperse men's cogitations, 20
whereas in dim and doubtful light 0 they be gathered
together, and more earnestly fixed upon religion and
devotion; which because it is not there of one sort
among all men — and yet all the kinds and fashions
of it, though they be sundry and manifold, agree to- 25
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gether in the honor of the divine nature, as going
divers ways to one end — therefore nothing is seen
nor heard in the churches which seemeth not to agree
indifferently with them all. If there be a distinct
s kind of sacrifice, 0 peculiar to any several sect, that
they execute at home in their own houses. The com-
mon sacrifices be so ordered that they be no deroga-
tion nor prejudice to any of the private sacrifices and
religions. Therefore no image of any god is seen in the
10 church, to the intent it may be free for every man to
conceive God by their religion after what likeness and
similitude they will. They call upon no peculiar
name of God, but only Mythra ; in the which word
they all agree together in one nature of the divine
15 majesty, whatsoever it be. No prayers be used but
such as every man may boldly pronounce without the
offending of any sect.
" They come therefore to the church the last day of
every month and year, in the evening, yet fasting, there
20 to give thanks to God for that they have prosperously
passed over the year or month whereof that holy day
is the last day. The next day they come to the
church early in the morning to pray to God that they
may have good fortune and success all the new year or
25 month which they do begin of that same holy day.
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But in the holy days that be the last days of the
months and years, before they come to the church the
wives fall down prostrate before their husbands' feet
at home, and the children before the feet of their parents,
confessing and acknowledging that they have offended s
either by some actual deed or by omission of their duty ;
and desire pardon for their offence. Thus if any
cloud of privy displeasure was risen at home, by this
satisfaction it is overblown, that they might be present
at the sacrifices with pure and charitable minds ; for 10
they be af eared to come there with troubled consciences.
Therefore, if they know themselves to bear any hatred
or grudge towards any man, they presume not to come
to the sacrifices before they have reconciled themselves
and purged their consciences, for fear of great ven-15
geance and punishment for their offence.
" When they come thither the men go into the right
side of the church and the women into the left side. 0
There they place themselves in such order that all
they which be of the male kind in every household sit 20
before the goodman of the house, and they of the fe-
male kind before the good wife. 0 Thus it is foreseen that
all their gestures and behaviors be marked and observed
abroad 0 of them by whose authority and discipline they
be governed at home. This also they diligently see unto, 25
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that the younger evermore be coupled with his elder, j
lest, if children be joined together, they should pass
over that time in childish wantonness wherein they \
ought principally to conceive a religious and devout |
s fear towards God, which is the chief and almost the j
only incitation to virtue.
"They kill no living beast in sacrifice, nor they |
think not that the merciful clemency of God hath
delight in blood and slaughter ; which hath given life
ioto beasts to the intent they should live. They burn
frankincense and other sweet savors, and light also a i
great number of wax candles and tapers ; not suppos- '
ing this gear 0 to be anything available to the divine
nature, as neither the prayers of men ; but this unhurt-
15 ful and harmless kind of worship pleaseth them, and
by these sweet savors and lights and other such cere-
monies men feel themselves secretly lifted up and
encouraged to devotion with more willing and fervent '
hearts. The people weareth in the church white
20 apparel : the priest is clothed in changeable colors, 0
which in workmanship be excellent but in stuff not
very precious. For their vestments be neither em-
broidered with gold nor set with precious stones, but
they be wrought so finely and cunningly with divers
25 feathers of fowls that the estimation of no costly stuff
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UTOPIA
207
is able to countervail the price 0 of the work. Further-
more, in these birds' feathers and in the due order of
them which is observed in their setting, they say is
contained certain divine mysteries, the interpretation
whereof known, which is diligently taught by the 5
priests, they be put in remembrance of the bountiful
benefits of God toward them and of the love and honor
which of their behalf is due to God, and also of their
duties one toward another.
" When the priest first cometh out of the vestry 0 10
thus apparelled, they fall down incontinent every one
reverently to the ground, with so still silence on every
part that the very fashion of the thing striketh into
them a certain fear of God, as though he were there
personally present. When they have lain a little 15
space on the ground, the priest giveth them a sign for
to rise. Then they sing praises unto God,° which they
intermixed with instruments of music, for the most
part of other fashions than these that we use in this
part of the world. And like as some of ours be much 20
sweeter than theirs, so some of theirs do far pass ours.
But in one thing doubtless they go exceeding far
beyond us ; for all their music, both that they play
upon instruments and that they sing with man's voice,
doth so resemble and express natural affections, the 25
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UTOPIA
sound and tune is so applied and made agreeable to
the thing, that whether it be a prayer or else a ditty
of gladness, of patience, of trouble, of mourning, or
of anger, the fashion of the melody doth so represent
5 the meaning of the thing that it doth wonderfully
move, stir, pierce, and inflame the hearers' minds. 0
" At the last the people and the priest together re-
hearse solemn prayers in words expressly pronounced, 0
so made that every man may privately apply to him-
10 self that which is commonly spoken of all. In these
prayers every man recognizeth and knowledgeth God to
be his maker, his governor, and the principal cause of
all other goodness, thanking him for so many benefits
received at his hand, but namely that through the
15 favor of God he hath chanced into that public weal
which is most happy and wealthy and hath chosen
that religion which he hopeth to be most true ; in the
which thing, if he do anything err, or if there be any
other better than either of them is, being more accept-
20 able to God, he desireth him that he will of his good-
ness let him have knowledge thereof, as one that is
ready to follow what way soever he will lead him:
but if this form and fashion of a commonwealth be best
and his own religion most true and perfect, then he
25 desireth God to give him a constant steadfastness in
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209
the same and to bring all other people to the same
order of living and to the same opinion of God ; unless
there be anything that in this diversity of religions
doth delight his unsearchable pleasure. To be short,
he prayeth him that after his death he may come to 5
him° ; but how soon or late, that he dare not assign or
determine. Howbeit, if it might stand with his Maj-
esty's pleasure, he would be much gladder to die a
painful death and so to go to God than by long living
in worldly prosperity to be away from him. When 10
this prayer is said they fall down to the ground again,
and a little after they rise up and go to dinner. And
the residue of the day they pass over in plays and the
exercise of chivalry. 0
" Now I have declared and described unto you as 15
truly as I could the form and order of that common-
wealth which verily in my judgment is not only the
best but also that which alone of good right may claim
and take upon it the name of a commonwealth or pub-
lic weal. For in other places they speak still of the com- 20
monwealth, but every man procureth his own private
wealth. Here where nothing is private, the common
affairs be earnestly looked upon. And truly on both
parts they have good cause so to do as they do. For
p
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UTOPIA
in other countries who knoweth not that he shall starve
for hunger, unless he make some several provision for
himself, though the commonwealth flourish never so
much in riches ? And therefore he is compelled, even
5 of very necessity, to have regard to himself rather
than to the people, that is to say, to other. Contrari-
wise, there where all things be common to every man,
it is not to be doubted that any man shall lack any-
thing necessary for his private uses, so that 0 the com-
10 mon storehouses and barns be sufficiently stored. For
there nothing is distributed after a niggish sort, neither
there is any poor man or beggar ; and though no man
have anything, yet every man is rich. For what can
be more rich than to live joyfully and merrily without
is all grief and pensiveness, not caring for his own living
nor vexed or troubled with his wife's importunate
complaints, 0 not dreading poverty to his son nor sor-
rowing for his daughter's dowry ? Yea, they take no
care at all for the living and wealth of themselves and
20 all theirs, of their wives, their children, their nephews, 0
their children's children, and all the succession that
ever shall follow in their posterity. And yet, besides
this, there is no less provision for them that were
once laborers and be now weak and impotent than for
25 them that do now labor and take pain.
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211
" Here now would I see if any man dare be so bold
as to compare with this equity the justice 0 of other
nations; among whom I forsake God° if I can find any
sign or token of equity and justice. For what justice
is this that a rich goldsmith 0 or an usurer or, to be s
short, any of them which either do nothing at all, or
else that which they do is such that it is not very nec-
essary to the commonwealth, should have a pleasant
and a wealthy living, either by idleness or by unnec-
essary business ? when in the mean time poor laborers, 10
carters, ironsmiths, carpenters, and plowmen, by so
great and continual toil as drawing and bearing beasts 0
be scant able to sustain, and again so necessary toil
that without it no commonwealth were able to continue
and endure one year, do yet get so hard^and poor a living is
and live so wretched and miserable a life that the
state and condition of the laboring beasts may seem
much better and wealthier ; for they be not put to so
continual labor, nor their living is not much worse ;
yea, to them much pleasanter, taking no thought in the
mean season for the time to come. But these silly
poor wretches be presently tormented with barren and
unfruitful labor ; and the remembrance of their poor,
indigent, and beggarly old age killeth them up° ; for
their daily wages is so little that it will not suffice for
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212 UTOPIA
the same day, much less it yieldeth any overplus that
may daily be laid up for the relief of old age.
" Is not this an unjust and an unkind public weal,
which giveth great fees and rewards to gentlemen, as
s they call them, and to goldsmiths, and to such other,
which be either idle persons or else only flatterers and
devisers of vain pleasures ; and, of the contrary part,
maketh no gentle provision 0 for poor plowmen, colliers,
laborers, carters, ironsmiths, and carpenters ; without
10 whom no commonwealth can continue ? But when it
hath abused the labors of their lusty and flowering age,
at the last, when they be oppressed with old age and
sickness, being needy, poor, and indigent of all things ;
then, forgetting their so many painful watchings, not re-
15 membering their^o many and so great benefits, recompen-
seth and acquitteth them most unkindly with miserable
death. And yet besides this the rich men not only by
private fraud but also by common laws do every day
pluck and snatch away from the poor some part of
20 their daily living; so, whereas it seemed before unjust
to recompense with unkindness their pains that have
been beneficial to the public weal, now they have to
this their wrong and unjust dealing (which is yet a
much worse point) given the name of justice ; yea,
25 and that by force of a law. 0
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UTOPIA
213
" Therefore when I consider and weigh in my mind
all these commonwealths which nowadays anywhere
do flourish, so God help me, I can perceive nothing but
a certain conspiracy of rich men, procuring their own
commodities under the name and title of the common- 5
wealth. They invent and devise all means and crafts,
first how to keep safely without fear of losing that
they have unjustly gathered together 0 ; and next how
to hire and abuse the work and labor of the poor for as
little money as may be. These devices, when the rich
men have decreed to be kept and observed for the
commonwealth's sake, that is to say, for the wealth
also of the poor people, then they be made laws. But
these most wicked and vicious men, when they have
by their unsatiable covetousness divided among them- 1
selves all those things which would have sufficed all
men, yet how far be they from the wealth and felicity
of the Utopian commonwealth ? out of the which in
that all the desire of money with the use thereof is
utterly secluded and banished, how great a heap of
cares is cut away ; how great an occasion of wicked-
ness and mischief is plucked up by the roots? For
who knoweth not that fraud, theft, ravin, brawling,
quarrelling, brabbling, 0 strife, chiding, contention,
murder, treason, poisoning, which by daily punish-
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UTOPIA
ments are rather revenged than refrained, do die when
money dieth° ? And also that fear, grief, care, labors,
and watchings do perish even the very same moment
that money perisheth? Yea, poverty itself, which
i s only seemed to lack money, if money were gone, it
also would decrease and vanish away.
"And that you may perceive this more plainly, con-
sider with yourselves some barren and unfruitful year,
wherein many thousands of people have starved for
io hunger. I dare be bold to say that in the end of that
penury so much corn or grain might have been found
in the rich men's barns, if they had been searched, as
being divided among them whom famine and pestilence
hath killed, no man at all should have felt that plague
15 and penury. So easily might men get their living if
that same worthy princess, Lady Money, 0 did not alone
stop up the way between us and our living ; which, a
God's name, 0 was very excellently devised and in-
vented that by her the way thereto should be opened, j
20 1 am sure the rich men perceive this, nor they be not
ignorant how much better it were to lack no necessary |
thing than to abound with over-much superfluity, to be
rid out of innumerable cares and troubles than to be
besieged with great riches. And I doubt not that
2s either the respect of every man's private commodity, ;
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215
or else the authority of our saviour Christ (which for
his great wisdom could not but know what were best,
and for his inestimable goodness could not but counsel to
that which he knew to be best) would have brought all
the world long ago into the laws of this weal public, if 5
it were not that one only beast, the princess and mother
of all mischief, Pride, 0 doth withstand and let it. She
measureth not wealth and prosperity by her own com-
modities but by the miseries and incommodities of
other. She would not by her good will 0 be made a 10
goddess, if there were no wretches left whom she
might be lady over to mock and scorn, over whose
miseries her felicity might shine, whose poverty she
might vex, torment, and encrease by gorgeously setting
forth her riches. This hell-hound creepeth into men's 15
hearts and plucketh them back from entering the right
path of life, and is so deeply rooted in men's breasts
that she cannot be plucked out.
" This form and fashion of a weal public, which I
would gladly wish unto all nations, I am glad yet that 20
it hath chanced to the Utopians ; which have followed
those institutions of life whereby they have laid such
foundations of their commonwealth as shall continue
and last, not only wealthily but also, as far as man's
wit may judge and conjecture, shall endure forever. 25
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216 UTOPIA
For seeing the chief causes of ambition and sedition
with other vices be plucked up by the roots and aban-
doned, at home there can be no jeopardy of domestical
dissension, 0 which alone hath cast under foot and
brought to naught the well-fortified and strongly-de-
fenced wealth and riches of many cities. But foras-
much as perfect concord reinaineth, and wholesome
laws be executed at home, the envy of all foreign
princes be not able to shake or move the empire,
though they have many times long ago gone about to
do it, being evermore driven back."
Thus when Raphael had made an end of his tale,
though many things came to my mind which in the
manners and laws of that people seemed to be insti-
tuted and founded of no good reason, 0 not only in the
fashion of their chivalry 0 and in their sacrifices and
religions, and in other of their laws, but also, yea and
chiefly, in that which is the principal foundation of
all their ordinances, that is to say, in the community
of their life and living, without any occupying of
money (by the which thing only all nobility, magnifi-
cence, worship, honor, and majesty, the true orna-
ments and honors, as the common opinion is, of a
commonwealth, utterly be overthrown and destroyed) ;
yet, because I knew that he was weary of talking,
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UTOPIA
217
and was not sure whether he could abide that any-
thing should be said against his mind,° specially be-
cause I remembered that he had reprehended this
fault in other, which be afeared lest they should seem
not to be wise enough unless they could find some 5
fault in other men's inventions ; therefore I, praising
both their institutions and his communication, 0 took
him by the hand and led him in to supper ; saying
that we would choose another time to weigh and ex-
amine the same matters, and to talk with him more 10
at large therein; which would to God it might once
come to pass. In the mean time, as I cannot agree
and consent to all things that he said (being else with-
out doubt a man singularly well learned and also in
all worldly matters exactly and profoundly experi-15
enced), so must I needs confess and grant that many
things be in the Utopian weal public which in our
cities I may rather wish for than hope after. 0
Thus endeth the afternoon's talk of Kaphael Hyth-
loday concerning the laws and institutions of the 20
island of Utopia.
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APPENDIX
CONTAINING MATTER IN THE SECOND (1556) EDI-
TION OF ROBYNSON'S TRANSLATION BUT NOT IN
THE FIRST : —
The Translator to the Gentle Reader,
Peter Giles to Hierome Buslyde,
A Metre of Four Verses in the Utopian Tongue,
A Short Metre of Utopia, written by Anemolius,
Gerard Noviomage of Utopia,
Cornelius Graphey to the Reader.
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APPENDIX
The Translator to the Gentle , Reader
Thou shalt understand, gentle reader, that though
this work of Utopia in English, come now the
second time forth in print, yet was it never my mind
nor intent that it should ever have been imprinted at
all, as who for no such purpose took upon me at the s
first the translation thereof : but did it only at the re-
quest of a friend 0 for his own private use, upon hope
that he would have kept it secret to himself alone;
whom though I knew to be a man indeed both very
witty and also skilful, yet was I certain that in the 10
knowledge of the Latin tongue he was not so well seen
as to be able to judge of the fineness or coarseness of
my translation. Wherefore I went the more slightly
through with it, propounding to myself therein rather
to please my said friend's judgment than mine own, is
to the meanness of whose learning I thought it my
part to submit and attemper my style. Lightly
therefore I overran the whole work, and in short time,
with more haste than good speed, I brought it to an
221
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APPENDIX
end. But as the Latin proverb 0 sayeth, The hasty
bitch bringeth forth blind whelps ; for when this my
work was finished, the rudeness thereof showed it to be
done in post-haste. Howbeit, rude and base though
s it were, yet fortune so ruled the matter that to im-
printing it came, and that partly against my will.
Howbeit, not being able in this behalf to resist the
pithy persuasions of my friends and perceiving there-
fore none other remedy but that forth it should, I
10 comforted myself for the time, only with this notable
saying of Terence 0 :
" Ita vita est hominum, quasi quum ludas tesseris.
Si illud, quod est maxume opus iactu non cadit :
Illud, quod cecidit forte, id arte ut corrigas ; "
15 in which verses the poet likenethor compareth the life
of man to a diceplaying or a game at the tables,
meaning therein if that chance rise not which is most
for the player's advantage, that then the chance which
fortune hath sent ought so cunningly to be played as
20 may be to the player least damage. By the which
worthy similitude surely the witty poet giveth us to
understand that though in any of our acts and doings,
as it oft chanceth, we happen to fail and miss of our good
pretensed purpose so that the success and our intent
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223
prove things far odd ; yet so we ought with witty cir-
cumspection to handle the matter that no evil or in-
commodity as far forth as may be and as in us lieth
do thereof ensue. According to the which counsel,
though I am indeed in comparison of an expert game- 5
ster and a cunning player but a very bungler, yet have
I in this bychance, that on my side unawares hath
fallen, so, I suppose, behaved myself that, as doubt-
less it might have been of me much more cunningly
handled had I forethought so much or doubted any 10
such sequel at the beginning of my play; so I am
sure it had been much worse than it is if I had not in
the end looked somewhat earnestly to my game. For
though this work came not from me so fine, so perfect,
and so exact at the first as surely for my small learning is
it should have done if I had then meant the publish-
ing thereof in print ; yet I trust I have now in this
second edition taken about it such pains that very
few great faults and notable errors are in it to be
found. 0 20
Now therefore, most gentle reader, the meanness of
this simple translation and the faults that be therein
(as I fear much there be some) I doubt not but thou
wilt, in just consideration of the premises, gently and
favorably wink at° them. So doing thou shalt minister 25
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APPENDIX
unto me good cause to think my labor and pains herein I
not altogether bestowed in vain.
Vale.
To the Eight Honorable Hierome Buslyde, 0 Provost
of Arienn 0 and Councillor to the Catholic King
5 Charles, 0
Peter Giles, Citizen of Antwerp, wisheth health and
felicity. j
Thomas More, the singular ornament of this our
age, as you yourself, right honorable Buslyde, can
10 witness, to whom he is perfectly well known, sent |
unto me this other day The Island of Utopia, to very
few as yet known but most worthy; which, as far
excelling Plato's commonwealth, all people should
be willing to know; specially of a man most elo-
15 quent so finely set forth, so cunningly painted out,
and so evidently subject to the eye° that as oft as |
I read it methinketh that I see somewhat more
than when I heard Raphael Hythloday himself
(for I was present at that talk as well as Master
20 More) uttering and pronouncing his own words.
Yea, though the same man, according to his pure elo-
quence, did so open and declare the matter that he
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APPENDIX
225
might plainly enough appear to report not things
which he had learned of others only by hearsay but
which he had with his own eyes presently seen and
thoroughly viewed and wherein he had no small time
been conversant and abiding; a man truly in mines
opinion as touching the knowledge of regions, peoples,
and worldly experience much passing, yea even the
very famous and renowned traveller Ulysses, 0 and
indeed such a one as for the space of these eight
hundred years past I think nature into the world 10
brought not forth his like; in comparison of whom
Vespucci 0 may be thought to have seen nothing.
Moreover, whereas we be wont more effectually
and pithily to declare and express things that we
have seen than which we have but only heard, there is
was besides that in this man a certain peculiar grace
and singular dexterity to describe and set forth a
matter withal. Yet the selfsame things as oft as I
behold and consider them drawn and painted out
with Master More's pencil, I am therewith so moved, 2 o
so delighted, so inflamed, and so rapt that sometimes
methinks I am presently conversant, even in the
island of Utopia. And I promise you, I can scant be-
lieve that Raphael himself by all that five years' space
that he was in Utopia abiding saw there so much as 25
Q
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APPENDIX
here in Master More's description is to be seen and
perceived 0 ; which description with so many wonders
and miraculous things is replenished that I stand in
great doubt whereat first and chiefly to muse or
5 marvel, whether at the excellency of his perfect and
sure memory which could well-nigh word by word
rehearse so many things once only heard ; or else at
his singular prudence, who so well and wittily marked
and bare away all the original causes and fountains
io (to the vulgar people commonly most unknown)
whereof both issueth and springeth the mortal confu-
sion and utter decay of a commonwealth and also the
advancement and wealthy state of the same may rise
and grow ; or else at the efficacy and pith of his words,
15 which in so fine a Latin style, with such force of
eloquence hath couched together 0 and comprised so
many and divers matters, specially being a man
continually encumbered with so many busy and
troublesome cares, both public and private, as he is.
20 Howbeit all these things cause you little to marvel,
right honorable Buslyde, for that you are familiarly
and thoroughly acquainted with the notable, yea
almost divine, wit of the man.
But now to proceed to other matters, I surely know
as nothing needful or requisite to be adjoined unto his
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227
writings, only a metre of four verses written in the
Utopian tongue, which after Master More's departure
Hythloday by chance showed me, that I have caused
to be added thereto, with the alphabet of the same
nation, and have also garnished the margent 0 of the 5
book with certain notes. For, as touching the situa-
tion of the island, that is to say, in what part of the
world Utopia standeth, the ignorance and lack whereof
not a little troubleth and grieveth Master More, indeed
Raphael left not that unspoken of. Howbeit with 10
very few words he lightly touched it, incidentally by
the way passing it over, as meaning of likelihood to
keep and reserve that to another place; and the
same, I wot not how, by a certain evil and unlucky
chance escaped us both. For when Raphael was speak- 15
ing thereof, one of Master More's servants came to him
and whispered in his ear ; wherefore I being then of
purpose more earnestly addict to hear, 0 one of the com-
pany, by reason of cold, taken I think a shipboard,
coughed out so loud that he took from my hearing cer- 20
tain of his words. 0 But I will never stint nor rest until I
have got the full and exact knowledge hereof ; inso-
much that I will be able perfectly to instruct you, not
only in the •. longitude or true meridian of the island,
but also in the just latitude thereof, that is to say, in 25
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APPENDIX
the sublevation or height of the pole in that region, if
our friend Hythloday be in safety and alive.
For we hear very uncertain news of him : some re-
port that he died in his journey homeward 0 ; some
s again affirm that he returned into his country, but
partly for that he could not away° with the fashions
of his country folk and partly for that his mind and
affection was altogether set and fixed upon Utopia,
they say that he hath taken his voyage thitherward
10 again.
Now as touching this, that the name of this island
is nowhere found among the old and ancient cosmog-
raphers, this doubt Hythloday himself very well
dissolved. For why it is possible enough, quoth he,
is that the name which it had in old time was afterward
changed or else that they never had knowledge of this
island; forasmuch as now in our time divers lands
be found which to the old geographers were un-
known.
20 Howbeit, what needeth it in this behalf to fortify
the matter with arguments, seeing Master More is
author hereof 0 sufficient ? But whereas he doubteth of
the edition or imprinting of the book, indeed herein I
both commend and also knowledge the man's modesty.
25 Howbeit, unto me it seemeth a work most unworthy to
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APPENDIX
229
be long suppressed and most worthy to go abroad into the
hands of men, yea and under the title of your name to
be published to the world ; either because the singular
endowments and qualities of Master More be to no man
better known than to you or else because no man is 5
more fit and meet than you with good counsels to
further and advance the commonwealth, wherein you
have many years already continued and travailed with
great glory and commendation, both of wisdom and
knowledge and also of integrity and uprightness. 10
Thus, 0 liberal supporter of good learning and flower
of this our time, I bid you most heartily well to fare.
At Antwerp, 1516, the first day of November.
A Metre of Four Verses in the Utopian Tongue,
briefly touching as well the strange beginning, as also 15
the happy and wealthy continuance of the same com-
monwealth.
Utopus ha Boccas peula chama polta chamaan.
Bargol he maglomi baccan soma gymnosophaon.
Agrama gymnosophon labarem bacha bodamilomin. 2 o
Voluala barchin heman la lauoluola dramme pagloni.
Which verses the translator, according to his simple
knowledge and mean understanding in the Utopian
tongue hath thus rudely Englished :
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APPENDIX
My king 0 and conqueror, Utopus by name, \
A prince of much renown and immortal fame,
Hath made me an isle that erst no island was, |
Full fraught with worldly wealth, with pleasure and solace '
5 I one of all other without philosophy
Have shaped for man a philosophical city.
As mine I am nothing dangerous to impart,
So better to receive I am ready with all my heart. 0
A Short Metre of Utopia |
io Written by Anemolius, 0 poet laureate, and nephew to I
Hythioday by his sister.
Me Utopie cleped antiquity,
Void of haunt and herborough 0 ;
Now am I like to Plato's city, 0 *
is Whose fame flieth the world through.
Yea like, or rather more likely
Plato's plat to excel and pass :
For what Plato's pen hath platted briefly
In naked words ; as in a glass,
20 The same have I performed fully,
With laws, with men, and treasure fitly.
Wherefore not Utopie, but rather rightly
My name is Eutopie 0 ; a place of felicity.
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231
Gerard Noviomage 0 of Utopia
Doth pleasure please ? Then place thee here and well
thee rest ;
Most pleasant pleasures thou shalt find here.
Doth profit ease ? Then here arrive, this isle is best,
For passing profits do here appear. 5
Doth both thee tempt and wouldst thou grip both
gain and pleasure ?
This isle is fraight with both bounteously.
To still thy greedy intent, reap here incomparable
treasure,
Eoth mind and tongue to garnish richly.
The hid wells and fountains both of vice and virtue, io
Thou hast them here subject unto thine eye.
Be thankful now, and thanks where thanks be due
Give to Thomas More, London's immortal glory.
Cornelius Graphey 0 to the Reader
Wilt thou know what wonders strange be in the
that late was found ?
Wilt thou learn thy life to lead by divers ways
godly be ?
Wilt thou of virtue and of vice understand the
ground ?
land is
that
very
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!
232 APPENDIX |
Wilt thou see this wretched world, how full it is of |
vanity ?
Then read and mark and bear in mind for thy behoof, J
as thou may best,
All things that in this present work, that worthy clerk
Sir Thomas More,
With wit divine, full learnedly unto the world hath
plain expressed,
5 In whom London well glory may, for wisdom and for
godly lore.
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NOTES
The following works, being frequently referred to or
quoted from, are cited by short title or author's name :
Bridgett : Life and Writings of Sir Thomas More . . .
by the Rev. T. E. Bridgett . . . London, 1892.
Burnet : Utopia . . . Translated into English [by Gil-
bert Burnet]. London, 1685.
Collins : Sir Thomas More's Utopia. Edited, with Intro-
duction and Notes, by J. Churton Collins. Oxford, 1904.
Dibdin : . . . Utopia ... by ... Sir Thomas More . . .
A New Edition ; with copious Notes, . . . and a Biographi-
cal and Literary Introduction, by . . . T. F. Dibdin. . . .
London, 1808.
Lumby : More's Utopia. . . . Edited, with Intro-
duction, Notes, and Glossary, by the late Rev. J. Rawson
Lumby . . . Cambridge, 1897.
Lupton : The Utopia of Sir Thomas More . . . with
. . . Introduction and Notes by J. H. Lupton . . . Oxford,
1895.
More, Richard III.: More's History of King Richard III.
Edited with Notes, Glossary and Index of Names, by J.
Rawson Lumby . . . Cambridge, 1883.
Roper-: The Lyfe of Sir Thomas More Knighte . . .
written by his sonne-in-lawe, William Roper. (The ref-
erences are to Sampson's reprint in his edition of the
Utopia.)
Sampson: The Utopia of Sir Thomas More. . . . Edited
by George Sampson, with an Introduction and Bibliog-
raphy by A. Guthkelch. . . . London, 1910.
The references to Chaucer, Spenser, Milton, and Pope are
to the Globe editions (The Macmillan Co.) of their poems:
to Shakspere, to Neilson's Cambridge edition of his works.
233
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NOTES
1:2. William Cecil (1520-1598), a schoolfellow of
Robynson, as he is reminded in this letter, after dis-
tinguishing himself at Cambridge, studied law at Gray's
Inn. Through the influence of the Protector Somerset
he was made Master of Requests, and because of his
ability and application rose rapidly. In 1547 he entered
Parliament, and the next year, at twenty-eight, was made
Secretary of State. Three years later, in the very year in
which this letter was written, he was knighted. Recog-
nizing his ability, Mary would have kept him in her ser-
vice, had he been willing to conform to Catholicism.
Elizabeth's first appointment replaced him in his former
office, and until his death forty years later he was her
most trusted adviser and ablest statesman. In 1571 she
created him Baron Burghley, by which title he is generally
known.
1 : 3. the King. Edward VI., in 1551 a boy of fourteen,
ruling with John Dudley, Earl of Warwick, as leader in
his council.
1 : 4. Ralph Robynson. Cf . Introduction, lvi ff.
1 : 7. Corinth. A city of Greece, near the Gulf of
Corinth, about forty-five miles south of west from Athens.
1: 7. Philip. Philip II. (b. 382 b.c.) succeeded to the
throne of Macedonia in 359 b.c, and in the following
year began the career of conquest that ended only with
his assassination in 336 b.c.
1 : 12. harness. Armor.
"Ring the alarum-bell ! Blow, wind ! come, wrack !
At least we'll die with harness on our back."
— Shakspere, Macbeth, V, v, 51.
1 : 14. rampire. Fortify, strengthen, barricade. " Af-
ter they had taken their repast, Rosader rampired up the
house, lest upon a sudden his brother should raise some
crew of his tenants, and surprise them unawares." — Lodge,
Rosalynde, Baldwin's ed., 43.
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235
1 : 17. Diogenes. Born in Asia Minor about 412 b.c,
Diogenes emigrated to Athens in his youth, studied phi-
losophy there, and became the most famous of the cynics.
According to Seneca, he carried his contempt for worldly
possessions so far that he lived in a tub. While on a
voyage he was captured by pirates, who sold him into
slavery. His purchaser took him to Corinth, but there
restored him to freedom. He died at Corinth in
323 b.c.
2:3. philosophical cloak. "Among the male part
of the Greek nation, those who, like philosophers, af-
fected great austerity, abstained entirely from wearing
the tunic, and contented themselves with throwing over
their naked body a simple cloak or mantle." — Hope, The
Costume of the Ancients, I, 22.
2 : 12. working. This story is told by Lucian, who makes
a similar apologetic use of it in introducing his The Way
to Write History. Cf. Fowler, The Works of Lucian, II,
110.
3 : 9. Utopia. Cf. note on 63 : 13.
3 : 12. almost forty years ago. Between the publica-
tion of Utopia (1516) and the appearance of Robynson's
translation (1551), thirty-five years elapsed. More had
been dead sixteen years before this, the first form in which
his work was published in England, appeared.
3 : 17. room. Position, office, dignity. " A Parlia-
ment . . . whereof Sir Thomas More was chosen Speaker ;
who, being very loath to take that room upon him, made
an oration ... for his discharge thereof." — Roper, 210.
5 : 15. George Tadlowe. Of this person, nothing further
is known.
6 : 4. the danger. Apparently Robynson felt that,
though the times had changed greatly since More wrote
his work, there was still some danger that the publication
in English of such a far-reaching criticism of the govern-
ment might give offence to those in authority.
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236
NOTES
6 : 18. say well by. Speak well of.
"How say you by the French lord?"
— Shakspere, Merchant of Venice, I, ii, 68.
7 : 4. tract of time. Process, or lapse, of time.
"Silly worms in tract of time overthrow . . . stately towns."
— Lyly, Euphues, Arber's ed., 110.
7 : 5. quailed. Weakened, slackened.
" Let not search and inquisition quail
To bring again these foolish runaways."
— Shakspere, As You Like It, II, ii, 20.
7: 14. bountifully showed. Probably referring to a
clerkship that Cecil had procured for Robynson.
8 : Address. Peter Giles. Born at Antwerp about 1486,
Giles was some eight years younger than More. As
Erasmus had been the director of his studies and was his
intimate friend, it is probable that he brought about the
meeting between him and More. In 1517 Erasmus and
Giles sent More " their portraits painted by Quentin
Matsys on two panels united as a diptych." Giles was
made town-clerk of Antwerp in 1510, and died in 1533,
the year before More.
8 : 16. better seen. Better versed.
"A schoolmaster well seen in music."
— Shakspere, Taming of the Shrew, I, ii, 133.
8 : 18. homely. Careless, negligent.
"He rood but hoomly in a medlee cote."
— Chaucer, Prologue, 328.
10 : 1 5. so that. Provided that.
10 : 24. sleep. Cf . note on 101 : 10.
11:11. John Clement. Taken into More's family
from St. Paul's school, Clement seems to have acted as
tutor to More's children while pursuing his own studies
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NOTES
237
in Greek and Latin. He married Margaret Gigs, an
orphaned relative of More who lived in his family as if a
daughter. He justified More's good opinion of him,
becoming so proficient in Greek that he was made professor
of it at Oxford. He gave up his position, however, to
study and practise medicine, and became one of the most
famous physicians of the time.
11 : 18. Hythloday. Cf . note on 20 : 25.
11 : 19. Amaurote. Cf . note on 88 : 5.
11 : 20. Anyder. Cf. note on 92 : 12.'
12 : 3. I will write as I have done. Note More's pre-
tence of striving for such absolute accuracy that he will
not admit even a trivial detail about which there is the
slightest doubt in his mind. The statement in the Utopia
is (92 : 19) that the Anyder is half a mile wide at Amaurote.
12 : 14. I cannot tell. In his letter to Busleyden (227)
Giles explained how it happened that, though Hythloday
definitely stated the location of Utopia, neither he nor More
caught it.
12 : 23. professor of divinity. This may have been
something more than an attempt to give verisimilitude,
for Lupton quotes (7) a marginal note from the 1624 ed.
of Robynson's translation : " It is thought of some that
here is unfeignedly meant the late famous Vicar of Croyden
in Surrey."
12 : 25. to see news. Further to illustrate that news
was not originally confined to that which is learned by
means of words, Lumby quotes (186) from Burton's
Anatomy of Melancholy, " New news lately done, our eyes
and ears are full of her cures.' '
13 : 2. luckily begun. Hythloday states (189) that
many of the Utopians eagerly embraced Christianity as
taught them by him and his fellows.
13 : 5. of the bishop. More wrote a Pontifice, which
Robynson shrunk from translating, by the Pope. In his
second edition his expression is, " by the high Bishop."
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238 NOTES
14:1. prevent him. Anticipate him. "<The Duke |
not enduring so long to tarry, but intending under pretext
of dissension and debate arising in the realm to prevent
his time, . . . was . . . slain." — More, Richard III., 4. \
14 : 18. alloweth nothing. Praise nothing.
"I like them all, and do allow them well."
— Shaksperb, 2 Henry IV., IV, ii, 64.
Robynson frequently follows a plural subject by a verb
in the singular.
14: 19. smack. Small quantity. From A. S. smcec,
taste, flavor.
14 : 25. can away with no mirth. Can have companion-
ship with no mirth. "Awav," on the way, is analogous
to afoot, on foot. Cf . 228 : 6.
15: 1. so narrow in the shoulders. Analogous to the
modern expression, 44 so strait-laced."
15 : 6. he that is bitten of a mad dog feareth water.
A popular fallacy, still prevalent. As a matter of fact,
rabies simply causes a restriction of the throat that makes
all swallowing difficult or impossible.
15 : 13. louting and flouting. Depreciating and disdaining.
" Whom double fortune lifted up and louted."
— A Mirror for Magistrates. I
" Please her the best I may, j
She loves but to gainsay. '
Alack and well-a-day !
Phillida flouts me."
— Seventeenth Century Song.
16 : 2. for guests so dainty-mouthed. Since ye are
guests so dainty-mouthed.
16 : 10. stand with his mind. Agree with his mind.
"If it stand with honesty."
— Shakspbre, As You Like It, II, iv, 91.
17: 2. Henry, the eighth. Born in 1491, and therefore
thirteen years More's junior, Henry became king gn the
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NOTES
239
death of his father in 1509. Possessed of great and
various abilities, he concealed under a pleasing exterior
an inflexible will and a stern, cruel disposition. The Intro-
duction gives (xxii ff .) an account of the circumstances that
led up to the most important event of his reign, the sever-
ing of the allegiance of the church in England to Rome.
Notwithstanding his despicable character, Henry did
much that raised England to a position of international
importance and prepared the way for the glorious reign
of his daughter Elizabeth. He was succeeded in 1547
by Edward VI., his only son, a boy of ten.
17 : 5. King of Castile. More wrote cum serenissimo
Castellae principe Carolo, for Charles, who was born in
Ghent in 1500 and became Duke of Burgundy and Prince
of Castile on the death of his father in 1506, did not assume
the title King of Castile until January, 1516. Before the
end of that year he was King of Spain, and three years
later he became Emperor of the Holy Roman Empire,
which was practically Emperor of Germany. After a
notable career, in 1555 he abdicated the government of
the Netherlands, and in the following year that of Spain,
in favor of his son, Philip II., and in 1556 that of Germany,
in favor of his brother, Ferdinand I. Charles then retired
to the monastery of Yuste, in Spain, where he died in 1558.
17 : 7. Flanders. A semi-independent state from 862
until 1384, Flanders, a country extending along the North
Sea from the mouth of the Scheldt to the Strait of Dover,
in that year was united with Burgundy ; and in 1477 passed
with it to the House of Hapsburg. It was united with the
German empire in 1512, and now forms the western por-
tion of Belgium.
17 : 8. Cuthbert Tunstall. Having been born in 1474,
he was four years older than More. He was made Master
of the Rolls in May, 1516. He became Bishop of London
in 1522, and was translated from that see to Durham in
1530. Though a zealous Catholic, he took the oath of
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240
NOTES
supremacy; but was deprived of his bishopric under
Edward VI. He was restored by Mary; but was again
deprived of it for refusing to take the oath of allegiance
to Elizabeth, and placed for the few remaining months of 1
his life in the custody of the Archbishop of Canterbury.
He died at Lambeth in 1559.
18 : 3. Bruges. A city as early as the seventh century,
Bruges during the Middle Ages was the greatest commer-
cial centre of northern Europe, containing at one time
factories from seventeen different kingdoms and a popu-
lation of 200,000. It was the continental headquarters
for the English wool trade. The silting up of the arm
of the sea on which was its harbor destroyed its commercial
importance; and already at the time of More's visit
much of its business had been transferred to Antwerp.
It is now a quiet little city with a population of about 55,000.
18 : 6. Margrave. Count of the marches, or borders ;
originally a German territorial title.
18 : 9. George Temsice. Lupton states (23) that
" Georgius a Tempseca (de Theimsecke) was a native of
Bruges, and wrote a history of Artois."
18 : 9. provost of Cassel. Chief magistrate of Cassel,
a town of Roman origin, now in northern France, but at i
the time of this embassy belonging to the Netherlands.
Some forty miles to the southeast of Bruges, it should not '
be confused, as it is by Dibdin (I, 23), with the capital
of Hesse-Cassel, a part of Germany.
18 : 17. Brussels. A mere village until in 977 a Duke
of Lorraine selected it as his residence and built a castle
there, Brussels gradually increased in importance during
the Middle Ages. In the fourteenth century it became
the residence of the Burgundian princes, whose court
after 1477 was an exceptionally brilliant one. It reached
its climax under the Charles V. to whom More refers. It
has been the capital of Belgium since the separation of
that country from Holland in 1831.
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NOTES
241
18: 19. Antwerp. A city on the Scheldt, some sixty
miles from the sea, and about fifty east of Bruges. Though
a very old city, it was not a rival of Bruges till late in the
fifteenth century. By the middle of the following cen-
tury, however, it had become the wealthiest and most
prosperous city in Europe, with agencies of nearly a thou-
sand foreign firms. It is still one of the most important
European seaporta, and has a population of over 350,000.
18 : 22. Peter Giles. Cf . note on 8 : Address.
19 : 17. my wife and children. More's family at this
time consisted of his second wife and his four children by
his first wife, of whom the eldest was ten and the youngest,
his only son, six. In a letter to Erasmus written after his
return from this embassy More said, " The office of ambas-
sador never much pleased me. It does not seem so suitable
to us laymen as to you priests, who have no wives and chil-
dren to leave at home, or who find them wherever you go.
When we have been a short time away, our hearts are drawn
back by the longing for our families." — Bridgett, 69.
19 : 21. Our Lady's church. The cathedral of Notre
Dame. It is not only " the most gorgeous and curious
church of building in all the city," but one of the finest
Gothic churches in existence. Begun in 1352, it was not
completed till a century after More's death.
20 : 3. favor. Appearance.
"I know that virtue to be in you, Brutus,
As well as I do know your outward favour."
— Shakspere, Julius Ccesar, I, ii, 90.
20 : 22. Palinure. The pilot of Aeneas. Cf. Vergil's
Aeneid, III, 202.
20 : 23. Ulysses. The Greek chieftain whose wander-
ings after the fall of Troy are told in the Odyssey. In the
opening lines of that poem, Homer says, " many were
the men whose towns he saw and whose mind he
learnt."
K
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NOTES
20 : 24. Plato. This Athenian philosopher is said to
have visited Sicily, Egypt, and other countries in the pur-
suit of knowledge.
20:25. Hythloday. This name is More' s invention. There
is general agreement that the first part is from v0\os, trifles,
nonsense ; but difference of opinion as to the source of the last
syllable : Morley (Utopia, 9) and Collins (148) derive it from
5<£ios, knowing in ; Lupton thinks (26) it from d&ieiv, to dis-
tribute, "as if to express ... 'a teller of idle tales' " ; while
Sampson suggests (24) that it is 44 (perhaps) some derivative
of the old root * d&w in its causal sense of 4 to teach.' "
21:7. Seneca's. Lucius Annaeus Seneca (b. 3 a.d.),
a Roman philosopher and writer of tragedies. He was
tutor to Nero, who, envious of his vast wealth, subse-
quently ordered him to commit suicide. This he did in
65 a.d. His teaching has been termed, 44 with all its im-
perfections, the purest and noblest of antiquity."
21 : 7. Cicero's. Marcus Tullius Cicero (b.c. 106-
b.c. 43), the famous Roman orator and man of letters,
among whose writings are many on philosophical subjects.
14 As a philosopher, ... he was allowed to be the greatest
teacher that Rome ever had."
21 : 9. a Portugal born. Portugal was formerly used
to denote both the country and an inhabitant of it. More
probably makes Hythloday a Portuguese partly because
Vespucci's last two voyages were made for the King of
Portugal, partly because of the then recent achievement
of the Portuguese navigator Vasco da Gama. In July,
1497, he sailed from Lisbon, and, having rounded the
Cape of Good Hope, reached Calicut (22:7), May 20,
1498; thus succeeding in finding an all-water route to
India, which was what Columbus set out to do but failed
to accomplish. He arrived at Lisbon on his return voy-
age in September, 1499.
21:11. Amerigo Vespucci. A Florentine (b. 1452),
who went to Spain in 1490, and became connected with the
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NOTES
243
firm that fitted out Columbus's second expedition (1493).
According to his own story, he himself made four voyages
to the New World : two, 1497 and 1499, from Spain, by
order of the king; two, 1501 and 1503, from Portugal,
under the patronage of the king of that country. The
first was, however, mythical, modern scholars having
shown that during the time that he asserted he was absent
on it Vespucci was in fact in Seville superintending the
preparations for Columbus's third voyage.
21 : 12. now in print. The letter in which Vespucci
gave accounts of his voyages was published twice in 1507,
once separately and once in Waldseemuller's Cosmographiae
Introductio.
21 : 20. the country of Gulike. Vespucci wrote that
the men were left in castello, in a fort. This in More's
account became in Castello, and the capital letter misled
both of the earliest English translators into taking Cas-
tello for the name of a country, Burnet (6) translating it
44 in New Castile." So Castellanorum, of those in the
fort, becomes with Robynson, " of his companions Gulik-
ians," with Burnet, " Castalians." Lupton first ex-
plained (28) how Robynson came to translate as he did :
44 In the old dictionaries Castellum is given as the ancient
name of Jiilich (the French Juliers, 23 miles west of
Cologne), and this is sometimes spelt Gulike. . . . That
More's Castellum was in South America, not in Gallia
Belgica, does not seem to have troubled the translator."
21:21. for his mind's sake. According to his desire,
as in the expression, 44 he had a great mind to."
21 : 24. covered with the sky. A quotation from Lucan,
Pharsalia, vii, 819.
21 : 25. of like length and distance. Lupton notes
(28) that this is an adaptation of a saying of Anaxagoras,
given by Cicero in his Tusculan Disputations (I, 104),
44 From every place the way to the shades is of equal
length." Roper states (258) that while More was in the
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244
NOTES
Tower his wife visited him and upbraided him for remaining
in the close, filthy prison, when by doing as the bishops
had done he might be enjoying his comfortable home.
" Is not this house as nigh Heaven as mine own? " was
More's only answer.
22 : 6. Taprobane. The name given by the Greek and
Roman geographers to the island Ceylon.
22 : 7. Calicut. A town on the southwestern coast
of India, the first port reached by Vasco da Gama, who
established a Portuguese factory there. Calico was
extensively made here, and takes its name from the place.
It became a part of British India in 1792.
23 : 5. out of my remembrance. One of the many
touches introduced by More to give verisimilitude to his
fiction. So Lucian (cf. note on 152 : 7), in the account in
his True History of the games in the Island of the Blest,
says, " Who won the flat race, I have forgotten." —
Fowler, The Works of Lucian, II, 162.
23 : 15. the line equinoctial : the equator.
23 : 21. out of fashion. Out of order or shape.
"I prattle out of fashion, and I dote
In mine own comforts."
— Shakspere, Othello, II, i, 208.
In More's Latin the word thus translated is horrida, rough.
24 : 22. feat and use. These words are here practically
synonymous, the two being used to translate the one word
USU8.
24 : 22. loadstone. Magnetic oxide of iron ; but here
used by metonymy for the mariner's compass.
25 : 3. farther from care than jeopardy. Burnet trans-
lates (8) More's securi magis quam tuti more accurately and
intelligibly, " more secure than safe," secure being used in
its primary sense, free from care or fear.
25 : 5. shall turn them to evil. Them is here dative,
not accusative, shall turn for them, etc.
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245
25: 11. in another place. This is generally considered
a reference to the second part of the Utopia, the first
written. But the second part of the Utopia does not tell
what Hythloday said he saw " in every country where he
came," and the very next paragraph shows conclusively
that More did not here refer to it. It is simply a part
of More's verisimilitude to suggest that he might later
produce another volume telling of countries other than
Utopia that Hythloday visited.
25 : 19. they be no news. The Travels attributed to
John Mandeville, an English knight, which appeared in
the latter part of the fourteenth century and was very
popular, contained accounts of a number of monsters.
Cf. especially ch. XIX.
25 : 21. Scyllas. Scylla was a yelping, six-headed
monster that according to Homer (Odyssey, XII, 85 ff.)
dwelt in a cave in a rock in the straits of Messina. Cf.
also Vergil, Aeneid, III, 424 ff.
25 : 21. Celenos. Celaeno was chief of the Harpies
that snatched their meat away from Aeneas and his com-
rades. Vergil, Aeneid, III, 211.
25:21. Laestrygons. A tribe of giants that destroyed
eleven of Odysseus's twelve ships and devoured their
crews. Homer, Odyssey, X, 82 ff.
25 : 23. great and incredible monsters. Lucian's True
History is full of these, including a whale some two hun-
dred miles long, in whose interior Lucian found men that
had been living there comfortably for twenty-seven years.
Cf. Fowler, The Works of Lucian, II, 148 ff. More states
later ( 152 : 7) that the Utopians " be delighted with Lucian's
merry conceits and jests."
26: 10. our former communication. Our precedent
conversation.
27 : 8. I pass not. I care not.
"As for these silken-coated slaves, I pass not."
— Shakspere, 2 Henry VI., IV, ii, 136.
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NOTES
27 : 10. depart. Separate. Down to 1662 the marriage
service of the Church of England contained the expres-
sion "till death us depart": in that year "depart"
was changed to " do part," as in the present prayer-book.
27 : 21. at your pleasure. Robj'nson omits Hythloday's
answer to this, probably because it contains an untrans-
latable play on words. Giles said, Mihi uisum est non ut
seruias regibus, sed ut inseruias; to which Hythloday re-
sponded, Hoc est una syllaba plus quam seruias. Lupton
(36) thus suggests the paronomasia : 44 service at a court is
only short for servitude."
28: 6. states. Princes. 44 The Duke . . . was . . . slain,
leaving three sons. ... All three . . . were great states ,
of birth." — More, Richard III., 5.
28 : 9. think it. Think ye it.
28: 11. friend Raphael. More's Latin here and else-
where (69 : 22) where this expression occurs is mi Raphael.
29 : 12. feats of chivalry. Deeds of chivalry.
31 : 3. once in England. The simple, natural way in
which the discussion of the state of affairs in England is
led up to is noteworthy.
31 : 8. the insurrection. The excessive taxation led
a considerable body of Cornishmen, under the lead of a
lawyer and a farrier, to revolt and march on London.
They were defeated with great slaughter at Blackheath,
June 22, 1497, and their leaders captured and executed.
Cf. Bacon's History of Henry VII.
31 : 12. John Morton. Born about 1420, Morton,
after studying at Oxford, became an advocate in the eccle-
siastical courts. After holding several minor offices, he
became Master of the Rolls in 1473 and Bishop of Ely
six years later. As such he appears in Shakspere's
Richard III: He was an adherent of the Earl of Rich-
mond, who, after his accession as Henry VII., made him
Archbishop of Canterbury in 1486 and Lord Chancellor
in the following year. In 1493 he was created a cardinal,
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247
and died seven years later. Cf. the Introduction (xi) for
More's relations with him.
31 : 17. of a mean stature. Of an average height.
32 : 11. in the chief of his youth. In his early youth.
32 : 24. were for the most part twenty hanged together
upon one gallows. Lupton gives (43) as a more accurate
translation : " were being hanged in all directions, some-
times twenty on one gallows." Dibdin (I, 53) states that
" 22,000 criminals are supposed to have been executed
during Henry the Eighth's reign." Hanging continued to
be a punishment for theft in England until 1827.
34 : 3. out of Blackheath field. Cf . note on 31 : 8.
More wrote e Cornubiensi praelio, from the battle of the
Cornishmen; Robynson substitutes for this the place of
their defeat.
34:4. the wars in France. In 1492 Henry VII. in-
vaded France, ostensibly in the interests of Anne of
Brittany, who had been forced to wed Charles VIII. of
France. He laid siege to Boulogne, but as he was secretly in
league with Charles soon withdrew for a money payment.
34 : 9. because war, like the tide, ebbeth and floweth.
With this forcible figure, Robynson paraphrases rather
than translates More s quando bella per intermissas uices
commeant, since wars by intermittent alternations come and
go. One of the principal changes that Robynson made in
his second edition was to substitute for this strong figure
the weak and well-nigh unintelligible " forasmuch as wars
have their ordinary recourse."
34 : 17. able to bring. " Adapted or calculated to
bring." — Lumby, 193.
34 : 19. at their tails. In Scotland a chief's train of
attendants was itself termed his " tail," and when he ap-
peared with it in public he was said to " have his tail on."
Cf. Scott, Waverley, ch. XVI.
34 : 20. serving men. As Chancellor, More was obliged,
for his state, to support a considerable number of attend-
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248 NOTES
ants, for whom he had no use when he had resigned his
office. He did not, however, turn them adrift; but,
Roper states (236) " placed all his gentlemen and yeomen
with bishops and noblemen, and his eight watermen with
the Lord Audley, that in the same office succeeded him."
35 : 5. starve for hunger. Die on account of hunger.
Starve was not originally restricted to dying for lack of
food, so that the expression is not pleonastic.
"My lady, whom I love and serve,
And ever shal, til that myn herte sterve."
— Chaucer, The Knight's Tale, 1143.
35 : 16. jet. Strut or swagger.
"The gates of monarchs
Are arch'd so high that giants may jet through."
— Shakspere, Cymbeline, III, iii, 4.
35 : 18. ' Nay, by Saint Mary, sir/ There is nothing
to correspond to this in More's Latin.
35 : 20. of stouter stomachs. Of greater courage.
"Thou did'st smile,
which rais'd in me
An undergoing stomach, to bear up
Against what should ensue. "
— Shakspere, Tempest, I, ii, 153 ff.
36 : 9. with hired soldiers in peace. After the dis-
continuance of the feudal levies, the kings of France hired
foreign mercenaries as a standing army. These overran
the country and committed great excesses. To replace
them Charles VII. tried in 1444 to establish a regular
French army.
36 : 19. said of Sallust. Said by Sallust. More's Latin
is an inaccurate quotation of Sallust's " Ne per otium tor-
pescerent manus aut animus" — Cat., XVI.
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249
36 : 25. Carthaginians, Syrians. " More had probably
in his mind the Janizaries and Mamelukes : of the latter
of whom Gibbon writes that * the rage of these ferocious
animals, who had been let loose on the strangers, was
provoked to devour their benefactor.' — Decline and Fall,
ch. lix, sub fin. 11 — Lupton, 49.
37 : 7. crack. Brag.
"And Ethiopes of their sweet complexion crack."
— Shakspere, Love's Labour's Lost, IV, iii, 268.
37: 13. uplandish. Up-country, hence rustic, boorish.
" The duke elector of Saxony came from the war of those
uplandish people . . . into Wittenberg." — Tyndale,
Answer to Sir Thomas More.
38 : 3. for war sake. On account of war.
38 : 8. not only the. Not the only.
38: 10. Englishmen alone. Partly because of its
favorable soil and climate, partly because of its comparative
freedom from devestation by war, England during the
Middle Ages was the only country in the north of Europe
that produced wool to any considerable extent. It had
virtually a monopoly, therefore, of the wool-trade with
Flanders; and as the manufacture of cloth there became
more and more extensive the profits of wool-growing in
England correspondingly increased. That More did not
exaggerate the hardships caused the peasantry by the
consequent turning of more and more arable land into
sheep-walks is shown by many sixteenth century writings.
One of these, cited by Collins (160), has the significant title,
" Certayne causes gathered together wherein is shewed
the decaye of England only by the great multitude of
shepe, to the utter decay of household kepying, mayn-
tenance of men, dearth of corne, and other notable dys-
commodityes approved by syxe olde proverbes." Cf.
Gibbins, Industry in England, 120 ff.
38 : 19. abbots. " The chief growers of wool were the
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NOTES
Cistercian monks, who owned huge flocks of sheep."
— Gibbins, Industry in England, 124.
39 : 3. a sheep-house. Lupton quotes (52) a close 1
parallel from the sixteenth century ballad Novo-a-dayes:
"Gret men makithe now a dayes
A shepecott in the churche."
39 : 4. no small quantity. The sense of More's Latin
would have been expressed better, had Robynson written
' too small/
39 : 14. put besides it. Put out of it.
"In faith, my lord, you are too wilful-blame ;
And since your coming hither have done enough
To put him quite besides his patience."
— Shakspere, 1 Henry IV., Ill, i, 177.
39 : 17. silly. Simple, innocent. " Our * silly ' is the
Old-English * S8elig,' or blessed. We see it in a transi-
tion state in our early poets, with whom ' silly ' is an
affectionate epithet which sheep obtain for their harmless-
ness. One among our earliest calls the new-born Lord
of Glory Himself, 'this harmless silly babe.' " — Trench,
On the Study of Words, 97.
39 : 24. though it might well abide the sale. Even if
it were kept till a fitting time of sale.
40 : 9. For there . . . ground left. Robynson over-
looked a sentence, a translation of which is supplied from
Burnet.
40: 12. to the occupying wherof about husbandry:
to the using of which in agriculture.
40 : 21. their. I.e., the sheepowners'.
41 : 9. passeth for the breeding of young store. Cares
for the breeding of young stock.
41 : 24. did consist. The export of wool and cloth was
long the basis of England's national wealth. In the
fourteenth century the " taxes for King Edward III. were
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251
calculated, not in money, but in sacks of wool." — Gib-
bins, Industry in England, 123.
42:11. newfangleness. Novelty. More apparently
forgets that he is reporting what Hythloday asserts that
he said at Cardinal Morton's " not long after " the insur-
rection of 1497. Henry VII. was penurious in expenditure
and noticeably simple in dress, and naturally throughout
the England of his time " a sobriety of costume was al-
most consequent to these regal tastes." (Fairholt, Cos-
tume in England, 230.) The period of riotous expenditure
and of extravagance in dress began in 1509 with the acces-
sion of Henry VIII., who in the year before More wrote
this " spent £5000 on silks and velvets, and £1500 on plate
and jewellery." (J. E. Symes, in Traill's Social England,
III, 156.) At the present value of money these sums
would equal nearly a quarter of million dollars. Cf.
note on 99 : 17.
42 : 16. unlawful games. By a law passed in 1377
" * servants and laborers ' were directed to practice with
the bow and arrow on Sundays and holidays instead of
playing football, dice, and skittles, and other unprofitable
games." (Gibbins, Industry in England, 186.) In his
own home More would not permit games with cards or
dice. .Cf. note on 102 : 9.
42 : 22. towns of husbandry. Town is from the Anglo-
Saxon tun, a hedge, and before it gained its present sig-
nificance meant a place enclosed by a hedge or fence, a
farm with its buildings. " Inside this boundary the
4 township,' as the village was then called from the * tun '
or rough fence and trench that served as its simple forti-
fication, formed a ready-made fortress in war." — Green,
Short History of the English People, 3.
As a matter of fact, laws similar to that which More
makes Hythloday, speaking about 1498, propose were
passed in 1514, 1515, and 1516. (W. J. Corbett, Traill's
Social England, III, 152.) More endeavors to show
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252
NOTES
Hythloday's astuteness by attributing to him prevision.
Cf. note on 62 : 7.
42 : 25. engross and forestall. Get sole possession of
and buy in advance to force up the price ; to " corner the
market." The act of 1514 was directed especially against
" engrossers " of farms. Dibdin states (I, 71) that as
late as the beginning of the nineteenth century a " fore-
s taller " was found guilty at Worcester.
43 : 12. than just or profitable. Burnet better expresses
(25) More's meaning : " which tho' it may have the ap-
pearance of justice, yet in itself it is neither just nor con-
venient."
44 : 17. earnest let. Serious hindrance.
45: 11. is recompensed. Is paid for.
45 : 15. by and by. Immediately.
45 : 16. stoical ordinances. It was a doctrine of the
Stoics that there were no degrees in wrong-doing, that all
sins were equally blameworthy.
45 : 19. both a matter. Both one matter, i.e., of equal
importance.
46 : 13. out of the . . . danger. Out of the jurisdiction.
46 : 24. the new law. The New Testament.
47 : 2. cruelty one upon another. In view of the ear-
nestness of this passage, it is noteworthy that capital pun-
ishment is a penalty for crime in Utopia (97 : 23) and that
More himself as a judge condemned a number of persons
to death.
47 : 17. rid out of. Removed from.
48: 15. Polylerites. The name of this people, derived
from 7ro\i>s, much, and \rjpos t nonsense, clearly indicates
their mythical character.
49 : 3. to the mighty king. In his second edition
Robynson translated more accurately, " to their chief
lord and king."
49 : 5. commodious rather than gallant. Comfortable
rather than showy.
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253
49 : 19. gyves. Originally fetters for the legs. " The
villains march wide betwixt the legs, as if they had gyves
on; for indeed I had the most of them out of prison."
— Shakspere, 1 Henry IV., IV, ii, 43.
Later the meaning was not restricted.
"And Eugene Aram walked between,
With gyves upon his wrists."
— Hood, The Dream of Eugene Aram.
49 : 23. pricked forward with stripes. Spurred on by
flogging. Lupton gives (66) as the sense of the Latin,
" they do not so much imprison as flog them."
60 : 2. indifferent. Fairly, moderately.
"I am myself indifferent honest."
— Shakspere, Hamlet, III., i, 122.
60 : 9. found. Maintained, which Robynson substi-
tuted for " found " in his second edition.
60 : 14. damned. Condemned. " The queen in great
fright and heaviness, . . . damning the time that ever
she dissuaded the gathering of power about the king, got
herself in all the haste possible . . . into the sanctuary."
— More, Richard III., 19.
" Consider what effect has been produced on the Eng-
lish vulgar mind by the use of the sonorous Latin form
' damno, 1 in translating the Greek kcltclkpIvw, when people
charitably wish to make it forcible ; and the substitution
of the temperate ' condemn ' for it, when they choose to
keep it gentle." — Ruskin, Sesame and Lilies, Of Kings 1
Treasuries.
61 : 21. of that they were of counsel in that pretence.
For being of counsel (i.e., for their complicity) in that
purpose.
62:11. to their guides. As their guides. Lumby
quotes (198) in illustration, " They had John to their
minister. — Acts, xiii, 5."
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254
NOTES
52 : 16. taken with the manner. Caught in the act.
" Thou stolest a cup of sack eighteen years ago, and wert
taken with the manner." — Shakspere, 1 Henry IV., II,
iv, 345.
52 : 23. But it is a thing to be doubted. But, it may be
objected, it is a thing to be feared.
"I doubt
My uncle practises more harm to me."
— Shakspere, King John, IV, i, 19.
53 : 7. in such a matter. The phrases are badly placed
in this sentence. The meaning is clear if they are rear-
ranged thus — they would in such a matter make of their
counsel their own countrymen and companions.
54 : 4. without a proof. Without a trial, without put-
ting it to the proof. So below (54 : 7) " prove " means try.
54 : 8. the privileges of all sanctuaries. Down to the
Reformation one accused of a felony, except treason or
sacrilege, could take refuge in a church and remain there,
" in sanctuary," free from molestation by the officers of
the law. Certain places retained this right of sanctuary
after the Reformation, till, in 1624, all sanctuary for crimes
was done away with. Until 1697, however, several places
in London remained sanctuaries for insolvent debtors.
Of these the most notorious was Whitefriars, which be-
came known as Alsatia. Cf. Shad well, The Squire of
Alsatia, and Scott, The Fortunes of Nigel, ch. XVI.
55 : 1. sad. Staid, serious.
"She is never sad but when she sleeps."
— Shakspere, Much Ado, II, i, 358.
55 : 21. unwieldy. Lacking strength to wield aught ;
powerless, rather than bulky or clumsy.
"I give this heavy weight from off my head,
And this unwieldy sceptre from my hand."
— Shakspere, Richard II., IV, 204.
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255
66: 13. into houses of religion. Literally, into the
monasteries of the Benedictines ; an order of monks and
nuns following the rule of St. Benedict (c. 480-c. 543).
It was the largest and most important of the monastic
orders. To it belonged Augustine and his fellows who
introduced Christianity into England.
66 : 13. lay brethren. Those who have taken monastic
vows but none of the orders of priesthood. They usually
discharge the more menial services in a monastery.
66: 17. friar. A member of a mendicant religious
order. Theoretically the monk withdrew into a cell or a
monastery to escape the temptations of the world, and
sought to save his soul by good works (mainly writing,
teaching, and copying manuscripts), meditation, prayer,
and penance; while the friar sought the same object by
remaining in the world to preach and minister to the poor,
to sympathize with whom and to gain whose confidence
he made himself poorer than the poorest by his vow of
poverty — hence the term friar, brother. The four prin-
cipal orders of friars were the Franciscans (Gray Friars
or Friars Minor), the Dominicans (Black or Preaching
Friars), the Carmelites (White Friars), and the Augustine,
or Austin, Friars.
67 : 2. vagabonds. The friars entered England in the
thirteenth century, a few years after their establishment,
and at first did so much good that the charitable built and
richly endowed homes for them. The result was that
within a century they had sadly deteriorated, and were
for the most part hypocrites and vagabonds. Cf . Chaucer,
Prologue, 208-269.
67 : 6. gall. A sore produced by chafing.
"Let the gall'd jade wince."
— Shakspere, Hamlet, III, ii, 252.
67 : 9. javel. A worthless fellow, a rascal. Roper
states (270) that when More appeared in his best apparel
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256
NOTES
on the morning of his execution, the Lieutenant of the
Tower advised him, as it would be a perquisite of the exe-
cutioner, " to put it off, saying that he that should have it
was but a javel. 4 What, Master Lieutenant,' quoth he,
4 shall I account him a javel that shall do me this day so
singular a benefit? ' "
57 : 17. save your souls.
"In your patience possess ye your souls."
— Luke, xxi, 19.
57 : 20. Be vou anjjry and sin not. The Authorized
Version gives stand in awe, and sin not." (Ps., iv, 4.)
The Revised Version gives " be ye angry," which is the
reading of the Vulgate, as a marginal reading.
67 : 25. The zeal of thy house hath eaten me. — Ps.,
lxix 9.
58 : 1. ' Helizeus. The Greek form of Elisha. The
story of Elisha' s cursing, in the name of the Lord, the
children who had mocked him by calling 44 Go up, thou
bald head " ; and of their consequent destruction by bears,
is given in 2 Kings, ii, 23 and 24. Lumby pointed
out (200) that the Latin is part of a hymn, which Lupton
states (77) is 44 the Hymn of Adam of St. Victor, De
Resurrectione Domini. 11
58 : 11. according to his foolishness. 44 According to his
folly," in the Authorized Version. Prov., xxvi, 5.
58 : 16. many bald men. Probably referring to the
tonsure.
58 : 20. privy beck. Secret motion of the head or hand.
"Nods and becks and wreathed smiles."
— Milton, U Allegro, 28.
59 : 2. parcel. Portion.
"The hps is parcel of the mouth."
— Shakspere, Merry Wives, I, i, 236.
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257
69 : 5. for the judgment of them. To show the judg-
ment of them.
59 : 21. of a child. As a child. Cf. Introduction, xi.
60 : 8. Plato judgeth. " Unless it happen either that
philosophers acquire the kingly power in states, or that
those who are now called kings and potentates be imbued
with a sufficient measure of genuine philosophy, that is
to say, unless political power and philosophy be united
in the same person, . . . there will be no deliverance . . .
for cities, nor yet, I believe, for the human race ; neither
can the commonwealth, which we have now sketched in
theory, ever till then grow into a possibility." — Plato,
Republic, Davies and Vaughan's tr., Bk. V, 473.
60 : 12. will vouchsafe. " The form of the sentence
which follows makes it more likely that he wrote i wyll
not vouchesaufe.' " — Lupton, 80.
60 : 24. Dionysius. Dionysius the Younger, who be-
came king of Syracuse 367 b.c. As he was an indolent,
dissipated youth, his uncle, Dion, invited Plato to visit
Sicily to instruct him in philosophy. Dionysius soon
became weary of the instruction and suspicions of the mo-
tives of Dion and Plato. He exiled the former ; and Plato
with difficulty succeeded in returning to Athens. Diony-
sius then became more dissolute than ever.
61 : 5. the French king. Francis I., who on the death
of Louis XII., Jan. 1, 1515, succeeded to his throne and
policy.
61 : 10. keep Milan. By the victory of Marignano,
September 13 and 14, 1515, Francis gained Milan, the
sovereignty of which he claimed as an inheritance from
his great-grandmother.
61:11. fugitive Naples. In 1495 Charles VIII. of
France seized Naples, but he was soon forced to abandon
it. In 1501 his successor, Louis XII., conquered it, but
two years later he too was forced to withdraw.
61 : 12. conquer the Venetians. In 1508 Louis XII.,
s
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NOTES
in league with the Pope, the Emperor Maximilian, and
Ferdinand of Aragon, conquered Venice, deprived it of
most of its possessions on the mainland, and largely in-
creased the territory in northern Italy under French dom-
ination. In 1513, however, the French were expelled
from Italy. The victory of Marignano was won by Francis
by the timely arrival of his Venetian allies ; but imme-
diately after the battle, spite of their protests, he entered
into a league with the Pope. Venice and all Europe might
well believe that history was about to repeat itself.
61 : 13. all Italy. Italy at this time consisted of five
independent states, Milan, Venice, Florence, Rome, and
Naples, and of a number of smaller feudal states dependent
on these. Lemonnier states (Histoire de France, ed. La-
visse, V, i, 125) that after Francis's victory at Marignano
the Pope " saw the realm of Naples threatened with invasion
and Francis I. dominating throughout Italy."
61 : 14. Flanders. Cf . note on 17 : 7. Even after Flan-
ders had been incorporated into the Empire, Francis laid
claim to it. Charles V., who became emperor in 1519,
compelled him, however, by the treaty of Madrid, 1526,
and that of Cambray, 1529, to renounce all claim to it.
61 : 14. Brabant. A duchy to the east and northeast
of Flanders that embraced parts of what are now Belgium
and Holland. It was united with Burgundy in 1430,
and in 1477 passed with it to the House of Hapsburg.
61 : 14. of all Burgundy. I.e., of both the county, in
the eastern part of what is now France, and the duchy,
which lay to the west of it. The French dukes of Bur-
gundy were invested with the county in 1384, and in the
same year Flanders was annexed to the duchy. It was
one of the most powerful states in Europe until 1477. In
that year the last duke died, and the duchy was seized
by Louis XII. of France. By the marriage of the daughter
of the last duke to Maximilian of Austria, who became
emperor in 1493, the county and the Netherlands passed
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259
to the House of Hapsburg, and in 1512 they were incor-
porated into the Empire.
61 : 24. hire the Germans. Francis I. did hire the
Germans before invading Italy, and the battle of Marig-
nano was practically between his mercenaries and the
Swiss who had been hired by the Duke of Milan.
61 : 25. Swychers. The Swiss. Immediately after the
battle of Mangnano, Francis opened negotiations with the
Swiss. Eight of the cantons made a treaty with him,
December 7, 1515; and in the following May he began
negotiations with the other five. These were pending
at the time More wrote.
62 : 2. with gold. Of the Emperor, Maximilian, Pres-
cott writes {Ferdinand and Isabella, II, ch. XXIV), " No
bribe was too paltry for a prince whose means were as
narrow as his projects were vast and chimerical. ,,
62 : 4. King of Aragon. Ferdinand the Catholic. By
his marriage with Isabella of Castile in 1469 two of the
three Christian kingdoms then in what is now S^ain were
united. By expelling the Moors in 1492 and annexing
the portion of Navarre south of the Pyrenees in 1513,
he brought all Spain under his rule and prepared the way
for a united country.
62 : 5. Navarre. A small kingdom that consisted of
three provinces. In 1513 Ferdinand of Aragon seized the
two south of the Pyrenees, and on June 15, 1515, while
More was in Flanders, incorporated them into Castile.
The one north of the Pyrenees went to France, and now
forms a part of that country.
62 : 7. cometh in with his five eggs. There is nothing
in More's Latin to correspond to this. Apparently it
was a proverbial expression applicable to any petty,
worthless scheme. Lupton quotes (83) the complete
expression from Ray's English Proverbs: " You come in
with your five eggs a penny, and four of them be rotten."
62 : 7. King of Castile. As before (17 : 5), More does
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260
NOTES
not call Charles king, but prince, as in fact he was in the
latter part of 1515, when this conversation is represented
as having taken place. More wrote, however, nearly a
year later (8:3); and apparently to indicate Hythloday's
astuteness attributes to him as a shrewd guess a suggestion
that events that had happened during the year would show
was well based. Charles having been recognized as king
in Castile in February, 1516, in the following August,
to end the hostility that had long existed between their
countries, he and Francis made a treaty that stipulated
that he was to marry Francis's daughter and receive as her
dowry the French claim to Naples. The wedding, how-
ever, never took place. Cf. Prescott, Ferdinand and Isa-
bella, II, ch. XXV.
62 : 12. Englishmen. Under Henry VII. England was
in alliance with Germany and Spain against Louis XII.
of France, and for a while after his accession Henry VIII.
adhered to this policy. In 1511, however, he joined the
Holy League, and in 1513 defeated the French at Guine-
gate. In the same year, though, secret negotiations were
entered into for an alliance between France and England,
a condition of which was the marriage of Louis XII. to
Henry's sister Mary. This took place on Oct. 9, 1514,
less than three months before the death of Louis.
62 : 16. the Scots. They were the traditional allies
of the French, and time and again invaded England when
that country went to war with France. To bring this to
an end Henry VII. married his daughter, Margaret, to
James IV. of Scotland in 1502 ; but this did not prevent
James from invading England when Henry VIII. went to
war with France in 1513. At Flodden James was de-
feated, and he himself and the greater part of the Scottish
nobility were slain.
62 : 17. in aunters. In case that ; literally, in ad-
ventures, in chance that.
62 : 24. just inheritor. Several claimants to the Eng-
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261
lish crown found asylum and supporters on the continent
during the last decades of the fifteenth century. Henry,
Earl of Richmond, was in exile, chiefly in Brittany, from
1471 to 1485. He then invaded England, and having
defeated and killed Richard III. became king as Henry