Thomas More: Two Poems & Utopia

First, a bit about More's life, nicked from Wikipedia:

Saint Thomas More (7 February 1478–6 July 1535) was an English lawyer, author, and statesman who in his lifetime gained a reputation as a leading Renaissance humanist scholar, and occupied many public offices, including Lord Chancellor (1529–1532), in which capacity he had a number of people burned at the stake for heresy. [...] He was beheaded in 1535 when he refused to sign the Act of Supremacy that declared King Henry VIII Supreme Head of the Church of England.

Some more interesting bits:

Born in Milk Street, London, Thomas More was the eldest son of Sir John More, a successful lawyer who served as a judge in the King's Bench court. More was educated at St Anthony's School and was later a page in the service of John Morton, the Archbishop of Canterbury, who declared that young Thomas would become a "marvellous man". Thomas attended the University of Oxford for two years as a member of Canterbury Hall (subsequently absorbed by Christ Church), where he studied Latin and logic. He then returned to London, where he studied law with his father and was admitted to Lincoln's Inn in 1496. In 1501 More became a barrister.

To his father's great displeasure, More seriously contemplated abandoning his legal career in order to become a monk. For about four years he lodged at the London Charterhouse and he also considered joining the Franciscan order. Perhaps because he judged himself incapable of celibacy, More finally decided to marry in 1505, but for the rest of his life he continued to observe many ascetical practices, including self-punishment: he wore a hair shirt every day and occasionally engaged in flagellation.

Also married twice (first wife died), and had four children and a step-daughter; he gave his daughters an education in the classics.

Of the works I read, one was written in his youth ("Pageant Verses"), one as a young London barrister ("A Rueful Lament"), and one in his early career as a civil servant (Utopia).

"Pageant Verses" -- The description in his 1557 Works is as follows:

Mr. Thomas More in his youth devised in his father's house in London, a goodly hanging of fine painted cloth with nine pageants, and verses over every of those pageants, which verses expressed and declared what the images in those pageants represented. And also in those pageants were painted the things that the verses over them did in effect declare.

What follows is a sequential description of the "pageants" with their appended verses: Childhood, Manhood, Venus and Cupid (romance), Age, Death, Fame, Time, Eternity, and the Poet. The symbolism of the "pageants" is fairly plain: while the Child spins a top alone, the Man, on horseback, looms over the Child, signifying the succession or dominance of the latter stage over the former -- and this pattern is repeated with each picture, portraying its subject as triumphing over the previous subject, till at last Eternity triumphs over all. The final image shows the Poet; his accompanying verse (in Latin) declare that the "pageants" are symbols of what is true about human life and the world: that all life and all temporal goods pass, and what remains is the eternal love of God -- therefore, do not trust what is temporary but seek everlasting life from God.

"A Rueful Lament" -- The occasion of this poem was the death of Queen Elizabeth, wife of Henry VII and mother of Henry VIII, who "died in childbed in February in the year of our lord 1503". While some themes are typical for a memorial poem of this period -- the enumeration of the deceased's virtues and accomplishments, farewells to the survivors, appeals to God for mercy -- the poem also adopts a Boethian tone, lamenting the deceptive vanity of worldly goods, which are no security against death. Also, More uses, albeit briefly, the ubi sunt motif:

Where are our castles, now where are our Towers?
Goodly Richmond son art thou gone from me,
At Westminster that costly work of yours,
Mine own dear lord now shall I never see.

Such things bring a sigh of contentment to a good Anglo-Saxonist's heart.

Utopia -- More's most famous work, Utopia is the eponymous founder of the "utopian" genre of literature: philosophical narratives which explore social issues (law, economics, civics, politics, etc.) through the detailed description of an imagined "ideal" country. (Not necessarily the author's notion of a perfect society, but one built around some consistent rational or moral principle, as a thought experiment.) The Wikipedia description is as follows:

Utopia, in full On the Best State of a Republic and on the New Island of Utopia (Latin: Dē Optimo Rēpūblicae Statu dēque Nova Insula Ūtopia), is a 1516 book by Sir Saint Thomas More.

The book, written in Latin, is a frame narrative primarily depicting a fictional island society and its religious, social and political customs. The name of the place is derived from the Greek words ou (οὐ), "not", and topos (τόπος), "place", with the topographical suffix -eia (-εία), hence Outopeia (Οὐτοπεία; Latinized as Utopia), “no-place land.” It also contains a pun, however, because “Utopia” could also be the Latinization of Εὐτοπεία eutopeía, “good-place land,” which uses the Greek prefix ευ eu, “good,” instead of οὐ. One interpretation holds that this suggests that while Utopia might be some sort of perfected society, it is ultimately unreachable. Despite modern connotations of the word "utopia," it is widely accepted that the society More describes in this work was not actually his own "perfect society." Rather he wished to use the contrast between the imaginary land's unusual political ideas and the chaotic politics of his own day as a platform from which to discuss social issues in Europe.

For a review of Utopia, I suggest this study guide from the Cambridge UP, which I found at the Thomas More Studies site. For myself, I will limit myself to a few observations:

* The society of Utopia, as described by the narrator Raphael Hythloday, seems initially to positive, but then the details of Utopian policy undercut the initial sunny view. For instance, Utopians are free to travel wherever they like -- so long as they receive a passport from their civil authorities, including destination and time of return, and work their allotted time in whatever town they happen to be in. They are given the use of an ox cart for travel -- but unless women are in the company, the unspoken expectation is that they will forgo the cart and walk. If anyone goes to another city without permission, he is first reprimanded, then enslaved for repeat offenses. But certainly one may travel freely in one's own city's territory -- if one has the permission of one's father and wife, and makes sure to work his allotted hours. But why would anyone want to leave the city? They're all alike.

* Similar observations can be made about Utopian war. The Utopians hate war and love peace -- except when threatened, or their friends are threatened, or their friends are harmed. They try to avoid the awful human cost of war -- at least for themselves, which is why they hire the savage and merciless Zapoletes to fight for them. (But really they're trying to do the world a favor by slowly annihilating the Zapoletes through combat casualties.) They never loot the cities they conquer, having no desire for wealth -- except that the conquered peoples are forced to pay off the monetary expenditures of the Utopians in hiring their mercenary armies. They are courageous, honorable, and well-trained in chivalry, but attempt to overcome their enemies by stirring up sedition within the enemy nation and putting a price of their leaders' heads.

So, good times.