Robert Bolt’s Man
Sunday, November 8th, 2009Possibly the best scene in the play.
MARGARET: Father, that man’s bad.
MORE: There is no law against that.
ROPER: There is! God’s law!
MORE: Then God can arrest him.
ROPER: Sophistication upon sophistication!
MORE: No, sheer simplicity. The law, Roper, the law. I know what’s legal and not what’s right. And I’ll stick to what’s legal.
ROPER: Then you set Man’s law above God’s!
MORE: No far below; but let me draw your attention to a fact — I’m not God. The currents and eddies of right and wrong, which you find such plain-sailing, I can’t navigate, I’m no voyager. But in the thickets of the law, oh there I’m a forester. I doubt if there is a man alive who could follow me there, thank God….(He says this to himself.)
ALICE (exasperated, pointing after RICH): While you talk, he’s gone!
MORE: And go he should if he was the devil himself until he broke the law!
ROPER: So now you ‘d give the Devil benefit of law!
MORE: Yes. What would you do? Cut a great road through the law to get after the Devil?
ROPER: I’d cut down every law in England to do that!
MORE(roused and excited): Oh? (Advances on ROPER.) And when the last law was down, and the Devil turned round on you — where would you hide, Roper, the laws all being flat? (Leaves him.) This country’s planted thick with laws from coast to coast — Man’s laws, not God’s — and if you cut them down — and you’re just the man to do it — d’you really think you could stand upright in the winds that would blow then? (Quietly.) Yes, I’d give the Devil benefit of law, for my own safety’s sake.
I’d heard of the title, A Man for all Seasons, but had really wanted to read it after Christopher Hitchens (slightly mis-)quoted the passage above in one of the best defenses of free speech that I’ve heard. I was surprised that I hadn’t posted it here. Well, enjoy:
