from A Man for All Seasons, Robert Bolt’s wonderful play about Sir Thomas More.
| 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: | Oh? And when the last law was down, and the Devil turned round on you – where would you hide, Roper, the laws all being flat? 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? Yes, I’d give the Devil benefit of law, for my own safety’s sake. |
if you’ve never seen it, it’s available on DVD. I recommend it very highly. For a play set in the times of Henry VIII, it’s remarkably appropriate for the times we live in now.
Why, Richard, it profits a man nothing to give his soul for the whole world…but for Wales?
it’s a lion I married, a lion, a lion!
I’ll have to go and watch it now …
It was on TV a few weeks back, and I watched it for the first time and was struck by that exchange as well. And all the ‘confessions extracted by torture’ stuff was rather close to home too.
I did it for … O level, I think. Have loved it ever since.