HC 102H, Honors College World Literature

Advice to princes and Utopia

Here's a passage from Male Regle, "Bad rule," written in 1407 by Thomas Hoccleve, a poet in the turbulent early years of the reign of England's Henry IV

But whan the sobre, treewe, and weel auysid
With sad visage his lord enfourmeth pleyn
How that his gouernance is despysid
Among the peple, and seith him as they seyn,
As man treewe oghte vnto his souereyn
Conseillynge him amend his gouernance,
The lordes herte swellith for desdeyn
And bit him voide blyue with meschance.

"Truth-telling" has a long and established pedigree in English literature; More is not the first to meditate on the complications inherent in the position of advisor to a king. Yet More's Utopia takes the tradition and fashions it in relation to another discourse of the "new," the voyages of exploration of the New World, a phenomenon just beginning to affect his sovereign, his economy, and himself.

More wrote the second book of Utopia first; that is, he describes Utopia and its inhabitants with all that wonderful pointed satire before he embarks on his dialogue concerning good rule and advice to princes. If you saw the movie Man for All Seasons, then you know where More's efforts as kingly advisor landed him.

What connects Books 1 and 2? What is More saying to his sovereign? to himself? What is the role of control in Utopia? How is absolute rule formulated and enforced? What about the role of religion?

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This page created by Louise M. Bishop | Last updated 2 February 2000