Theater: Duty v. Conscience

A Man for All Seasons, by Robert Bolt. "Every subject's duty is the king's, but every subject's soul is his own," wrote Shakespeare in Henry V. The subject in A Man for All Seasons is Sir Thomas More, 16th century wit, lawyer, scholar, author (Utopia), Lord Chancellor of England, and Christian martyr. The King is Henry VIII, who had Sir Thomas beheaded when More—in denying the King's right to divorce Queen Catherine and marry Anne Boleyn—refused to sign an oath proclaiming the King supreme ruler of the church. More did not choose to lose his life; he did choose not to...