More's Utopía. THE ENGLISH TRANSLATION THEREOF MADE BY RAPHE ROBYNSON, (Sometime Fellow of Corpus Christi College, Oxford), PRINTED FROM THE SECOND EDITION 1556. To which is prefixed THE LIFE OF SIR THOS. MORE, WRITTEN BY HIS SON-IN-LAW, WILLIAM ROPER, REPRINTED FROM HEARNE'S EDITION, 1716. Edited, with Introduction, Notes, Glossary and BY J. RAWSON LUMBY, D.D. NORRISIAN PROFESSOR OF DIVINITY. EDITED FOR THE SYNDICS OF THE UNIVERSITY PRESS. Cambridge: AT THE UNIVERSITY PRESS [All Rights reserved.] Table of Dates of the Principal Events in the Life UTOPIA: Titlepage (p. 1); Translator's Dedication (p. 2); PAGE vii. at foot The Translator to the Reader (p. 7); More's The First Book 17-66 The Second Book 67-165 Giles' Epistle to Buslyde (p. 166); "A Meter of iiii. verses in the Utopian Tongue" (p. 170); The 166-172 INTRODUCTION. Of the two books of the Utopia, the second was written a year before the first. The first, which constitutes what may be called the framework or setting for the second, was completed in 1516, just about the time when More, though strongly urged to do so by Cardinal Wolsey, had declined to give up his position as undersheriff, and his income from legal work, that he might enter the service of Henry VIII. We find therefore that there are put into the mouth of the supposed traveller to Utopia many of the arguments which had no doubt weighed with More in the decision at which he had arrived. When, for example, it is urged upon Hythloday in the dialogue (p. 24) that he might bestow his time fruitfully, for the private commodity of his friends and the general profit of all sorts of people, as well as for his own advancement, by getting into some king's court, he replies that in his present condition he lives at liberty and after his own mind, which great estates and peers of the realm rarely can do; and beside this most princes now take delight rather in warlike matters and feats of chivalry than in the good feats of peace, while their present counsellors will admit into the councils no other independent man's advice. So it comes to pass 7 that any one putting forward what he has learnt from history or experience, is little likely to find acceptance for his views. Here we may be sure that we are listening to an exposition of More's own feelings, and so we may also conclude that we have in other parts of the book his views of the condition of the society in England, when Raphael is made the speaker in the |