Three Early Modern Utopias: Thomas More: Utopia / Francis Bacon: New Atlantis / Henry Neville: The Isle of Pines

by Thomas More

  deceitful divination by the stars: astrology.

  qualities of the soul . . . and of fortune: see Plato’s Laws, iii. 697; Aristotle’s Nichomachean Ethics, i. viii. 2 and Politics, vii. i. 3–4. At numerous points in the ensuing dialogue Utopian thinking recapitulates, rejects, or is otherwise in dialogue with classical philosophy. For more extensive notes on this aspect of the Utopia, see the edition by Logan and Adams (in Select Bibliography).

  the opinion of them . . . felicity to rest: such hedonism allies the Utopians with Epicurean ethics, and also, Logan and Adams suggest, with Vespucci’s account of native peoples in his Four Voyages. Epicurean ethics underlie much of the Utopian thinking about pleasure.

  In this image . . . their own conceit: those who take so much pleasure in giving themselves airs (just because their ancestors were noble) are themselves one of the greatest, and most ridiculous, examples of this kind of false pleasure.

  Nor they buy . . . and bare: and they won’t even buy (the stones) unless they first remove them from their settings, and strip off from them all the gold.

  the opinion of them . . . counted a pleasure: for this discourse see Book 9 (582 ff.) of Plato’s Republic and also the argument between Socrates and Callicles in Plato’s Gorgias, 494b ff.

  that onwardness . . . refreshed: the process of regaining one’s proper strength generates in us the pleasure which refreshes us so much.

  the own wealth and goodness: its own good.

  For what man . . . that is not: anyone who is conscious is aware of his good health, unless he is ill.

  chief part . . . conscience of good life: see Cicero, On Old Age, iii. 4.

  that man must needs . . . scratching and rubbing: see Plato’s Gorgias, 494c. More himself wore a hair shirt.

  Greek literature . . . and poets: More himself thought that there was a great deal more of value in Greek literature than in Latin.

  if the book were not false: so long as the text were not corrupt.

  Theophrastus: a Greek naturalist and philosopher, Aristotle’s pupil and friend, and his successor as head of the Lyceum, or Peripatetic school (Aristotle’s school of philosophy in Athens). He is the reputed author of hundreds of works, most of which are now lost.

  Of them that have written the grammar . . . Galen’s ‘Microtechne’: all of these authors had been recently published. Constantine Lascaris’s Erotemata or Grammatica Graeca was one of the first books ever printed (at Milan, in 1476). Theodorus Gaza’s Greek grammar was published at Venice in 1495. Hesychius’s Greek lexicon was published in 1514. Pedanius Dioscorides did not write a dictionary; his Materia Medica, published in 1499, discussed the properties of drugs, herbs, and other substances. Four of Lucian’s comic dialogues were translated by More into Latin. Nine of Aristophanes’ comedies were published in 1498, seventeen of Euripides’ plays in 1503, and the first edition of Sophocles in 1502. Most of these authors were published by the printing firm run by Aldus Pius Manutius and his two sons, which, renowned for its accuracy, was the first printing house to print Greek texts in Greek type. In 1502 Aldus’s firm also published Thucydides and Herodotus, and in 1526 Hippocrates (to whom early medical writings were attributed). Galen was a famous Greek physician. The name of Hythloday’s companion derives from the names of two towns in Apulia, Apina and Trica, said to have been sacked by Diomedes, and infamous for their insignificance. Thus ‘Tricius Apinatus’ implies ‘trifler’, or ‘insignificant person’.

  such as they can get out of foreign countries: the European slave trade was beginning in the early years of the sixteenth century. In 1509 the Bishop of Chiapas, Bartolomé de Las Casas, proposed that Spanish settlers should all try to import slaves from Africa to the New World; in 1518 a licence to import 4,000 African slaves to the Spanish New World was granted to Lorens de Gominot.

  actually: the first edition of Robinson’s translation has ‘bodily’.

  a custom which seemed to us very fond and foolish: if John Aubrey is to be believed, shortly after the publication of Utopia More had occasion to put Utopian theory into real practice on the betrothal of his eldest daughter Margeret to William Roper. ‘Roper’, Aubrey relates, ‘came one morning, pretty early, to my Lord, with a proposal to marry one of his daughters. My Lord’s daughters were then both together abed in a truckle-bed in their father’s chamber asleep. He carries Sir William into the chamber and takes the sheete by the corner and suddenly whips it off. They lay on their Backs, and their smocks up as high as their armepitts. This awakened them, and immediately they turned on their bellies. Quoth Roper, I have seen both sides, and so gave a patt on the buttock he made a choice of sayeing, Thou art mine. Here was all the trouble of the wooeing.’ (John Aubrey, Aubrey’s Brief Lives, ed. Oliver Lawson Dick (Harmondsworth: Penguin, 1962), 283).

  in buying a colt: the name of More’s first wife was Jane Colt. But the comparison has a history: Horace also invokes it in defence of an argument for seeing women naked before sleeping with them. In his view congress with a prostitute is safer than adultery with a married woman, because prostitutes display their ‘wares’ openly, whilst married women do not (Horace, Satires, i. 2). Seneca also says that one uncovers a horse before buying it in order to expose its defects: he compares the practice to the buying of slaves (Seneca, Moral Epistles, 80). Plato suggests that boys and girls should dance naked together prior to marriage so that they can take a good look at each other (Plato, Laws, vi. 772).

  change and take another: separation after adultery was permitted in More’s England; remarriage was not.

  bringeth sickness . . . sickness itself: see the third act of Terence’s Phormio.

  the open punishment . . . honest manners: the example of a public punishment would encourage others to better behaviour.

  fools: fools were employed by rich households: More’s own fool, Henry Pattinson, appears in Holbein’s portrait of More’s family. This kind of fool, familiar to us from Shakespearean comedy, was witty and intelligent, but the word could also refer to the mentally disabled: it is the latter to whom More appears to be referring here.

  so to help the same with paintings: to use make-up.

  honest conditions and lowliness: honesty and humbleness.

  cap of maintenance: a special headdress or hat made of crimson velvet lined with ermine and originally worn only by dukes.

  attorneys, proctors, and sergeants at the law: an attorney’s duties were akin to those of a solicitor, as were those of the proctor, but the latter practised in the Ecclesiastical and Admiralty Courts. A sergeant at the law was the highest kind of barrister.

  they bring home again . . . their country: they send home (to Utopia) with honour and praise, and replace them with new (Utopian) officials.

  where they take place . . . break justice: where they influence verdicts, forthwith incapacitate the power of justice.

  for here in Europe . . . the head bishops: the monarchs and pontiffs (‘head bishops’) of early modern Europe broke treaties all the time.

  because it shall not run at rovers: so that it does not run off at a tangent.

  lest they should . . . need should require: in case they should be ignorant of the art of warfare when the need arose.

  the contrary part: the other side.

  Which they do . . . under the colour of justice: they do this not only when their friends’ lands and possessions have been plundered by invading armies, but also, and more aggressively, when their friends’ merchants have been cheated when trading abroad, either through the misapplication of good laws or the correct application of bad ones.

  the Nephelogetes against the Alaopolitans: ‘Nephelogetes’ is from the Greek nephelé (‘cloud’), thus ‘cloudy people’; ‘Alaopolitans’ from the Greek alaos (‘blind’) and polites (‘citizen’) thus, ‘blind men’, ‘blinkered people’.

  their friends’ merchant men: those with whom their friends trade.

  set in their necks: make them obsessed with.

  Zapoletes: from the Greek za (
an intensifier) and poletes (‘seller’) thus ‘arch-seller’, ‘those who will sell anything’ (including themselves). More was probably referring to the Swiss here, Europe’s most notorious mercenaries.

  be both private and out of office: who secretly stand by in readiness.

  in set field: in battle formation.

  spite of their teeth: despite their most vehement opposition.

  them that keep watch . . . sudden adventures: those who are posted in armour as sentinels over the trench, to warn of unexpected attacks.

  lay it upon their necks that be conquered: make the conquered pay the costs.

  Mithra: Mithras was a Persian god, worshipped as the sun-god in Rome, especially in the army.

  all things common . . . the rightest Christian communities: for the disciples’ communism see Acts 2: 44–5 and 4: 32–5. See also Mark 10: 21. The ‘rightest Christian communities’ are probably monasteries and convents.

  one of our company: i.e. one of the Christians.

  suffer him not to dispute . . . among the common people: he is prohibited from talking about his beliefs only with commoners, (being encouraged to discuss them with priests and scholars).

  that the dead be presently conversant among the quick: that the dead are always present among the living.

  the praise thereof coming: the praise of God which issues from the contemplation of nature.

  For whatsoever unpleasant . . . embraiding others therewith: for they happily take upon themselves the distasteful and hard work whose difficulty and unpleasantness would scare others away, and, constantly labouring themselves, let others rest and never upbraid them for not working as hard as they.

  from eating of flesh . . . of beasts: the distinction here is between meat, and the flesh of other kinds of animals (such as fish or poultry).

  Buthrescas: from the Greek bous (‘cow’, used in compounds to indicate something of enormous size) and threskos (‘religious’), thus ‘very religious’.

  by secret voices: by a secret ballot.

  consecrate of their own company: ordained by the other priests.

  it is their office . . . in divine matters: it is the priests’ duty to offer encouragement and advice (concerning behaviour), whereas the duty of secular officials is to punish wrongdoing; the single exception being that the priests can excommunicate particularly incorrigible offenders, barring them from religious occasions.

  Cynemernes . . . Trapemernes: ‘Cynemernes’ (which Robinson misprinted ‘Lynermenes’) is probably from the Greek kun (‘dog’) and hemera (‘day’): the name probably derives from an association between dogs and Hecate, and from thence the beginning of the month, specifically, the night between the old moon and the new. Trapemernes is probably from trepó (‘change’) and hemera (‘day’), thus ‘changing day’.

  sacrifice: ritual, since the Utopians have no sacrifice.

  not supposing this . . . the prayers of men: not believing these items to be particularly useful to the divine being––any more than human prayers are.

  in changeable colours: in many colours.

  divers feathers of fowls: reports of tribes who wore feathers for decoration appear in a number of early modern travel narratives, including, Turner notes, Vespucci’s Quatuor Americi Vesputii Navigationes, mentioned earlier by Peter Giles.

  goldsmith: goldsmiths often acted as bankers.

  the remembrance . . . killeth them up: the thought of poverty in their old age kills them off.

  by common laws: possibly a reference to the Statute of Labourers, a series of laws with a long history which fixed the price of labour for the benefit of landowners and other employers. In 1373, for instance, the Statute of Labourers fixed the price of a reaper’s labour at 2 or 3 pence per day; later the Statute fell into abeyance, but was revived in 1495–6 and again in 1514.

  So easily might men . . . should be opened: men might live very easily if it were not for money, [since] money, invented to help us to survive, actually prevents us from making a living.

  no jeopardy of domestical dissension: no danger of civil strife.

  To the Right Honourable . . . Health and Felicity: Jerome Buslide, or Busleyden, was from Luxembourg; More met him in 1515. Arienn is Aire, a town near Calais; Charles was Prince of Castile. Busleyden was also canon of Brussels and Mechlin. He left money to fund the teaching of Hebrew, Greek, and Latin at the University of Louvain. The letter first appeared in the first (Latin) edition of Utopia (1516). See the Appendix for Busleyden’s response.

  A Metre of Four Verses: the poem was originally published in ‘Utopian’ with a Latin ‘translation’, in the first edition of Utopia. The Utopian alphabet appeared with it. A facsimile of the alphabet as it first appeared is reprinted in the Appendix of Ancillary Materials.

  A short metre of Utopia: again, this appeared in the first Latin edition of the text. ‘Anemolius’, as glossed above, means ‘windy’. The poem is in part another variant on the central joke about Utopia: that it does not exist.

  Eutopie: the first occasion of the pun on Greek eu (‘good’) being explicitly read into ‘utopia’.

  Gerard Noviomage: Gerhard Geldenhaur, called Novimage after his birthplace, Nimeguen in Guelderland. He was a teacher of philosophy in the University of Louvain, and served as chaplain to Charles of Austria. He later converted to Protestantism. The poem appeared in the first Latin edition of Utopia.

  Cornelius Graphey: also known as Cornelius Grapheus or Cornelis de Schrijver. He lived in Antwerp and was a friend of Peter Giles.

  The Printer to the Reader: appeared only in the 1556 edition of the text.

  Ambrosius Holbein: the brother of Hans.

  Jerome Busleyden to Thomas More: the letter appeared in the first edition. The translation is J. H. Lupton’s.

  for the palm: for the highest honour.

  Plato’s word for it: see Plato’s Laws, vi. 715.

  Magistrates . . . justice in all: see Plato’s Republic, iv. 428–34.

  my house at Mechlin: Busleyden had two country houses. The one at Mechlin was especially rich and sumptuous.

  Thomas More . . . Peter Giles: this second letter from More to Giles only appeared in the second edition of Utopia. The translation is by Philipc E. Hallett, from his edition of Utopia (London: Burns, Oates and Washbourne, 1937).

  that very clever man: the identity of this person (if indeed he existed) is unknown.

  Mysis in Terence: see Terence’s The Girl from Andros, 786.

  Guillaume Budé to . . . Lupset: Guillaume Budé was a famous French humanist, a close friend of Erasmus and Colet, and a courtier at the French court. Thomas Lupset was educated by Colet and Lily; he was at the time studying in Paris, and was involved in the printing of the second edition of Utopia (Paris 1517), where this letter first appeared. The translation is J. H. Lupton’s.

  Linacre . . . Latin: Linacre founded the Royal College of Physicians. Budé was involved in the printing of the books he mentions here.

  Croesus or a Midas: like Croesus Midas was, in antiquity, of fabulous wealth.

  Jesus Christ . . . Pythagorean communion: for the Christian tradition of communism see Acts 2: 44–5 and 4: 32–7. A communist lifestyle was also ascribed to the followers of Pythagoras.

  Ananias: Ananias and his wife tried to trick God into thinking they had given him the entire value of their possessions when in fact they had offered him only a part. See Acts 5: 1–5.

  Udepotia: from the Greek oudepote (‘never’), thus ‘Neverland’.

  wrapping-paper for shops: to wrap commodities in (like newspaper for fish and chips).