Comparing Wyatt And Sir Thomas More

Sir Thomas Wyatt and Sir Thomas More wrote during the reign of King Henry VIII, a notoriously harsh king with a penchant for punishment. While both More and Wyatt had opinions of the King, their fear of severe punishment, forced them to revert to a mode of criticism that was far more covert. These men began integrating their political beliefs, and opinions of the king into their writings. They both believed that “in a court of people who envy everyone else and admire only themselves,”(More, 528), any sort of public, open commentary against the king would surely earn them the axe. Living with this fear both men were forced to confront their tormentor through their words, creating works still examined today for their political implications.

While he does not specify that this is commentary on the flaws of Henry VIII, it is nonetheless a scathing view of what many considered to be the most predominant short falls of King Henry VIII. More places this image of the King as jailer in the discussion of what it means to be a good monarch as discussed between the Cardinal Martin and the narrator, Thomas More. This discussion of kingship relies on references to many other professions of the time that were supposed to be professions of caretaking, referring to the “Shepherd” (More, 540), the “jailer” and the “doctor” (More, 541). With each profession he describes the negative implications if the job is not performed correctly, and that the duty of these professions is to care for others above themselves, a duty, he believes is applicable to kingship. Again, of course, More was very careful to frame this discourse in a way that made no direct reference to the king of England. At the time he wrote this More was on a diplomatic mission for Henry VIII in Netherlands (Greenblatt, 519), due to this connection More had to separate any negative imagery of Kingship from Henry VIII which he was able to accomplish simply by placing these values on a very foreign society, Utopia, his imaginary

Wyatt “cannot with my words complain”, “cannot speak”, “nor smart without complaint”, “nor turn the word.” In this string of negations it is always his voice or words that are impacted. The absence of truth for Wyatt has stolen his voice. One interesting string to look at in this string of negations is the alliterative strand that opens this passage “Cannot with my words complain and moan/ and suffer naught, nor smart without complaint,” the only places in this string that the hard ‘C’ sound is found are in the negations and the action of complaining. This string reinforces his inability to speak out, his inability to