{"id":34325,"date":"2026-02-23T12:37:23","date_gmt":"2026-02-23T17:37:23","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/ianchadwick.com\/blog\/?p=34325"},"modified":"2026-03-01T07:48:25","modified_gmt":"2026-03-01T12:48:25","slug":"thomas-mores-words-are-still-appropriate-today","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/ianchadwick.com\/blog\/thomas-mores-words-are-still-appropriate-today\/","title":{"rendered":"Thomas More’s Words Are Still Appropriate Today"},"content":{"rendered":"
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\"Thomas<\/a>I<\/span> can always find something in Shakespeare’s works to console, inform, delight, or move me, and more often than not, something that is remarkably relevant to current issues and events.<\/strong> His wit and wisdom are timeless. Of course, one often has to see them as euphemisms, allegories, or metaphors and overlook their relevance to events contemporary to the Bard. But sometimes they transcend history and stand on their own in modern times. Such is a speech found in Sir Thomas More<\/em><\/a>, a play that, while not canon, Shakespeare is believed by most experts to have contributed to the revision thereof.<\/p>\n

I won’t go into the whole background and history of the play and its subsequent revisions (look for it on Wikipedia in the link, above), but in brief several writers worked on it, and one part, attributed to Shakespeare has become relevant to the rise of MAGA racism and the behaviour of the ICE Brownshirts in the USA.<\/p>\n

In the play Thomas More was at the time (1517) undersheriff of London under Henry VIII (he was appointed Lord Chancellor by Henry later in his career). Xenophobic native Londoners staged a protest that spread and became a riot. They claimed foreigners who had immigrated to England were abusing and disrespecting citizens of London. The mob of Londoners went to seek revenge on the newcomers for the imagined slights, drive them from the city, and burn their homes. They demanded the immigrants be sent back to where they came from.*<\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n

Noblemen in the city panicked at the unrest and went to More, the popular lawyer and respected sheriff, and asked him to restore calm. More agreed to speak to the rioters and in the play he defused the situation with both a chastisement and an appeal to their humanity.**<\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n

It is a deeply moving speech, especially when one reads or listens to it against the backdrop of photos and videos showing ICE agents kidnapping people, dragging them from their cars, arresting children, and even executing American citizens publicly on the street (without any consequences for their murders). I doubt such a speech would move any of the neo-fascist ICE agents to change their behaviour.<\/p>\n

Before reading further, I recommend you watch More’s speech being spoken by Sir Ian McKellen:<\/p>\n