Digitized by the Internet Archive in 2011 with funding from University of Ottawa http://www.archive.org/details/lifeofsirthomasOOrope "^•^•^••^s^ j \o It 5jjv TH LIFE DIS£A&X>EE> OF SIR THOMAS MORE, BY HIS SON-IN-LAW, WILLIAM ROPER, ESQ. WITH NOTES, AND AN APPENDIX OF LETTERS. ,^V^£nE1^$DITI0N, REVISED AND CORRECTED, ?**$.l&k *#; TsY s. w. singer. CHISWICK: FROM THE PRESS OF C. WHITTINGHAM, FOR R.jTl^i'LJOQJ^, OLD BOND STREET, LONDON. < 0' \ AUG 2 8 1984 THE EDITOR'S PREFACE. About five years since I had the pleasure of recommending this delightful piece of genuine biography to the attention of those who are gra- tified by authentic pictures of ancient manners and ancient virtues. The very limited impression then published was received in the most flatter- ing manner, and copies have now for some time ranked among the number of scarce books. More than one literary journal of eminence gave its approving voice, and recommended the repro- duction of this biographical gem in a form which would give it more extensive circulation. I have at length listened to the suggestion, and my good fortune has enabled me very much to amend the text by the collation of two manuscript copies. One of these, in the handwriting of Roper's age, has come into my possession since the former edition was printed; for the collation of the other I am indebted to the polite attention a 2 : vi editor's preface. of Sir William Strickland, Baronet, of Boynton, in Yorkshire ; who was kind enough to furnish me with it : a favour conveyed in the most agree- able manner, as it came unsolicited, and which I have much pleasure in gratefully acknow- ledging *. The first edition of this little book is of great rarity : it bears the date of Paris, 1626, but was probably printed in England. It was then not uncommon for books which favoured Catholic doctrines to have a foreign imprint, even when not printed abroad. It is remarkable that the Life of Sir Thomas More, by his great-grandson, Thomas More, was first printed in the succeed- ing year. In 1716, Thomas Hearne, the celebrated anti- quary, gave to the world another impression, and boasts of having had the choice of several manu- script copies ; he does not however seem to have been fortunate in the one he selected, but he has followed it most scrupulously in every particular, errors and redundancies not excepted. His va- rious readings at the end of the volume offer many emendations, of which he, perhaps with too punctilious accuracy, omitted to avail himself in the construction of his text. * Opposite the first page of Sir William Strickland's manuscript, are emblazoned the arms of Leigh and Egerton ; beneath them are seven lines referring to the arms, and complimenting the bearer of them : these are signed Fra "Wynne. The manuscript is in the handwriting of the period at which Roper lived. editor's preface. vii In 1729, the Rev. John Lewis, well known by his Life of Caxton and other autiquarian publica- tions, again committed it to the press ; upon the whole his edition may be pronounced superior to either of the former, yet it is not without its defects. The manuscript from which Lewis printed was lent him by Mr. Thomas Beake of Stourmouth, in Kent, and appears in many in- stances to have deserved the preference over those collated by Hearne ; but this is not always the case, and it frequently happens that where the sense in the latter is simple and obvious, Mr. Beake's MS, has it involved and obscure. Mr. Lewis's edition was again printed in Lon- don in 1731, and in Dublin in 1765. It was from a collation of the printed copies with Lewis's manuscript collections for his edition, I prepared that which I published in 1817. Upon the present occasion I have carefully revised the text by a comparison of the two manuscripts mentioned above with my former edition, and the result has been the correction of many errors, some of which materially affected the sense. I have in this instance been in- duced to reform the unsettled and wretched ortho- graphy and punctuation, so as to render this edition acceptable to the general reader, for whom it is more particularly designed ; at the same time I beg to assure the literary antiquary that it has been done with proper caution, and that the ; viii editor's preface. colour of the style will not be found changed by this innovation. In the present, as in the former impression, I have given that part of Hearne's Latin preface to his edition of this work which has relation to it also Mr. Lewis's preface, and the Dedication to the first edition by its anonymous editor T. P. It should appear that Mr. Roper compiled this life about the close of Queen Mary's reign (A.D. 1557), when Sir Thomas More's English Works were first collected and printed, at the queen's instance, by his nephew, Mr. Justice Rastall. Perhaps it was not ready for the press before the death of Mary, and it is obvious why it was not printed during the reign of her suc- cessor. Like other books of a Catholic tendency it was handed about in manuscript, and in the course of frequent transcripts the text became very much corrupted. It is hoped that the two excellent manuscripts which have been collated for this edition may have restored the text to nearly its original integrity. The Appendix has received some further aug- mentation which I think will be found acceptable ; and here I have continued the old spelling and pointing, because the letters are taken from the printed copy of Sir Thomas More's works, which Dr. Johnson thought might " be better trusted than any English book of that or the preceding EDITOR S PREFACE. IX age." Some additions have also been made to the notes in the present edition. A beautiful reduced copy of the exquisite draw- ing by Holbein, in the collection of his late Majesty, has been added, as giving the most au- thentic idea of Sir Thomas More's person*, and therefore the most appropriate accompaniment to this interesting delineation of his life and virtues. The following minute description of his person and habits, said to be " according to the relation of those who best knew him," may be no unac- ceptable addition to the article in the Appendix. " Sir Thomas More was no tall man; all the parts of his body were in good proportion, and congruous as man could wish. His skin was something white ; the colour of his face drew rather to whiteness than to paleness, far from * The picture of the More family, described in Hearne's preface, and in No. XVII of the Appendix, has been about the last fourteen years at Nostall, in Yorkshire, the seat of Mr. Winn. Sir Win. Strickland informs me that he be- r lieves it is now in the same state as when it came from W ell Hall, in Essex, except that it has lately been judiciously repaired in some few immaterial places, which has neither altered or injured it in the least. The picture is as perfect as any picture of that age can be, though some of the faces of the female figures do appear a little faded. It appears that Hearne must have been in error when he asserted that part of it had been painted over again by some inferior artist, for a person well skilled in pictures asserts that there is no appearance of that having been the case. The picture which is mentioned as being in the possession of the Lenthal family, and which is still probably at Burford, seems to have been in part copied from the former, but apparently not by the hand of Holbein, and there are additions which bring it down a generation or two lower. X EDITOR S PREFACE. redness, saving that some little red sparkes every where appeared. His hair was blackish yellow, or rather yellow blackish, his beard thin ; his eyes grey and speckled, which kind of eyes do commonly betoken a good and sharp wit, and as physicians say are least cumber'd with diseases and faults ; his were not great, nor yet glittering, yet much pleasing. His countenance was con- formable to his nature and disposition, pleasant and amiable, somewhat resembling to the fashion of one that would seem to smile. His voice was neither boisterous nor big, nor yet too small and shrill; he spake his words very distinctly and treatably, without any manner of hastiness or stuttering; and albeit he delighted in all kind of melody, yet he seemed not of his own nature to be apt to sing himself. He enjoyed the health of his body very well : and although he was never a strong man, yet he was able to go through with any labour and pains meet and convenient for him to dispatch his business. A little before he gave over his office of Lord Chancellor, he began to be troubled with a little sickness, and after he was shut up in the Tower it much increased. When he was a young man, he used and delighted in drinking of water ; his common drink wa,s very small ale ; and as for wine he did but sip of it, and that only for company's sake, or for pledging his friends. He delighted more to feed on beef, and salt meats, coarse bread, and that very well leavened, than upon fine meats and bread.