Subtle Clues & Hints Given By Thomas More About The Island Of Utopia: Part XI

By Laksiri Fernando –February 26, 2017

Dr. Laksiri Fernando

This short chapter is about three letters which were included in the initial publications of Thomas More’s Utopia as Preface. The importance of this chapter is its link to the main argument of the book, “Thomas More’s Socialist Utopia and Ceylon (Sri Lanka),” and the concluding chapter summing up and expanding on the main argument. Otherwise, this chapter does not present any details about his ‘treatise’ on Utopia. If any reader wishes to go through the original letters, they are undoubtedly humorous and enjoyable reading. The text of Utopia published by Wordsworth Classics of World Literature (1997) gives those interesting letters.

In the last letter, ostensibly referring to a critic, that ‘some of the details of the Island are absurdities,’ More says, ‘if he were adding fiction to reality, then he would have given clues for the scholars to find the truth about the Island and its details.’ There he was actually meaning the opposite, as he has been doing in many occasions throughout the book. That is why we should take his clues and hints seriously.

The publication link to the original book is: https://www.createspace.com/4688110

WHAT IS REVEALED IN THE LETTERS?

IN THE INITIAL publications of Utopia, there were three letters included, two of which Thomas More wrote to Peter Giles, and the other one by Peter Giles to Jerome Busleyden. These letters confirm that the idea of Utopia was conceived in Antwerp, and several others also were involved in the conceptualization of the book. Antwerp is the major port city of Flanders (a province of present day Belgium), a stopover/home to many travelers of that time. This is a major reason to speculate that they came across a travel manuscript. A brief review of these letters here reveals clues to unravel the dilemma of the Island and the character of Raphael Hythloday. The letters also shed light on several other matters important in understanding the circumstances under which the book was written.

Thomas Moore the Thinker

The main thrust of the letters was to assure the readers that the Island that they were talking about is real and the person who related the information, Raphael Hithloday, is also real. These claims were considered as literary devices by many reviewers. In subsequent translations, these letters for some reason were dropped. Therefore, these do not appear in Part II of this book as the manuscript that was used for that purpose does not contain these letters. However, these letters taken from other sources shed light on the nature of the discourses presented in Utopia and also the speculation of the actual island of Utopia.

The first letter was written by Thomas More from London to Peter Giles in Antwerp. The letter begins by apologizing for the delay in sending the manuscript for printing.

“I am almost shamed, right well-beloved Peter Giles, to send this book of the Utopian commonwealth, well-nigh after a year’s space, which I am sure you looked for within a month and a half.”[1]

He admits that there was no cause for the delay as Master Raphael has rather eloquently related the story of Utopia and the preceding discourses in Greek and what he had only to do was to write them in simple and straightforward Latin. Then what delayed the sending of the ‘Booke’ was his other work. Apart from his heavy official work as a lawyer and a judge and many more, he says, “For when I come home, I must communicate with my wife, chat with my children, and talk with my servants.” These are necessary things that one has to do at home or otherwise, “a man will be a stranger in his own house.”

It is undoubtedly an interesting letter which gives a humane flair to the whole work of Utopia. Moreover, it is also a vindication of what he says about the family life in the island of Utopia. There is congruence and harmony between what he believed in private life and what he discoursed in Utopia through a real or an imaginary island. It is also humorous. He was so occupied in the house, after coming back from work.

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