The Benefit Of Law

"Surely, Your Grace, when A Man rises 

so high and so swiftly, we must think 

he was misplaced in His Origins. 

(everyone looks at the 

snivelling little bastard)

......That, at least, was the 

opinion of Aristotle and --"

-- Richard Rich

A Man For All Seasons - Clip "Give The Devil Benefit Of Law"

(Having fallen down in The Mud, intruiging with Thomas Cromwell, Richard Rich barges his way into The House of More during dinner and gets himself admitted into the dining hall -- covered in Muck -- )

Richard Rich :

Sir Thomas. 

St. Sir Thomas More :

Richard? 

Richard Rich :

.....I fell. 

Lady Alice. 

Lady Margaret. 

Richard Rich :

Good evening. 

St. Sir Thomas More :

Do you know 

William Roper, 

The Younger? 

Richard Rich :

By reputation, of course. 

Young Roper :

Good evening, Master.... 

Richard Rich :

Rich. 

Young Roper :

..... Oh! --

Richard Rich :

You've heard of me? 

Young Roper :

Yes. 

Richard Rich :

In what connection? I don't know 

what you can have heard.

 

.....I sense that I'm 

not welcome here. 

St. Sir Thomas More :

Why Richard? 

Have you done something 

to make you not welcome? 

Richard Rich :

.....Cromwell is asking questions. About you. 

He's always asking questions 

about you and your opinions. 

St. Sir Thomas More :

Of whom? 

Richard Rich :

(Points The Finger at The Tyler)

Of him, for one. That's 

one of his sources. 

St. Sir Thomas More :

Of course. That's one 

of my servants. 

All right, Matthew --

Richard Rich :

Well, you look at me as 

though I were an enemy. 

St. Sir Thomas More :

Why Richard, you're shaking....

Richard Rich :

Help me. 

St. Sir Thomas More :

How? 

Richard Rich :

Employ me. 

St. Sir Thomas More :

-- No.

Richard Rich :

Employ me! 

No. I would be faithful. 

St. Sir Thomas More :

Richard -- You couldn't answer 

for yourself even so far as tonight. 

Young Roper :

Arrest him!

St. Sir Thomas More :

For what?

Young Roper :

He's dangerous!

St. Sir Thomas More :

Libel. 

Young Roper :

He's a spy!

That man's bad! 

St. Sir Thomas More :

There's no law against that.

Young Roper :

God's law!

St. Sir Thomas More :

Then God can arrest him.

Young Roper :

While you talk, he's gone! 

St. Sir Thomas More :

Go he should, if 

he were The Devil, until 

he broke The Law.

Young Roper :

Now you give The Devil 

benefit of Law!

St. Sir Thomas More :

Yes, what would you do? 

Cut a road through 

The Law to get 

after The Devil? 

Young Roper :

Yes. I'd cut down every Law 

in England to do that. 

St. Sir Thomas More :

And when the last law was down, 

and The Devil turned on you, 

Where would you hide, Roper, 

The Laws all being flat? 

This Country is planted with laws from 

coast to coast, Man's Laws, not God's, 

and if you cut them down...

-- and you're just the man to do it --

...do you really think you could stand upright 

in The Wind that would blow then? 

Yes. I give The Devil benefit of Law 

for my own safety's sake.

Epilogue :

St. Thomas More's head was stuck 

on Traitor's Gate for a month. 

Then his daughter, Margaret, 

removed it and kept it 

'til her death. 

Cromwell was beheaded 

for High Treason five years 

after More. 

The Archbishop was 

burned at The Stake. 

The Duke of Norfolk 

should have been executed 

for High Treason... but 

The King died of syphilis 

the night before --

Richard Rich became 

Chancellor of England... 

...and died in his bed.