Commentary
Robert Bolt’s prize-winning play “A Man for All Seasons” takes place in 16th-century England during the reign of King Henry VIII. Chancellor Sir Thomas More, a devout Catholic and the country’s highest-ranking lawyer, opposes the king’s decision to break with the Roman Catholic Church, which had refused Henry’s request to annul his marriage to his first wife, Catherine (who hadn’t borne him a son and heir), so that Henry could marry his mistress, Anne Boleyn.