The Politician's Politician
Feb. 22nd, 2020 08:46 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
poliphiloRichard Rich was the politician's politician, an unprincipled careerist who betrayed his way to the top and then managed to stay there through all the ideological and theological ups and downs of the Tudor era. Thanks to the movie A Man For All Seasons (in which he is memorably played by John Hurt) he is chiefly remembered for giving perjured evidence at the trial of his patron, Thomas More.
He is also notorious for having presided over the (illegal) torture of the Protestant martyr Anne Askew- and for working the levers of the rack himself when the official executioner backed off saying, "Sorry Squire, but it's more than my job's worth to rack a lady."
His tomb was erected several generations after his death. It's the work of Epiphanius Evesham, one of the great artists of the English Renaissance- and is to be found in the Essex village of Felsted, tucked away in a side chapel behind rows of stacking chairs. It's rather as if you went to Rome in search of Michelangelo's David only to be told, "Oh, that! We keep it over there in the broom cupboard."
Rich twists on his couch with a prayer book in his mitt. There are those who find him a bit creep-crawly.
He is also notorious for having presided over the (illegal) torture of the Protestant martyr Anne Askew- and for working the levers of the rack himself when the official executioner backed off saying, "Sorry Squire, but it's more than my job's worth to rack a lady."
His tomb was erected several generations after his death. It's the work of Epiphanius Evesham, one of the great artists of the English Renaissance- and is to be found in the Essex village of Felsted, tucked away in a side chapel behind rows of stacking chairs. It's rather as if you went to Rome in search of Michelangelo's David only to be told, "Oh, that! We keep it over there in the broom cupboard."
Rich twists on his couch with a prayer book in his mitt. There are those who find him a bit creep-crawly.
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Date: 2020-02-22 12:48 pm (UTC)He's one of mine, of course.
I know where Dante would have placed him...........
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Date: 2020-02-22 01:39 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2020-02-22 05:56 pm (UTC)"But for Wales?" never goes out of fashion, sadly.
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Date: 2020-02-22 07:30 pm (UTC)But what a great line!
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Date: 2020-02-23 11:27 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2020-02-23 05:13 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2020-02-23 09:51 pm (UTC)