Homo Viator: Aspects of the Works and Life of Thomas More

Abstract

Travel or wayfaring as a metaphor for life is both pervasive and multifaceted in More’s writings. It appears in his early Pageant Verses, which trace a double movement from life to death and to eternal life, while several of his Latin epigrams speak of death as terminus. In Utopia it is an essential aspect of Hythloday and the beliefs of the Utopians, who are metaphorically traveling towards their true home, heaven. And it is embedded in More’s devotional works, especially A Dialogue of Comfort against Tribulation, which depends upon a contrast between matters temporal and the truly good, which is eternal.