There are no taverns, no ale-houses, nor stews among them, nor any other occasions of corrupting each other, of getting into corners, or forming themselves into parties; all men live in full view, so that all are obliged both to perform their ordinary task and to employ themselves well in their spare hours; and it is certain that a people thus ordered must live in great abundance of all things, and these being equally distributed among them, no man can want or be obliged to be

obstinate

But as they force no man to go into any foreign war against his will, so they do not hinder those women who are willing to go along with their husbands

“I never saw a clearer instance of the opposite impressions that different customs make on people than I observed in the ambassadors of the Anemolians, who came to Amaurot when I was there. 

for though there are but few in any town that are so wholly excused from labour as to give themselves entirely up to their studies

As to moral philosophy, they have the same disputes among them as we have here. 

“Agriculture is that which is so universally understood among them that no person, either man or woman, is ignorant of it;

“They have but few laws, and such is their constitution that they need not many.  They very much condemn other nations whose laws, together with the commentaries on them, swell up to so many volumes; for they think it an unreasonable thing to oblige men to obey a body of laws that are both of such a bulk, and so dark as not to be read and understood by every one of the subjects.

When he has learned both, he follows that which he likes best, unless the public has more occasion for the other.

when any die cheerfully, and full of hope, they do not mourn for them, but sing hymns when they carry out their bodies, and commending their souls very earnestly to God

Agriculture is that which is so universally understood among them that no person, either man or woman, is ignorant of it; they are instructed in it from their childhood, partly by what they learn at school, and partly by practice, they being led out often into the fields about the town, where they not only see others at work but are likewise exercised in it themselves.

These are their religious principles

In this bay there is no great current; the whole coast is, as it were, one continued harbour, which gives all that live in the island great convenience for mutual commerce.  But the entry into the bay, occasioned by rocks on the one hand and shallows on the other, is very dangerous.  In the middle of it there is one single rock which appears above water, and may, therefore, easily be avoided; and on the top of it there is a tower, in which a garrison is kept; the other rocks lie under water, and are very dangerous.

The island of Utopia

Before marriage some grave matron presents the bride, naked, whether she is a virgin or a widow, to the bridegroom, and after that some grave man presents the bridegroom, naked, to the bride. 

The Prince himself has no distinction, either of garments or of a crown; but is only distinguished by a sheaf of corn carried before him; as the High Priest is also known by his being preceded by a person carrying a wax light.

they erect statues to the memories of such worthy men as have deserved well of their country, and set these in their market-places, both to perpetuate the remembrance of their actions and to be an incitement to their posterity to follow their example

it is likewise infamous among them to use paint.

If any man should reproach another for his being misshaped or imperfect in any part of his body, it would not at all be thought a reflection on the person so treated, but it would be accounted scandalous in him that had upbraided another with what he could not help.

for those who are taken with fixed and incurable diseases, they use all possible ways to cherish them and to make their lives as comfortable as possible

for they believe that a deliberate design to commit a crime is equal to the fact itself

those that relapse after they are once pardoned are punished with death.

adulterer and the adulteress are condemned to slavery,

they are the only people of those parts that neither allow of polygamy nor of divorces

if any of them run into forbidden embraces before marriage they are severely punished

Another sort of slaves are the poor of the neighbouring countries, who offer of their own accord to come and serve them

They do not make slaves of prisoners of war, except those that are taken in battle, nor of the sons of their slaves, nor of those of other nations

.

These are their religious principles

if not the whole, yet the chief part, of a man’s happiness in pleasure

gold or silver

They breed an infinite multitude of chickens in a very curious manner; for the hens do not sit and hatch them, but a vast number of eggs are laid in a gentle and equal heat in order to be hatched, and they are no sooner out of the shell, and able to stir about, but they seem to consider those that feed them as their mothers, and follow them as other chickens do the hen that hatched them.

soever

A fourth proposes the prohibiting of many things under severe penalties, especially such as were against the interest of the people, and then the dispensing with these prohibitions, upon great compositions, to those who might find their advantage in breaking them.

but in the country, where they live at a great distance, every one eats at home

knave

none of their citizens to kill their cattle

None are quite hopeless of recovering their freedom, since by their obedience and patience, and by giving good grounds to believe that they will change their manner of life for the future, they may expect at last to obtain their liberty, and some are every year restored to it upon the good character that is given of them. 

since there is such plenty of everything among them; and there is no danger of a man’s asking for more than he needs

wives serve their husbands

Their women, when they grow up, are married out, but all the males, both children and grand-children, live still in the same house

for wherever it is found that the sheep of any soil yield a softer and richer wool than ordinary,

“for keeping their hands in use, that they may not grow dull by too long an intermission.”

he was of a middle stature, not broken with age; his looks begot reverence rather than fear; his conversation was easy, but serious and grave; he sometimes took pleasure to try the force of those that came as suitors to him upon business by speaking sharply, though decently, to them, and by that he discovered their spirit and presence of mind; with which he was much delighted when it did not grow up to impudence, as bearing a great resemblance to his own temper, and he looked on such persons as the fittest men for affairs.  He spoke both gracefully and weightily; he was eminently skilled in the law, had a vast understanding, and a prodigious memory; and those excellent talents with which nature had furnished him were improved by study and experience.

f God had not been very gracious to him; for after he, with five Castalians, had travelled over many countries, at last, by strange good fortune, he got to Ceylon, and from thence to Calicut, where he, very happily, found some Portuguese ships; and, beyond all men’s expectations, returned to his native country.”

bore a share in three of his four voyages that are now published

I do not know if there be anywhere to be found a more learned and a better bred young man; for as he is both a very worthy and a very knowing person, so he is so civil to all men, so particularly kind to his friends,

with such universal applause

They do not so much as know dice, or any such foolish and mischievous games.

for the most part, reading

appoint six of these for work, three of which are before dinner and three after; they then sup, and at eight o’clock, counting from noon, go to bed and sleep eight hours

they wear the same sort of clothes, without any other distinction except what is necessary to distinguish the two sexes and the married and unmarried

every man has some peculiar trade to which he applies himself; such as the manufacture of wool or flax, masonry, smith’s work, or carpenter’s work; for there is no sort of trade that is in great esteem among them

It is a fundamental rule of their government, that no conclusion can be made in anything that relates to the public till it has been first debated three several days in their council.

earnest

The youth wore his patron’s livery, and added to his state. 

In these few lines, I have wrapped up the most tedious part of grammar, and also the ground of almost all the rules that are so busily taught by the master, and so hardly learned by the scholar in all common scholes

First, let him teach the child chearfully and plainly the cause and matter of the letter

become devils in life and condition.

Yanity and vice and any licence to ill living in England was counted stale and rude unto them.

wantonness

perverted judgments

ill opinions be the works of the flesh and fruits of si

A marvellous monster, which for filthiness of living, for dulness of learning himself, for wiliness in dealing with others, for malice in hurting without cause, should carry at once in one body the belly of a swine, the head of an ass, the brain of a fox, the womb of a wolf

a child shall take more profit of two faults gently warned of than of four things rightly hit;

and encourage a will to learning

teach the child chearfully and plainly the cause and matter of the letter

would not only take wholly away this butcherly fear in making of Latines,

is tedious for the master, hard for the scholar, cold and uncomfortable for them both.

shewing

For, I assure you, there is no such whetstone to sharpen a good wit, and encourage a will to learning,

.

canons

bawdy

wanton

goodness to vanity

For ill doings breed ill thinkings

where the common way used in common scholes, to read the grammar alone by itself, is tedious for the master, hard for the scholar, cold and uncomfortable for them both.

truantship

After this, the child must take a paper book, and sitting in some place, where no man shall prompt him, by himself) let him translate into English his former lesson. Then shewing it to his master, let the master take from him his Latin book, and pausing an hour at the least, then let the child translate his own English into Latin again in another paper book. When the child bringeth it turned into Latin, the master must compare it with Tully’s book, and lay them both together

whetstone

Cicero de Oratore

No family may have less than ten and more than sixteen persons in it

he could not keep his subjects in their duty

piety

.

plumes

that no man ought to be punished for his religion.

In these they promise great rewards to such as shall kill the prince, and lesser in proportion to such as shall kill any other persons who are those on whom, next to the prince himself, they cast the chief balance of the war.  And they double the sum to him that, instead of killing the person so marked out, shall take him alive, and put him in their hands.  They offer not only indemnity, but rewards, to such of the persons themselves that are so marked, if they will act against their countrymen. 

animosities

heats

They punish severely those that defile the marriage bed; if both parties are married they are divorced, and the injured persons may marry one another, or whom they please, but the adulterer and the adulteress are condemned to slavery, yet if either of the injured

esteem

making legs to him

slave

“Thus old men are honoured with a particular respect

All the children under five years old sit among the nurses; the rest of the younger sort of both sexes, till they are fit for marriage, either serve those that sit at table, or, if they are not strong enough for that, stand by them in great silence and eat what is given them; nor have they any other formality of dining.

thatched

contrivances

if you suffer your people to be ill-educated

apace

Castalians

travelling than of returning home to be buried in his own

They cultivate their gardens with great care, so that they have both vines, fruits, herbs, and flowers in them; and all is so well ordered and so finely kept that I never saw gardens anywhere that were both so fruitful and so beautiful as theirs.  And this humour of ordering their gardens so well is not only kept up by the pleasure they find in it, but also by an emulation between the inhabitants of the several streets, who vie with each other. 

vie

ignorant of the Latin tongue

Antwerp

is company in a great measure lessened any longings to go back to my country, and to my wife and children, which an

son of perdition

H. M

heart.”

he rose to large practice in the law courts, where it is said he refused to plead in cases which he thought unjust, and took no fees from widows, orphans, or the poor. 

Archbishop Morton died.

Utopia

was sent to Canterbury College, Oxford, by his patron, where he learnt Greek of the first men who brought Greek studies from Italy to England

he was placed, as a boy

granaries

they drink either wine, cider or perry, and often water, sometimes boiled with honey or liquorice

they sow much more and breed more cattle than are necessary for their consumption, and they give that overplus of which they make no use to their neighbours. 

By this means such as dwell in those country farms are never ignorant of agriculture

The nearest lie at least twenty-four miles’ distance from one another, and the most remote are not so far distant but that a man can go on foot in one day from it to that which lies next it. 

Women, for the most part, deal in wool and flax, which suit best with their weakness, leaving the ruder trades to the men. 

magistrate

contrived

they are all contrived as near in the same manner as the ground on which they stand will allow

Amaurot

garrison

not unlike

ingenuity

How can there be any plenty where every man will excuse himself from labour?

He is an unskilful physician that cannot cure one disease without casting his patient into another.

Mosaical law

quoits

ingenious

antiquity

I will do it very willingly

Utopia

magistrates

sedition

.

that he should live among them, govern them gently and let other kingdoms alone, since that which had fallen to his share was big enough, if not too big, for him

Venetians

slothful

mitigate

allay

insolent

courtiers

!

begot

Thus when they had the witch disrobed quight,   And all her filthy feature open showne, They let her goe at will, and wander wayes vnknowne.

Whom when his Lady saw, to him she ran   With hasty ioy: to see him made her glad,   And sad to view his visage pale and wan,   Who earst in flowres of freshest youth was clad.   Tho when her well of teares she wasted had,   She said, Ah dearest Lord, what euill starre   On you hath fround, and pourd his influence bad,   That of your selfe ye thus berobbed arre, And this misseeming hew your manly looks doth marre?

And smote off quite his right leg by the knee,

And eke the fruitfull-headed beast, amaz’d   At flashing beames of that sunshiny shield,   Became starke blind, and all his senses daz’d,   That downe he tumbled on the durtie field,   And seem’d himselfe as conquered to yield.

She lightly sprinkled on his weaker parts;   Therewith his sturdie courage soone was quayd, And all his senses were with suddeine dread dismayd.

And euery dore of freewill open flew.

ut he her comforted and faire bespake,   Certes, Madame, ye haue great cause of plaint,   That stoutest heart, I weene, could cause to quake.   But be of cheare, and comfort to you take:   For till I haue acquit your captiue knight,   Assure your selfe, I will you not forsake.   His chearefull words reuiu’d her chearelesse spright, So forth they went, the Dwarfe them guiding euer right.

He had not trauaild long, when on the way He wofull Ladie, wofull Vna met,

Dongeon deepe him threw without remorse.

And lightly lept from vnderneath the blow:

Drunke of the streame, as cleare as cristall glas; Eftsoones his manly forces gan to faile, And mightie strong was turnd to feeble fraile.

And bad the waters, which from her did flow, Be such as she her selfe was then in place. Thenceforth her waters waxed dull and slow, And all that drunke thereof, did faint and feeble grow.

But that false Pilgrim, which that leasing told,   Being in deed old Archimage, did stay   In secret shadow, all this to behold,   And much reioyced in their bloudy fray:   But when he saw the Damsell passe away   He left his stond, and her pursewd apace,   In hope to bring her to her last decay.

These eyes did see that knight both liuing and eke ded. That cruell word her tender hart so thrild,   That suddein cold did runne through euery vaine,   And stony horrour all her sences fild   With dying fit, that downe she fell for paine.

And all her wit in secret counsels spent,   How to escape. At last in priuie wise   To Satyrane she shewed her intent:   Who glad to gain such fauour, gan deuise, How with that pensiue Maid he best might thence arise.

The pitteous maiden carefull comfortlesse,   Does throw out thrilling shriekes, & shrieking cryes,   The last vaine helpe of womens great distresse,

Scarse could he footing find in that fowle way, For many corses, like a great Lay-stall Of murdred men which therein strowed lay, Without remorse, or decent funerall: Which all through that great Princesse pride did fall And came to shamefull end. And them beside Forth ryding vnderneath the castell wall, A donghill of dead carkases he spide, The dreadfull spectacle of that sad house of Pride.

Them brought to Æsculape, that by his art Did heale them all againe, and ioyned euery part.

Or else goe them auenge, and let be seene

Not all so satisfide, with greedie eye He sought all round about, his thirstie blade To bath in bloud of faithlesse enemy; Who all that while lay hid in secret shade:

Canto IV

Beares her away vpon his courser light:

with death opprest He roar’d aloud, whiles life forsooke his stubborne brest.

Her piteous words might not abate his rage, But rudely rending vp his helmet, would Haue slaine him straight: but when he sees his age, And hoarie head of Archimago old,

But when she saw her prayers nought preuaile, She backe returned with some labour lost; And in the way as she did weepe and waile, A knight her met in mighty armes embost, Yet knight was not for all his bragging bost, But subtill Archimag,

Who streight him rent in thousand peeces small, And quite dismembred hath: the thirstie land Drunke vp his life; his corse left on the strand.

Still when she slept, he kept both watch and ward, And when she wakt, he waited diligent, With humble seruice to her will prepard:

The false Duessa, now Fidessa 

We may not chaunge (quoth he) this euil plight, Till we be bathed in a liuing well;

Duessa

once a man Fradubio, now a tree, Wretched man, wretched tree; whose nature weake, A cruell witch her cursed will to wreake, Hath thus transformd

So forth they rode

her champion fall

bad her knight addresse him to the fray

Saint George

her he hated

Lookt for her knight, who far away was fled, And for her Dwarfe, that wont to wait each houre; Then gan she waile and weepe, to see that woefull stowre

Then vp he rose, and clad him hastily;

.

When those accursed messengers of hell, That feigning dreame, and that faire-forged Spright Came to their wicked maister, and gan tell Their bootelesse paines, and ill succeeding night: Who all in rage to see his skilfull might Deluded so, gan threaten hellish paine And sad Proserpines wrath, them to affright. But when he saw his threatning was but vaine, He cast about, and searcht his balefull bookes againe.

.

.

The drouping Night thus creepeth on them fast,

And well could file his tongue as smooth as glas;

.

.

For light she hated as the deadly bale

gone

hollow caue

.

Forwasted all their land, and them expeld: Whom to auenge, she had this Knight from far co[m]peld.