The entrances, exits, double talk, bribery, and deceit
in scene six showcase the political environment that More will have
to contend with as Lord Chancellor. However, the Common Man’s bribing
of Chapuys, Cromwell, and Rich poses no actual threat to More but satirizes
those who do not know how to operate except through lies and deception.
Matthew takes advantage of all three men by offering them nothing
but the most well known information about More. These exchanges
link with a later scene in the play when Cromwell suspects a lowly
innkeeper, also played by the Common Man, of being even craftier
than himself when the innkeeper plays dumb about Cromwell’s conspiracy.
The Common Man is both common, meaning universal, and common,
meaning lowly. By playing lower-class characters, he serves as a
magnet for the double-dealings of kings and cardinals, and in doing
so he questions the assumptions frequently made about the lower
class’s lack of morality. A sixteenth-century butler, a lower class
individual, was assumed to have no moral scruples. Later, More himself
takes it for granted that Matthew has betrayed him, showing that
even More buys into the stereotypes of his time. Yet Matthew turns
bribe-taking into a means of attack. He engages with others in a
manner that is dishonest on the surface, but he does so to cheat
his bribers with information that is not technically secret.
At the same time, the Common Man does not tell More about
the people who are plotting against him. Throughout the play, he
dupes More’s adversaries, but he does so only for the audience’s
eyes. As the play progresses, the Common Man (or rather, the characters
he plays) has a harder time reconciling his acts with More’s kind
treatment of him. Although the Common Man plays many roles, all
his characters develop in a unified fashion, as though they were
one person.
