A Man for All Seasons (1966)

Robert Shaw: King Henry VIII

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Quotes 

• [Sir Thomas and the King are discussing the King's wish for a divorce from Katherine of Aragon, his brother's widow] 

  King Henry VIII : Oh, Thomas, Thomas, Thomas! Does a man need a Pope to tell him where he's sinned? It was a sin. God's punished me. I have no son. Son after son she's borne me - all dead at birth or dead within the month. Never saw the hand of God so clear in anything. It's my bounden duty to put away the Queen and all the popes back to Peter shall not come between me and my duty! How is it that you cannot see? Everyone else does.

  Sir Thomas More : Then why does your Grace need my poor support?

  King Henry VIII : Because you're honest... and what is more to the purpose, you're KNOWN to be honest. There are those like Norfolk who follow me because I wear the crown; and those like Master Cromwell who follow me because they are jackals with sharp teeth and I'm their tiger; there's a mass that follows me because it follows anything that moves. And then there's you...

  Sir Thomas More : I am sick to think how much I must displease your Grace.

  King Henry VIII : No, Thomas, I respect your sincerity. But respect... man, that's water in the desert.

• King Henry VIII : Thomas. I chose the right man for chancellor!

  Sir Thomas More : I should in fairness add that my taste in music is reputedly deplorable.

  King Henry VIII : Your taste in music is excellent. It exactly coincides with my own!

• King Henry VIII : [shouting angrily]  I have no queen! Catherine's not my wife! No priest can make her so! They that say she is my wife are not only liars, but traitors! Yes, traitors that I will not brook now! Treachery, treachery, treachery I will not brook! It maddens me! It is a deadly canker in the body politic, and I will have it out!

• King Henry VIII : Thomas, you must consider, I stand in peril of my soul. It was no marriage. I have lived in incest with my brother's widow. Leviticus: "Thou shalt not uncover the nakedness of thy brother's wife." Leviticus. Chapter 18, verse 16.

  Sir Thomas More : Yes, Your Grace. But Deuteronomy...

  King Henry VIII : Deuteronomy is ambiguous!

• King Henry VIII : How'd you like our music? That air they played, it had a certain... Well, tell me what you thought of it.

  Sir Thomas More : Could it have been Your Grace's own?

  King Henry VIII : Discovered! Now I'll never know your true opinion, and that's irksome. Well, we artists, we love praise, yet we love truth better.

  Sir Thomas More : Then I will tell my true opinion.

  King Henry VIII : Well?

  Sir Thomas More : To me it seemed delightful.

• King Henry VIII : [singing]  Where are you going to, my handsome young one?

  King Henry VIII , Anne Boleyn : I'm going a-courting

  King Henry VIII : Mother. I'm going a-courting

  King Henry VIII , Anne Boleyn : Mother.

  King Henry VIII : Make my bed softly...

• King Henry VIII : Music. Music. Send them back without me, Thomas. I'll live here in Chelsea and make music.