A Dialogue of Comfort against Tribulation
| Author | Thomas More |
|---|---|
| Original title | A dialoge of comfort against tribulacion |
| Language | English |
| Genre | Dialogue |
| Set in | Hungary |
| Publisher | Richard Tottel |
Publication date | 1553 |
A Dialogue of Comfort against Tribulation is a work that was written by Thomas More while imprisoned in the Tower of London in 1534.
Theme
The Dialogue is a reflection on worldly power, the transience of pleasure, and the redemptive power of Jesus Christ. It is cast in the form of a fictional dialogue, supposedly taking place in Hungary during the Ottoman conquests. While it is a work of spiritual reflection, the treatment of themes of worldly power by a Christian humanist who had also been a leading statesman means that the book is also counted as a work of political thought.
Editions
- A dialoge of comfort against tribulacion, made by Syr Thomas More Knyght, and set foorth by the name of an Hungarien, not before this time imprinted. London: Richard Tottel, 1553.
- A dialogue of cumfort against tribulation, made by the right vertuous, wise and learned man, Sir Thomas More, sometime L. Chanceller of England, which he wrote in the Tower of London, An. 1534. and entituled thus: a dialogue of cumfort against tribulation, made by an Hungarian in Latin, and translated out of Latin into French, & out of French into English. Now newly set foorth, with many places restored and corrected by conferences of sundrie copies. Antwerp: John Fowler, 1573.
- Dialogue of Comfort against Tribulation, made by the right virtuous, wise and learned man, Sir Thomas More, sometime Lord Chancellor of England, which he wrote in the Town of London AD 1534. London: Charles Dolman, 1847. Available at Internet Archive
- A Dialogue of Comfort against Tribulation, made in the year 1534; a modernised version, edited by Philip E. Hallett. London: Burns Oates & Washbourne, 1937.
- A Dialogue of Comfort against Tribulation, edited by Monica Stevens. London: Sheed and Ward, 1951. Available at Project Gutenberg
- A Dialogue of Comfort against Tribulation, edited by Leland Miles. Bloomington and London: Indiana University Press, 1966.
- A Dialogue of Comfort against Tribulation, edited by Louis L. Martz and Frank Manley. Yale Edition of the Complete Works of St. Thomas More, vol. 12. New Haven: Yale University Press, 1976.
- Utopia and A Dialogue of Comfort Against Tribulation, edited by Richard Marius. London: J. M. Dent, 1993.
Translations
- Il dialogo del conforto nelle tribolazioni, translated by Alberto Castelli. Rome: Studium, 1970.
- Trostgespräch im Leid, translated by Jürgen Beer. Düsseldorf: Droste, 1988.
- Dialogue du réconfort, translated by Germain Marc'hadour and Jocelyne Malhomme. Turnhout: Brepols, 2010.
Studies
- Leland Miles, "With a Coal? The Composition of Thomas More's Dialogue of Comfort", Philological Quarterly, 45:2 (1966): 437-442.
- Romuald Ian Lakowski, "Sir Thomas More and the Art of Dialogue". Ph.D. Diss. U of British Columbia, Fall 1993. HTML Edition 1995, 1996, 1997.