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the Planudean Anthology, better known as the
Greek Anthology
, and it is these Latin verses which manifest the first stirrings of his genius. They were eventually published in 1518, together with the third edition of
Utopia
, but he had been writing epigrams since the beginning of the century. That he was composing them in his early twenties, while still a student of law in Lincoln’s Inn, is not unusual; the invention or translation of epigrams was a customary method among humanists for beginning a literary career. Some of the earliest were written by More in conjunction (and friendly rivalry) with William Lily, the grammarian who later became the first high master of St Paul’s school in London. On publication they were given the title
Progymnasmata
(‘preliminary exercises’), which suggests that they were meant to provide examples of rhetorical and grammatical correctness; these Latin versions of Greek originals are not entirely free of solecisms, but they provide skilful examples of a relatively ‘pure’ Latin. More employs a variety of metres, and his concern for balance, co-ordination and symmetry shows evidence of a good instructor. A line on holding fortune in contempt,
’Iam portum inueni, Spes et Fortuna ualete’
(‘Now that I have found port, farewell hope and good fortune’), is not simply an exercise in syntax and metre but also a handy classical maxim to be put to use in the world; it is an example of what Erasmus meant when he declared that the best poetry was always rhetorical in nature. Some of More’s most original epigrams, for example, are on the horrors of tyrannical rule and the evils of avaricious or despotic monarchs; they represent his unique contribution to the epigrammatic tradition.
    Yet the general mood of these short Latin poems—there are 276 of them in the authoritative edition of his works—is one of irony and mordant wit. He could be sarcastic at the expense of a doltish philosopher with ‘the brains of a donkey’ or of a young woman who pretends to have been raped. He takes pleasure in repeating jokes or farcicaltales—there is even one about an attendant removing flies from a drink—and the epigrams bear as much relation to a London tradition of ‘merry tales’ or ‘quick answers’ as to the
Greek Anthology
itself. It has in the past been noticed how close in spirit More remains to Geoffrey Chaucer, and we may see this as another aspect of More’s native traditionalism. There are times, indeed, when his becomes the poetry of the streets, and there is a good reason for the description of him as
‘Londinii gloria’.
5 There is one verse about a fart, and another about the merits of eating
‘merda’
or excrement. One short poem might be quoted in full to gauge the nature of More’s humour:
    Ergo puella uiri quis te negat esse capacem,
Quam tua tam magnum circumdant crura caballum? 6
    It is addressed to a girl riding a horse: Who denies that you can take a man, when your legs can get around even that pack-horse? It might not be the refined humour of sainthood; but by staying closer to a grossly secular level we may come nearer to More himself.
    In his earliest work More was drawn to imitation and adaptation; this was, of course, the condition of all verse-writing. But in mastering the expression of so many themes and attitudes, he seems to revel in doubleness, disguise and impersonation. He wrote seven epigrams on the topic of a lame beggar carried by a blind beggar, as if he were testing his ability to describe the situation in a variety of ways. He is able to capture a character in a redolent phrase and discern a human folly in an instant of perception. He is always observant, but always able to keep his distance. Some of the stenches and the more disagreeable sights of late medieval London are embedded within the verses; his aversion to the flesh is also clearly rendered, in epigrams condemning
‘coitu’
and
‘libidine’.
But all these themes are carefully and