Matthew, More's steward, who is also the Common Man, drinks some of More's wine. More realizes this and does not get upset, but merely comments that he hopes it was good.

This seemingly minor incident is important because it helps characterize More. He is not simply a rigid, moralistic martyr who will get upset at any tiny transgression. He is not inherently judgmental. In fact, on the contrary, he is a person familiar with the ways of the world, a man who has gotten along in it and been successful because he is able to use commonsense and show he has a sense of humor. More reveals that his empathy with the common person and is willing to forgive.

This incident highlights the fact that More really believes in what he is doing in opposing the king. He is not a rigid moralist, and he is willing to bend on little things, but on important acts of conscience, such as staying faithful to the Roman Catholic church, he will not bend. We learn from the wine incident that if More can bend morally, he does--but in the case of taking an oath of allegiance to Henry VIII as head of the church he cannot do it: he might not sweat the small stuff, but he does stand firm on the big issues.

In the very first scene of the play Sir Thomas More's steward Matthew sneakily helps himself to a drop of wine. Matthew is just one of many disguises adopted throughout A Man for all Seasons by The Common Man, who is both narrator and character. The Common Man carts around a basket full of costumes that he puts on to become different people at various points in the play.

Matthew is The Common Man's first incarnation. By helping himself to some wine, he's blatantly defying existing social convention. A wine steward's job is to serve wine, not drink it. Although this is supposed to be the age of The Common Man, Tudor society is still rigidly hierarchical, and the lower orders must know their place. Sir Thomas More, as a nobleman, is all too aware of this fact of life. Yet although he knows full well that Matthew has had a sneaky sip of wine, and that this is simply not acceptable behavior for a humble servant, Sir Thomas merely asks Matthew if the wine was good. This shows us that Sir Thomas—as he's presented in the play, at any rate—is a fundamentally decent individual with a wry sense of humor. The incident also foreshadows Sir Thomas's own transgressions as a servant in his defiance of the will of King Henry VIII. In letting Matthew's little challenge to his own authority slide, Sir Thomas demonstrates his integrity and lack of hypocrisy.

In Robert Bolt's A Man for All Seasons, Thomas More, Chancellor of England and eventual martyr, is a multi-faceted character: Alternatively  beguiling, incisive, authoritative, and pious, More is also witty. In fact this is the first character trait the audience encounters. As the play opens, the Common Man in the guise of Matthew, the Steward for the More household, treats himself to some of the wine he is putting out for his master and then introduces him as he enters the scene. More mirthfully asks Matthew how the wine tastes, knowing full well he has overstepped the decorum of the household by sampling some. Here, at the outset, the audience neatly grasps More's humanity in his humour. In fact, later on in Act I, More insists that it is the responsibility of man to serve God 'wittily', by which he means that he must elude (outwit) death as long as it is lawful or legitimate for him to do so. As the machiavellian politics of the kingdom close in around More, first depriving him of his office, then his freedom, and finally his life, it is as much his wit as his holiness which show forth his heroism.