BECKET. TO THE LORD CHANCELLOR, THE RIGHT HONORABLE EARL OF SELBORNE. - MY DEAR SELBORNE, To you, the honored Chancellor of our own day, I dedicate this dramatic memorial of your great predecessor; — which, altho' not intended in its present form to meet the exigencies of our modern theatre, has nevertheless-for so you have Ever yours, assured me won your approbation. TENNYSON. DRAMATIS PERSONE. HENRY II. (son of the Earl of Anjou). THOMAS BECKET, Chancellor of England, afterwards Archbishop of Canterbury. GILBERT FOLIOT, Bishop of London. ROGER, Archbishop of York. Bishop of Hereford. HILARY, Bishop of Chichester. JOHN OF SALISBURY JOCELYN, Bishop of Salisbury. HERBERT OF BOSHAM friends of Becket. WALTER MAP, reputed author of " Golias," Latin poems against the priesthood. KING LOUIS OF FRANCE. GEOFFREY, son of Rosamund and Henry. GRIM, a monk of Cambridge. SIR HUGH de Morville the four knights of the King's household, enemies of DE BROC OF SALTWOOD CASTLE. LORD LEICESTER. PHILIP DE ELEEMOSYNA. TWO KNIGHT TEMPLARS. JOHN OF OXFORD (called the Swearer). Becket. ELEANOR OF AQUITAINE, Queen of England (divorced from Louis of France). ROSAMUND De Clifford. MARGERY. Knights, Monks, Beggars, etc. With Phryne, Or Lais, or thy Rosamund, or another? Henry. My Rosamund is no Lais, Thomas Becket; And yet she plagues me too - no fault in her — But that I fear the Queen would have her life. Becket. Put her away, put her away, my liege! Put her away into a nunnery! Safe enough there from her to whom thou art bound By Holy Church. And wherefore should she seek The life of Rosamund de Clifford more Than that of other paramours of thine ? Henry. How dost thou know I am Who serves and loves his king, and whom the king Loves not as statesman, but true lover and friend. Henry. Come, come, thou art but deacon, not yet bishop, No, nor archbishop, nor my confessor yet. I would to God thou wert, for I should find An easy father confessor in thee. beaten it. |