Produced by Jonathan Ingram, Tapio Riikonen and Distributed Proofreaders BECKET AND OTHER PLAYS BY ALFRED LORD TENNYSON, POET LAUREATE CONTENTS BECKET THE CUP THE FALCON THE PROMISE OF MAY BECKET TO THE LORD CHANCELLOR, THE RIGHT HONOURABLE EARL OF SELBORNE. MY DEAR SELBORNE, _To you, the honoured 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 assured me--won your approbation. Ever yours_, TENNYSON. _DRAMATIS PERSONAE_. 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_. JOCELYN, _Bishop of Salisbury_. JOHN 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 REGINALD FITZURSE | SIR RICHARD DE BRITO | _the four knights of the King's_ SIR WILLIAM DE TRACY | _household, enemies of Becket_. SIR HUGH DE MORVILLE | DE BROC OF SALTWOOD CASTLE. LORD LEICESTER. PHILIP DE ELEEMOSYNA. TWO KNIGHT TEMPLARS. JOHN OF OXFORD (_called the Swearer_). ELEANOR OF AQUITAINE, _Queen of England (divorced from Louis of France)_. ROSAMUND DE CLIFFORD. MARGERY. _Knights, Monks, Beggars, etc_. PROLOGUE. _A Castle in Normandy. Interior of the Hall. Roofs of a City seen thro' Windows_. HENRY _and_ BECKET _at chess_. HENRY. So then our good Archbishop Theobald Lies dying. BECKET. I am grieved to know as much. HENRY. But we must have a mightier man than he For his successor. BECKET. Have you thought of one? HENRY. A cleric lately poison'd his own mother, And being brought before the courts of the Church, They but degraded him. I hope they whipt him. I would have hang'd him. BECKET. It is your move. HENRY. Well--there. [_Moves_. The Church in the pell-mell of Stephen's time Hath climb'd the throne and almost clutch'd the crown; But by the royal customs of our realm The Church should hold her baronies of me, Like other lords amenable to law. I'll have them written down and made the law. BECKET. My liege, I move my bishop. HENRY. And if I live, No man without my leave shall excommunicate My tenants or my household. BECKET. Look to your king. HENRY. No man without my leave shall cross the seas To set the Pope against me--I pray your pardon. BECKET. Well--will you move? HENRY. There. [_Moves_. BECKET. Check--you move so wildly. HENRY. There then! [_Moves_.