Becket and other playsTennyson, Alfred Tennyson, Baron
General
Becket and other plays
Tennyson, Alfred Tennyson, Baron
Drama; Thomas, à Becket, Saint, 1118?-1170 -- Drama
BECKET.
Mock me not. I am not even a monk.
Thy jest--no more. Why--look--is this a sleeve
For an archbishop?
HENRY.
But the arm within
Is Becket's, who hath beaten down my foes.
BECKET.
A soldier's, not a spiritual arm.
HENRY.
I lack a spiritual soldier, Thomas--
A man of this world and the next to boot.
BECKET.
There's Gilbert Foliot.
HENRY.
He! too thin, too thin.
Thou art the man to fill out the Church robe;
Your Foliot fasts and fawns too much for me.
BECKET.
Roger of York.
HENRY.
Roger is Roger of York.
King, Church, and State to him but foils wherein
To set that precious jewel, Roger of York.
No.
BECKET.
Henry of Winchester?
HENRY.
Him who crown'd Stephen--
King Stephen's brother! No; too royal for me.
And I'll have no more Anselms.
BECKET.
Sire, the business
Of thy whole kingdom waits me: let me go.
HENRY.
Answer me first.
BECKET.
Then for thy barren jest
Take thou mine answer in bare commonplace--
_Nolo episcopari_.
HENRY.
Ay, but _Nolo
Archiepiscopari_, my good friend,
Is quite another matter.
BECKET.
A more awful one.
Make _me_ archbishop! Why, my liege, I know
Some three or four poor priests a thousand times
Fitter for this grand function. _Me_ archbishop!
God's favour and king's favour might so clash
That thou and I----That were a jest indeed!
HENRY.
Thou angerest me, man: I do not jest.
_Enter_ ELEANOR _and_ SIR REGINALD FITZURSE.
ELEANOR (_singing_).
Over! the sweet summer closes,
The reign of the roses is done--
HENRY (_to_ BECKET, _who is going_).
Thou shalt not go. I have not ended with thee.
ELEANOR (_seeing chart on table_).
This chart with the red line! her bower! whose bower?
HENRY.
The chart is not mine, but Becket's: take it, Thomas.
ELEANOR.
Becket! O--ay--and these chessmen on the floor--the king's crown
broken! Becket hath beaten thee again--and thou hast kicked down the
board. I know thee of old.
HENRY.
True enough, my mind was set upon other matters.
ELEANOR.
What matters? State matters? love matters?
HENRY.
My love for thee, and thine for me.
ELEANOR.
Over! the sweet summer closes,
The reign of the roses is done;
Over and gone with the roses,
And over and gone with the sun.
Here; but our sun in Aquitaine lasts longer. I would I were in
Aquitaine again--your north chills me.
Over! the sweet summer closes,
And never a flower at the close;
Over and gone with the roses,
And winter again and the snows.
That was not the way I ended it first--but unsymmetrically,
preposterously, illogically, out of passion, without art--like a song
of the people. Will you have it? The last Parthian shaft of a forlorn
Cupid at the King's left breast, and all left-handedness and
under-handedness.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
Reviews
Reviews
No reviews yet
Be the first to share your thoughts on this work.
Join the Discussion
Join the discussion
Sign in to leave a comment or review.
Sign InorCreate an account