Becket and other plays

CONTENTS

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 .
ACT ONE.
SCENE I.—BECKET'S House in London. Chamber barely furnished . BECKET unrobing . HERBERT OF BOSHAM and SERVANT.
SCENE II.— Street in Northampton leading to the Castle . ELEANOR'S RETAINERS and BECKET'S RETAINERS fighting. Enter ELEANOR and BECKET from opposite streets .