Becket: "Knowledge comes, but wisdom lingers."

By Alfred Lord Tennyson

Alfred Tennyson was born on August 6th, 1809, in Somersby, Lincolnshire, the fourth of twelve children. Most of Tennyson's early education was under the direction of his father, although he did spend four unhappy years at a nearby grammar school. He left home in 1827 to join his elder brothers at Trinity College, Cambridge, more to escape his father than a desire for serious academic work. At Trinity he was living for the first time among young men of his own age who knew little of his problems. He was delighted to make new friends; he was handsome, intelligent, humorous, a gifted impersonator and soon at the center of those interested in poetry and conversation. That same year, he and his brother Charles published Poems by Two Brothers. Although the poems in the book were of teenage quality, they attracted the attention of the “Apostles," a select undergraduate literary club led by Arthur Hallam. The “Apostles” provided Tennyson with friendship and confidence. Hallam and Tennyson became the best of friends; they toured Europe together in 1830 and again in 1832. Hallam’s sudden death in 1833 greatly affected the young poet. The long elegy In Memoriam and many of Tennyson’s other poems are tributes to Hallam. In 1830, Tennyson published Poems, Chiefly Lyrical and in 1832 he published a second volume entitled simply Poems. Some reviewers condemned these books as “affected” and “obscure.” Tennyson, stung by the reviews, would not publish another book for nine years. In 1836, he became engaged to Emily Sellwood. When he lost his inheritance on a failed investment in 1840, the engagement was cancelled. In 1842, however, Tennyson’s Poems [in two volumes] was a tremendous critical and popular success. In 1850, with the publication of In Memoriam, Tennyson’s reputation was pre-eminent. He was also selected as Poet Laureate in succession to Wordsworth and, to complete a wonderful year, he married Emily Sellwood. At the age of 41, Tennyson had established himself as the most popular poet of the Victorian era. The money from his poetry [at times exceeding 10,000 pounds per year] allowed him to purchase a home in the country and to write in relative seclusion. His appearance—a large and bearded man, he regularly wore a cloak and a broad brimmed hat—enhanced his notoriety. In 1859, Tennyson published the first poems of Idylls of the Kings, which sold more than 10,000 copies in a fortnight. In 1884, he accepted a peerage, becoming Alfred Lord Tennyson. On October 6th, 1892, an hour or so after midnight, surrounded by his family, he died at Aldworth. It is said that the moonlight was streaming through the window and Tennyson himself was holding open a volume of Shakespeare. He was buried in Westminster Abbey.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Copyright Group
• Release date: Mar 1, 2017
• ISBN: 9781785438516

Alfred Lord Tennyson

Alfred, Lord Tennyson (1809-1892) was a British poet. Born into a middle-class family in Somersby, England, Tennyson began writing poems with his brothers as a teenager. In 1827, he entered Trinity College, Cambridge, joining a secret society known as the Cambridge Apostles and publishing his first book of poems, a collection of juvenile verse written by Tennyson and his brother Charles. He was awarded the Chancellor’s Gold Medal in 1829 for his poem “Timbuktu” and, in 1830, published Poems Chiefly Lyrical, his debut individual collection. Following the death of his father in 1831, Tennyson withdrew from Cambridge to care for his family. His second volume of poems, The Lady of Shalott (1833), was a critical and commercial failure that put his career on hold for the next decade. That same year, Tennyson’s friend Arthur Hallam died from a stroke while on holiday in Vienna, an event that shook the young poet and formed the inspiration for his masterpiece, In Memoriam A.H.H. (1850). The poem, a long sequence of elegiac lyrics exploring themes of loss and mourning, helped secure Tennyson the position of Poet Laureate, to which he was appointed in 1850 following the death of William Wordsworth. Tennyson would hold the position until the end of his life, making his the longest tenure in British history. With most of his best work behind him, Tennyson continued to write and publish poems, many of which adhered to the requirements of his position by focusing on political and historical themes relevant to the British royal family and peerage. An important bridge between Romanticism and the Pre-Raphaelites, Tennyson remains one of Britain’s most popular and influential poets.

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Becket by Lord Alfred Tennyson

Alfred Tennyson was born on August 6th, 1809, in Somersby, Lincolnshire, the fourth of twelve children.

Most of Tennyson's early education was under the direction of his father, although he did spend four unhappy years at a nearby grammar school. He left home in 1827 to join his elder brothers at Trinity College, Cambridge, more to escape his father than a desire for serious academic work. At Trinity he was living for the first time among young men of his own age who knew little of his problems. He was delighted to make new friends; he was handsome, intelligent, humorous, a gifted impersonator and soon at the center of those interested in poetry and conversation.

That same year, he and his brother Charles published Poems by Two Brothers. Although the poems in the book were of teenage quality, they attracted the attention of the Apostles, a select undergraduate literary club led by Arthur Hallam. The Apostles provided Tennyson with friendship and confidence. Hallam and Tennyson became the best of friends; they toured Europe together in 1830 and again in 1832. Hallam’s sudden death in 1833 greatly affected the young poet. The long elegy In Memoriam and many of Tennyson’s other poems are tributes to Hallam.

In 1830, Tennyson published Poems, Chiefly Lyrical and in 1832 he published a second volume entitled simply Poems. Some reviewers condemned these books as affected and obscure. Tennyson, stung by the reviews, would not publish another book for nine years.

In 1836, he became engaged to Emily Sellwood. When he lost his inheritance on a failed investment in 1840, the engagement was cancelled.

In 1842, however, Tennyson’s Poems (in two volumes) was a tremendous critical and popular success. In 1850, with the publication of In Memoriam, Tennyson’s reputation was pre-eminent. He was also selected as Poet Laureate in succession to Wordsworth and, to complete a wonderful year, he married Emily Sellwood.

At the age of 41, Tennyson had established himself as the most popular poet of the Victorian era. The money from his poetry (at times exceeding 10,000 pounds per year) allowed him to purchase a home in the country and to write in relative seclusion. His appearance—a large and bearded man, he regularly wore a cloak and a broad brimmed hat—enhanced his notoriety. 

In 1859, Tennyson published the first poems of Idylls of the Kings, which sold more than 10,000 copies in a fortnight. In 1884, he accepted a peerage, becoming Alfred Lord Tennyson.

On October 6th, 1892, an hour or so after midnight, surrounded by his family, he died at Aldworth.  It is said that the moonlight was streaming through the window and Tennyson himself was holding open a volume of Shakespeare.

He was buried in Westminster Abbey.

Index of Contents

DRAMATIS PERSONAE

PROLOGUE

ACT I

SCENE I

SCENE II—Street in Northampton leading to the Castle.

SCENE III—The Hall in Northampton Castle.

SCENE IV—Refectory of the Monastery at Northampton. A Banquet on the Tables.

ACT II

SCENE I

SCENE II

ACT III

SCENE I

SCENE II

SCENE III

ACT IV

SCENE I

SCENE II

ACT V

SCENE I

SCENE II

SCENE III

ALFRED LORD TENNYSON – A SHORT BIOGRAPHY

ALFRED LORD TENNYSON – A CONCISE BIBLIOGRAPHY

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 household, enemies of BECKET

SIR HUGH DE MORVILLE }

SIR WILLIAM DE TRACY }

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.

BECKET

Why—there then, for you see my bishop, hath brought your king to a standstill. You are beaten.

HENRY (kicks over the board).

Why, there then—down go bishop and king together. I loathe being beaten; had I fixt my fancy

Upon the game I should have beaten thee, But that was vagabond.

BECKET

Where, my liege? 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 not wedded to her?

BECKET

How should I know?

HENRY

That is my secret, Thomas.

BECKET

State secrets should be patent to the statesman, 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.

BECKET

St. Denis, that thou shouldst not. I should beat thy kingship as my bishop hath beaten it.

HENRY

Hell take thy bishop then, and my kingship too! Come, come, I love thee and I know thee,

I know thee, a doter on white pheasant flesh at feasts, A sauce deviser for thy days of fish,

A dish designer, and most amorous, of good old red sound liberal Gascon wine:

Will not thy body rebel, man, if thou flatter it?

BECKET

That palate is insane which cannot tell a good dish from a bad, new wine from old.

HENRY

Well, who loves wine loves woman.

BECKET

So I do. Men are God's trees, and women are God's flowers; and when the Gascon wine mounts to my head, The trees are all the statelier, and the flowers are all the fairer.

HENRY

And thy thoughts, thy fancies?

BECKET

Good dogs, my liege, well train'd, and easily call'd off from the game.

HENRY

Save for some once or twice, when they ran down the game and worried it.

BECKET

No, my liege, no!—not once—in God's name, no!

HENRY

Nay, then, I take thee at thy word—believe thee

The veriest Galahad of old Arthur's hall.

And so this Rosamund, my true heart wife,

Not Eleanor—she whom I love indeed

As a woman should be loved—Why dost thou smile

So dolorously?

BECKET

My good liege, if a man

Wastes himself among women, how should he love

A woman, as a woman should be loved?

HENRY

How shouldst thou know that never hast loved one?

Come, I would give her to thy care in England

When I am out in Normandy or Anjou.

BECKET

My lord, I am your subject, not your—

HENRY

Pander.

God's eyes! I know all that—not my purveyor

Of pleasures, but to save a life—her life;

Ay, and the soul of Eleanor from hell fire.

I have built a secret bower in England, Thomas,

A nest in a bush.

BECKET

And where, my liege?

HENRY (whispers).

Thine ear.

BECKET

That's lone enough.

HENRY (laying paper on table).

This chart here mark'd 'Her Bower,'

Take, keep it, friend. See, first, a circling wood,

A hundred pathways running everyway,

And then a brook, a bridge; and after that

This labyrinthine brickwork maze in maze,

And then another wood, and in the midst

A garden and my Rosamund. Look, this line—

The rest you see is colour'd green—but this

Draws thro' the chart to her.

BECKET

This blood red line?

HENRY

Ay! blood, perchance, except thou see to her.

BECKET

And