Murder in the Cathedral

By T. S. Eliot

T. S. Eliot's most famous drama, a retelling of the murder of the archbishop of Canterbury

Murder in the Cathedral, written for the Canterbury Festival in 1935, was one of T. S. Eliot’s first dramatic achievements, and it remains one of the great plays of the century. It takes as its subject matter the martyrdom of Thomas Becket, Archbishop of Canterbury, depicting the events that led to his assassination, in his own cathedral church, by the knights of Henry II in 1170. Like Greek drama, the play’s theme and form are rooted in religion, ritual purgation and renewal, and it was this return to the earliest sources of drama that brought poetry triumphantly back to the English stage at the time.

"The theatre is enriched by this poetic play of grave beauty and momentous decision." —The New York Times 

• Language: English
• Publisher: HarperCollins
• Release date: Feb 25, 2014
• ISBN: 9780547542607

T. S. Eliot

THOMAS STEARNS ELIOT was born in St Louis, Missouri, in 1888. He moved to England in 1914 and published his first book of poems in 1917. He received the Nobel Prize in Literature in 1948. Eliot died in 1965.

Book preview

Contents

Cover

Title Page

Part I

Interlude

Part II

Author’s Note

About the Author

Also by T. S. Eliot

Copyright

About the Publisher

Part I

★

Characters

A CHORUS OF WOMEN OF CANTERBURY

THREE PRIESTS OF THE CATHEDRAL

A MESSENGER

ARCHIBISHOP THOMAS BECKET

FOUR TEMPTERS

ATTENDANTS

The Scene is the Archbishop’s Hall, on December 2nd, 1170

CHORUS

Here let us stand, close by the cathedral. Here let us wait.

Are we drawn by danger? Is it the knowledge of safety, that draws our feet

Towards the cathedral? What danger can be

For us, the poor, the poor women of Canterbury? What tribulation

With which we are not already familiar? There is no danger

For us, and there is no safety in the cathedral. Some presage of an act

Which our eyes are compelled to witness, has forced our feet

Towards the cathedral. We are forced to bear witness.

Since golden October declined into sombre November

And the apples were gathered and stored, and the land became brown sharp points of death in a waste of water and mud,

The New Year waits, breathes, waits, whispers in darkness.

While the labourer kicks off a muddy boot and stretches his hand to the fire,

The New Year waits, destiny waits for the coming.

Who has stretched out his hand to the fire and remembered the Saints at All Hallows,

Remembered the martyrs and saints who wait? And who shall

Stretch out his hand to the fire, and deny his master? Who shall be warm

By the fire, and deny his master?

Seven years and the summer is over,

Seven years since the Archbishop left us,

He who was always kind to his people.

But it would not be well if he should return.

King rules or barons rule;

We have suffered various oppression,

But mostly we are left to our own devices,

And we are content if we are left alone.

We try to keep our households in order;

The merchant, shy and cautious, tries to compile a little fortune,

And the labourer bends to his piece of earth, earth-colour, his own colour,

Preferring to pass unobserved.

Now I fear disturbance of the quiet seasons:

Winter shall come bringing death from the sea.

Ruinous spring shall beat at our doors,

Root and shoot shall eat our eyes and our ears,

Disastrous summer burn up the beds of our streams

And the poor shall wait for another decaying October.

Why should the summer bring consolation

For autumn fires and winter fogs?

What shall we do in the heat of summer

But wait in barren orchards for another October?

Some malady is coming upon us. We wait, we wait,

And the saints and martyrs wait, for those who shall be martyrs and saints.

Destiny waits in the hand of God, shaping the still unshapen:

I have seen these things in a shaft of sunlight.

Destiny waits in the hand of God, not in the hands of statesmen

Who do, some well, some ill, planning and guessing,

Having their aims which turn in their hands in the pattern of time.

Come, happy December, who shall observe you, who shall preserve you?

Shall the Son of Man be born again in the litter of scorn?

For us, the poor, there is no action,

But only to wait and to witness.

[Enter PRIESTS.]

FIRST PRIEST

Seven years and the summer is over.

Seven years since the Archbishop left us.

SECOND PRIEST

What does the Archbishop do, and our Sovereign Lord the Pope

With the stubborn King and the French King

In ceaseless intrigue, combinations,

In conference, meetings accepted, meetings refused,

Meetings unended or endless

At one place or another in France?

THIRD PRIEST

I see nothing quite conclusive in the art of temporal government,

But violence, duplicity and frequent malversation.

King rules or barons rule:

The strong man strongly and the weak man by caprice.

They have but one law, to seize the power and keep it.

And the steadfast can manipulate the greed and lust of others,

The feeble is devoured by his own.

FIRST PRIEST

Shall these things not end

Until the poor at the gate

Have forgotten their friend, their Father in God, have forgotten

That they had a friend?

[Enter MESSENGER.]

MESSENGER

Servants of God, and watchers of the temple,

I am here to inform you, without circumlocution:

The Archbishop is in England, and is close outside the city.

I was

Reviews for Murder in the Cathedral

[keylawk · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

Can be staged or read as a closet drama. The chorus is "of Women", the players are three male cathedral priests, a messenger, Thomas Becket, four Tempters/Knights, and attendants. Set in the Hall of the Archbishop, Canterbury, December 2d, 1170.The chorus of women introduce themselves--"we are not ignorant women"-- and set the stage with particulars of the Archbishop's return to Canterbury, and ending with the question "Shall the Son of Man be born again in the litter of scorn? For us, the poor, there is no action, But only to wait and to witness."The play exposes the consequences--fear and chaos of entire peoples [20]--caused by the idiocy of tyrant Kings who engage in endless "intrigue, combinations", devouring their own people. [14] Becket is "tempted" by four Temptors: First, by friendships and kissing pleasures, then by power, and then by rough English unity against a tyrant King. Finally, by Mystery--the appeal of "eternal grandeur" as a martyr for the Church.The "Interlude" has the Archbishop preach a Christmas Sermon. The message highlights the cruel combination of celebration and grief engaged in the feast of celebration of the Savior's birth, who is at once mourned.The Priests express their devotion with ineffective (cowardly) tactical evasions--flight, perhaps back to France. The Knights kill Becket. And then "having completed the murder", they advance center stage and address the audience. They beg the audience to hear "the merits of this extremely complex problem" and proceed to make brilliant arguments justifying their action--stone cold murder!The Priests continue to make lame/ineffective invocations, and the Chorus returns to recite a great hymn to pantheism--"We praise Thee, O God, for Thy glory displayed in all the creatures of the earth..."! Of course, the dramatic but subtle takeaway may be the exposure of the fact that the entire world is foul. Even among the most conscious creatures, cruelties abound. The outcomes never, ever, never never never result in justice. "Our hearts are torn" even as they beat with life, and even the air and the stones of the world "cannot be cleaned or redeemed". [78]Does Faith provide space for Hope in this journey?

[scottjpearson · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

The greatest work of verse by the great American/English poet T.S. Eliot was not in a poem (though some readers of The Waste Land might disagree). It is surely Murder in the Cathedral. In a short play, Eliot shows his mastery of the British form of Church and State. In so doing, he sends a message that those who do not practice justice shall some day receive vengeance.

The story of the 12th-century Archbishop of Canterbury Thomas a Becket is well-known. He spoke out against a tyrannical King. The King of the English would not relent, so he killed Thomas in his cathedral. Thomas’ blood, however, spoke volumes about King Henry. His story later called to mind when another King Henry beheaded another Thomas (More) over the expedient English separation from Rome. This type of story is a reminder through the ages that ultimately, integrity trumps power. No one knows much of Henry II, but Thomas Becket’s story still speaks to English school-children.

Eliot was born in St. Louis but settled in England. He worshipped English culture with his whole heart. As an adult, he converted to Anglo-Catholicism and thereafter practiced his devotion until his death. While teaching at Harvard for a year, he came into contact with the idea that theater was the new venue of poetry. Out of these currents, he put together this play, for which he was awarded the Nobel Prize for Literature. The story is short; the tale is epic; the writing is clear; and the topic is masterful. Works like this simply make life more worthwhile.

[stbalbach_1 · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

Amazing poetry and performances. On the nature of ambition and opposition to authority. A perfect story for our times. I have access to six recordings of the performance (1938, 1953, 1968, 1976, 1983, 2003) and the version from 1953 with Robert Donat is the best IMO and critically acclaimed. I dipped into the others and they don't have the same gravity or are over-produced, though a wide variety of interpretive performances. The text is quite rich and the play rewards.

[jonfaith · Rating: 3 out of 5 stars]

Human kind cannot bear very much reality.

The structure of this play is gripping. The use of the chorus was very effective, whereas the depiction of a conflicted Becket in dialogue with his temptations could’ve been explored further. The absence of Henry II makes matters more human and inchoate. The state is thus shorn of personality. The debate of ideas and sacrifice reminded me of the debate surrounding Edward Snowden. Unfortunately I began to ponder and compare the fixed points of liberty and security and my attention drifted.

[jsburbidge · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

Not quite Eliot's initial foray into verse drama - "Sweeney Agonistes" has that status - and perhaps his most memorable one. Technically, it was unrepeatable, or at least, nobody, including Eliot, has tried to do so (its successors at Canterbury, by Sayers, Williams, Fry, et al. were far more conventional, as were Eliot's later plays). Eliot uses a chorus taken straight out of Greek drama, and marries it to a structure based tightly on that of the Western mass (down to an actual sermon at the sermon and a martyrdom at the point of the Eucharistic Sacrifice), followed by a Brechtian breaking of the fourth wall. The chorus lets Eliot use a more heightened poetic language than he could have gotten away with in its absence.And it works. It continues to be performed, and works well in performance (one could say "the theatre", but it tends to be performed in churches). On the page, it is as effective as any drama is outside of performance.A tour de force which, while it will never be part of the world's greatest drama, is easily a major work at he second rank. Considering that the first rank is Shakespeare, Sophocles, Racine, and so forth, this is still a major achievement.

[cbl_tn · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

Servant of God has chance of greater sinAnd sorrow, than the man who serves a king.For those who serve the greater cause may make the cause serve them,Still doing right: and striving with political menMay make that cause political, not by what they doBut by what they are.The drama opens with the return of Archbishop of Canterbury Thomas Becket from exile in December 1170. He is welcomed by the people of Canterbury and three priests, then visited by four tempters. He predicts his imminent martyrdom in his Christmas sermon. A few days later, four knights find and kill Thomas in Canterbury Cathedral.After the murder, the four knights draw the audience into the event through a direct appeal. They present their justification for the murder as if addressing a jury before dismissing the audience. However, the knights don't have the last word. The priests speak, and the chorus concludes with a corporate confession and plea for mercy.I listened to an audio production (the Old Vic Company with Robert Donat) while reading the text. It was a moving experience, akin to the best of Shakespeare. Highly recommended for anyone with an interest in Angevin history or church history.

[nickidemus · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

The Basics

An historical play written in verse that tells of the murder of the Archbishop of Canterbury in 1170.

My Thoughts

Talk about going outside of your comfort zone. I don't read a lot of poetry. I don't read a lot of plays. And I don't read a lot of historical fiction. That title, though. I couldn't resist that title. Also, T.S. Eliot is a famous poet, and I've read some of his more famous works, enough to make me intrigued when I see his name. In the end, what can I say? I enjoyed it.

There are some stories that, while the plot may be vaguely intriguing and you could cite only having somewhat of an interest in what goes on, the language makes it. The style and the poetry and the language are what makes this sing. Particularly the passages for the female chorus. I'm not saying the story isn't interesting, because it is. But it's also very basic. The Archbishop is in a bad position politically, he won't do what he's told by the higher-ups, so he dies. There are no surprises here, but the way Eliot chooses to tell the story, everything from word choices to the style of the play, makes up for a lot.

The one thing that felt like a completely bizarre choice on Eliot's part was a portion of the play when the knights step forward to tell their tale. It seemed humorous to me, and I can't honestly tell if it was supposed to be funny. That's maybe its weakest spot, but it's a nitpick when really I was reading this play to experience some great poetry, and I received that.

Final Rating

4/5

[lerrold · Rating: 3 out of 5 stars]

A very interesting and short play, it may seem like plain history at first, but after a little research you will learn about its deep connection to the world in which T.S. Eliot lived.

[p_s_patrick · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

At only 72 pages, this is a relatively short play, shorter than most of Shakespeare's, and was easily read in one sitting. The title refers to the historical murder of Archbishop of Canterbury, Thomas a Beckett, who most of us will remember from our school history lessons. An interesting point occurs when Thomas is temptated to accept his future martyrdom in his own self interest in future glory in heaven - doing the right thing for the wrong reason. It is not clear whether he overcomes this at the end. The way the chorus was used made this much more like a Greek tragedy than a Shakespearian one, specifically how they warn of the forthcoming doom, and lament. I suspect this was intentional, but does give this play a feeling that is unusual for an English work.The writing itself varied between quite good and average. There were some lines that had a real poetry about them and stood out, but other sections that seemed more mundane. I haven't read any of his other plays so I don't know if it is one of the better ones or not. There was far less depth here than in a typical Shakespeare play, and none of the comedy that is even found in several of the tradgedies, it was much more serious.

[peterout · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

To be honest, I only began reading this for summer reading. Being generally not fond of plays, I'm surprised I even liked Murder in the Cathedral. It's brilliant written.Generally I'm not fond of books with a heavy, depressing tone—I stopped reading Oliver Twist for this reason. But Eliot reduced the depressing tone through the play's evocative language, such as this:To-day, what is to-day? For the day is half gone.To-day, what is to-day? But another day, the dusk of the year.To-day, what is to-day? Another night, and another dawn.Put in an eloquent way, the mood was nonetheless depressing but prevented my loathing and created fondness instead.I also particularly liked the Chorus' use of "Living and partly living" to describe their difficult lives after Becket left for France—I could relate to that. I thought it a poignant way to describe their hardship.Compared to the only other play I've read—Shakespeare's A Midsummer Night's Dream—Murder in the Cathedral was much more engaging and easy to understand. It surprised me that I enjoyed myself reading a play.

[bookworm12_1 · Rating: 2 out of 5 stars]

I’d heard the story of the troublesome Archbishop of Canterbury, Thomas Becket, from a variety of sources. My first introduction to it was from a guide while visiting the Canterbury cathedral, where Becket was murdered. Later I read a slightly fictionalized version of the event in Ken Follett’s The Pillars of the Earth. So, before I picked up Eliot’s play version I had a good idea of how it would unfold and was already interested in the material. The Archbishop was embroiled in a disagreement with the king of England, Henry II, and was assassinated in 1170. That infamous line, “Will no one rid of me this turbulent priest?” was supposedly said by Henry II in reference to Becket. Four knights interpreted that as a command and traveled to Canterbury to kill him. Sounds pretty thrilling right? A priest standing up against a king, that king (inadvertently or not) having him killed, then the priest is canonized. That’s a lot of action, yet somehow Eliot turns it into one of the most boring plays I’ve ever read. In the play Becket is tempted to abandon his stance in a similar way to Christ’s temptation in the Bible. He gives sermons and pontificates and I completely lost interest. I read the whole play, but I wouldn’t recommend it. Maybe this is one that needs to be seen and not read.

[g026r · Rating: 3 out of 5 stars]

As poetry it's wonderful, though I'm still not quite certain of it as drama. Particularly, though I know that Eliot felt he had accomplished his task, I'm not sold on the Fourth Tempter. To be precise, I'm not certain that he ever really addressed/countered those arguments to a degree necessary to come to the conclusions that Eliot wished the viewer to come to.The notes in my edition, however, are more than a little slavish in their devotion to the author. I really could have done without the appendix that could be boiled down to a long essay explaining just how Tennyson's attempt at a Beckett play was poor art, for instance.

[jacketscoversread · Rating: 1 out of 5 stars]

I do much better when I can see a play rather than read it, and Murder in the Cathedral is one I definitely needed to see. In fact, Murder in the Cathedral was one of the harder plays for me to read, and I think it would have helped if I had at least listened to it on tape because then I could hear the different voices.As is it, Murder in the Cathedral was hard to visualize, and I spent most of my time being lost in the language rather than the plot. I finished it and immediately asked, “okay…what happened?”I guess it’s just another play I need to see rather than read.

[mrslee_1 · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

Very satisfying. Easy to hear the music of Andrew Lloyd Webber as you read this. Some very profound thoughts about life and purpose in this. I liked it a lot.