Becket

Becket (Becket, ou l'Honneur de Dieu)

    Alternative Title: The Hono(u)r of God

    Author: Jean Anouilh

    First Performance: 1959, Paris

    Published: 1959

    First English Translation: 1961

    Genre: Trag. in 4 acts; French prose

    Setting: England and France, mid-12th c.

    Cast: 17m, 3f, extras

In Canterbury Cathedral, where Thomas Becket was martyred, Henry II is being scourged by four monks as a penance for the murder. In a flashback we see Henry appointing Becket as chancellor. They go hunting together, and Henry hands over a poor Saxon girl to Becket, calling in the debt by taking Becket's mistress, who stabs herself in his bed. Becket, concerned about his honour, ponders why he as a Saxon is serving a Norman king. In France, Henry decides to appoint Thomas archbishop,...

[The entire page is 373 words long]

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