Murder in the Cathedral

Thirteenth-century manuscript illumination depicting Becket's assassination

Murder in the Cathedral is a verse drama by T. S. Eliot, first performed in 1935 (published the same year). The play portrays the assassination of Archbishop Thomas Becket in Canterbury Cathedral during the reign of Henry II in 1170. Eliot drew heavily on the writing of Edward Grim, a clerk who was an eyewitness to the event.[1]

Some material that the producer asked Eliot to remove or replace during the writing was transformed into the poem "Burnt Norton".[2]

  1. ^ "Thomas Becket and Henry II". BBC.
  2. ^ Eliot, T.S., New York Times Book Review, 29 November 1953
    Cited and quoted in: T.S. Eliot: Four Quartets, A casebook edited by Bernard Bergonzi, Macmillan, London, 1969, page 23

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