Part II

Christmas time has passed. Four knights come to Canterbury on urgent business. They refuse all hospitality. They state charges against Becket, saying that he owes all of his influence to the king. The knights try to attack Becket, but the priests and the attendants prevent the attack. The charges that Becket had gone to France to get the King of France and then the pope’s support are promoted in public. King Henry is portrayed to the public as permitting Becket’s return with Becket repaying him by excommunicating the bishops who had crowned the young prince which put the legality of the coronation in doubt. The knights pronounce Becket’s sentence: he and his followers must leave English soil. Becket’s reply: He would never leave England again; he was only carrying out the pope’s orders in excommunicating the bishops. In the cathedral, the knights slew Becket.

The knights give their rationales: It may look like four against one, but… The four knights would NOT benefit from the murder. The king, for reasons of state, would deplore the incident, and the knights would at least be banished from England. It was really hard for a good churchman to kill an archbishop.

The knights’ rationales continued: Since Becket had been an able chancellor, the king had hoped, in elevating him to the archbishopric, to unite temporal and spiritual rule and to bring order to a troubled kingdom. As soon as Becket was elevated, he became more priestly than the priests AND refused to follow the king’s orders.

The knights’ rationales continued: Becket had become egotistical. Becket had prophesied his death in England. Becket was determined to suffer a martyr’s fate. The public should conclude that Becket had committed suicide while of an unsound mind. After the knights left, the priests and populace mourned. Their only solace was that so long as men will die for faith, the Church will be supreme.

John Osborne. Look Back in Anger

Jon Osborne was born in London of working class parents. His father died when he was 12. He left school very early and worked as a journalist.He worked as an actor and then as a playwright. 1955 he wrote Look Back in Anger (26 years old). The play was performed in 1956 and had a great success.