Complete Poems and Plays (32 page)

King; in rebellion to the King and the law of the land;

You are the Archbishop who was made by the King; whom he set

in your place to carry out his command.

You are his servant, his tool, and his jack,

You wore his favours on your back,

You had your honours all from his hand; from him you had the

power, the seal and the ring.

This is the man who was the tradesman’s son: the backstairs brat

who was born in Cheapside;

This is the creature that crawled upon the King; swollen with

blood and swollen with pride.

Creeping out of the London dirt,

Crawling up like a louse on your shirt,

The man who cheated, swindled, lied; broke his oath and betrayed

his King.

T
HOMAS
.
This is not true.

Both before and after I received the ring

I have been a loyal subject to the King.

Saving my order, I am at his command,

As his most faithful vassal in the land.

F
IRST
K
NIGHT
.
Saving your order! let your order save you —

As I do not think it is like to do.

Saving your ambition is what you mean,

Saving your pride, envy and spleen.

S
ECOND
K
NIGHT
.
Saving your insolence and greed.

Won’t you ask us to pray to God for you, in your need?

T
H
IRD
K
NIGHT
.
Yes, we’ll pray for you!

F
IRST
K
NIGHT
.
                                          Yes, we’ll pray for you!

T
HE
T
HREE
K
NIGHTS
.
Yes, we’ll pray that God may help you!

T
HOMAS
.
But, gentlemen, your business

Which you said so urgent, is it only

Scolding and blaspheming?

F
IRST
K
NIGHT
.
                          That was only

Our indignation, as loyal subjects.

T
HOMAS
.
Loyal? to whom?

F
IRST
K
NIGHT
.
                     To the King!

S
ECOND
K
NIGHT
.
                                        The King!

T
HIRD
K
NIGHT
.
The King!

T
HE
T
HREE
K
NIGHTS
.
         God bless him!

T
HOMAS
.
Then let your new coat of loyalty be worn

Carefully, so it get not soiled or torn.

Have you something to say?

F
IRST
K
NIGHT
.
                            By the King’s command.

Shall we say it now?

S
ECOND
K
NIGHT
.
          Without delay,

Before the old fox is off and away.

T
HOMAS
.
                                               What you have to say

By the King’s command — if it be the King’s command —

Should be said in public. If you make charges,

Then in public I will refute them.

F
IRST
K
NIGHT
.
                                   No! here and now!

[
They
make
to
attack
him,
but
the
priests
and
attendants
return
and
quietly
interpose
themselves.
]

T
HOMAS
.
Now and here!

F
IRST
K
NIGHT
.
Of your earlier misdeeds I shall make no mention.

They are too well known. But after dissension

Had ended, in France, and you were endued

With your former privilege, how did you show your gratitude?

You had fled from England, not exiled

Or threatened, mind you; but in the hope

Of stirring up trouble in the French dominions.

You sowed strife abroad, you reviled

The King to the King of France, to the Pope,

Raising up against him false opinions.

S
ECOND
K
NIGHT
.
Yet the King, out of his charity.

And urged by your friends, offered clemency.

Made a pact of peace, and all dispute ended

Sent you back to your See as you demanded.

T
HIRD
K
NIGHT
.
And burying the memory of your transgressions

Restored your honours and your possessions.

All was granted for which you sued:

Yet how, I repeat, did you show your gratitude?

F
IRST
K
NIGHT
.
Suspending those who had crowned the young prince,

Denying the legality of his coronation.

S
ECOND
K
NIGHT
.
Binding with the chains of anathema.

T
HIRD
K
NIGHT
.
Using every means in your power to evince

The King’s faithful servants, every one who transacts

His business in his absence, the business of the nation.

F
IRST
K
NIGHT
.
These are the facts.

Say therefore if you will be content

To answer in the King’s presence. Therefore were we sent.

T
HOMAS
.
Never was it my wish

To uncrown the King’s son, or to diminish

His honour and power. Why should he wish

To deprive my people of me and keep me from my own

And bid me sit in Canterbury, alone?

I would wish him three crowns rather than one,

And as for the bishops, it is not my yoke

That is laid upon them, or mine to revoke.

Let them go to the Pope. It was he who condemned them.

F
IRST
K
NIGHT
.
Through you they were suspended.

S
ECOND
K
NIGHT
.
                                                      By you be this amended.

T
HIRD
K
NIGHT
.
Absolve them.

F
IRST
K
NIGHT
.
                            Absolve them.

T
HOMAS
.
                                                                I do not deny

That this was done through me. But it is not I

Who can loose whom the Pope has bound.

Let them go to him, upon whom redounds

Their contempt towards me, their contempt towards the Church

shown.

F
IRST
K
NIGHT
.
Be that as it may, here is the King’s command:

That you and your servants depart from this land.

T
HOMAS
.
If that
is
the King’s command, I will be bold

To say: seven years were my people without

My presence; seven years of misery and pain.

Seven years a mendicant on foreign charity

I lingered abroad: seven years is no brevity.

I shall not get those seven years back again.

Never again, you must make no doubt,

Shall the sea run between the shepherd and his fold.

F
IRST
K
NIGHT
.
The King’s justice, the King’s majesty,

You insult with gross indignity;

Insolent madman, whom nothing deters

From attainting his servants and ministers.

T
HOMAS
.
It is not I who insult the King,

And there is higher than I or the King.

It is not I, Becket from Cheapside,

It is not against me, Becket, that you strive.

It is not Becket who pronounces doom,

But the Law of Christ’s Church, the judgement of Rome.

F
IRST
K
NIGHT
.
Priest, you have spoken in peril of your life.

S
ECOND
K
NIGHT
.
Priest, you have spoken in danger of the knife.

T
HIRD
K
NIGHT
.
Priest, you have spoken treachery and treason.

T
HE
T
HREE
K
NIGHTS
.
Priest! traitor, confirmed in malfeasance.

T
HOMAS
.
I submit my cause to the judgement of Rome.

But if you kill me, I shall rise from my tomb

To submit my cause before God’s throne.

[
Exit
]

F
OURTH
K
NIGHT
.
Priest! monk! and servant! take, hold, detain,

Restrain this man, in the King’s name.

F
IRST
K
NIGHT
.
Or answer with your bodies.

S
ECOND
K
NIGHT
.
                                            Enough of words.

T
HE
F
OUR
K
NIGHTS
.
We come for the King’s justice, we come with

swords.

[
Exeunt
]

C
HORUS
.
I have smelt them, the death-bringers, senses are quickened

By subtile forebodings; I have heard

Fluting in the night-time, fluting and owls, have seen at noon

Scaly wings slanting over, huge and ridiculous. I have tasted

The savour of putrid flesh in the spoon. I have felt

The heaving of earth at nightfall, restless, absurd. I have heard