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Murder in the Cathedral

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]

For the films, see Murder in the Cathedral (1951 film), Murder in the Cathedral (1962 film), and Murder in the Cathedral (2020 film).

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

1938 by Columbia Workshop (abridged for radio)

Reynolds Evans

1953 by Angel Records

Robert Donat

1968 by Caedmon Records

Paul Scofield

1976 of The Royal Shakespeare Company by Argo Records

Richard Pasco

1988 by BBC Radio 4 broadcast

Peter Barkworth

Criticism by Eliot[edit]

In 1951, in the first Theodore Spencer Memorial Lecture at Harvard University, Eliot criticised his own plays in the second half of the lecture, explicitly the plays Murder in the Cathedral, The Family Reunion, and The Cocktail Party. The lecture was published as Poetry and Drama and later included in Eliot's 1957 collection On Poetry and Poets.

. The Making of T.S. Eliot's Plays. London: Cambridge University Press, 1969.

Browne, E. Martin

Browne, E. Martin. "T.S. Eliot in the Theatre: The Director's Memories", T. S. Eliot – The Man and His Work, (ed), Delta, New York, 1966

Tate, Allen

Hoellering, George. "Filming Murder in the Cathedral." T.S. Eliot: A Symposium for His Seventieth Birthday. Ed. Neville Braybrooke. New York: Books for Libraries, 1968. pp. 81–84

"Eliot and His Age: T. S. Eliot Moral Imagination in the Twentieth Century". Wilmington: ISI Books, 2nd Edition, 2008.

Russell Kirk

. "With Becket in Murder in the Cathedral", T. S. Eliot – The Man and His Work, Tate, Allen (ed), Delta, New York, 1966.

Robert Speaight

Roy, Pinaki. “Murder in the Cathedral: Revisiting the History of Becket’s Assassination”. T.S. Eliot’s ‘Murder in the Cathedral’: A Critical Spectrum. Eds. Saha, N., and S. Ghosh (Sanyal). : Books Way, 2014 (ISBN 978-93-81672-74-7). Pp. 45-52.

Kolkata

Colella, Massimo, «Vivendo e in parte vivendo». Fenoglio traduttore di Eliot, in «Italianistica», XLIII, 2, 2014, pp. 145-151.

at Faded Page (Canada)

Murder in the Cathedral

Edward Grim's account of the murder of Thomas Becket from his

Life of Thomas Becket

at the British Film Institute

Canterbury 1935:Murder in the Cathedral