Becket

This article is about the 1959 play. For other uses, see Becket (disambiguation).
Becket
Original titleBecket ou l'honneur de Dieu (literally "Becket, or the honour of god")
Written byJean Anouilh
Characters
  • Thomas Becket
  • King Henry II
  • King Louis VII
  • Cardinal Zambelli
  • Pope Alexander III
  • Bishop Folliot
  • Brother John
  • Empress Matilda
  • Eleanor of Aquitaine
  • Prince Henry
  • Prince John
Date premiered8 October 1959
Place premieredTheatre Montparnasse
Original languageFrench
SubjectBecket controversy
GenreHistorical drama
Setting12th-century Europe

Becket or The Honour of God (French: Becket ou l'honneur de Dieu), often shortened to Becket, is a 1959 stage play written in French by Jean Anouilh. It is a depiction of the conflict between Thomas Becket and King Henry II of England leading to Becket's assassination in 1170.[1] It contains many historical inaccuracies, which the author acknowledged.[2][3][4]

  1. ^ Pfeiffer, Lee (February 11, 2011). "Becket: film by Glenville [1964]". Encyclopedia Britannica. Retrieved March 31, 2024.
  2. ^ Tunzelmann, Alex von (January 1, 2009). "Becket: forking Normans and a not so turbulent priest". The Guardian. Retrieved March 31, 2024. Thomas Becket was a Norman, just like Henry II. Writer Jean Anouilh knew this, but he thought Norman-Saxon tensions made a good story.
  3. ^ Clements, Warren (May 18, 2007). "Film's factual errors great fodder for O'Toole's anecdotes". The Globe and Mail. Retrieved March 31, 2024. Anouilh wanted to capture a personality clash within a theatre troupe he worked with, but couldn't find a way to frame the conflict on stage until he visited Canterbury. "He read about five sentences [concerning Becket's clash with Henry] giving a brief outline of what happened, and said" ... "I've got the plot. And that's all the research he did. Hence, many, many factual errors."
  4. ^ Karnoor, Maithreyi (June 23, 2016). "Irony cast in stone". The Hindu. Retrieved March 31, 2024.