TS Eliot MURDER IN THE CATHEDRAL
“Now is my way clear, now is the meaning plain:
Temptation shall not come in this kind again.
The last temptation is the greatest treason:
To do the right deed for the wrong reason.”
Thomas Becket in T. S. Eliot’s Murder in the Cathedral
Murder in the Cathedral, first performed in 1935, is TS Eliot’s stunning verse drama that I have written about before. Using the writings of Edward Grim, a clerk who actually witnessed the assassination of Archbishop Thomas Becket, Eliot portrays the events leading up to the murder in Canterbury Cathedral on December 29, 1170. I was on the team that designed and directed an amazing Murder in the Cathedral at Samford University in 1979.
Student actor Paul Strozier as Becket in Samford University Theatre’s 1979 production of Murder in the Cathedral
Becket’s internal struggle about power, authority, loyalty, and serving self versus serving God is the crux of the play. Toward the end of the first act, Becket contemplates possible martyrdom, and what that might mean in the purpose of his life. This scene becomes more and more fascinating as three tempters appear one by one to test Thomas and entice him with similar seductions Satan used to attempt to beguile Christ in the wilderness.
The first tempter offers Becket a way to return to “the good life” of pleasure and favor that he once had with his friend, King Henry II. The second tester attempts to persuade the archbishop to return to serving the king with the accompanying power, riches, and fame. The third tempter appeals to Thomas’s competitive nature and begs his establishing an alliance with the barons to betray Henry. These temptations are all fairly easy for Becket to forego.
Suddenly, a fourth and surprise tempter comes in and almost pulls Becket off course. The archbishop has expected the other three, but not this last test. This cunning spirit presses the archbishop toward actively seeking the role of martyr to win sainthood, coaxing, “What earthly glory, of king or emperor,” he asks, could possibly compare “with richness of heavenly grandeur?" He says if Thomas doesn’t succumb to this yearning, he will never be remembered for anything.
Becket responds to this last, and really to all of the tempters, by proclaiming the often quoted lines: “Now is my way clear, now is the meaning plain: Temptation shall not come in this kind again. The last temptation is the greatest treason: To do the right deed for the wrong reason.”
He has recognized in the final lure something that has been hiding in his shadow self, a fatal weakness, his own self-seeking, his vainglory, his ego. When he can embrace vulnerability and turn down what he might gain by pride, he has won a major battle.
How many schoolchildren beg for a test? Teenagers dread exams for weeks and college students often go to great lengths to pump professors for exactly what will appear on a quiz. Adults hope to avoid any sort of trial as well. But Thomas has a thorough examination of the soul, and he passes.
A dictionary definition of test is “that by which the presence, quality, or genuineness of anything is determined.” When you think about it, how else can we know our own personal score, see what is lacking in our lives, understand where we need cleansing and strengthening than by a trial or questioning?
A test shows how we are at the moment. Unless we are sorely tempted, we never know the limits of our transgressions — or our goodness. The powers of the Universe lead us up steep and rocky inclines sometimes not to have us lose our way, but to find it.