Word: tempters
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Dates: during 1930-1939
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Immediately a first tempter offers him case and luxury; a second, temporal power by resumption of the chancellorship; a third, temporal power by aiding the rebellious barons against the King; and a fourth, celestial glory through martydom. Thomas resists the first three, but his reaction to the fourth is not so clear, nor the application of the above solution so easy, for it is debatable whether he merely submits to death or seeks it, at the hands of the drunken knights sent by the King...
Robert Speaight is superb as Becket, because his behaviour and appearance indicate besides the man of God, the onetime parvenu, good liver, and states man. E. Martin Browne in addition to having directed the play, fills with great understanding the roles of the last tempter and the last speakers for the murderers. The nine women who comprise the chorus, the "type of the common man," lend much added power, through their lowly dignity, their hypnotic speeches of vague forboding, and their intuitive understanding of situations that baffle the priests. Poetry and drama are masterfully blended by author and actors