, as
is supposed, the King had married her, was his wife and not his mistress.
It is just this point that ought to be emphasised, in order to give the
right clue to _Eleanor's_ character and conduct in regard to her treatment
of _Rosamond_. _Rosamond_ must be right and virtuous; _Eleanor_ wrong and
vicious; the King fond, weak, and capricious. To regard the whole story as
one of a mere _amour_ is to entirely miss the beauty of the gentle
_Rosamond's_ nature. She is at once "gentle and simple."

And herein seems to me to have been the puzzlement in the poet's mind; he
was in doubt whether to regard _Henry's_ attachment to _Rosamond_ as only a
_liaison_--to represent _Becket_ as so treating it, or to place _Eleanor_
manifestly in the wrong, as being herself _not_ the wife she pretends to
be. "Go to a nunnery, go!" is the end of it all. But at that nunnery, it
seems, _Fair Rosamond_ remained for some time _permissu superiorum_ as, I
suppose, a lady-boarder, not assuming the habit of even a postulant, much
less compelled, as a novice, to be shorn of her hair, and so to appear in
the final Transformation Scene as "The Fair One _without_ the golden
locks." This freedom of action on the part of _Rosamond_ shows what it is
to be a postulant in a convent of a Poetically Licensed Order.

[Illustration]

The Scene of the Martyrdom, "Becket's crown," is thrillingly impressive.
The faithful Monks are well played by Messrs. HAVILAND and BISHOP--a real
Bishop on the Stage, among all these representatives of various sees--while
Mr. FRANK COOPER is a rough-and-ready _Fitzurse_ leader of the four
"King's-men," who, of course, are all Fellows of King's, Cambridge, and
probably, therefore, under the ancient statutes, Old Etonians. Master LEO
BYRNE, aged eleven or thereabouts, makes quite a big part of little
_Geoffrey_, whose affections are divided between Ma, Pa, and his nurse
_Margery_ ("with a song"), the latter capitally played and sung by Miss
KATE PHILLIPS.

Where all the scenery is good, it is difficult, perhaps to single out one
set for especial praise; but my advice is, on no account miss the Second
Scene of the Prologue, "on the Battlements of a Castle in Normandy,"
painted by W. TELBIN. "Rosamond's Bower," by HAWES CRAVEN, is equally
perfect in another and of course totally distinct line. To pronounce upon
Professor STANFORD'S music when "the play's the thing" is impossible. The
_entr'actes_ deserve such special attention as