1. Text

    Burnt Norton I · Line 46 · Cannot bear very much reality

    The same sentence is spoken by Archbishop Thomas Becket in Eliot’s play Murder in the Cathedral (1935), shortly before his death — one of the passages that link the play to Burnt Norton, which grew in part from material cut from it.

    In the play the reality is martyrdom; here it is the moment in the garden. In both, human beings are protected — and limited — by their inability to sustain intense experience. Burnt Norton II returns to the thought, making the weakness of the body a protection from heaven and damnation alike.

    Established Time

    Sources T. S. Eliot Ricks & McCue 2015 (locator to be verified)

    See also How Burnt Norton was made A merciful weakness A cloud passes

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