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Everyman. “How transytory we be all daye”. Everyman. Critical Terms Everyman : history; form The Allegorical plot of Everyman. http://www.theatrehistory.com/medieval/everyman001.html. Critical Terms. Miracle Play or Mystery Play Morality Play Allegory.
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Everyman • “How transytory we be all daye”
Everyman • Critical Terms • Everyman: history; form • The Allegorical plot of Everyman http://www.theatrehistory.com/medieval/everyman001.html
Critical Terms • Miracle Play or Mystery Play • Morality Play • Allegory Series of images from Hans Holbein’s Dance of Death: http://homepage.mac.com/mseffie/assignments/everyman/everymansg.html
Miracle Play or Mystery Play • A form of medieval drama which dramatized the liturgy of the Roman Catholic Church that reached its height in the 15th century. Written in Latin, the play was preceded by a prologue or by a herald who gave a synopsis and was closed by a herald's salute. When control of the plays passed from the clergy into the hands of the town guilds in 1210, and various changes ensued: vernacular language replaced Latin, and scenes were inserted that were not from the Bible. The acting became more dramatic as characterization and detail became more important.
http://www.anglistik.uni-freiburg.de/intranet/englishbasics/DramaTypesofStages01.htmhttp://www.anglistik.uni-freiburg.de/intranet/englishbasics/DramaTypesofStages01.htm
http://www.assemblyrooms.org.uk/history/boughton/everyman.htmlhttp://www.assemblyrooms.org.uk/history/boughton/everyman.html
http://www.miracleplayers.org/everyman/images/everyman_17.jpghttp://www.miracleplayers.org/everyman/images/everyman_17.jpg
Morality Play • The "moralities" were a fairly rich, late medieval genre encouraged by the church and civil authorities because they taught social and moral values through amusing dramatic actions. Morality characters are allegorical, and the plot's action must be interpreted as teaching something about the human condition. The form was generally static. The moralities were performed by troupes of actors, outdoors with rudimentary costumes and scenery, before an audience of people from all social classes. They also might have been staged as travelling shows on a "pageant wagon." They contributed significantly to the secularization of European drama.
The Seven Deadly Sins and the Seven Cardinal Virtues • The Sins: Envy, Anger, Sloth, Greed, Gluttony, Lust, Pride • The Virtues: Love, Kindness, Zeal, Charity, Temperance, Self-Control, Humility http://www.godecookery.com/macabre/holdod/holdod28.htm
Allegory • A symbolic story that serves as a disguised representation for meanings other than those indicated on the surface. The characters in an allegory often have no individual personality, but are embodiments of moral qualities and other abstractions.
Everyman • After 1485 • 4 printed copies, different editions, 1508—1537 • Regularly performed • Possibly a translation of a Dutch play, Elckerlijk http://www.godecookery.com/macabre/holdod/holdod35.htm Image over: http://www.kb.nl/galerie/100hoogtepunten/029-en.html
Form • Rhyming verse in irregular meter and rhyme scheme, but tending toward rhyming couplets in four- or five-stress lines that often would be, if smoothed out, reasonable iambic tetrameter and iambic pentameter.
“Nothing in the play is extraneous to the central homiletic* purpose.” *Homily: A sermon, especially one intended to edify a congregation on a practical matter and not intended to be a theological discourse. An inspirational saying or platitude. American Heritage Dictionary
The Allegorical Plot of Everyman • Messenger • God • Death • Death demands the account book from Everyman and tells him to prepare for his Pilgrimage http://www.godecookery.com/macabre/holdod/holdod23.htm
Everyman loses his companions • Fellowship • Kindred and Cousin • Goods http://www.godecookery.com/macabre/holdod/holdod39.htm
Good Deeds (bound to the ground by Everyman's sins, l 486) • Everyman's penance • Confession • Knowledge (or contrition, Knowledge of sin) • "Scourge of Penance" (l 605) • Everyman's good deeds are liberated (l 619) • Knowledge gives Everyman a "garment of sorrow" (l 643) • Knowledge advises Everyman to seek out a priest and receive extreme unction (l 706)
Digression on the priesthood • Everyman's bodily progress toward death: He loses • Beauty • Strength • Discretion • Five-Wits • Knowledge remains until he sees where Everyman "shall become" (l 863)
Everyman and Good Deeds Descend into the Grave • Knowledge hears the Angels sing • The angel welcomes Everyman and tells him his "reckoning is clear" • Doctor recounts the Moral http://www.godecookery.com/macabre/holdod/holdod48.htm