Everyman

The best-known English morality play: a summoned soul hunts for a companion into the grave.

Specifications & Metrics

author

Anonymous

type

Morality play

era

Medieval England (c. 1495)

language

Middle English

setting

An abstract landscape of this world

source text

The Dutch Elckerlijc

acts

1 act

Relative Scale in Plays

Core Principles & Analysis

• Printed around 1495, adapted from the Dutch Elckerlijc.
• Good-Deeds is the only companion who follows Everyman to the grave.
• Knowledge, Confession, and the Book of Accounts give the plot its structure.

Sources

• Wikipedia: Everyman (play)