Everyman and Medieval Miracle Plays

By: A. C. Cawley

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Synopsis: This volume contains the moral play Everyman and a representative collection of medieval biblical pageants. The pageants have been chosen for their intrinsic merit and because together they give a fair idea of the range and content of an English Corpus Christi cycle. They are taken from the cycles of York, Chester, Wakefield, Coventry, and 'N. town', with the addition of an excerpt from the Cornish plays (Appendix I). Most of the original words of the plays are preserved, but for the convenience of the general reader many archaic forms and spellings are modernized or normalized both within the line and in rhyme. Occasionally, however, an archaic form is kept for the sake of the rhyme, and a gloss added if necessary. Original stage directions are given and those in Latin are translated; they are distinguished from editorial directions, which are bracketed. Difficult words and short phrases are glossed in the margin, while longer word-groups needing explanation are paraphrased in footnotes.