Originally Posted by Rhamiel
are there not a few versions of this?
like it was not really one play but rather more like a style of play?
From what I can gather this version is actually a translation of a dutch play called: Elckerlijc.
I have never heard of this, so I decided to look it up on "wiki" for more info on it. Very interesting..........
Elckerlijc - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Elckerlijc (also known as
Elckerlyc) is a
morality play from the
Low Countries which was written in
Dutch somewhere around the year 1470. It was first printed in 1495. The play was extremely successful and may have been the original source for the
English play
Everyman, as well as many other translations for other countries.
The authorship of
Elckerlijc is attributed to
Peter van Diest, a
medieval writer from the Low Countries.
The play won the first prize in the
Rederijker contest in
Antwerp in 1485. As a morality play, it stresses the
didactic message. It uses
allegory of the hero as an "everyman" (a typical human person) and is written in moderately elevated
Rederijker style.
Dutch and English historians argued for decades over whether the English play
Everyman was based on
Elckerlijc (or vice versa). The most convincing evidence that
Elckerlijc was the original was provided by the English historian E.R. Tigg, who showed how many rhymes and literal translations were copied from the Dutch-language play into the English
Everyman.
[1]
On the other hand it is perfectly credible that an English translator should have added a rhyming tag to each of a pair of words that rhyme in Dutch but not in English.
[2] The prevalent view is that the Dutch-language version was the original.
[3]
Everyman, in English (sixteenth century).
The Somonyng of Everyman (
The Summoning of Everyman), usually referred to simply as
Everyman, is a late 15th-century
morality play. Like
John Bunyan's 1678 Christian novel
Pilgrim's Progress,
Everyman uses allegorical characters to examine the question of
Christian salvation and what Man must do to attain it. The premise is that the good and evil deeds of one's life will be tallied by God after death, as in a ledger book. The play is the allegorical accounting of the life of Everyman, who represents all mankind.
In the course of the action, Everyman tries to convince other characters to accompany him in the hope of improving his account. All the characters are also allegorical, each personifying an abstract idea such as Fellowship, (material) Goods, and Knowledge. The conflict between good and evil is dramatised by the interactions between characters.
Everyman is being singled out because it is difficult for him to find characters to accompany him on his pilgrimage. Everyman eventually realizes through this pilgrimage that he is essentially alone, despite all the personified characters that were supposed necessities and friends to him. Everyman learns that when you are brought to death and placed before God all you are left with is your own good deeds............
The play was written in
Middle English during the
Tudor period, but the identity of the author is unknown. Although the play was apparently produced with some frequency in the seventy-five years following its composition, no production records survive.
[1]
There is a similar
Dutch-language (Flemish) morality play of the same period called
Elckerlijc. Scholars have yet to reach an agreement on whether
Everyman is a translation of this play, or derived independently from a
Latin work named
Homulus.
[2][3] Cawley goes so far as to say that the "evidence for
Elckerlijk is certainly very strong, but final proof is hardly possible".
[4]
The cultural setting is based on the Roman Catholicism of the era. Everyman attains afterlife in heaven by means of good works and the Catholic Sacraments, in particular
Confession,
Penance,
Unction,
Viaticum and receiving the
Holy Eucharist.......................
.
