Everyman - English 401 - Professor Mueller

1 Everymanc. 1500 Everyman is the best-known example of the genre of medieval religious drama commonly referredto as the morality play. The play depicts the journey of a human being toward death and posesthe question, What in this life will last beyond the grave? Like other morality plays, it does notdramatize individual human characters in the usual sense, but rather personifies abstract concepts suchas Good Deeds and Fellowship. Likewise, it does not concern itself with one person s particularexperience, but rather attempts to explore universal spiritual truths for all human beings through thecentral representative character. Instead of presenting and enlarging on well-known biblical stories,morality plays such as Everyman dramatize complex moral questions and individual spiritualdevelopment. The focus of Everyman is specifically on death, and the ars moriendi, or art of dying.

2 It expresses high praise for the priesthood and holds to medieval teaching that good deeds will helpone s journey toward heaven a view that soon became a point of contention for Protestant play takes the inevitability of death to be a central presence in human life, as did much of theliterature and art of the time, both Roman Catholic and printed copies of Everyman survive from c. 1515 c. 1535. No record of performance hascome down to us, and nothing is known of the author though it is increasingly believed by scholarsthat the authorship of the play in English was a matter of translation rather than of originalcomposition. The play strongly resembles a Middle Dutch play named Elckerlijc, one of the manyRederijkers (Rhetoricians ) plays of the low countries surviving from this period. Whether the Englishor the Flemish version came first has been disputed, but almost all scholars now accept that it isprobable that Everyman is a translation from the Middle Dutch play.

3 On those grounds it shouldperhaps be accorded a less central place in the canon of medieval English literature than it hastraditionally been given. Certainly Everyman is in several respects unlike any other extant moralityplay in English , for example in its lack of Vice figures. Linguistically, the play is a bridge between eras. It has come down to us in early modern Englishrather than in a regional dialect of Middle English . It is notable as well that parts of the text,particularly the voice of God, are written in a verse structure that resembles the sonnet form. zzz2 EverymanEveryman1 CharactersGodDeathEverymanFellowshipKind redCousinGoodsGood DeedsKnowledgeConfessionBeautyStrengthDi scretionFive-witsAngelMessengerDoctorHer e beginneth a treatise how the High Father of Heavensendeth Death to summon every creature to come and giveaccount of their lives in this world and is in manner of amoral pray you all give your audience,And hear this matter with reverence,By figure a moral play: formThe Summoning of Everyman called it is,That of our lives and ending shows5 How transitory we be all day.

4 AlwaysThis matter is wondrous precious,But the intent of it is more gracious,And sweet to bear story saith: Man, in the beginning,10 Look well, and take good heed to2 the ending,Be you never so gay;3Ye think sin in the beginning full sweet,Which in the end causeth the soul to weep,When the body lieth in clay earth15 Here shall you see how Fellowship and Jollity,Both Strength, Pleasure, and Beauty,Will fade from thee as flower in ye shall hear, how our Heaven KingheavenlyCalleth Everyman to a general audience, and hear what he doth say.(God speaketh.) perceive here in My Majesty,How that all creatures be to Me unkind,Living without dread in worldly prosperity;Of ghostly sight the people be so blind,4 25 Drowned in sin, they know Me not for their God;In worldly riches is all their fear not My righteousness, the sharp rod;My law that I showed, when I for them died,They forget clean, and shedding of My blood red;30I hanged between two, it cannot be denied;To get them life I suffered to be dead;I healed their feet, with thorns hurt was My head;I could do no more than I did now I see the people do clean forsake Me:35 They use the seven deadly sins damnable,As pride, covetise, wrath, and lechery,Now in the world be made commendable,And thus they leave of angels the heavenly company.

5 Every man liveth so after his own pleasure,40 And yet of their life they be nothing see the more that I them forbear,The worse they be from year to year;All that liveth appaireth fast; deteriorates, weakensTherefore I will, in all the haste,45 Have a reckoning of every man s if I leave the people thus aloneIn their life and wicked tempests,Verily they will become much worse than beasts,TrulyFor now one would by envy another up eat;50 Charity they all do clean hoped well that every manIn My glory should make his mansion,1 EverymanLike all modern editions, this text derives from theearliest printed text of the play as reproduced by Greg in1904. Spelling and punctuation have been modernized in accordancewith the practice of this anthology. 2 Look well .. heed toPay attention, and be aware you never so gayNo matter how merry you are ( , be seriousabout this).

6 4Of ghostly sight .. blindPeople are blind to spiritual thereto I had them all elect; chosenBut now I see, like traitors deject, object55 They thank Me not for the pleasure that I to them meant,1 Nor yet for their being that I them have proffered the people great multitude of mercy,And few there be that ask it be so cumbered with worldly overwhelmed, hindered60richesThat needs on them I must do justice,On every man living without art thou, Death, thou mighty messenger? God, I am here at Your will,Your commandment to thou to Everyman ,And show him in My NameA pilgrimage he must on him take,Which he in no wise may escape; mannerAnd that he bring with him a sure reckoning70 Without delay or any tarrying. , I will in the world go run over all,And cruelly out search both great and man will I beset that liveth beastly entrapOut of God s laws, and dreadeth not that loveth riches I will strike with my dart,His sight to blind, and from Heaven to depart,Except that alms be his good friend,In hell for to dwell, world without , yonder I see Everyman walking;80 Full little he thinketh on my coming; VeryHis mind is on fleshly lusts and his treasure,And great pain it shall cause him to endureBefore the Lord, Heaven King.

7 [Enter Everyman .] Everyman , stand still! Whither art thou going85 Thus gaily? Hast thou thy Maker forgot? So askest thou?Wouldest thou wit? know , sir, I will show you;In great haste I am sent to thee 90 From God, out of His , sent to me? , thou have forgot Him here,He thinketh on thee in the Heavenly sphere,95As, ere we depart, thou shalt know. desireth God of me? shall I show thee:A reckoning He will needs have,Without any longer respite. give a reckoning longer leisure I crave;This blind matter troubleth my thee thou must take a long journey;therefore thy book of count2 with thee thou bring,For turn again thou can not by no way;105 And look thou be sure of thy reckoning,For before God thou shalt answer, and showThy many bad deeds and good but a few,How thou hast spent thy life, and in what wise,Before the Chief Lord of ado that we were in that way,For, wit thou well, thou shalt make none unready I am such reckoning to know thee not; what messenger art thou?

8 Am Death, that no man every man I rest, and no man spare; arrestFor it is God s commandmentThat all to me should be Death, thou comest when I had theeleast in mind!In thy power it lieth me to save;120 Yet of my good will I give thee, if thou will be kind,Yea, a thousand pound shalt thou have,And defer this matter5 till another , it may not be by no set not7 by gold, silver, nor riches,125 Nor by pope, emperor, king, duke, nor princes;For if I would receive gifts great,All the world I might get,But my custom is clean I to them meantThat I intended for of countAccount book of .. attorneyFor, you know well, you will have no attorney todefend no man dreadethThat fears no defer this matterIf you defer this .. wayIt may not be prevented this set notI am not interested in, I care not give thee no respite; come hence, and not , shall I have no longer respite?

9 I may say Death giveth no think on thee, it maketh my heart sick,For all unready is my book of reckoning,But twelve year and I might have abiding,1135My counting book I would make so clear,That my reckoning I should not need to , Death, I pray thee, for God s mercy,Spare me till I be provided of equipped, prepared availeth not to cry, weep, and pray, profit140 But haste thee lightly that thou were quicklygone that journey, And prove thy friends if thou , wit thou well, the tide abideth no man,waits forAnd in the world each living creatureFor Adam s sin must die of , if I should this pilgrimage take,And my reckoning surely make,Show me, for Saint Charity,Should I not come again shortly? , Everyman ; and thou be once there,150 Thou mayst never more come here,Trust me gracious God, in the high seat celestial,Have mercy on me in this most need!Shall I have no company from this vale terrestrial valley155Of mine acquaintance that way me to lead?

10 , if any be so hardy,That would go with thee and bear thee thee that thou were gone to Hasten, hurryGod s Magnificence,Thy reckoning to give before His , weenest thou thy life is given thee, thinkAnd thy worldly goods also? had wend so, verily. , nay; it was but lent thee;For as soon as thou art gone,165 Another a while shall have it, and then go therefrom,4 Even as thou hast , thou art mad! Thou hast thy wits five,And here on earth will not amend thy life!For suddenly I do O wretched caitiff, whither villain, wretchshall I flee,That I might scape this endless sorrow?escapeNow, gentle Death, spare me till to-morrow,That I may amend me With good advisement. warning175 DEATH. Nay, thereto I will not consent,Nor no man will I respite; delayBut to the heart suddenly I shall smite strikeWithout any now out of thy sight I will me hie;180 See thou make thee ready shortly,For thou mayst say this is the dayThat no man living may scape Alas!