New Hreligion And Medieval Lit

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mission of conveying biblical messages, mystery and morality plays have considerable differences. The "mystery" in mystery plays refers to "the spiritual mystery of Christ's redemption of humankind" (308). Mystery plays were typically written in "cycles" (a series) that would begin with the Creation, chronicle the major events of the Old Testament through the New Testament and the Last Judgment. The mystery plays "endeavored to make the Christian religion more real to the unlearned by dramatizing significant events in biblical history and by showing what these events meant in terms of human experience" (363). They are thought to have evolved from the liturgies and plays that were conducted in Latin. Mystery plays produced in the vernacular in the streets of towns were a way of reaching a wide audience that included educated laypeople and clerics as well as the unlearned folk. The authors of these plays usually broadened their appeal by giving the characters of the plays the ...

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the audience at a distance with its direct sermonizing. Where The Second Shepherds' Play opened with Coll complaining about the weather and social injustices, Everyman opens with a messenger to preach to you the moral of the story. The names of the characters reinforce the moral lesson through allegory, with every character behaving "entirely within the limits" as "defined by his name" (364). Where The Second Shepherds' Play might seem like entertainment that happens to have a subtle message, Everyman appears to be a message or lesson that happens to subtly seem like entertainment. Most of the morality plays do seem to "share with the mysteries a good deal of rough humor" (363). The fact ...

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