. A short history of England's and America's literature, by Eva March Tappan. ed to enter the At last the door isclosed, and Noah might well offer up a prayer of grati-tude or sing a hymn of praise for the safety of himselfand his family ; but, instead, he proceeds to give mostprosaic directions to his sons to take good care of thecattle, and to his daughters-in-law to be sure to feed thefowls. With all their crudeness, these plays are often gentleand sympathetic. Joseph watches over Mary most lov-Tendemess ingly. My daughter, he tenderly calls the plays, j^. crucinxion Johns word
. A short history of England's and America's literature, by Eva March Tappan. ed to enter the At last the door isclosed, and Noah might well offer up a prayer of grati-tude or sing a hymn of praise for the safety of himselfand his family ; but, instead, he proceeds to give mostprosaic directions to his sons to take good care of thecattle, and to his daughters-in-law to be sure to feed thefowls. With all their crudeness, these plays are often gentleand sympathetic. Joseph watches over Mary most lov-Tendemess ingly. My daughter, he tenderly calls the plays, j^. crucinxion Johns words of comfortto the sorrowing mother are very touching. Myheart is gladder than gladness itself, says Mary Mag-dalene at the resurrection. Such were the plays thatpleased the people; for they were simple, childlike, warm-hearted, ready to be amused, satisfied with the rudestjesting, and accustomed to treat sacred things with famil-iarity, but with no conscious irreverence. Going to amystery play, like going on a pilgrimage, was a religious 15th Cent.] THE PEOPLES CENTURY 6l. A SCENE FROM EVERYMANThis is a photograph of the reproduction of the play given by the Ben Greet Company in1903. It represents Everyman on his pilgrimage, followed by Beauty, Strength, Dis-cretion, and Five Wits. Good Deeds and Knowledge are in the background duty; but the mediaeval mind saw no reason why dutyand amusement should not be agreeably united. 36. Miracle plays and moralities. In England theseplays were more frequently called miracle plays, thoughthis name was applied elsewhere only to dramas basednot upon biblical scenes, but upon legends of saints ormartyrs. Often one kind of play blended with another;for instance, Mary Magdalene introduces scenes fromthe life of Christ, like a mystery; it follows out the le-gends of the heroine, like a miracle ; it also leads to athird variety of play, the morality, in that it introducesabstract characters, such as Sloth, Gluttony, Wrath, andEnvy, for in the mo
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Keywords: ., bo, bookcentury1900, bookdecade1900, booksubjectenglishliterature
