Résumé de L’Homme, avec d’autres intermèdes

À qui s’adresse-t-il ?

You will love this book if you enjoy early theatre, Bible stories retold with humour and feeling, or the roots of English drama. Readers of Shakespeare will find the voices of those who came first.

De quoi parle ce livre ?

What would you do if a stranger stopped you in the street and told you your time was up? In Everyman, a man is strolling along, thinking of money and pleasure, when Death steps up with a summons from God. He begs for time, offers a thousand pounds, and hears a flat no.

This book gathers ten English religious plays from the late Middle Ages, put together by the editor Ernest Rhys. The writers are mostly unnamed churchmen, and the plays reached large crowds in the open air. You meet Noah and his stubborn wife, Abraham and his frightened son, and a sheep thief among grumbling shepherds.

Questions about L’Homme, avec d’autres intermèdes

What is Everyman about?

Everyman is a morality play in which God sends Death to summon an ordinary man to give an account of his life. Friends, family and wealth refuse to go with him, and he must find what can really stand beside him.

What is a miracle play?

A miracle or mystery play is a medieval drama that stages Bible stories, often performed by town guilds on wheeled wagons. Each trade presented one scene, such as Noah's ark or the shepherds at Bethlehem, in front of a street crowd.

What plays are in Everyman, With Other Interludes?

The book holds ten plays: Everyman, the Chester Deluge and the Sacrifice of Isaac, the Coventry Nativity, three Wakefield plays, two Cornish Easter plays and Bale's God's Promises. It adds appendices on the town cycles and a Christmas folk play.

Who wrote these medieval plays?

Most were written by unnamed churchmen, then repeatedly performed and revised, sometimes passing through many piecemeal changes over the years. Chester tradition names a monk called Randall Higgenet. John Bale, a bishop and playwright, is the named author of God's Promises.