Everyman

Everyman, English morality play written anonymously (c. 1509-1519); it may have been based on an earlier Dutch morality play, Elckerlijk. The play is an allegory of death and the fate of the soul. Summoned by Death, Everyman calls on Fellowship, Goods, and Strength for help, but they desert him. Only Good Deeds and Knowledge remain faithful and lead him towards salvation. It is the vivid characterization of these personified abstractions that gives the play, short as it is (about 900 lines), its dramatic effect. It is generally considered the finest of the morality plays. Among later adaptations of the play is Jedermann (1911) by the Austrian poet Hugo von Hofmannsthal.