“ Thou art a sinner, without a mistake;
The greatest that was in the country
By every body thou wast called.
Mary Magdalene. I have been a sinner;
I have sinned wondrous much;
On Jesus I cried,
That he would forgive me my trespass;
And he said to me,
Thy sin is forgiven to thee,
Through thy faith thou art saved:
Now no more, do not sin.
Thomas, thou art very stupid,
Because thou wilt not believe
The Lord to have risen
Easter-day morning.
Who believes not shall not be saved,
Nor with God shall he dwell,
And for that, I pray thee,
Believe in time. ”

“ And yet if thou wilt eat, and drink, and make good cheer,
Or haunt to women, the lusty company,
I would not forsake you, while the day is clear,
Trust me verily!
Everyman. Yea, thereto ye would be ready;
To go to mirth, solace, and play,
Your mind will sooner apply
Than to bear me company in my long journey.
Fellowship. Now, in good faith, I will not that way.
But and thou wilt murder, or any man kill,
In that I will help thee with a good will!
Everyman. O that is a simple advice indeed! ”

“ James the Greater. Thomas, very well it may be;
The Son of God will rise
When he will;
For Jesus, Son of Mary,
He made heaven, and this world,
And every thing that was not.
Thomas. O James, it is no use for thee;
A man who is dead certainly
Does not live again.
Foolish idleness, not to leave it,
But to go to assert
A thing of no benefit.
John. O Thomas, thou art a fool;
That is the belief of all:
Jesus Christ after dying,
To be put into the ground ”

“ Everyman. Then be you a good friend at need:
I have found you true here before.
Fellowship. And so ye shall evermore;
For, in faith, and thou go to Hell,
I will not forsake thee by the way!
Everyman. Ye speak like a good friend; I believe you well;
I shall deserve it, and I may.
Fellowship. I speak of no deserving, by this day.
For he that will say and nothing do
Is not worthy with good company to go;
Therefore show me the grief of your mind,
As to your friend most loving and kind.
Everyman. I shall show you how it is ”

“ Good-Deeds. All earthly things is but vanity:
Beauty, Strength, and Discretion, do man forsake,
Foolish friends and kinsmen, that fair spake,
All fleeth save Good-Deeds, and that am I.
Everyman. Have mercy on me, God most mighty;
And stand by me, thou Mother and Maid, holy Mary.
Good-Deeds. Fear not, I will speak for thee.
Everyman. Here I cry God mercy.
Good-Deeds. Short our end, and minish our pain;
Let us go and never come again.
Everyman. Into thy hands, Lord, my soul I commend ”

“ Mary Salome. There is to me sharp longing
In my heart always,
And sorrow;
Alas! my Lord Jesus,
For thou art full of virtue,
All mighty.
[The Dirge.]
Alas! mourning I sing, mourning I call,
Our Lord is dead that bought us all.
Mary Magdalene. Jesus Christ, Lord of Heaven,
O hear now our voice;
Who believes not in thee, miserable he!
He will not be saved.
When I think of his Passion,
There is not any joy in my heart;
Alas! that I cannot at once
Speak to thee.
Mary, Mother of James. Gone he is to another land,
And with him many angels ”

“ But they have hardly yet reached the outside reader who looks for life and not for literary origins and relations in what he reads. This is a pity, for these old plays hide under their archaic dress the human interest that all dramatic art, no matter how crude, can claim when it is touched with our real emotions and sensations. They are not only a primitive religious drama, born of the church and its feasts; they are the genuine expression of the town life of the English people when it was still lived with some exuberance of spirits and communal pleasure. ”

“ Pater Cœlestis. Lot and his household, I will deliver all,
For righteousness sake, which is of me and not them.
Abraham. Great are thy graces in the generation of Shem.
Pater Cœlestis. Well, Abraham, well, for thy true faithfulness
Now will I give thee my covenant or third promise.
Look thou believe it as thou covetest righteousness.
Abraham. Lord, so regard me as I receive it with gladness.
Pater Cœlestis. Of many peoples the father I will make thee,
All generations in thy seed shall be blessed:
As the stars of heaven, so shall thy kindred be ”

“ Therefore thy book of count with thee thou bring;
For turn again thou can not by no way,
And look thou be sure of thy reckoning:
For before God thou shalt answer, and show
Thy many bad deeds and good but a few;
How thou hast spent thy life, and in what wise,
Before the chief lord of paradise.
Have ado that we were in that way,
For, wete thou well, thou shalt make none attournay.9
Everyman. Full unready I am such reckoning to give.
I know thee not: what messenger art thou?
Death. I am Death, that no man dreadeth.
For every man I rest and no man spareth ”

“ To turn from Bayle's play to the heart-breaking realities of Everyman is like turning from a volume of all too edifying sermons to the last chapters of one of the gospels. Into the full history of this play, opening a difficult question about the early relations between Dutch and English writers and printers, there is no room here to go. The Dutch Everyman--Elckerlijk--was in all probability the original of the English, and it was certainly printed a few years earlier. ”

“ Abraham. All that I will do, by assistance of thy goodness.
Pater Cœlestis. From Sodom and Gomor the abominations call
For my great vengeance, which will upon them fall,
Wild fire and brimstone shall light upon them all.
Abraham. Pitiful Maker, though they have kindled thy fury,
Cast not away yet the just sort with the ungodly.
Peradventure there may be fifty righteous persons
Within those cities, wilt thou lose them all at once,
And not spare the place for those fifty righteous' sake
Be it far from thee such rigour to undertake. ”

“ I know that mercy with thee is permanent,
And will be ever so long as the world endure:
Then close not thy hand from man, which is thy creature.
Being thy subject he is underneath thy cure,
Correct him thou mayest and so bring him to grace.
All lieth in thy hands, to leave or to allure,
Bitter death to give, or grant most sovereign solace.
Utterly from man avert not then thy face;
But let him savour thy sweet benevolence
Somewhat, though he feel thy hand for his offence.
Pater Cœlestis. My true servant Noah, thy righteousness doth move me
Somewhat to reserve for man's posterity. ”

“ Pater Cœlestis. Could I find twenty, that city would I save.
Abraham. Once yet will I speak my mind, and then no more.
Pater Cœlestis. Spare not to utter so much as thou hast in store.
Abraham. And what if there might be ten good creatures found?
Pater Cœlestis. The rest for their sakes might so be safe and sound,
And not destroyed for their abomination.
Abraham. O merciful Maker, much is thy toleration
And sufferance of sin: I see it now indeed;
Vouchsafe yet of favour out of those cities to lead
Those that be faithful, though their flock be but small. ”

“ Everyman, thou art mad; thou hast thy wits five,
And here on earth will not amend thy life,
For suddenly I do come.
Everyman. O wretched caitiff, whither shall I flee,
That I might scape this endless sorrow!
Now, gentle Death, spare me till to-morrow,
That I may amend me
With good advisement.
Death. Nay, thereto I will not consent,
Nor no man will I respite,
But to the heart suddenly I shall smite
Without any advisement.
And now out of thy sight I will me hie;
See thou make thee ready shortly,
For thou mayst say this is the day
That no man living may scape away.
Everyman. ”

“ My fleshly frailness made me do deadly wrong,
And clean to forget thy laws of righteousness.
And though thou visitedst my sinfulness among,
With pestilent plagues, and other unquietness;
Yet never tookst thou from me thy plenteousness
Of thy godly spir't, which thou in me didst plant.
I having remorse, thy grace could never want.
For in conclusion, thy everlasting covenant
Thou gavest unto me for all my wicked sin;
And hast promised here by protestation constant,
That one of my seed shall such high fortune win,
As never did man since this world did begin. ”

“ To thine own image, but avert from me thy hate.
Pater Cœlestis. But art thou sorry from bottom of thy heart?
Adam. Thy displeasure is to me most heavy smart.
Pater Cœlestis. Then will I tell thee what thou shalt stick unto,
Life to recover, and my good favour also.
Adam. Tell it me, sweet Lord, that I may thereafter go.
Pater Cœlestis. This is my covenant to thee and all thy offspring.
For that thou hast been deceived by the serpent,
I will put hatred betwixt him for his doing
And the woman kind. They shall hereafter dissent;
His seed with her seed shall never have agreement ”

“ And prove thy friends if thou can.
For, wete thou well, the tide abideth no man,
And in the world each living creature
For Adam's sin must die of nature.
Everyman. Death, if I should this pilgrimage take,
And my reckoning surely make,
Show me, for saint charity,
Should I not come again shortly?
Death. No, Everyman; and thou be once there,
Thou mayst never more come here,
Trust me verily.
Everyman. ”

“ Pater Cœlestis. Then thou are blameless, and the fault thou layest to me?
Adam. Nay, all I ascribe to my own imbecility.
No fault in thee Lord but in my infirmity,
And want of respect in such gifts as thou gavest me.
Pater Cœlestis. For that I put thee at thine own liberty,
Thou oughtest my goodness to have in more regard.
Adam. Avoid it I cannot, thou layest it to me so hard.
Lord, now I perceive what power is in man,
And strength of himself, when thy sweet grace is absent,
He must needs but fall, do he the best he can,
And endanger himself, as appeareth evident ”

“ By a sudden plague, all their first gotten ware,
Thou slewest, in one night, for his fierce cruelness.
From that thy people withhold not now thy goodness.
Pater Cœlestis. I certify thee, my chosen servant Moses,
That people of mine is full of unthankfulness.
Moses. Dear Lord, I know it, alas! yet weigh their weakness,
And bear with their faults, of thy great bounteousness. ”

“ For, peradventure, thou mayst before God Almighty
My reckoning help to clean and purify;
For it is said ever among,
That money maketh all right that is wrong.
Goods. Nay, Everyman, I sing another song,
I follow no man in such voyages;
For and I went with thee
Thou shouldst fare much the worse for me;
For because on me thou did set thy mind,
Thy reckoning I have made blotted and blind,
That thine account thou cannot make truly;
And that hast thou for the love of me.
Everyman. ”

“ Pater Cœlestis. Thou knowest I have given to him convenient space,
With lawful warnings, yet he amendeth in no place.
The natural laws, which I wrote in his heart,
He hath outraced, all goodness putting apart:
Of health the covenant, which I to Adam made,
He regardeth not, but walketh a damnable trade.
Noah. All this is true, Lord, I cannot thy words reprove,
Let his weakness yet thy merciful goodness move.
Pater Cœlestis. No weakness is it, but wilful working all,
That reigneth in man through mind diabolical. ”

“ Mac. Peace, woman, for God's pain, and cry not so:
Thou spill'st thy brain, and mak'st me full woe.
2nd Shepherd. I know our sheep be slain, what find ye too?
3rd Shepherd. All work we in vain: as well may we go. ”

“ In the woman's seed was Adam first justified,
So was faithful Noah, so was just Abraham;
The faith in that seed in Moses forth multiplied,
Likewise in David and Esaye630 that after came,
And in John Baptist, which shewed the very Lamb.
Though they so afar, yet all they had one justice
One mass, as they call it, and in Christ one sacrifice.
A man cannot here to God do better service,
Than on this to ground his faith and understanding. ”

“ Five-wits. I trust to God no such may we find;
Therefore let us priesthood honour,
And follow their doctrine for our souls' succour;
We be their sheep, and they shepherds be
By whom we all be kept in surety.
Peace, for yonder I see Everyman come,
Which hath made true satisfaction.
Good-Deeds. Methinketh it is he indeed.
Everyman. ”

“ Pater Cœlestis. Why dost thou say so? Be bold to speak thy intent.
Noah. Shall the other die without any remedy?
Pater Cœlestis. I will drown them all, for their wilful wicked folly
That man hereafter thereby may know my power,
And fear to offend my goodness day and hour.
Noah. As thy pleasure is, so might it always be,
For my health thou art and soul's felicity.
Pater Cœlestis. After that this flood have had his raging passage
This shall be to thee my covenant everlasting.
The seas and waters so far never more shall rage,
As all flesh to drown, I will so temper their working ”

“ There the Angels sing "Gloria in Excelsis" again.
Mary. Ah Joseph, husband, come hither anon
My child is born that is King of bliss.
Joseph. Now welcome to me, the maker of man,
With all the homage that I can;
Thy sweet mother here will I kiss.
Mary. Ah Joseph, husband, my child waxeth cold
And we have no fire to warm him with.
Joseph. Now in my arms I shall him fold,
King of all kings by field and by frith,229
He might have had better, and himself would
Than the breathing of these beasts to warm him with.
Mary. ”

“ Then shall I, Herod, live in lede,262
And all folk me doubt and dread,
And offer to me both gold, riches, and mede,263
Thereto will they be full fain.
1st Soldier. My Lord, King Herod by name,
Thy words against my will shall be
To see so many young children die, is shame;
Therefore counsel thereto gettest thou none of me.
2nd Soldier. Well said, fellow, my troth I plight;
Sir king! perceive right well you may
So great a murder to see of young fruit,
Will make a rising in thine own countrey.
Herod. A rising!--out! out! out! ”