What Is Everyman?

n standard reference works, Everyman is still seen as a powerful example of a clearly defined genre called the medieval morality play, a “form of vernacular medieval drama” concerned with “stories of temptation, fall and regeneration.” At the same time, the suitability of these terms for describing Everyman has come under some scrutiny, and one could comfortably assign students an essay topic along the following lines: “Everyman is not medieval and not moral. Discuss.” Some scholars have noticed that the dates of Everyman do not fall within the accepted limits of the medieval period, usually assigned to 1485 or so; it was printed in the first part of the sixteenth century, and no earlier manuscripts survive.Others have raised questions about the nature of its morality by noting that Everyman does not seem to have much in common with the other medieval mo-