LYCOS RETRIEVER 
Morality: Morality Play
built 199 days ago
Morality Play is set in fourteenth-century England. It tells the story of a renegade priest, who serves as the narrator, and a company of travelling actors. The priest, Nicolas Barber, happens upon the travelling players, who have stopped at a clearing in the countryside to care for Brendan, a dying friend and fellow actor. Nicolas joins the acting company, taking over Brendan's role, even though he fears that play-acting is considered a sin by the diocese. The players travel with the dead man in their cart for some time but eventually realize that they must stop somewhere to bury him.
Source:
Morality plays are a type of theatrical allegory in which the protagonist is met by personifications of various moral attributes who try to prompt him to choose a godly life over one of evil. The plays were most popular in Europe during the 15th and 16th century. Having grown out of the religiously based mystery plays of the Middle Ages, they represented a shift towards a more secular base for European theatre.
Source:
Overall, Morality Play can be described as engaging, suspenseful, and carefully crafted. It is a novel that can easily be compared with other contemporary literature classics. Unsworth's attention to detail and plot development, as well as his extraordinarily beautiful writing style, distinguishes him from less talented writers.
Source:
Morality plays only gradually died out as tastes changed towards the end of the sixteenth century. Throughout his career Shakespeare made references to morality characters and tropes, suggesting that the form was still alive for his audiences, at least in memory, long beyond the period of its textual flowering.
Source:
MORE ABOUT
Morality Play