Editing Morality play (section)

==History of the term "morality play"==

While scholars refer to these works as morality plays, the play texts do not refer to themselves as such; rather, the genre and its nomenclature have been retroactively conceived by scholarship as a way for modern scholars to understand a series of texts that share enough commonalities that they may be better understood together. Thus, as scholar Pamela King has noted, the morality plays' "absolute cohesion as a group" is "bound to be questioned in any attempt to define that form in its individual manifestations and theatrical contexts."<ref name="ReferenceA" />  As for the history of the term itself in modern usage, premodern plays were separated into 'moralities' and 'mysteries' by Robert Dodsley in the 18th century; he categorized moralities as allegorical plays and mysteries as biblical plays, though nothing suggests that the moralities are not biblical or would not conceive of themselves as such.<ref>Solberg, Emma Maggie. "A History of 'The Mysteries.'" ''Early Theatre'', vol. 19, no. 1 (2016): 9–36, at 12.</ref>

Although they do not explicitly label themselves with the genre title morality plays, some of the play texts self-reflexively refer to themselves with the term ''game.''  While the Middle English spelling of ''game'' varies, the noun generally refers to a joy, festivity, amusement, or play.<ref>[https://quod.lib.umich.edu/m/middle-english-dictionary/dictionary/MED18146/track?counter=1&search_id=8101628 "game n."] Middle English Dictionary. Ed. Robert E. Lewis, et al. Ann Arbor: University of Michigan Press, 1952-2001. Online edition in Middle English Compendium. Ed. Frances McSparran, et al.. Ann Arbor: University of Michigan Library, 2000-2021:</ref> In the opening lines of ''The Pride of Life'', the Prolocutor uses the word game when asking his audience to listen attentively, stating, <blockquote> Lordinges and ladiis that beth hende,
Herkenith al with mylde mode <br />
[How ou]re ''gam'' schal gyn and ende (l. 5-7, emphasis added).<ref>Klausner, David N., ed. [https://d.lib.rochester.edu/teams/text/klausner-two-moral-interludes-the-pride-of-life "The Pride of Life"]. In ''Two Moral Interludes: The Pride of Life and Wisdom''. Kalamazoo, MI: Medieval Institute Publications, 2008:</ref></blockquote>
 
In the closing lines of ''The Castle of Perseverance'', the character Pater (meaning The Father) tells the audience, "Thus endyth oure gamys" (l. 3645).<ref name="KlausnerCastle">Klausner, David N., ed. [https://d.lib.rochester.edu/teams/text/klausner-castle-of-perseverance "The Castle of Perseverance"]. Kalamazoo, MI: Medieval Institute Publications, 2010</ref>

While these plays appear to self-reflexively refer to their dramatic form, it is only ''Everyman'' that explicitly describes itself as a moral play, both in its incipit ("Here begynneth a treatyse... in maner of a morall playe") and when a character, Messenger, states that this literary work will communicate "By fygure [of] a morall playe" (l. 3).<ref name="d.lib.rochester.edu"/> However, one should not interpret these self-reflexive lines as simply moments that identify the genre of morality plays. Although the lines use the word "playe," scholarship remains unsure if ''Everyman'' was actually staged as a dramatic performance, or if the text was a literary work intended for reading.<ref name="d.lib.rochester.edu">Davidson, Clifford, Martin W. Walsh, and Ton J. Broos. [https://d.lib.rochester.edu/teams/text/davidson-everyman-introduction "Introduction."] In ''Everyman and Its Dutch Original, Elckerlijc''. Kalamazoo, MI: Medieval Institute Publications, 2007:</ref>  The 1901 modern revival of the play, staged by Willian Poem, is the earliest record of the play's production.<ref name="d.lib.rochester.edu" /> Additionally, ''Everyman'' is a translation of the Dutch ''Elckerlijc'', and, therefore, is not originally an English literary work.<ref name="d.lib.rochester.edu"/>  Thus, due to the uncertainty regarding the play's status as a dramatic work, as well as the play's non-English origins, ''Everyman''{{'}}s self-reflective identification as a "morall playe" cannot confirm that the medieval moralities explicitly name themselves as a cohesive medieval morality genre.