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A New Source for Mankind
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 02 December 2020
Extract
In the Publications of the Modern Language Association for June, 1911, Miss Mabel M. Keiller points out an interesting case of parallelism between the ground-tilling episode in the Macro play of Mankind and the “half-acre” episode in Piers Plowman, A Text, Passus VII (B Text, Passus VIII). After citing parallel incidents and passages Miss Keiller concludes: “Whatever may be thought of the significance of some of these instances, there seems to be no escape from the conclusion that the plot of Mankind depended for its central situation, its characters, its surroundings and general trend of thought on the greatest of English allegories.”
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- Research Article
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- Copyright © Modern Language Association of America, 1912
References
page 98 note 1 Mabel M. Keiller, “The Influence of Piers Plowman on the Macro Play of Mankind,” Publications of the Mod. Lang. Ass., Vol. xxvi, No. 2, New Series, Vol. xix, No. 2.
page 99 note 1 W. J. Courthope, A History of English Poetry, Vol. ii, p. 339.
page 100 note 1 The four attributes are Righteousness, Peace, Mercy, and Truth. For a discussion of the allegories presenting these attributes see Hope Traver, The Four Daughters of God, Bryn Mawr, 1907.
page 101 note 1 In the E. E. T. S. volume entitled Hymns to the Virgin and Christ. Edited by F. J. Furnivall.
page 103 note 1 Peace, the representative of the fourth attribute, is an unimportant figure in the allegories presenting personifications of the four attributes, and is not even mentioned in the two works under discussion.
page 103 note 2 In the play mischief is the abstraction that is personified as the chief Vice, the representative of “all sins generally.” The association of Mankind with Mischief on terms of friendliness and familiarity is an allegorical representation of the entrance of sin into the heart. The above line in the dialogue indicates the same broad scope in the interpretation of the term “myscheef.” It is to be interpreted, Then shall sin never enter thy heart.
page 104 note 1 Ll. 48–65.
page 104 note 2 Ll. 823–835.
page 105 note 1 The play follows the dialogue in a further departure from the traditional form of the motive. In both works Mercy is personified, not as a woman, but as a man; and the other personified attributes, when their sex is indicated, are likewise referred to as masculine.