morality play

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morality play

morality play form of medieval drama that developed in the late 14th cent. and flourished through the 16th cent. The characters in the morality were personifications of good and evil usually involved in a struggle for a man's soul. The form was generally static, but it contributed significantly to the secularization of European drama. The first known moralities were called the Paternoster plays. The greatest English morality is Everyman . See miracle play .

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morality play

The Oxford Dictionary of Phrase and Fable | 2006 | | © The Oxford Dictionary of Phrase and Fable 2006, originally published by Oxford University Press 2006. (Hide copyright information) Copyright

morality play a kind of drama with personified abstract qualities as the main characters and presenting a lesson about good conduct and character, popular in the 15th and early 16th centuries.

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ELIZABETH KNOWLES. "morality play." The Oxford Dictionary of Phrase and Fable. Oxford University Press. 2006. Encyclopedia.com. 11 Nov. 2009 <http://www.encyclopedia.com>.

ELIZABETH KNOWLES. "morality play." The Oxford Dictionary of Phrase and Fable. Oxford University Press. 2006. Encyclopedia.com. (November 11, 2009). http://www.encyclopedia.com/doc/1O214-moralityplay.html

ELIZABETH KNOWLES. "morality play." The Oxford Dictionary of Phrase and Fable. Oxford University Press. 2006. Retrieved November 11, 2009 from Encyclopedia.com: http://www.encyclopedia.com/doc/1O214-moralityplay.html

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	Counterfet countenaunce: (mis)representation and the challenge to allegory in sixteenth-century morality plays.(Critical essay) Magazine article from: Yearbook of English Studies; 1/1/2008
	The Roots of Morality.(Brief article)(Book review) Magazine article from: ForeWord; 5/1/2009
	The Morality of War.(Book review) Magazine article from: Parameters; 6/22/2007

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