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This test consists of 5 short answer questions, 10 short essay questions, and 1 (of 3) essay topics.

Short Answer Questions

1. What does Abel offer to God as a sacrifice in Scene III? ("Cain and Abel")

2. After telling Eve that eating from the tree would give her knowledge, what does Satan call himself? ("The Fall of Man")

3. Where does Scene II take place? ("Abraham and Isaac")

4. After Joseph states that he will travel to Bethlehem, what does Mary say? ("The Annunciation")

5. Where does "The Second Shepherds' Pageant" end?

Short Essay Questions

1. How are the "Shepherds' Pageants" distinguished from the rest of the Towneley cycle?

2. Where, in the text of "Herod the Great", did a prophecy that Christ was born in a cave come from?

3. Why does Gabriel state that Mary is the one whom will bear the Christ child?

4. Why does the introduction to "Herod the Great" state that Herod is a recreation of a contemporary magnate?

5. According to the Preface, why did A.C. Cawley choose the collection of plays that he did as a representative collection of medieval biblical pageants?

6. What did the Introduction state was the "unity of biblical history"?

7. What happens to Lucifer when he plunges into Hell?

8. In what poetic form was "The Creation" written?

9. From where do some of the features of "Herod the Great" derive?

10. What "justifies" Lucifer's fall from Heaven?

Essay Topics

Write an essay for ONE of the following topics:

Essay Topic 1

Many "parts" of Everyman are described in the play. If you were to put all of the "parts" together, what kind of person would Everyman be?

Essay Topic 2

"Everyman, and Medieval Miracle Plays have many themes contained within them, and also that traverse between them. Discuss one of the following themes in detail: sacrifice, atonement, forgiveness, or loneliness.

Essay Topic 3

Choose one of the "Medieval Miracle Plays" and compare and contrast the message that it contains to a similar message in Everyman. What are both texts trying to say? How do both texts deliver the message? Given that both texts obviously convey the same message, or it would not have been chosen for this essay, how do the texts differ? How are they similar?

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