The sixteenth-century morality play Everyman (1500) was admired by Eliot for its versification, which he imitated in his play. A reader of Murder in the Cathedral will also immediately note the ways in which Eliot appropriated this play's use of symbolic characters (such as Death, Kindred, and Beauty) as the Three Tempters in his own work.

John Milton's Samson Agonistes (1671) is, like Eliot's play, a religious drama in verse. The play examines the captivity of Samson (the Biblical hero) among the Philistines and his desire to strengthen his faith in God.

Barry Unsworth's 1995 novel Morality Play offers a look at the performers of such medieval dramatic fare and raises questions similar to those found in Eliot's play, specifically, the ways in which the law of man—as opposed to the law of God—can he corrupted and suited to...