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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. Where does Scene I ("Cain and Abel") open?

2. Who takes Adam and Eve to middle Earth? ("The Fall of Man")

3. What does the messenger do as Herod enters the scene? (Herod the Great")

4. What spring does Isaiah say would bring "forth the grain of holiness"? ("The Annunciation")

5. At the opening of "Herod the Great", what is the messenger asking the audience to do?

Short Essay Questions

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

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

3. On what is the "Second Shepherds' Pageant" based?

4. When Joseph enters Mary's home, what does he question her about?

5. What gifts did God bestow on Lucifer?

6. In what poetic form was "Noah's Flood" written?

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

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

9. From where did the editor obtain a copy of the manuscript to include "The Annunciation" in his collection of pageants?

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

Essay Topics

Write an essay for ONE of the following topics:

Essay Topic 1

Given that these plays were based off of biblical stories, what issues could the Church have with the text's representation of each pageant? (One does not need to have a specific, or any, religious beliefs to answer. This essay can be based solely off of student perceptions of "questioning facts" in the text.)

Essay Topic 2

Many lessons were taught in the morality plays of the text. Which of the morality plays has the strongest message? What was the message? Why was it the most important in the text? How was the lesson taught?

Essay Topic 3

What sort of attitude towards man does God have in the plays?

(see the answer keys)

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