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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 Abraham ask of God in regard to Isaac? ("Abraham and Isaac")

2. In "The Fall of Man", who does Satan envy?

3. According to Isaiah's prologue, whose birth would redeem Adam? ("The Annunciation")

4. In the Wakefield Shepherd Pageants, how many line stanzas did the author use?

5. Why does Noah's wife say that she would be no help to the building of the Ark? ("The Flood")

Short Essay Questions

1. In "Abraham and Isaac", why does God call for the sacrifice of Isaac?

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

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

4. How is the character of Noah's wife, as depicted in the pageants, different from the orthodox theological idea of her?

5. What does Herod order to insure that the Jesus does not make it to adulthood?

6. What are biblical pageants?

7. 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?

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

9. What gifts did God bestow on Lucifer?

10. Why is the story of Mak included in this pageant?

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

How is "Everyman" an allegorical text? What makes it an allegory? (What are the characteristics of an allegory? What specific parts of "Everyman" align with these allegorical characteristics?)

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?

(see the answer keys)

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