Everyman

“I perceive, here in my majesty,

How that all creatures be to me unkind,

Living without dread in worldly prosperity:

Of ghostly sight the people be so blind,

Drowned in sin, they know me not for their God;

In worldly riches is all their mind,

They fear not my righteousness, the sharp rod.”

God expresses frustration at the ingratitude of human beings, who spend their lives seeking material wealth (“worldly prosperity”) while neglecting spiritual matters. This causes human beings to sin without fear of God’s justice—the “rod” is a common biblical metaphor for divine retribution—or their impending deaths. This monologue sets the scene for God’s summoning of Everyman to answer for his sins.

“Go thou to Everyman,

And show him, in my name,

A pilgrimage he must on him take,

Which he in no wise may escape;

And that he bring with him a sure reckoning

Without delay or any tarrying.”

Having summoned Death, God sends him to bring Everyman to him for a “sure reckoning”—a final judgment in which he answers for his sins. God emphasizes the finality of this reckoning, which Everyman “in no wise may escape” and which will take him from the transient earthly realm to the eternal realm of God. Also significant is God’s likening of Everyman’s reckoning to a “pilgrimage,” a metaphor that will structure the rest of the play: Just like a pilgrimage, Everyman’s journey to his reckoning is of a sacred nature and will ultimately bring about the healing and salvation of his soul.

“Alas, shall I have no longer respite?

I may say Death giveth no warning!

To think on thee, it maketh my heart sick,

For all unready is my book of reckoning.”

When Everyman learns of Death’s identity, he is shocked and horrified, realizing that human beings die suddenly (“Death giveth no warning!”) and pointing out that he is “unready” for his reckoning. Because Everyman has spent his life in the pursuit of earthly wealth and has neglected God, his “book of reckoning”—the ledger of his good and evil deeds—is full of sins and light on good deeds, so that Everyman is unprepared to go before God for his final judgment.

“Fellowship herebefore with me would merry make,

And now little sorrow for me doth he take.”

Fellowship is the first of Everyman’s earthly friends to forsake him, and as he does so Everyman realizes the true nature of his “friend:” Fellowship, who initially promised to stay at Everyman’s side, will really only stay at his side in pleasure. At the first sign of hardship, Fellowship abandons Everyman, as Everyman’s other earthly friends—Kindred, Cousin, and Goods—will do as well.

“I lie here in corners, trussed and piled so high,

And in chests I am locked so fast,

Also sacked in bags. Thou mayst see with thine eye

I cannot stir; in packs low I lie.”

When Goods comes on stage in answer to Everyman’s call, his very first words emphasize just how much Everyman has loved and valued him throughout his life. Goods is “trussed and piled so high,” as he tells Everyman, that he is unable to move (Goods’ antithesis, Good Deeds, will also be unable to move when she first comes on stage, though for precisely the opposite reason). Yet though Everyman has “locked” Goods in chests and “sacked” him in bags, he will discover that he has not truly made Goods his own and that Goods will not be able to accompany him to his reckoning.

“Nay, Everyman, I sing another song.

I follow no man in such voyages;

For, and I went with thee,

Thou shouldst fare much the worse for me;

For because on me thou did set thy mind,

Thy reckoning I have made blotted and blind,

That thine account thou cannot make truly;

And that hast thou for the love of me.”

As soon as Everyman asks Goods to accompany him to his reckoning before God, Goods tells him bluntly that he cannot follow anybody “in such voyages,” explaining that Everyman’s love of earthly wealth has been to the detriment of his soul. Over the course of the dialogue and the remainder of the play, Everyman will come to understand that the love of God and the love of Goods are mutually exclusive and that to attain the salvation of his soul he must renounce everything he has held valuable throughout his life.

“Here I lie, cold in the ground;

Thy sins hath me sore bound,

That I cannot stir.”

Good Deeds, just like Goods, cannot move when she first comes on stage. However, where Good Deeds was immobilized by Everyman’s excessive attentions, Goods is immobilized by Everyman’s neglect. Because she cannot move, Goods cannot accompany Everyman to his reckoning—at least until Everyman’s repentance restores her ability to rise and walk.

“Everyman, I will go with thee, and be thy guide,

In thy most need to go by thy side.”

In these lines (which are also the motto of the Everyman’s Library reprint series), Knowledge affirms her willingness to guide Everyman, at least until he dies. Knowledge cannot accompany Everyman beyond the grave, but she will prepare him for his reckoning, guiding him to Confession and urging him to repent and receive the sacrament before he dies and proceeds to his reckoning.

“Because with Knowledge ye come to me,

I will you comfort as well as I can,

And a precious jewel I will give thee,

Called penance, voider of adversity […]”

When Everyman, guided by Knowledge, comes to Confession, Confession tells him to seek “penance” or repentance, described metaphorically as a “precious jewel.” Repentance, as Confession explains, is the only way for Everyman to achieve the salvation of his soul. Sure enough, Everyman’s repentance will restore Good Deeds’ ability to walk and thus enable her to accompany Everyman to his reckoning.

“I thank God, now I can walk and go,

And am delivered of my sickness and woe.

Therefore with Everyman I will go, and not spare;

His good works I will help him to declare.”

Good Deeds proclaims that Everyman’s repentance has restored her ability to walk. Having been thus “delivered,” Good Deeds immediately professes her intention to accompany Everyman to his reckoning, thus setting herself apart from the other friends (Fellowship, Goods, etc.), who have forsaken or will forsake Everyman.

“There is no emperor, king, duke, ne baron,

That of God hath commission

As hath the least priest in the world being;

For of the blessed sacraments pure and benign

He beareth the keys, and thereof hath the cure

For man’s redemption […]”

Five Wits declares that priests occupy the most important position in the “world being,” or the earthly realm, because they alone can help human beings attain “redemption” in the eternal realm. Sure enough, it is by repenting and receiving the sacrament from the priesthood that Everyman prepares himself for his reckoning. At the same time, Knowledge will also caution against corrupt priests, who abuse their great power by taking bribes and breaking their religious vows.

“In this world live no more we shall,

But in heaven before the highest Lord of all.”

As Everyman speaks these words, he effectively renounces the earthly realm and embraces the eternal realm of God. This shift, however, marks the point at which Beauty, Strength, Discretion, and Five Wits must leave him, and it is here, as Everyman prepares for death, that he is forsaken by all but Good Deeds, who alone can accompany him beyond the earthly world to “heaven before the highest Lord of all.”

“EVERYMAN. Methink, alas, that I must be gone

To make my reckoning and my debts pay,

For I see my time is nigh spent away.

Take example, all ye that this do hear or see,

How they that I loved best do forsake me,

Except my Good Deeds that bideth truly.

GOOD DEEDS. All earthly things is but vanity:

Beauty, Strength, Discretion do man forsake,

Foolish friends, and kinsmen, that fair spake—

All fleeth save Good Deeds, and that am I.”

Everyman proclaims the lesson he has learned at last: that all the earthly, material things human beings value mean nothing after they die, when only the good deeds they have done are worth anything. Good Deeds promptly confirms this message, denouncing all “earthly things” and juxtaposing them with her own role, for while “Beauty, Strength, Discretion […] / Foolish friends, and kinsmen” have forsaken Everyman (as they forsake all human beings eventually), she alone has remained by his side.