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''Elckerlijc'' (also known as ''Elckerlyc'') is a 
The play won the first prize in a theater contest in Brabant; it is uncertain whether it won at the
Online version of ''Elkerlijc''
15th-century plays 1495 plays Everyman Middle Dutch literature {{15thC-play-stub
morality play
The morality play is a genre of medieval and early Tudor drama. The term is used by scholars of literary and dramatic history to refer to a genre of play texts from the fourteenth through sixteenth centuries that feature personified concepts ( ...
from the Low Countries
The Low Countries (; ), historically also known as the Netherlands (), is a coastal lowland region in Northwestern Europe forming the lower Drainage basin, basin of the Rhine–Meuse–Scheldt delta and consisting today of the three modern "Bene ...
which was written in Dutch somewhere around the year 1470. It was first printed in 1495. The play was extremely successful and may have been the original source for the English play ''Everyman
The everyman is a stock character of fiction. An ordinary and humble character, the everyman is generally a protagonist whose benign conduct fosters the audience's identification with them.
Origin and history
The term ''everyman'' was used ...
'', as well as many other translations for other countries. The authorship of ''Elckerlijc'' is attributed to Peter van Diest, a medieval
In the history of Europe, the Middle Ages or medieval period lasted approximately from the 5th to the late 15th centuries, similarly to the post-classical period of World history (field), global history. It began with the fall of the West ...
writer from the Low Countries.
The play won the first prize in a theater contest in Brabant; it is uncertain whether it won at the Antwerp
Antwerp (; ; ) is a City status in Belgium, city and a Municipalities of Belgium, municipality in the Flemish Region of Belgium. It is the capital and largest city of Antwerp Province, and the third-largest city in Belgium by area at , after ...
Landjuweel in 1496. As a morality play, it stresses the didactic
Didacticism is a philosophy that emphasises instructional and informative qualities in literature, art, and design. In art, design, architecture, and landscape, didacticism is a conceptual approach that is driven by the urgent need to explain.
...
message. It uses allegory
As a List of narrative techniques, literary device or artistic form, an allegory is a wikt:narrative, narrative or visual representation in which a character, place, or event can be interpreted to represent a meaning with moral or political signi ...
of the hero as an "everyman" (a typical human person) and is written in moderately elevated Rederijker style.
Dutch and English historians argued for decades over whether the English play ''Everyman'' was based on ''Elckerlijc'' (or vice versa). The most convincing evidence that ''Elckerlijc'' was the original was provided by the English historian E. R. Tigg, who showed how many rhymes and literal translations were copied from the Dutch language play into the English ''Everyman''. On the other hand, an English translator should have added a rhyming tag to each of a pair of words that rhyme in Dutch but not in English. The prevalent view is that the Dutch-language version was the original.
Translations and adaptations
* ''Everyman
The everyman is a stock character of fiction. An ordinary and humble character, the everyman is generally a protagonist whose benign conduct fosters the audience's identification with them.
Origin and history
The term ''everyman'' was used ...
'', in English (16th century)
* ''Homulus'', translation in Latin (1536) by Christianus Ischyrius
* ''Hecastus'', adaptation in Latin (1536) by Macropedius
* '' Jedermann'' (1911), Hugo von Hofmannsthal
Hugo Laurenz August Hofmann von Hofmannsthal (; 1 February 1874 – 15 July 1929) was an Austrian novelist, libretto, librettist, Poetry, poet, Playwdramatist, narrator, and essayist.
Early life
Hofmannsthal was born in Landstraße, Vienna, th ...
's German adaptation of ''Everyman
The everyman is a stock character of fiction. An ordinary and humble character, the everyman is generally a protagonist whose benign conduct fosters the audience's identification with them.
Origin and history
The term ''everyman'' was used ...
''
* '' Elckerlyc'', 1975 film directed by Jos Stelling
Jos Stelling (born 16 July 1945) is a Dutch film director and screenwriter.
Career
He made his debut as a film director in 1974 with ''Mariken van Nieumegen'', which was selected for the official Cannes competition in 1975.
In 1981 he founded t ...
Notes
Sources
*Further reading
* "Is ''Elckerlyc'' prior to ''Everyman''?" ''Journal of English and Germanic Philosophy'' 1939, pp. 568–96.External links
Online version of ''Elkerlijc''
15th-century plays 1495 plays Everyman Middle Dutch literature {{15thC-play-stub