morality
Moralities were plays with a moral or religious-educational character that were popular in Europe in the Middle Ages . They were particularly popular in England ( morality ) and France ( moralité ), but they were also widespread in Germany. They were allegorical pieces in which the individual figures represented vices or virtues , for example lust , avarice , but also charity or mercy .
However, these plays were by no means dry didactic pieces, but rather entertaining, sometimes quite hearty depictions, in which the vices in particular were portrayed as comical types, who on stage, to the delight of the audience, experienced all sorts of injustices, and those of them Virtues were defeated in the end.
A motif that was widespread in Germany as well was that of the person who suddenly faces death and who now expects help from his servants. But neither friendship nor money can help him, only faith and his good deeds want to accompany him. In English the piece is called Everyman , in German Jedermann , which is still performed annually at the Salzburg Festival in the modernized version by Hugo von Hofmannsthal .
The moralities developed in the 15th and 16th centuries from the mystery plays , which in the 14th century had arisen.