Material Economy, Spiritual Economy, and Social Critique in Everyman

COMPARATIVE F?9???9 Volume 40 · No. 3 · Fall 2006 Material Economy, Spiritual Economy, and Social Critique in Everyman Elizabeth Harper and Britt Mize In an important essay first published in 1972, V. A. Kolve pointed out that "the most distinctive part" ofEveryman's language,"the essential verbal matrix of the play," deals with economic exchanges and the accountbooktheprotagonistmustpresentto Godathis specialjudgment.1 Kolves study,which draws on exegeticaltradition to argue that the"source behind the sources" of Everyman is the Parable of the Talents found in Matthew 25:14-30,2 does well to stress the foregrounding of financial terminology in Everyman, but notable aspects of that pervasive motif remain unexamined. Besides the language of accountancy and lending that it shares with the parable,Everyman also repeatedlyinvokes the concept of donation; and all of these ideas function in relation to material wealth,which also features prominentlyin the text but appears in Kolve's interpretation, like the coins in patristic readings of the parable, to representhuman qualities,capabilities,and resources in general.3Moreover, the view ofEveryman developed in relation to the Parable ofthe Talents 264Comparative Drama joins most other discussions ofthe play, before and since, in making the protagonist's sinfulness seem unparticularized in nature and abstract in representation. Morality plays are intended to present matter of universal import,but this does not mean that their representations lackall specificity . While the events and characters in these works instantiate what their writers take to be general principles, the portrayals that illustrate those principles always proceed from and were understood within contexts investingthem with cultural meaning. Interpretations ofEveryman that consider onlyits theological ideas set aside manyfeatures ofthe text that contribute to thevision itpromotes ofthe social world and thepeople who constitute it. In this essay we will suggest that the play's economic language has literal as well as metaphorical significance: there is good reason to believe that Everyman is less about mismanaging figurative assets than it is about loving the wrong kind ofwealth. This reading, too, has a scriptural foundation, also in the Gospel of Matthew: nolite thesaurizare vobis thesauros in terra ubi erugo et tinea demolitur ubi fures effodiunt et furantur Thesaurizate autem vobis thesauros in caelo ubi ñeque erugo ñeque tinea demolitur et ubi fures non effodiunt nec furantur ubi enim est thesaurus tuus ibi est et cor tuum. (Matt. 6:19-21)" [Lay not up to yourselves treasures on earth: where the rust, and moth consume, and where thieves break through, and steal. But lay up to yourselves treasures in heaven: where neither the rust nor moth doth consume , and where thieves do not break through, nor steal. For where thy treasure is, there is thy heart also.) (Douay-Rheims) Although Jesus' admonition has a metaphorical element (the idea that there is another kind oftreasure more enduring than material riches), a firmly practical orientation underlies these words and their devaluation of earthly wealth. This passages interest in social application is made even clearer by its context in Matthew 6, which includes statements that teach the observance of alms and declare that one cannot serve both God and money.5 In not relyingsolelyon theoreticalformulation orfigurative meaning, which may leave a challenging interpretive distance be- Elizabeth Harper and BrittMize265 tween the affirmation ofprinciple and itspractical realization,theseverses from the Sermon on the Mount differ from the genre ofthe parable with its characteristicallyobliquelogic.Indeed,the gospel accounts sometimes thematize the opacity ofparables as their hearers ponder these compact narratives and struggle to grasp theirbearingon lived experience.6Jesus' words here, by contrast, explicitly link attitude with action so as to demand not only reflection on the lesson, but its execution. We find the same practical orientation and the same moral in Everyman,which may almost be read as an extended gloss on this scriptural text. Everyman's purpose is to dramatize spiritual peril and the means of salvation, but its method in doing so reflects earthly concerns that are both concrete and particular. It concentrates on the affairs and actions of persons in the world, whereas other morality plays often represent the interior drama of the soul as primary and treat outward aspects of life onlyas theyproceed from it.What is more,these affairs...