The English Moral Plays 319 
This harsh judgment is sustained by the third sister, Truth. But 
Peace, the fourth, rebukes these advocates of unmitigated punish- 
- ment, and persuades them to carry their dispute to their father, 
God. Accordingly, they present in full their arguments before his 
throne. Truth assérts that Mankind deserves damnation for his 
sins. But, Mercy interposes, Christ’s sacrifice has. made forgiveness 
possible. Such lenity, however, Justice objects, runs directly counter 
to divine law, and would be subversive of the whole moral order. 
Yes, adds Truth, Mankind never fed the hungry, or clothed the 
poor, or showed kindness to the unfortunate; let him therefore 
suffer. Thus the dispute progresses till Peace interposes. She re- 
conciles the sisters, and together they beg God to spare the con- 
demned sinner. In response to their united appeals, he orders 
Mankind to be carried from hell to heaven. 
Thus the play ends with a dramatic rendering of the allegory 
suggested by the eighty-fifth Psalm. Like the allegory of the 
struggle between the virtues and vices, of the Dance of Death, 
and of the Debate between the Body and the Soul, this was one 
of the commonest themes of medieval literature. Combined as 
they are here, the four motives give in full the varied course of 
Mankind’s career, from his first day, when Good Angel and Bad 
Angel stand on either hand asking his allegiance, through all his 
sinnings and repentings, to the last scene before the tribunal of 
God. The long story is told with but little respect for dramatic 
climax, and with a tedious prolixity; but underneath it all lies one 
plain moral: 
Evyr at be begynnynge 
Thynke on zoure last endynge ! (3648—49) 
The reader thinks at once of the Blickling homily, “The End of 
the World is Near,’ and, possibly, of the still closer parallelism 
with a homily attributed to Ephraem, the Syrian! It warns man 
to keep ever in mind the hour when soul shall be separated from 
body, and the great fear and the great mystery of life shall be 
consummated. At that hour, angels and demons will. flock about 
the dying man, and struggle to possess him. If he has lived a 
good life, observant of the virtues, they will then become his 
Angeli bont, protect him from the demons, and lead him to a land 
of rest and joy. But if he has wasted his life, the vices to which 
he has yielded will become demons and seize his soul and carry 

» De habenda semper in mente die exitus vitae, 6. 356-57. 
