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More than 5000 entries on the history, culture and life of Britain (published in 1993 by Macmillan, now out of print)
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Everyman
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(c.1500) The best-known English morality play, meaning one in which the characters are allegorical abstractions rather than the biblical figures of *mystery plays. An earlier Dutch text provided most of the plot, in which Everyman learns to distinguish between true and false values. Facing Death, he is abandoned by former friends such as Fellowship and Goods. Only Good Deeds can actually accompany him into the grave. But Knowledge speaks a reassuring couplet which became widely familiar through being printed on the first page of each volume in Everyman's Library, published from 1906: Everyman, I will go with thee, and be thy guide, In thy most need to go by thy side.
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