Elckerlijc (also known as Elckerlyc) is a morality play from the Low Countries 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, as well as many other translations for other countries. The authorship of Elckerlijc is attributed to Peter van Diest, a medieval writer from the Low Countries.

thumb|right|200px|Swedish edition of [[Macropedius' Hecastus. Göteborg 1681. Courtesy of the Royal Library, Stockholm]]

The play won the first prize in a theater contest in Brabant; it is uncertain whether it won at the Antwerp Landjuweel in 1496. The prevalent view is that the Dutch-language version was the original.

Translations and adaptations

  • Everyman, in English (16th century)
  • Homulus, translation in Latin (1536) by Christianus Ischyrius

Notes

Sources

Further reading

  • "Is Elckerlyc prior to Everyman?" Journal of English and Germanic Philosophy 1939, pp. 568–96.
  • Online version of Elkerlijc
  • Online version of Elkerlijc