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The distinguishing features of medieval drama are its Christian content and its didactic purpose. Vernacular plays typically dramatized the lives of the saints, stories from the Bible, or moral allegories. The biblical cycle plays, sometimes called mystery plays, were originally performed under church auspices, but by the late 14th century they were produced under the supervision of craft guilds (misteres) and performed in public places on the feast of Corpus Christi or during Whitsuntide. Fairly …

…English work probably derived from a Dutch original, is less typical of the genre in that it omits the fall and life in sin and instead dramatizes Everyman's summons by Death to account for his sins. These moralities were performed by professional and traveling troupes. The influence of the form can be seen in Doctor Faustus (1588?) by Christopher Marlowe and in the Falstaff scenes of Shakespeare's Henry IV, as well as in other Renaissance plays.