carrying in their hands chains and iron fetters, which they shall
put on the necks of Adam and Eve. And some shall push and others
pull them to hell: and hard by hell shall be other devils ready to
meet them, who shall hold high revel at their fall. And certain
other devils shall point them out as they come, and shall snatch
them up and carry them into hell; and there shall they make a great
smoke arise, and call aloud to each other with glee in their hell,
and clash their pots and kettles, that they may be heard without.
And after a little delay the devils shall come out and run about
the stage; but some shall remain in hell.[2]

Immediately after this conclusion comes a shorter play of Cain and Abel,
followed in its turn by another on the Prophets; but in all three the
catastrophe is the same--mocking, exultant devils, and a noisy, smoky
'inferno'.

The most important characteristics of _Adam_ are the venturesome removal
of the play outside the sacred building, the increase in invented
dialogue beyond the limits of the Bible narrative, and the 'by-play'
conceded to popular taste. The last two easily followed from the first.
Within a church there is an atmosphere of sanctity, a spirit of
prohibition, which must, even in the Middle Ages, have had a restrictive
effect upon the elements of innovation and naturalness. The good people
of the Bible, the saints, had to live up to their reputation in every
small word and deed so long as their statues, images, and pictures gazed
down fixedly from the walls upon their living representatives. This was
so much a fact that to the very end Bible and Saint plays conceded
licence of action and speech only to those nameless persons, such as the
soldiers, Pharisees, and shepherds, who never attained to the
distinction of individual statues, and who could never be invoked in