Belial (The Devil) World Good Angel Bad Angel Seven deadly sins (Pride, Anger [Wrath], Envy, Gluttony, Lechery, Sloth, Greed [Covetousness]) Seven virtues (Humility [Meekness], Patience, Charity, Abstinence, Chastity, Industry, Generosity) Death The Father (God) Pleasure (Lust-Liker) Folly The Boy Flesh Backbiter Confession (Shrift) Penance The Soul The Daughters of God (Mercy, Truth, Justice [Righteousness], Peace) First Standard-Bearer The Castle of Perseverance is a c. 15th-century morality play and the earliest known full-length (3,649 lines) vernacular play in existence.

The Castle of Perseverance contains nearly all of the themes found in other morality plays, but it is especially important (and unusual) because a stage drawing is included, which may suggest theatre in the round.

This morality play traces the entire life of its hero Humanum Genus (Mankind) as he wages a fluctuating battle with evil forces.

World’s servants (Lust and Folly) dress the hero in expensive clothes and lead him to the scaffold of Covetousness, where Mankind accepts the Seven Deadly Sins.

All is not lost, though, for Shrift and Penance convince Mankind to repent and he is placed in the Castle of Perseverance where he will be protected from sin by the Seven Moral Virtues.

Mankind's enemies (World, Flesh, and the Devil) attack the castle but are repulsed by the Virtues armed with roses (emblems of Christ’s Passion).

[2][3][4] Along with The Castle of Perseverance, the Reverend Cox Macro of Bury St Edmunds, Suffolk acquired Mankind and Wisdom in the early 18th century.

In August of 1936, Joseph Quincy Adams, the Director of the Folger Shakespeare Library, purchased this manuscript along with Mankind and Wisdom from the antiquarian firm Bernard Quaritch Ltd for £1,125 (approximately $5,625).