Written in Middle English during the Tudor period, the identity of the author is unknown. Although the play was apparently produced with some frequency in the seventy-five years following its composition, no production records survive.[1]
There is a similar Dutch-language (Flemish) morality play of the same period called Elckerlijc. Scholars have yet to reach an agreement on whether Everyman is a translation of this play, or derived independently from a Latin work named Homulus.[2][3] Cawley goes so far as to say that the "evidence for … Elckerlijk is certainly very strong, but final proof is hardly possible".[4]