Flamboyant Drama

In addition to providing new readings of three anonymous morality plays differ­ing in design and texture, Kelley’s book gives an overview of the fifteenth-centu­ry flamboyant art form, that strange mixture of artistry, moral theology, bawdy irreverence, physical action, and sermonic eloquence, which succeeded the mystery plays at the end of the medieval period. As John Gardner notes in his Foreword, Kelley has done for the morality plays what earlier scholars did for the mysteries: "He has pointed out their controlling aesthetic and shown why, in their time and place, they were a joy to see and hear.”

Michael R. Kelley is an associate pro­fessor of English at George Mason University. John Gardner, the editor of the Literary Structures series, is best known for his novels and poetry. Among his re­cent books are October Light, The Life and Times of Chaucer, and The Poetry of Chau­cer.