This play is an
INTERLUDE, very few of which survive to the modern day.
They were one-act farces, where the moral was
secondary to the lively
dialogue among the characters. They were a form of entertainment which
arose in the great houses during the first part of the sixteenth (16th)
century.
This particular
interlude is a dialogue among the Palmer (a pilgrims
were called, since they carried palm leaves back from the Holy Land),
and a Pardoner (a cleric who was empowered to offer forgiveness of
sins), a Pothecary (a druggist and primitive doctor), and a Pedlar (a
wandering minor merchant). The first three were arguing who had the
most to do with getting people into Heaven. To decide who was the best,
the Pedlar
suggested a storytelling contest. It isn't taken terribly
seriously once the Pedlar judges, but the results are hilarious. The
little play concludes that judgment should be left in the hands of the
Church Universal, so this was obviously written before Henry VIII split
with Rome.