The French Medieval Mystery play, Adam, is midway between liturgical trope and guild-play. The oldest known drama in the
French language, Adam is thought possibly to be written in England where French was then used alongside Latin among the courtiers and educated populace; English was considered the vulgar language only for the uneducated populace. Whereas early tropes had been hardly more than dramatic paraphrases of a few lines of the Latin text versions of the Bible, Adam shows more sophistication by encompassing an elaborate story-line. Though incomplete, the text was obviously designed to be performed in front of the
church, as noted in the stage directions where characters enter and exit from the church. Thus the play also displays the development of liturgical drama from inside the church as a part of the mass to outside and separate from religious service. The play, a dramatization of the story of Adam and Eve, involves Adam and Eve in Paradise being brought before God, the Saviour. The action begins with a chant by the choir, after which the figure of God tells Adam and Eve their duties and inducts them into Paradise. Upon the exit of God into the church, Adam and Eve ecstatically enter Paradise with devils darting in and out of the action. The Devil comes and tries to
persuade Adam towards evil, but Adam remains resolute. He then goes and seeks advise from his other ministers and comes back to persuade Eve, who is more malleable. This presentation of the story of Adam and Eve has a much more threatening view of Hell with Adam and Eve at the end put into shackles and chains and led down to Hell and damnation to acknowledge their fall from Paradise. Hell is presented as the tortuous place of fire and damnation to bring fear into the audience members.