The Second Shepherds' Play by Wakefield Master

First transcribed:Secunda Pastorum, fifteenth century

Type of work: Drama

Type of plot: Mystery and miracle play

Time of plot: The Nativity

Locale: Bethlehem and surrounding country

Principal characters

• First Shepherd,
• Second Shepherd,
• Third Shepherd,
• Mak, a rascal
• Gill, Mak’s wife
• An Angel,
• Mary,

The Story:

On the night of Christ’s birth, a cold and lonely shepherd stands in the countryside near Bethlehem watching his flocks and bemoaning his lot in life. He is joined by another shepherd, who adds his lamentations to those of the first and points out that his lot is worse because he is married. The second shepherd complains that his wife, a fat, shrewish person, was once a sweet and charming girl, but that marriage changed her.

While they grumble, a third shepherd joins them. His chief complaint is the weather, for he thinks that never, since Noah’s flood, was the season so bad. To ease their unhappy lot, the three begin to sing a song. After they sing, Mak comes into the field to join them. Mak is not very welcome, for he has a reputation as a thief, and the shepherds are somewhat fearful that he will steal something from them. Mak begs them to let him stay and tells a sad story of being hungry and unwelcome at home, even though he works hard to give his wife what she wants. The three shepherds give in and bid him lie down and spend the night with them.

After the three shepherds fall asleep, Mak arises and prepares to steal a sheep, first casting a spell over the shepherds to keep them from awakening. He goes to the fold, selects a fat ewe, and makes off with it to his house. Not daring to kill the sheep, lest the noise make the theft known, Mak and his wife Gill decide to hide the sheep in the cradle if anyone comes. In the meantime, Mak goes back to finish out his night’s sleep with the shepherds and cover up his crime.

The next morning, Mak awakens with the shepherds, makes them note that he is taking nothing with him, and starts off toward his home. Not long after he reaches home, the shepherds, who missed their ewe, go to Mak’s house to see if he or his wife stole the animal. According to plan, Mak and Gill hide the sheep in the cradle, and Gill pretends to have given birth to a son the night before. Although the accusers hunt all over the house, they find no sign of the sheep, not even a morsel of meat. After asking Mak’s pardon and bidding good health to the new child in the cradle, the shepherds leave. Scarcely are they gone, when they remember they left no gifts for the baby. Returning to the house with a little gift, they look in the cradle and discover their stolen sheep. Mak and Gill try to explain that an evil spirit took their child and replaced it with the ewe. The shepherds are not taken in by the story, toss Mak in a sheet for punishment, and then depart with their sheep.

When the shepherds return to the fields, an angel appears to them and tells them of the birth of the Savior, who will overthrow the devil and restore the glory that was lost to man through Adam’s fall. The shepherds, following the commands of the angel, make ready to visit the Christ child as it lay in a manger in Bethlehem, only a short distance away. They consider themselves lucky to have an opportunity to see the Messiah, who was prophesied in ages past.

Upon their arrival in Bethlehem, where they were led by the star, the three shepherds go to the stable where Mary and the Child are housed. The first shepherd, after greeting both the mother and the child, offers his gift of a bob of cherries. The second shepherd, not to be outdone as a giver of gifts, makes a little speech filled with respect and gives the child a bird to play with. The third shepherd also makes a short speech of reverence and then gives his gift, a ball. He urges the child to grow up and play at tennis.

After the shepherds give their gifts, Mary thanks them for the presents and the reverence. She also bids them to spread the news of Christ when they leave. The three shepherds depart to sing the good tidings to the world.

Bibliography

Carpenter, Nan Cooke. “Music in the Secunda Pastorum.” In Medieval English Drama: Essays Critical and Contextual, edited by Jerome Taylor and Alan H. Nelson. Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1972. Asserts that music is an important element in the play’s structure and a means of underscoring thematic statements.

Edminster, Warren. The Preaching Fox: Festive Subversion in the Plays of the Wakefield Master. New York: Routledge, 2005. Focuses on the festive elements in the plays, arguing that beneath their biblical surface these dramas make subversive comments about religion and politics. Maintains that the shepherds’ complaints in The Second Shepherds’ Play reflect the oppression of the peasantry by landlords and clergy.

Happé, Peter. The Towneley Cycle: Unity and Diversity. Cardiff: University of Wales Press, 2007. Detailed examination of the Towneley cycle, which includes The Second Shepherds’ Play. Raises questions of authorship and the role of the Wakefield Master in the cycle’s creation; provides a performance history; analyzes the cycle’s language, style, and structure; and places the cycle in its historical and religious context.

Kinghorn, A. M. Mediaeval Drama. London: Evans Brothers, 1968. Devotes several pages to an analysis of the play, noting its humor, freshness, and realism.

Nelson, Alan H. “Some Configurations of Staging in Medieval English Drama.” In Medieval English Drama: Essays Critical and Contextual, edited by Jerome Taylor and Alan H. Nelson. Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1972. Examines scholarly understanding of the use of pageant wagons for the staging of mystery plays and discusses the unlikelihood of the plays’ being staged in processions. Includes early illustrations.

Purdon, Liam O. The Wakefield Master’s Dramatic Art: A Drama of Spiritual Understanding. Gainesville: University Press of Florida, 2003. Examines the Wakefield Master’s contribution to the Towneley cycle by offering a detailed interpretation of the six plays and two revisions attributed to him. Focuses on the plays’ treatment of the relationship between cooperatively serving God and serving self; maintains that cooperation is defined as either the proper use or the abuse of nature. Chapter 4 is devoted to a discussion of The Second Shepherds’ Play.

Robinson, J. W. Studies in Fifteenth-Century Stagecraft. Kalamazoo: Medieval Institute Publications, Western Michigan University, 1991. One chapter contrasts the work of the Wakefield Master with that of the York realist. Examines The Second Shepherds’ Play in detail, looking at structure, characterization, humor, and number imagery, among other topics.

Ross, Lawrence J. “Symbol and Structure in the Secunda Pastorum.” In Medieval English Drama: Essays Critical and Contextual, edited by Jerome Taylor and Alan H. Nelson. Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1972. Argues for a unity that goes beyond the structural parallels of the two shepherds’ plays to examine similarities in their language and the symbolic implications of the shepherds’ gifts.