He begins by saying, "Lord, what these weathers are cold! The shepherds realise that the babe in the cradle is actually a sheep. The staging of this play likely required two sets. The third shepherd arrives late, saying he thinks he has seen strange lights, whereupon the first shepherd, who seems to be his senior, calls him a "lazy swine." When they remove the swaddling clothes they recognize their sheep, but decide not to kill Mak but instead roll him in canvas and throw him up and down, punishing him until they are exhausted. "Mak's Sothren Tothe: A Philological and Critical Study of the Dialect Joke in the Second Shepherd's Play", https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=The_Second_Shepherds%27_Play&oldid=975487888, Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike License, The 1985 Cottesloe Theatre performance of the pageant, adapted into Modern English as, This page was last edited on 28 August 2020, at 20:06. Many of the other plays in the manuscript have a few stanzas that were most likely written by him as well.[5]. Little distinction is made between them; they are intended to be viewed as a unit, from which Mak is separate. They are initially fooled by Mak and Gill's ruse despite Gill going so far as to say that if she's lying she'll eat the child in her cradle (as she indeed plans to). The second shepherd, presumably a more amiable character, asks Col to leave the boy alone. Ye are two all-wights! We see sudden sights, when other men sleep. It had long been believed that the Towneley Play was a mediocre work that showed extensive borrowing from other sources but containing vibrant and exciting material, apparently by one author, who was responsible for … When they threaten him, he pretends not to have known who they were. This reflects the play's generally comic tone. If so, what are the specific reasons? The author also used contrasting dialects in The Second Shepherd's Play, in the part where Mak pretends to be a yeoman. There are three shepherds in the play, described in the play's directions as first shepherd, second shepherd, and third shepherd, although we learn that their names are Col, Gib, and Dave. It is suggested that the first stage is composed of Mak's house. [3] In both plays it becomes clear that Christ is coming to Earth to redeem the world from its sins. It is written in the... Could the Second Shepherd's Play be considered allegorical? Eventually, Mak drops his act, but it is clear that the shepherds were right to fear he might "take all their things." The biblical portion of the play, a retelling of the Visitation of the Shepherds, comes only after a longer, invented story that mirrors it, in which the shepherds, before visiting the holy baby outside in a manger, must first rescue one of their sheep that has been hidden in a cradle indoors by a comically evil sheep-stealing couple. Although nothing is known about the author, or the origins of the plays, it is agreed by several scholars that they date sometime between 1400-1450. And I am ill happed" which translates as "Lord [God], the weather is cold and I am ill prepared/clothed." Mak, a local good-for-nothing and well-known thief, arrives and pretends to be a yeoman from a lord. All medieval stage production was temporary and expected to be removed upon the completion of the performances. The shepherds leave defeated, but realize that they have failed to bring any gifts to the "baby", and go back. This stanza format is the primary evidence critics use to identify what has been written by him. Mak tries to gain sympathy from the shepherds by explaining how his wife is a lazy drunk who gives birth to too many children. At the start of the play, Coll, the first shepherd ("primus pastor") arrives in a field, invoking God in anachronistic terms (referring, as the shepherds will do throughout the play, to the life and death of Christ even though at this point of the play Christ has not yet been born) complaining about the (typically English) cold weather and about his poverty and the arrogance of local gentry. at which point he is startled by Coll. The name "Wakefield Master" is a title given by Charles Mills Gayleyto an unknown author of at least five of the plays that are found in the Wakefield Mystery Plays. However, once they have fallen asleep he casts a spell to make sure they will not wake up and then sneaks off to steal one of their sheep. [10] Wallace H. Johnson theorized that the union of a complete and independent farce with a complete and independent Nativity play resulted from the accumulation of years of horseplay and ad-libbing in rehearsal.

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