Second Shepherds' Play and Medieval Drama
There is an abridged video in the library, call # PR 1260 .E27 in the IMC
Summary of The
Second Shepherds’ Play
Two shepherds—Coll and Gib—and Daw (a boy who works for
them) enter individually, complaining about such problems as the weather and
their poverty.
Mak arrives, pretending to be a messenger from a southern
lord, but the shepherds recognize him and suspect that he plans to steal their
sheep.
They all lie down to sleep, the shepherds putting Mak in
the midst of them. When the others
are asleep, Mak takes a sheep and goes home, where his wife, Gill, suggests that
they disguise the sheep as a baby.
Mak returns to the shepherds and lies down.
When the others wake up, Mak pretends to wake up and claims to have
dreamed that his wife gave birth. He
returns home.
When the shepherds discover that a sheep is missing, they
go to Mak’s house and accuse him of stealing it.
Not finding the sheep, they get ready to leave, until Daw decides to give
the baby a present. Mak can’t
stop him from looking in the cradle and discovering the sheep.
The shepherds “toss Mak in a blanket,” presumably to carry him to a
justice of the peace.
An angel appears and announces the birth of Jesus at Bethlehem. The shepherds go to see the child and bring him gifts.
Things to think about
This is challenging for modern readers, both linguistically and dramatically. Keep an eye out for the comic aspects of the play, which are noticeable if you aren't too bogged down in the language. Then think about how the humor relates to the ending of the play--the overtly religious content. Consider what this might mean for the original audience of regular people in a northern English city.
An introduction: http://www.eng.fju.edu.tw/iacd_99F/medieval_lit/medievalplays/newpage4.htm
Study questions that may be helpful
http://cla.calpoly.edu/~dschwart/engl512/2ndsh.html
http://www.eng.fju.edu.tw/iacd_99F/medieval_lit/data/Shepherd.html
Evidence
that the Second Shepherds' Play has been performed in recent years:
http://www.northsidetheatre.com/website/history.html
A
powerpoint presentation about the play--chock full of information about
performance practice: