The Second Shepherds' Play

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The Second Shepherd's Play is a famous medieval mystery play from the Wakefield Cycle. It gained its odd name from the fact that in the manuscript it immediately follows another nativity play involving the shepherds. In fact, it has been hypothesized that the second (and in most opinions, better) play is a revision of the first.^[1]

The play is actually two separate stories presented sequentially; the first is a non-biblical story about a thief, Mak, who steals a sheep from three shepherds. He and his wife, Gil, attempt to deceive the shepherds by pretending the sheep is their son. The shepherds are fooled at first. However, they later discover Mak's deception, and put Mak in a bag and beat him.

At this point, the storyline switches to the familiar one of the three shepherds being told of the birth of Christ by an angel, and being told to go to Bethlehem.

Scholars speculate that the Wakefield Master combined these two stories (as opposed to just retelling the Angel's announcement) for a variety of reasons. We can assume the Master wanted to entertain audiences as well as preach to them so the townspeople would not resist the proselytizing so much. In addition, the potential double-casting of Gil and Mary could help to carry the message of Christianity that redemption was possible for anyone, even a lowly thief's wife.