“The Second Shepherd’s Play,” Social Commentary, and Religion
Although the author of “The Second Shepherd’s Play” is unknown, historians have
traditionally considered the play the work of the Wakefield Master, who wrote the other
plays in a series titled the Wakefield Cycle. The poem is written is a series of lines
known as the Wakefield Stanza Form, a pattern of nine-lane stanzas with an
AAAABCCCB rhyme scheme and thirteen-line stanzas with an ABABABABCDDDC
rhyme scheme. The plays in the cycle are almost exclusively interested in retelling
Christian myths, including stories from the Bible that retrace the origin of Christian
figures. For the most part, these plays feature stock characters who are quite clearly
defined as either good or evil. While the good characters always prosper, the bad ones
face the typical Christian fate of eternal damnation.
However, “The Second Shepherd’s Play” is somewhat unique in its combination of
satirical and religious content; it features a comical storyline (modern shepherds
deceived by a trickster figure) with a traditional Christian subplot. The more secular
plot, which tells the story of the shepherd’s search for a lost sheep, simultaneously
parodies and parallels the religious plot in which Christ is born to save the “lost” herd of
humanity. Therefore, while the lead story is somewhat reminiscent of the low farce of
The Canterbury Tales, the potentially vulgar aspects of the story are tempered by a
retelling of Christ’s birth in the later half of the play.
“The Second Shepherd’s Play” is also notable in the way it mirrors the tropes and
themes that were popular in other medieval texts. For one, the presence of emblematic
characters—such as the stereotypically good and evil characters in the secular, comical
plot—was a structural device that would reach its apex in the popular play Everyman,
which features as its hero a man who represents all humanity. “The Second
Shepherd’s Play” also adopts a tactic that was used in the mystical works of writers like
Julian of Norwich: the humanization of divine characters. For example, the play
represents Christ in the most vulnerable, relatable way possible—as a human baby. In
Norwich’s Revelations of Divine Love, Christ is similarly humanized as a relatable figure
with whom the writer can connect in new, more profound ways. These patterns suggest
not only the circulation of the literature of the Middle Ages (much in the same way that
oral stories spread in the Old English period), but an overarching social attempt to
understand Christianity in new ways.
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