Show how the
Wakefield Second Shepherds’ Play balances religious and secular elements.
Answer: The Second Shepherds' Play is part
of the Wakefield mystery play cycle. It is play number thirteen of thirty-two
contained in the only surviving manuscript, currently held at the Huntington
Library in San Marino, California. The Second Shepherds' Play dates from
the latter half of the fifteenth century. No exact date can be determined, but
studies in handwriting analysis of the manuscript suggest an approximate date
of mid to late fifteenth century as a composition date. The play was written in
Middle English, which is the vernacular (everyday) language that was used in
England between about 1100 and 1500. The ascendancy of King Henry VII to the
throne marks the end of the medieval period and generally signifies the shift
from Middle English to Modern English (the basic predecessor of English as we
know it today). Authorship of The Second Shepherds' Play is unknown, and
the play is simply attributed to the Wakefield Master, whose real identity was
also unknown, although a local cleric or monk was probably the author. The
Second Shepherds' Play is included in The Norton Anthology of English
Literature, Volume 1 (1993) and in The Towneley Plays (2001), Volume
1, edited by Martin Stevens and A. C. Cawley.
The title refers not to a second shepherd but to the fact that this play was the second of two plays that dealt with the biblical Nativity story. Mystery plays, which are so named because they refer to the spiritual mystery of Christ's birth and death, combine comic elements with biblical stories. For example, in The Second Shepherds' Play, the author combines the Shepherds' story of stolen sheep and a swindle involving the birth of a nonexistent infant with the biblical story of Jesus' birth in Bethlehem.
