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The Second Shepherds' Play is a famous medieval mystery play originally believed have been part of the Wakefield Cycle. (go to the Folger Shakespeare Library website for podcasts that discuss the most up-to-date scholarship on this issue http://www.folger.edu/template.cfm?cid=2545) 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, Gill, 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 toss him on a blanket as a punishment.

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 at one time believed that an author who was commonly referred to as the Wakefield Master combined the two stories (as opposed to just retelling the Angel's announcement) for a variety of reasons. At the time that the Wakefield Master hypothesis prevailed, scholars believed the Master wanted to entertain audiences as well as preach to them so the townspeople would not resist the proselytizing so much. There is speculation that 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.

In an article titled “Recycling ‘The Wakefield Cycle’” published in “Research Opportunities in Renaissance Drama" in 2002, Barbara Palmer, retired professor of English at the University of Mary Washington and President of Records Of Early English Drama USA talks about the current state of scholarship with regard to the Second Shepherd's Play. Her research suggests that the story of the Wakefield Master and the suggestion that the Second Shepherd's Play was performed as part of the Wakefield Cycle were both inventions of an amateur historian named J. M. W. Walker. At the website of the Folger Shakespeare Library are podcasts that discuss the most up-to-date scholarship on this issue http://www.folger.edu/template.cfm?cid=2545

According to Theresa M Coletti, Ph D , Professor of English at the University of Maryland, with regard to the Second Shepherd's Play, "I think that we have to acknowledge that we know nothing about the performance history of this play. It’s a really wide open question regarding where this play was performed, by whom it was performed, how it was performed, how often it was performed, and why it was performed." Go to the Folger Shakespeare Library website for podcasts that discuss the most up-to-date scholarship on this issue http://www.folger.edu/template.cfm?cid=2545

• Medieval theatre
• Wakefield Cycle

• Robinson, J. W. (1991). Studies in Fifteenth-century Stagecraft. Kalamazoo, MI: Medieval Institute Publications, Western Michigan University. 
• Wakefield Master. The Second Shepherd's Play. Early English Drama - An Anthology. J. C. Coldeway. New York, Garland Publishing, Inc. 1313: 1-8, 343-363.

• "Everyman," with other interludes, including eight miracle plays, available at Project Gutenberg (includes the text of The Second Shepherd's Play as The Wakefield Second Shepherd's Play)

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