The Second Shepherd's Play

“She is as great as a whale withal,

She has a gallon of gall,

By him that died for us all

I would I had lost her.” 

In his first speech, the 2nd Shepherd, Gib, declares that men are oppressed by women and that married men like himself “have not their own will” (3). In these lines, he describes his wife as a large and insolent woman whose presence he wishes he no longer had to endure. The expression, “By him that died for us all,” is one of the many anachronisms that the characters use to swear in the play; it alludes to the fact that Christ sacrificed himself for the salvation of mankind, even though the Christ-Child has not been born yet in the play.

“If Mak's coming, watch out for your things!” 

When Mak first approaches the shepherds, Dave reminds the others–and alerts the audience–that Mak has a reputation as a thief. From the beginning, Dave is the most suspicious of Mak’s intentions in visiting them and their flock.

“Now's the time a man who lacks what he wants might get hold / By secretly stalking into the fold.” 

After lying down with the shepherds to go to sleep, Mak gets up and announces to the audience that he intends to steal a sheep while the shepherds are sleeping and believe him to be lying between them.

“A good trick have I spied, since you think of none:

Here shall we hide him until they are gone,

In my cradle, to abide. But let me alone,

And I shall lie beside in childbed, and groan.” 

After Mak comes home with the stolen sheep, Gill devises a plan to hide the sheep from the shepherds, in case they come to their cottage looking for it: they will wrap the sheep in swaddling clothes and pretend that Gill has just given birth to another child. This tale is somewhat believable since Mak has already emphasized the fact that he and his wife have many children and are constantly having more. Gill makes it clear that it is important that they have a plan, since stealing sheep is a crime that can be punished by hanging.

“Resurrex a mortruis! Let go my hand!

Judas carnas dominus! I can hardly stand!

My foot sleeps, by Jesus, and my water's been dammed!” 

As the shepherds wake up from their nap, Col swears using corrupted Latin phrases that anachronistically refer to the resurrection of Jesus Christ and the figure of Judas from the Gospels. These anachronistic swears add to the humor as the shepherds disentangle themselves after their slumbers. 

“I dreamt Gil, began to cry and labour

And by the first cock, a young lad had born.”

 After the shepherds wake up from their nap, Mak tells them that he dreamed that his wife gave birth to another son and once again complains about the fact that he has too many children to feed. He tells the shepherds he must go to his wife and the new child immediately. By lying about this dream, Mak lays the groundwork for the scheme he and his wife have devised of disguising the stolen sheep as a baby.

“I'll swaddle him like this, in my bed he will be.” 

Gill wraps the sheep in blankets and places it beside her in the bed like a newborn baby. The word “swaddle” helps to reinforce the parallel between Mak and Gill’s fake newborn son and the infant Christ-Child since the Gospel of Luke describes the baby Jesus as wrapped in “swaddling clothes” by his mother in the manger in Bethlehem.

“Either Mak or Gill, had a hand in this event.” 

When Col announces that one of their fattest sheep is missing, Dave immediately suspects Mak and Gill of being involved in the crime. Although Col initially thinks Dave is slandering Mak without reason, Gib agrees with Dave and suggests that they go search Mak’s cottage.

“May he be happy, and in good time, when he

Needs godparents to stand by him we'll be ready!” 

When the shepherds initially fail to find the missing sheep in Mak’s cottage, they immediately start to show goodwill toward Mak and his newborn son. Here, Dave tells Mak he hopes the child will have a happy life and even volunteers himself and his companions as godparents. After they leave the cottage, Dave suggests that they go back to present the new baby with a gift. These instances reveal the shepherds to be compassionate and generous despite their own suffering and acute poverty. 

“The ill-spun weft always comes foully out

Aye, so!

He is like to our sheep.” 

After Dave exclaims that Mak’s “baby” has a long snout, Gib observes that the baby looks like the sheep that has gone missing. The shepherds have thus realized the trick that Mak and Gill have played on them.

“For this trespass

We will neither curse nor chide,

No more deride,

No longer bide,

But toss him in a canvas.” 

Although Mak could be punished by death for stealing their sheep, Col tells the other shepherds that they should forgive Mak for his “trespass.” Instead of sending him to be hanged, they punish him by tossing him about in a canvas before letting him return home with his wife.

“Rise, gentle shepherds, for now is he born

Who shall fetch from the fiend what from Adam was torn.

God is made you friend now at this morn,

He promises

To Bethlehem go see

Where he lies so free,

A child in a crib poorly,

Between two beasts.” 

This is the speech that the Angel makes when he visits the shepherds in their sleep and commands them to go visit the Christ-Child who has just been born in Bethlehem. The shepherds all wake up having had the same vision and resolve to follow the star, so they can worship and bring gifts to their newborn savior. 

“Hail, sovereign saviour, for thou hast us sought!

Hail, excellent child and flower, that all things hast wrought!

Hail, full of favour, that made all of nought.

Hail, I kneel and I cower. A bird have I brought,

Bairn that ye are.

Hail, little tiny mop.” 

Each of the shepherds kneels before the Christ-Child to present a gift and makes a speech showing their reverence for the infant Son of God. Gib’s speech, like the speeches of Col and Dave, begins with lofty, religious language but quickly turns to baby-talk (“hail, little tiny mop”), since the Christ-Child is not only their “sovereign saviour” but also an adorable baby. These speeches are thus another example of the way in which the play combines serious religious purpose with comedy and a degree of social realism.