The Second Shepherds' Play is a medieval mystery play ultimately focusing upon the birth of Jesus. It would have been performed at Christmas time, and is written in a markedly Northern vernacular. At the time of writing, there was no standard form of English, either written or spoken, and dialects varied hugely over very short distances; the language of this play is the language of the people of Wakefield and the surrounding area and, as such, it is very much a local play written for local people. Its humor is slightly lowbrow, and its concerns are reflective of those who would have watched it. The interplay between the three shepherds suggests a working relationship wherein the third shepherd, the youngest, is slightly wary of his boss's condemnation, while the second shepherd is more lenient with him. The three complain about the terrible weather, and when Mak, a farcical thief, enters speaking in a Southern dialect, the first shepherd demands that he take out "that Sothren tothe," or stop speaking in that fashion. This reflects the general rivalry at the time between northern and southern forms of English, which many held were barely mutually intelligible, but some element of prestige had come to be attached to the form spoken in the English court, which Mak here imitates and which would have irritated Wakefield locals.

Mak is a fairly unusual character in a nativity play, partly because he is so developed and partly because he is so very much a comic character. The interplay between Mak and his strong-willed wife would have been familiar to audiences, but perhaps not so often seen in nativity plays and others whose ultimate message was about the birth of Jesus. There are, indeed, two distinct parts to the play, although the first part is a deliberate foreshadowing of the second. The farce surrounding Mak's stealing of the sheep and then his bundling of it into bed to pretend it is a baby harks ahead to the angel's declaration that the Christ child himself will be found in a manger "between two beasts." There is a level of artistry at work in the author's use of these two sections to reflect each other. Because of the time of year and the shepherd characters, the audience would probably have anticipated the play ending in a nativity, so it is playful on the part of the author to begin with another lamb and baby story, to which the story of Christ can be compared.

The shepherds of the Mak farce become involved in a more serious scene at the end of the play, when the Angel comes to them and invites them to come and view the Christ child. At this point, the tone of the play shifts somewhat from farce to reverence, but it is made very clear that these are the same characters—note that they sing in harmony together both at the beginning of the play and at the end. There is also a nebulous geographical setting; these are local shepherds, but now they are visiting the baby Jesus. Again, this idea that Jesus may have been born anywhere, possibly locally, is common in medieval mystery plays, but here it is used to particular effect to seat Christ and his birth at the heart of the community. Ultimately, a world that has Maks in it is still a world into which Jesus has been born to redeem, and the shepherds seem to recognize this at the end of the play—"What grace we have found."