story about the Bible or Christ's life that the plays presented. Mystery plays were often secular and comic—as is most ofThe Second Shepherds' Play—so the people would be entertained and pay attention to the lesson of the play.

Medieval morality plays, such as Everyman, were much more serious in tone and presentation than mystery plays. Mystery plays were intended to inform through entertainment. Even though Everyman has some comic scenes, morality plays like Everyman were intended, first and foremost, to teach a serious religious lesson.

The Second Shepherds' Play opens with three shepherds tending their flock and complaining about their lives. They complain about the bitter cold, taxes, their treatment by the upper classes, and, in the case of the Second Shepherd, about his shrewish wife.

SECOND SHEPHERD. Take my own better half, and let me describe 'er
She's as sharp as a thistle, as rough as a briar,
She is browed like a bristle, with a sour looking cheer;
If she once wets her whistle she can sing full clear Her paternoster.
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.

The three shepherds are joined by Mak, a man they know to be a thief. The shepherds do their best to foil his attempts to steal their sheep, but while the shepherds are sleeping, Mak steals a sheep and takes it back to his wife.

Mak and his wife conspire to fool the shepherds if they come looking for the stolen sheep by wrapping it in swaddling clothes and putting it in a cradle.

MAK'S WIFE. 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.

Mak then rejoins the shepherds before they wake up. When everyone wakes, the shepherds return to their flock and Mak goes home to his wife. The shepherds discover that a sheep has been stolen, and they hurry after Mak, suspecting that he stole it.

When the shepherds arrive at Mak's house, they're fooled by the sheep wrapped as a baby, and they leave Mak's house emty-handed, disappointed that they didn't find their stolen sheep.

However, just a little way down the road from Mak's house, the shepherds realize that they haven't given the new "baby" any gifts. They return to Mak's house, discover the ruse, and punish Mak by tossing him in a blanket until they're exhausted.

On their way back to their flock, the shepherds stop to rest, and an angel appears to them, urging them to go to Bethlehem.

ANGEL. 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.

There are a number of parallels between the story of the thief and the stolen sheep and the story of the nativity. The stolen sheep is disguised as a baby wrapped in swaddling clothes and placed in a cradle, and the "Lamb of God" is wrapped in swaddling clothes and placed in a manger (a feeding trough for animals), which serves as his crib.

The shepherds also give the Christ child gifts of "a bob of cherries," a bird, and a ball.

THIRD SHEPHERD. Hail, hold forth thy hand small;
I bring thee but a ball:
Have thou and play withal,
And go to the tennis.

The reference to "tennis" might seem anachronistic, as do many other references in the play to Christ's life and other historical events which occurred much later than the events of the play occur. However, a form of tennis called "Jeu de Paume" existed as early as the thirteenth century, two hundred years before The Second Shepherds' Play was written.

Nevertheless, the shepherds' gifts foreshadow the gifts of the Magi, who will appear to pay their respects to the baby Jesus in about twelve days and present him with gifts of gold, frankincense, and myrrh.

As a side note, The Second Shepherds' Play isn't named after the second shepherd. The play is the second play in the Wakefield Cycle of plays that tells a story about shepherds and the nativity.