Abstract: This paper examines Mak’s role in
The Second Shepherd’s Play as
a negative moral exemplar within medieval drama’s didactic framework. Contrasted
with the charitable shepherds, Mak embodies deception, selfishness, and
spiritual estrangement. His exclusion from the Nativity revelation reinforces
the play’s message that charity, forgiveness, and virtue receive divine reward.
Keywords: The Second Shepherd’s Play, Mak, Wakefield Master,
Medieval Drama, Didacticism, Nativity, Charity, Forgiveness, Comic Parody,
Religious Symbolism.
If one were to focus on the assertion
that Medieval drama were mostly written with the intention of commemorating
certain religious and social events with chiefly didactic purposes directed
towards the audience, then it automatically follows that the characters in such
plays were created as pegs for hanging a moral argument from. Then, if we may
dissect The Second Shepherd’s Play on that note, it must beg the question
that what purpose does Mak, perhaps the most memorable character in the play
serve, especially since he does not seem to embody any holistic moral argument?
A charitable view of Mak might paint him
as an anti-hero, a sort of energizer within a serious theological theme resented
in the form of comic parody. Mak’s wife and the sheep disguised as a baby serve
as a crude representation of the holy family of Joseph, Mary, and baby Jesus.
The treatment meted out to him by the three shepherds upon the scandalous
discovery of the lie he had been selling them may also be interpreted as an
unholy parody of the holy ending.
It is easy to classify Mak as a dishonest
rascal, one who exploits his position of poverty for sympathy among his mates
and also subsequently endeavors to sustain himself and his wife through
unscrupulous means. Even if one tries to be sympathetic towards his conditions
and pleads for some consideration in this regard, such a plea does not hold much
water when he is compared to the three shepherds in the play, Coll, Gib, and
Daw. The play’s opening sequence is structured around three consecutive
melancholic soliloquies from these three, in which they take turns to complain
about the various hardships they face in their respective lives. Coll highlights
the effect that the biting cold weather has on him. he points out that he is not
wrapped in enough clothes which makes him extremely uncomfortable. Furthermore,
he complains about the harsh treatment that is meted out to him by the wealthy
landowners who make him work long hours on their land for very limited pay,
leaving him little time for rest. Coll can be said to be a representative of the
contemporary peasant class, pointing out their oppression at the hands of the
feudal landowning class. Like Coll, Gib also feels terrible in the harsh cold.
However, it seems that his problems are of a more domestic and personal nature,
as Gib feels beleaguered by his wife whom he considers an ugly and insufferable
nag. He delivers a speech bemoaning the demerits of marriage and wails that a
wedding is only a fancy term for the imprisonment of man. Daw suffers from the
weather like his mates, as he compares the ongoing storm to Noah’s flood,
emphasizing on the effect he fears it might have on him. He furthermore says
that he suffers from hunger and malnourishment, a fact that highlights his sorry
position.
In light of these facts, it can be easily
ascertained that the plight of the three shepherds were indeed pitiable. Yet,
their conduct is entirely different in the face of hardship, when compared to
that of Mak. While the latter comes across as a clever rogue who has managed to
figure out how to cheat the system and make off with ill-gotten gains, the three
shepherds are simple in their outlook and prefer to suffer in silence instead of
blaming anyone else or using their misery as an excuse to project further misery
onto this world. When Mak’s elaborate lie of having another baby is exposed and
he is caught for the theft of their sheep, the shepherds find it in themselves
to forgive the man and not kill him in revenge, even though had Mak succeeded in
his little heist, it would have caused them significant damage. Upon witnessing
the sad conditions in which Mak and his wife live, they take pity upon him and
decide to humiliate him by wrapping him up in a blanket and tossing him up and
down, and ultimately chasing him and his wife out of their house. This incident
supposedly emphasizes upon the power of forgiveness and its capacity to lead to
redemption, foreshadowing the event of nativity that is yet to be shown in the
play.
Another demonstration of Mak’s character
is his refusal to either practice or accept charity. The Wakefield Master uses
his character as an example for the audience as to how not to behave. Mak argues
that God’s will does not include him and thus he acts in his own interest
without any empathy for his fellow humans. Mak’s character may be outlined as
the prototype for the blaspheming and selfish atheist that the Wakefield Master
seems to despise. In fact, right before he makes off with the stolen sheep, he
utters a parody of Luke 23:46 by saying ‘into thy hands I commend to Pontius
Pilate’, a disrespectful rendition of Christ’s original speech where he said to
God ‘into thy hands I commend my spirit’ before perishing on the cross to save
humanity. Mak also displays his hubris towards the beginning of the play as he
tries to trick the shepherds into believing that he is an important man from the
south, implying that they are beneath him.
As a result of his unholy behavior, Mak
is not invited back into the fields with the shepherds and he subsequently does
not witness the angel announcing the birth of Christ. As a result, he does not
get to travel to Bethlehem and witness the son of God, a privilege which the
three shepherds enjoy due to their sustained charity and forgiveness. Thus, the
play ends with a clear message that an ideal life lived in the service of
humanity shall always be rewarded by the Lord, and makes an example out of Mak
as instruction on how not to live a life.
1.
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www.encyclopedia.com/arts/educational-magazines/second-shepherds-play.
Accessed 23 Mar. 2022.
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Felicity. “The Second
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Mar. 2022.
3.
Gray, Wendy Howard. “The
Second Shepherd’s Play: Background.”
English Literature I, Lumen
Learning.
https://courses.lumenlearning.com/suny-britlit1/chapter/the-second-shepherds-play-background/.
Accessed 23 Mar. 2022.
4.
Weeks, Rachel. “The Second
Shepherd’s Play Themes.” LitCharts, 19 Jan
2018. https://www.litcharts.com/lit/the-second-shepherd-s-play. Accessed 25 Mar.
2020.
Indranuj is a
Doctoral research
scholar at the Department of English, Jamia Millia Islamia. His research
interests range from colonial visual culture, print history (especially
ephemeral print), and media archaeology.