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1. Caedmon's Hymn
2. The Wife's Lament
3. The Dream of the Rood
4. Marie de France "Lanval"
5. Ywain and Gawain
6. Sir Gawain and the Green Knight
7. Chaucer's The Miller's Prologue and Tale
8. John Gower
9. The York Play of the Crucification
10. The Second Shepherd's Play
11. William Shakespeare Twelfth Night
12. The Tragical History of Doctor Faustus
13. William Shakespeare The Tempest
14. William Shakespeare Selection of Sonnets
15. Sir Thomas Wyatt
16. Edmund Spenser From Amoretti
17. Sir Philip Sidney Sonnets
18. John Donne Songs and Sonnets
19. John Donne Holy Sonnets
20. Mary Wroth
21. Robert Herrick
22. Richard Lovelace
23. Andrew Marvell
24. John Gay
25. Jonathan Swift
26. Alexander Pope
COLL – The leader and oldest of the three shepherds
GIB – The second shepherd
DAW – The youngest of the shepherds
MAK – A thief
GILL – Mak’s Wife
ANGEL
MARY
CHILD
A Moor: The shepherd’s field
Mak and Gill’s Home: A bed, cradle and a door
The Crooked Thorn: The side of a road pub
Stable: The place where Jesus is born
(COLL enters alone)
(GIB enters)
(Daw enters, not seeing the others)
(Tries to turn and run away, but the other two catch him. He recognizes them)
(They sing, not very well. Mak enters with a cloak on)
(crosses himself and lies down away from them, when the others are asleep he gets up)
(takes sheep and exits)
(she opens the door, sees the sheep)
(someone twists his neck)
Ah, Coll, good morning. What is that sad look?
Some rascal. I have looked with my dogs through all the thickets
Will you hear how they bellow. Our lordship thinks he can croon.
Go to another place, I am not breathing well. Every step you take hurts
(They begin to search)
If you know how she had fared, your hearts would be sore. You do
All this work is in vain: we may as well go. Except for a little clothing
and who empty plates I don’t see anything. But of all the livestock I have worked
with none has smelled as badly as he (approaches the cradle)
We?! I’ll remain apart, because I have gotten no apology. Farewell you
(The shepherds leave)
I will go back quickly, you stay here.
(Returns to house)
(The others enter)
(They toss him around in a canvas and Mak and Gill return home)
(Shepherd’s fall asleep, and are woken by angels)
(Angels exit)
Reproduced with permission from “The Second Shepherd’s Play.” Edited by Caleb Palmer. Web. 5 Dec. 2016. <http://abs.kafkas.edu.tr/upload/225/2ndsheperds_play_1_.pdf>
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Anthology of Medieval Literature Copyright © 2021 by Christian Beck is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License, except where otherwise noted.