FREE ESSAY ON THE SECOND SHEPHERDS PLAY

THE SECOND SHEPHERDS PLAY

The Second Shepherds Play goes against many of the characteristics that Horace believes
should be in a play. The play does not stay in the boundaries of genres by mixing comedy
with seriousness. It is not consistent; it is not without surprises. Finally, the author
did not completely believe in Dulce Et Utile or does he carefully weigh the judgment of
his work.
This play combines a little bit of comedy with extreme seriousness. The play begins with
three shepherds guarding their sheep when a character named Mak joins them. Mak steals a
sheep while the shepherds are sleeping and take it home to his wife. When the shepherds
arrive at Mak's house to see if he has stolen the sheep they are fooled into believing
that the sheep is a new born baby that Mak's wife has just delivered. Even with a close
up view of the sheep/baby, the shepherds believe it is just an ugly baby with a big
snout.
The punishment that the shepherds inflict on Mak when they finally realize the baby is a
sheep is quite comical also. Stealing is a serious crime and it has been for quite some
time. The shepherd simply place Mak inside a blanket and toss him up and down a few
times. When the shepherds are finished inflicting their punishment on Mak they return to
guard their sheep. At this point in the play the plot takes a complete turn from comedy
to seriousness. Other than the three shepherds still being characters in the play, the
whole plot changes. The three shepherds receive word that baby Jesus is born in
Bethlehem. The play goes from one extreme to the other surprisingly fast; it is almost
two separate plays.
Dulce Et Utile is a Latin word that means to give pleasure and profit. When a writer has
the gift of story telling they should share it by writing and publishing their stories or
plays. Someone with a true gift of being able to write will give pleasure to those who
read it. When a story or play is published and bought by those who read it, the author
makes a profit from it. The author of The Second Shepherds Play is unknown. During the
day and age when this play was written it was not the proper profession to have being a
writer. If one was lucky enough to have the talent of being a writer they did it without
signing their name to it. Not only did this not reveal the author, but also it prevented
the author from receiving any real profit from his works. This is very unlike the Greek
and Roman days when the playwright would have a choragos for his play. A choragos is a
financial backer that would pay the playwright a salary while he was writing the play and
support the performance of it at the festival. If the playwright were lucky enough to win
at the festival they would receive more profit from their play. The author of this play
did not carefully weigh the judgment of his work. If he had carefully weighed the
judgment of his work, he would have been proud of it and signed his name to it. It is
obviously good work or it wouldn't be published and studied today.
Maybe The Second Shepherds Play does go against the characteristics that Horace feels
should be included in plays, but then maybe it has characteristics of its own. The author
of course will never see the profit that this play has generate from being published and
performed, but maybe someday, someone will find out who the author is and give
recognition where it is due.