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.