Kegan Jenkins

Mark DiPietro
Theatre History
Mankind
Mankind is a medieval English morality play. It was written somewhere around 1470 and
the author of the unknown. The play is a kind of moral allegory, a very obvious one, where the
character Mankind is literally a representation of the whole human race. The plot follows Man
and his fall into temptation and sin and then his redemption. The play begins with the character
of Mercy giving instruction to the audience, when he interrupted by Mischief, who begins to
mock him. Then Mercy also begins beginning mocked by New Guise, Nowadays, and Nought.
After they leave, Mercy tells the audience that they are all evil and they should not listen to them.
Mankind then enters and introduces himself as a farmer who wants to try to live a virtuous life.
Mercy gives Mankind advice, warning him to watch out for New Guise, Nowadays, and Nought
who would lead him astray. Mercy then leaves because Mankind has to be able to resist
temptation on his own and New Guise, Nowadays, and Nought arrive to try to tempt him.
Luckily, Mankind is able to resist their temptations and beats them off with his spade. Mischief
returns and with the help of New Guise, Nowadays, and Nought they bring a bigger devil,
Titivillus (only after the audience pays a fee to see him though). Titivillus, invisible to Mankind,
begins to make his life incredible difficult by tampering with his farming (and bladder).
Mankind becomes so frustrated he goes to sleep and Titivillus tells him that Mercy is dead.
Since he has been lied to he rejects Mercy and goes to be with New Guise, Nowadays, and
Nought and he founds out how evil they all. Each with past of jail, robbery, rape, and others.

They convince Mankind to take terrible vows to be a part of their gang. They leave and Mercy
pleads with the audience to pray for the redemption of Mankind. The three then reveal that
Mercy is not really dead, and tempt him to kill himself, but Mercy chases them away. In the end
the moral seems to be we all struggle, sin, and fall down but we just must keep getting up and
asking forgiveness. This is what they saw as leading the Christian life.

WORK CITED:
"Mankind Full Text." (n.d.): n. pag. Www.wwnortion.com. Web.

Kegan Jenkins
Mark DiPietro
Theatre History
The Second Shepards Play
The Second Shepards Play is a medieval mystery play. The plot basically tells of the
birth of Christ but instead through two shepherds. Coll and Giband Daw (a boy who works for
them) enter individually, complaining about such problems as the weather and their poverty.
Mak arrives, pretending to be a messenger from a southern lord, but the shepherds recognize him
and suspect that he plans to steal their sheep. They all lie down to sleep, the shepherds putting
Mak in the midst of them. When the others are asleep, Mak takes a sheep, first casting a spell
over the shepherds to keep them from awakening. Then he goes home, where his wife, Gill,
suggests that they disguise the sheep as a baby. Mak returns to the shepherds and lies down.
When the others wake up, Mak pretends to wake up and claims to have dreamed that his wife
gave birth. He returns home. When the shepherds discover that a sheep is missing, they go to
Maks house and accuse him of stealing it. Not finding the sheep, they get ready to leave, until
Daw decides to give the baby a present. Mak cant stop him from looking in the cradle and
discovering the sheep. The shepherds toss Mak in a blanket, a humiliating but less severe
punishment than execution for theft. An angel appears and announces the birth of Jesus at
Bethlehem. The shepherds go to see the child and bring him gifts.
WORK CITED:
The Second Shepherds Full Text http://seas3.elte.hu/coursematerial/PikliNatalia/
AGuthrieSecondShP.pdf