The Second Shepherds' Play
Encyclopedia
The Second Shepherds' Play (also known as The Second Shepherds’ Pageant) is a famous medieval mystery play
which is contained in the manuscript HM1, the unique manuscript of the Wakefield Cycle. It gained its name because in the manuscript it immediately follows another nativity
play involving the shepherd
s. In fact, it has been hypothesized that the second play is a revision of the first. It appears that the two shepherd plays were not intended to be performed together since many of the themes and ideas of the first play carry over to the second one. In both plays it becomes clear that Christ is coming to Earth to redeem the world from its sins. Although the underlying tone of The Second Shepherd’s Play is serious, many of the antics that occur among the shepherds are extremely farcical in nature.
At this point, the storyline switches to the familiar one of the three shepherds being told of the birth of Christ
by an angel
, and being told to go to Bethlehem
, where they offer gifts to the Christ child.
The play begins with the first shepherd (sometimes referred to as the first pastor) entering the stage. The shepherd begins speaking by talking to God and giving general details about the weather and the situation the shepherds are in, as well as the general personality of the characters. He begins by saying, “Lord, what these weders are cold! And I am ill happyed” which translates as “God, the weather is cold and I am ill prepared [for the weather]”
This is followed by the second shepherd entering the stage (he does not see the first shepherd) and he repeats the information about the poor weather. When the second shepherd finishes speaking about the weather, the tone of the play shifts and begins to become more farcical in nature. Immediately following the weather, the second shepherd begins to explain how married men suffer. True to the tradition of plays of this time period, the second shepherd refers to the cuckold. The second shepherd’s marital problems become clear through his opening speech, and at one point he even addresses the audience saying: “Be well war of weding” (Be very wary of having a wedding). The second shepherd continues to complain about marriage and even goes as far as referring to his wife as a whale.
At this point the first and second shepherd meet and head towards a third shepherd (whose name is Daw). He too complains about hardship and asks for Christ’s help. Unlike the other shepherds who refer to the cold and winter, Daw says he has not seen such poor weather since Noah
. This allusion would have resonated with the audience of its time (and arguably this allusion still does today).
When the first two shepherds bump into Daw, they complain about Daw to him, explaining how he is lazy and a poor worker. Daw too complains, except he complains about employers. When Mak arrives, the story problem is introduced. Mak is a well-known thief, and the three shepherds acknowledge this; however, rather than ostracise Mak, they pretend not to know who he is and decide to “ilkon take hede to his thing” (watch out for their personal belongings).
Mak recognises the shepherds and pretends to be a yeoman
. The three shepherds question the validity of Mak’s story until their conversation nearly results in a fist fight and Mak becomes scared. Eventually Mak tells the truth and the shepherds admit they know him to be a well-known sheep stealer.
Mak tries to gain sympathy from the shepherds by explaining how his wife is a lazy drunk who gives birth to too many children. Mak’s story works and they all go to sleep. While they are asleep Mak decides to steal a sheep. He heads back to his cottage and at this point the audience is introduced to Gill, Mak’s wife. Gill firmly believes that Mak will be hanged for stealing a sheep. Mak devises a plan for the sheep to be hidden. Mak heads back to re-join the shepherds.
After his return, he pretends to awaken just like the other shepherds. Mak sets off to go home to Gill and all appears to be fine. However, at this point the shepherds begin counting their sheep. They realise it must have been either Mak or Gill who has stolen their sheep. They go to Mak’s house where they demand their sheep. Mak expresses his innocence and the three shepherds begin searching the house. Mak explains that Gill has just given birth and would be extremely upset if they disturb her; nevertheless, the shepherds continue their searching. Mak even goes so far as to say he would eat the occupant of the cradle if he were lying (of course, the occupant of the bed is the sheep, so Mak would gladly eat it). The shepherds leave but then decide to go back and apologise.
When they get back they find the “baby” crying and so go to comfort it. Daw lifts the baby out of its cradle, and at this moment the shepherds realise the "baby" is the missing sheep. They leave Mak and go to sleep in the field. At this point an Angel comes down and speaks of the coming of Christ. When the shepherds awake, they follow the star and talk of a virgin birth. They head to Bethlehem
and Mary (Mother of Jesus)
explains how she will give birth and that Jesus was conceived through God. The shepherds rejoice and the play ends.
to an unknown author of at least five of the plays that are found in the Wakefield Mystery Plays. In 1903, Gayley and Alwin Thaler published an anthology of criticism and dramatic selections entitled Representative English Comedies. It had long been believed that the Towneley Play was a mediocre work that showed extensive borrowing from other sources but containing vibrant and exciting material, apparently by one author, who was responsible for four or five complete pageants and extensive revisions. Gayley refers to this person as the "master" (with a lowercase m) in the book. Then, in a 1907 article, Gayley emended this to "The Wakefield Master," the name which is still frequently used (Wakefield Cycle Authorship
). Of the 32 plays found in the manuscript, tradition has attributed The Second Shepherd’s Play to the “Wakefield Master,” along with Noah," "The First Shepherd's Play," "Herod the Great, and The Buffeting of Christ. A sixth play, The Killing of Abel is also thought to have been heavily influenced by him if not exclusively written by him, along with The Last Judgment, of which he contributed to at least half. Many of the other plays in the manuscript have a few stanzas that were most likely written by him as well.
Although nothing is known about the author, or the origins of the plays, it is agreed by several scholars that they date sometime between 1400-1450. Because of his influence in most of the Wakefield plays, it is possible he was brought into Wakefield with the purpose of editing and reworking the several plays that were already written, and did such a successful job that he was kept on to write several other plays afterwards. The plays he wrote might have replaced plays that were taken from York and it is believed that he is a contemporary to the “York Master,” another unnamed playwright who produced several other influential plays during the same era.
Some question the existence of one "Wakefield Master," and propose that multiple authors could have written in the Wakefield Stanza. However, scholars and literary critics find it useful to hypothesize a single talent behind them, due to the unique poetic qualities of the works ascribed to him.
The plays of the “Wakefield Master” are identified by their unique stanza form, which is nine lines rhyming a a a a b c c c b with internal rhymes in the first four lines.
We that walk in the nights, our cattle to keep,
We see sudden sights, when other men sleep.
Yet methink my heart lights—I see shrews peep.
Ye are two all-wights! I will give my sheep
A turn.
But full ill have I meant;
As I walk on this bent,
I may lightly repent
My toes if I spurn.
This stanza format is the primary evidence critics use to identify what has been written by him. Along with his unique stanzas, the “Wakefield Master’s plays are also characterized by their emphasis on characterization that delves into the rural contemporary life of the characters. Using modern day technology which included plows, mills, and forges, as well as colloquial speech amongst the dialogue between the characters, the stories exemplified early traits of realism that would have made the stories more relevant for the audience of that time period.
s in the streets of great cities (this was inconvenient for the actors because the small stage size made stage movement impossible), in the halls of nobility
, or in the round
in amphitheatres, as suggested by current archaeology in Cornwall and the southwest of England. All medieval stage production was temporary and expected to be removed upon the completion of the performances. Actors, predominantly male, typically wore long, dark robes. Medieval plays such as the Wakefield cycle, or the Digby Magdalene featured lively interplay between two distinct areas, the wider spaces in front of the raised staging areas, and the elevated areas themselves (called, respectively, the locus and the platea). Typically too, actors would move between these locations in order to suggest scene changes, rather than remain stationary and have the scene change around them as is typically done in modern theater.
The staging of this play likely required two sets. It is suggested that the first stage is composed of Mak’s house. In Mak’s house, many of the farcical actions occur (for example, this is the location of where the sheep was “born”). The other stage is where the holy manger and the religious iconography would occur. This is more than likely where the angel appears and where the Shepherd’s go to visit Mary. These two different stages would allow the audience to easily see the parallels between farcical and serious.
Michelle Ann Abate argues over the title of the play. She argues that it is possible that The Second Shepherds' Play was The Second Shepherd's Play. She explains in her article, "The way in which the second shepherd hints at key plot developments and announces central themes throughout Secunda Pastorum calls this critical tendency into question." She explains that the way in the second shepherd references central facets of the drama adds an element of character complexity and, by extension, literary sophistication that has not been previously identified.
Mack Maynard explains in a article entitled The Second Shepherds' Play: A Reconsideration is that this play is often categorized as simple and contains little artistic merit. What begins to emerge in Maynard's article is that he feels that the play is not only sophisticated, but the comedic aspects are there to enhance the rest of the text. He explains that by examining the text as two separate entities, that the viewer is doing the text a great injustice; rather, one should view them as a collection whole in order to understand the importance of exaggeration and the idea of a terrible beauty.
Sandy Feinstein explains the origin of the word Shrew in her article titled "Shrews and Sheep in 'The Second Shepherds' Play'". She talks about the possibility of Shakespeare's influence was more than likely the Wakefield master. While certainly a bold consideration, the article has many interesting references to both and explains how Shrew is not simply a term for women, but men as well.
Mystery play
Mystery plays and miracle plays are among the earliest formally developed plays in medieval Europe. Medieval mystery plays focused on the representation of Bible stories in churches as tableaux with accompanying antiphonal song...
which is contained in the manuscript HM1, the unique manuscript of the Wakefield Cycle. It gained its name because in the manuscript it immediately follows another nativity
Nativity of Jesus
The Nativity of Jesus, or simply The Nativity, refers to the accounts of the birth of Jesus in two of the Canonical gospels and in various apocryphal texts....
play involving the shepherd
Shepherd
A shepherd is a person who tends, feeds or guards flocks of sheep.- Origins :Shepherding is one of the oldest occupations, beginning some 6,000 years ago in Asia Minor. Sheep were kept for their milk, meat and especially their wool...
s. In fact, it has been hypothesized that the second play is a revision of the first. It appears that the two shepherd plays were not intended to be performed together since many of the themes and ideas of the first play carry over to the second one. In both plays it becomes clear that Christ is coming to Earth to redeem the world from its sins. Although the underlying tone of The Second Shepherd’s Play is serious, many of the antics that occur among the shepherds are extremely farcical in nature.
Plot
The play is actually two separate stories presented sequentially; the first is a non-biblical story about a thief, Mak, who steals a sheep from three shepherds. He and his wife, Gill, attempt to deceive the shepherds by pretending the sheep is their son. The shepherds are fooled at first. However, they later discover Mak's deception and toss him on a blanket as a punishment.At this point, the storyline switches to the familiar one of the three shepherds being told of the birth of Christ
Christ
Christ is the English term for the Greek meaning "the anointed one". It is a translation of the Hebrew , usually transliterated into English as Messiah or Mashiach...
by an angel
Angel
Angels are mythical beings often depicted as messengers of God in the Hebrew and Christian Bibles along with the Quran. The English word angel is derived from the Greek ἄγγελος, a translation of in the Hebrew Bible ; a similar term, ملائكة , is used in the Qur'an...
, and being told to go to Bethlehem
Bethlehem
Bethlehem is a Palestinian city in the central West Bank of the Jordan River, near Israel and approximately south of Jerusalem, with a population of about 30,000 people. It is the capital of the Bethlehem Governorate of the Palestinian National Authority and a hub of Palestinian culture and tourism...
, where they offer gifts to the Christ child.
The play begins with the first shepherd (sometimes referred to as the first pastor) entering the stage. The shepherd begins speaking by talking to God and giving general details about the weather and the situation the shepherds are in, as well as the general personality of the characters. He begins by saying, “Lord, what these weders are cold! And I am ill happyed” which translates as “God, the weather is cold and I am ill prepared [for the weather]”
This is followed by the second shepherd entering the stage (he does not see the first shepherd) and he repeats the information about the poor weather. When the second shepherd finishes speaking about the weather, the tone of the play shifts and begins to become more farcical in nature. Immediately following the weather, the second shepherd begins to explain how married men suffer. True to the tradition of plays of this time period, the second shepherd refers to the cuckold. The second shepherd’s marital problems become clear through his opening speech, and at one point he even addresses the audience saying: “Be well war of weding” (Be very wary of having a wedding). The second shepherd continues to complain about marriage and even goes as far as referring to his wife as a whale.
At this point the first and second shepherd meet and head towards a third shepherd (whose name is Daw). He too complains about hardship and asks for Christ’s help. Unlike the other shepherds who refer to the cold and winter, Daw says he has not seen such poor weather since Noah
Noah
Noah was, according to the Hebrew Bible, the tenth and last of the antediluvian Patriarchs. The biblical story of Noah is contained in chapters 6–9 of the book of Genesis, where he saves his family and representatives of all animals from the flood by constructing an ark...
. This allusion would have resonated with the audience of its time (and arguably this allusion still does today).
When the first two shepherds bump into Daw, they complain about Daw to him, explaining how he is lazy and a poor worker. Daw too complains, except he complains about employers. When Mak arrives, the story problem is introduced. Mak is a well-known thief, and the three shepherds acknowledge this; however, rather than ostracise Mak, they pretend not to know who he is and decide to “ilkon take hede to his thing” (watch out for their personal belongings).
Mak recognises the shepherds and pretends to be a yeoman
Yeoman
Yeoman refers chiefly to a free man owning his own farm, especially from the Elizabethan era to the 17th century. Work requiring a great deal of effort or labor, such as would be done by a yeoman farmer, came to be described as "yeoman's work"...
. The three shepherds question the validity of Mak’s story until their conversation nearly results in a fist fight and Mak becomes scared. Eventually Mak tells the truth and the shepherds admit they know him to be a well-known sheep stealer.
Mak tries to gain sympathy from the shepherds by explaining how his wife is a lazy drunk who gives birth to too many children. Mak’s story works and they all go to sleep. While they are asleep Mak decides to steal a sheep. He heads back to his cottage and at this point the audience is introduced to Gill, Mak’s wife. Gill firmly believes that Mak will be hanged for stealing a sheep. Mak devises a plan for the sheep to be hidden. Mak heads back to re-join the shepherds.
After his return, he pretends to awaken just like the other shepherds. Mak sets off to go home to Gill and all appears to be fine. However, at this point the shepherds begin counting their sheep. They realise it must have been either Mak or Gill who has stolen their sheep. They go to Mak’s house where they demand their sheep. Mak expresses his innocence and the three shepherds begin searching the house. Mak explains that Gill has just given birth and would be extremely upset if they disturb her; nevertheless, the shepherds continue their searching. Mak even goes so far as to say he would eat the occupant of the cradle if he were lying (of course, the occupant of the bed is the sheep, so Mak would gladly eat it). The shepherds leave but then decide to go back and apologise.
When they get back they find the “baby” crying and so go to comfort it. Daw lifts the baby out of its cradle, and at this moment the shepherds realise the "baby" is the missing sheep. They leave Mak and go to sleep in the field. At this point an Angel comes down and speaks of the coming of Christ. When the shepherds awake, they follow the star and talk of a virgin birth. They head to Bethlehem
Bethlehem
Bethlehem is a Palestinian city in the central West Bank of the Jordan River, near Israel and approximately south of Jerusalem, with a population of about 30,000 people. It is the capital of the Bethlehem Governorate of the Palestinian National Authority and a hub of Palestinian culture and tourism...
and Mary (Mother of Jesus)
Mary (mother of Jesus)
Mary , commonly referred to as "Saint Mary", "Mother Mary", the "Virgin Mary", the "Blessed Virgin Mary", or "Mary, Mother of God", was a Jewish woman of Nazareth in Galilee...
explains how she will give birth and that Jesus was conceived through God. The shepherds rejoice and the play ends.
Authorship
The name “Wakefield Master” is a title given by Charles Mills GayleyCharles Mills Gayley
Charles Mills Gayley was a professor of English and the Classics at the University of California at Berkeley, from the fall of 1889 through July 1932.-Biography:...
to an unknown author of at least five of the plays that are found in the Wakefield Mystery Plays. In 1903, Gayley and Alwin Thaler published an anthology of criticism and dramatic selections entitled Representative English Comedies. It had long been believed that the Towneley Play was a mediocre work that showed extensive borrowing from other sources but containing vibrant and exciting material, apparently by one author, who was responsible for four or five complete pageants and extensive revisions. Gayley refers to this person as the "master" (with a lowercase m) in the book. Then, in a 1907 article, Gayley emended this to "The Wakefield Master," the name which is still frequently used (Wakefield Cycle Authorship
Wakefield Mystery Plays
The Wakefield or Towneley Mystery Plays are a series of thirty-two mystery plays based on the Bible most likely performed around the Feast of Corpus Christi probably in the town of Wakefield, England during the late Middle Ages until 1576...
). Of the 32 plays found in the manuscript, tradition has attributed The Second Shepherd’s Play to the “Wakefield Master,” along with Noah," "The First Shepherd's Play," "Herod the Great, and The Buffeting of Christ. A sixth play, The Killing of Abel is also thought to have been heavily influenced by him if not exclusively written by him, along with The Last Judgment, of which he contributed to at least half. Many of the other plays in the manuscript have a few stanzas that were most likely written by him as well.
Although nothing is known about the author, or the origins of the plays, it is agreed by several scholars that they date sometime between 1400-1450. Because of his influence in most of the Wakefield plays, it is possible he was brought into Wakefield with the purpose of editing and reworking the several plays that were already written, and did such a successful job that he was kept on to write several other plays afterwards. The plays he wrote might have replaced plays that were taken from York and it is believed that he is a contemporary to the “York Master,” another unnamed playwright who produced several other influential plays during the same era.
Some question the existence of one "Wakefield Master," and propose that multiple authors could have written in the Wakefield Stanza. However, scholars and literary critics find it useful to hypothesize a single talent behind them, due to the unique poetic qualities of the works ascribed to him.
The plays of the “Wakefield Master” are identified by their unique stanza form, which is nine lines rhyming a a a a b c c c b with internal rhymes in the first four lines.
We that walk in the nights, our cattle to keep,
We see sudden sights, when other men sleep.
Yet methink my heart lights—I see shrews peep.
Ye are two all-wights! I will give my sheep
A turn.
But full ill have I meant;
As I walk on this bent,
I may lightly repent
My toes if I spurn.
This stanza format is the primary evidence critics use to identify what has been written by him. Along with his unique stanzas, the “Wakefield Master’s plays are also characterized by their emphasis on characterization that delves into the rural contemporary life of the characters. Using modern day technology which included plows, mills, and forges, as well as colloquial speech amongst the dialogue between the characters, the stories exemplified early traits of realism that would have made the stories more relevant for the audience of that time period.
Stage
Depending on the area of the performances, the plays were performed in the middle of the street, on pageant wagonPageant wagon
A pageant wagon is a movable stage or cart used to accommodate the mystery and miracle play cycles of the 10th through the 16th Century. These religious plays were developed from biblical texts and they reached the height of their popularity in the 15th century before being rendered obsolete by the...
s in the streets of great cities (this was inconvenient for the actors because the small stage size made stage movement impossible), in the halls of nobility
Nobility
Nobility is a social class which possesses more acknowledged privileges or eminence than members of most other classes in a society, membership therein typically being hereditary. The privileges associated with nobility may constitute substantial advantages over or relative to non-nobles, or may be...
, or in the round
In the Round
In the Round is an album by Pentangle. It was issued in 1986 on Spindrift SPIN 120 in 1986 and on Varrick CDVR026 VR026 and CVR026 in 1990. There is a typo on the sleeve, as it credits the licence to "Jackie" McShee, not Jacqui McShee. There is also a widespread use of the name "Vanick", a...
in amphitheatres, as suggested by current archaeology in Cornwall and the southwest of England. All medieval stage production was temporary and expected to be removed upon the completion of the performances. Actors, predominantly male, typically wore long, dark robes. Medieval plays such as the Wakefield cycle, or the Digby Magdalene featured lively interplay between two distinct areas, the wider spaces in front of the raised staging areas, and the elevated areas themselves (called, respectively, the locus and the platea). Typically too, actors would move between these locations in order to suggest scene changes, rather than remain stationary and have the scene change around them as is typically done in modern theater.
The staging of this play likely required two sets. It is suggested that the first stage is composed of Mak’s house. In Mak’s house, many of the farcical actions occur (for example, this is the location of where the sheep was “born”). The other stage is where the holy manger and the religious iconography would occur. This is more than likely where the angel appears and where the Shepherd’s go to visit Mary. These two different stages would allow the audience to easily see the parallels between farcical and serious.
Criticism and interpretation
Albert C. Baugh complained of the combination of low farce and high religious intent in the play, The unity is a distinctive feature of the play, where the Mak-subplot has been shown to have numerous analogues in world folklore. Wallace H. Johnson theorized that the union of a complete and independent farce with a complete and independent Nativity play resulted from the accumulation of years of horseplay and ad-libbing in rehearsal. Some have seen the folk-origins of the story as contributing to an extended reflection on class-struggle and solidarity in light of immediate and eternal realities while others have emphasized the theological dimension, in which 14th century England is mystically conflated with first-century Judaea and the Nativity with the Apocalypse.Michelle Ann Abate argues over the title of the play. She argues that it is possible that The Second Shepherds' Play was The Second Shepherd's Play. She explains in her article, "The way in which the second shepherd hints at key plot developments and announces central themes throughout Secunda Pastorum calls this critical tendency into question." She explains that the way in the second shepherd references central facets of the drama adds an element of character complexity and, by extension, literary sophistication that has not been previously identified.
Mack Maynard explains in a article entitled The Second Shepherds' Play: A Reconsideration is that this play is often categorized as simple and contains little artistic merit. What begins to emerge in Maynard's article is that he feels that the play is not only sophisticated, but the comedic aspects are there to enhance the rest of the text. He explains that by examining the text as two separate entities, that the viewer is doing the text a great injustice; rather, one should view them as a collection whole in order to understand the importance of exaggeration and the idea of a terrible beauty.
Sandy Feinstein explains the origin of the word Shrew in her article titled "Shrews and Sheep in 'The Second Shepherds' Play'". She talks about the possibility of Shakespeare's influence was more than likely the Wakefield master. While certainly a bold consideration, the article has many interesting references to both and explains how Shrew is not simply a term for women, but men as well.
See also
- God Spede the PloughGod Spede the PloughGod Spede the Plough is the name of an early 16th-century manuscript poem which borrows twelve stanzas from Geoffrey Chaucer's Monk's Tale....
- Chester Plays
- Easter dramaEaster DramaAn Easter Drama is a liturgical drama or religious theatrical performance in the Roman Catholic tradition, largely limited to the Middle Ages. These performances evolved from celebrations of the liturgy to incorporate later dramatic and secular elements, and came to be performed in local languages...
- Medieval theatreMedieval theatreMedieval theatre refers to the theatre of Europe between the fall of the Western Roman Empire in the 5th century A.D. and the beginning of the Renaissance in approximately the 15th century A.D...
- Liturgical dramaLiturgical dramaLiturgical drama or religious drama, in its various Christian contexts, originates from the mass itself, and usually presents a relatively complex ritual that includes theatrical elements...
- Medieval theatreMedieval theatreMedieval theatre refers to the theatre of Europe between the fall of the Western Roman Empire in the 5th century A.D. and the beginning of the Renaissance in approximately the 15th century A.D...
- Mystery playMystery playMystery plays and miracle plays are among the earliest formally developed plays in medieval Europe. Medieval mystery plays focused on the representation of Bible stories in churches as tableaux with accompanying antiphonal song...
- Pageant wagonPageant wagonA pageant wagon is a movable stage or cart used to accommodate the mystery and miracle play cycles of the 10th through the 16th Century. These religious plays were developed from biblical texts and they reached the height of their popularity in the 15th century before being rendered obsolete by the...
- Passion playPassion playA Passion play is a dramatic presentation depicting the Passion of Jesus Christ: his trial, suffering and death. It is a traditional part of Lent in several Christian denominations, particularly in Catholic tradition....
- York Mystery PlaysYork Mystery PlaysThe York Mystery Plays, more properly called the York Corpus Christi Plays, are a Middle English cycle of forty-eight mystery plays, or pageants, which cover sacred history from the creation to the Last Judgement. These were traditionally presented on the feast day of Corpus Christi...
- a collection of forty-eight mystery plays - Wakefield Cycle - a collection of thirty-two mystery plays performed in medieval and early Renaissance England.
Sources
- Wakefield Master. The Second Shepherd's Play. Early English Drama - An Anthology. J. C. Coldewey. New York, Garland Publishing, Inc. 1313: 1-8, 343-363.
External links
- "Everyman," with other interludes, including eight miracle plays, available at Project GutenbergProject GutenbergProject Gutenberg is a volunteer effort to digitize and archive cultural works, to "encourage the creation and distribution of eBooks". Founded in 1971 by Michael S. Hart, it is the oldest digital library. Most of the items in its collection are the full texts of public domain books...
(includes the text of The Second Shepherd's Play as The Wakefield Second Shepherd's Play) - http://www.luminarium.org/medlit/playtexts.htm This website has many of the Wakefield Cycle, York Cycle, and other important texts from the period (such as Everyman) available for free.
- http://www.folger.edu/template.cfm?cid=2615 Folger Consort co-founder Bob Eisenstein and director/adaptor Mary Hall Surface share their thoughts on bringing this early English drama to 21st-century Folger audiences.