Mak is the primary antagonist of the play, husband of Gill, father of several children, and enemy to the three shepherd protagonists, Coll, Gyb, and Daw. Widely known as a thief, Mak steals a sheep from the other shepherds, even though he knows the offense is punishable by hanging. Mak is deeply impoverished and struggles to feed his wife and children. Instead of working, Mak prides himself on making more by stealing than he could make with a steady job. Throughout the play, Mak is prideful, deceitful, and selfish. He blatantly turns away from God, acting instead in accordance with his own self-serving will.
Mak Quotes in The Second Shepherd’s Play
The The Second Shepherd’s Play quotes below are all either spoken by Mak or refer to Mak. For each quote, you can also see the other characters and themes related to it (each theme is indicated by its own dot and icon, like this one:
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Scene 1
Quotes
Let be! I’m a yeoman of the king / And a messenger from a great lordling / …I must have reverence! / Dare you ask, who am I?
Scene 2
Quotes
I am worthy of my meat, / For in a trice I can get / More than they who strive and sweat / All the day long.
Scene 4
Quotes
Were a worse plight, I’d find a way still.
Scene 6
Quotes
Oh, my belly! I die! / I vow to God so mild / If ever I you beguiled / Then I will eat this child / That doth in cradle lie!
Sirs, for this deed, take my advice instead / For this trespass. / We will neither curse not fight / Nor dispute our right / We’ll tie him up tight / And toss him in canvas.
Scene 7
Quotes
Thou hast cowed at last the devil so wild / The false beguiler now goes beguiled.
Related Themes:
Page Number and Citation:
Explanation and Analysis:
Get the entire The Second Shepherd’s Play LitChart as a printable PDF.
Mak Character Timeline in The Second Shepherd’s Play
The timeline below shows where the character Mak appears in The Second Shepherd’s Play. The colored dots and icons indicate which themes are associated with that appearance.
Scene 1
...Ivy.” After completing their song, the shepherds’ complaints cease. Their attention is quickly turned to Mak, a well-known thief, whom they see approaching.
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Although the shepherds recognize Mak immediately, Mak pretends to be an important visitor from the south of England, claiming with...
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Mak whines that he is hungry, tired, and sick, and has a house full of children...
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...“worn,” and “forlorn,” shepherds give into their exhaustion and lie down to rest. Nervous about Mak stealing one of their sheep while they sleep, they force Mak to spend the night...
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Scene 2
Pounding on the door to his shack, Mak calls out for his wife, Gill, to undo the latch. Gill is annoyed by the...
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Mak wants to eat the sheep immediately, but Gill stops him, reminding him that Coll, Gyb,...
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Mak agrees to his wife’s clever plan and returns to the fields where the shepherds are...
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Scene 3
Coll, Gyb, and Daw awaken from their deep, spell-induced sleep. After quickly checking that Mak is still with them, Daw reveals a dream he had during the night, where Mak...
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Pretending to groggily awaken, Mak claims to have had a dream that his wife gave birth to yet another child...
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Before Mak returns home to his wife, he tells the shepherds to search him to prove that...
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Scene 4
Mak returns to his hut from the fields. Beginning to feel nervous, Mak tells Gill that...
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Preparing for the shepherds’ imminent arrival, Gill tells Mak to sing a lullaby to the swaddled sheep while she groans in fake postpartum pain.
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Scene 5
...in the fields, the shepherds discover one of their sheep is missing and immediately suspect Mak and Gill. Angrily, the shepherds claim that they will not rest until they prove Mak...
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Scene 6
Coll, Gyb, and Daw arrive outside of Mak’s shack and are startled by the din Mak and Gill are making: Gill groans, while...
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Mak tells the shepherds that his dream about Gill giving birth in the night actually came...
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Mak claims he is innocent and tells the shepherds to search his house. As the shepherds...
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The shepherds fail to find their sheep, dead or alive, in Mak’s shack, let alone any food whatsoever. Trying to ease the tension, Coll jokes that Mak...
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...leave a gift for the baby. Daw runs back ahead of the others to present Mak with a sixpence. Meanwhile, thinking he had finally gotten away with his trick, Mak is...
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...to give him a kiss. He pulls the cloth back and reveals—to his surprise and Mak’s horror—the stolen sheep. Coll and Gyb finally catch up to Daw and see the sheep...
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Coll and Gyb are amused by the cleverness of Mak and Gill’s trick, but Daw is infuriated, demanding Mak and Gill be hanged for their...
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Daw is adamant that Mak and Gill face the death penalty, but Coll compassionately spares Mak and Gill from being...
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